Producers of profiled timber claim that their product does not need additional measures after assembly - the crowns fit so tightly to each other that the need for caulking disappears. This is completely deceitful. Not a single specialist can say with accuracy how the object will behave during shrinkage, what whim the soil has at the construction site. In this regard, the question arises - how to caulk a house from a profiled beam.
Caulking materials and tools
In fact, the differences in this matter between log cabin and there are no beams. The raw material used must have the following qualities:
- Be eco-friendly. Idea wooden houses it's worth it.
- Breathable. To maintain the microclimate inside.
- Moderately hygroscopic. That is, the caulk will have to take fumes from the inside and give them to the surface.
Such qualities correspond to many interventional seals that have come down to us from the time of our ancestors. However, progress does not stand still, and the industry offers the best materials today. About all, below.
Types of caulking raw materials
Adherents of the old traditions of caulking a house with moss or tow are partly right, saying that nothing is better than this. Firstly, the ancestors had nothing to choose from, and secondly, some of the materials are only good for laying crowns, and they are not suitable for sealing cracks. More:
Very comfortable material for overlaying before fitting the next beam - its pieces are soaked in water before laying. The material itself remains dry after a long time of use. Durable, environmentally friendly, but ...
It will not work in gaps, as it does not curl. After a while, it dries out in the heat, turning into dust. Small particles will be blown away by the wind in the first year of using the house.
An even more disliked material by builders. Firstly, there is a difficulty in caulking - it must be constantly twisted into a tight cord. Secondly, the birds have long chosen it as a building material for their nests.
If there is a settlement of birds nearby, then you can be sure that the question - how to caulk a house from a tow bar - will never be solved, they will pull it out before the housewarming. Also, when shrinkage, it turns into dust.
Felt
So environmentally friendly raw materials that it is included in the lunch menu of the moth and serves as a bed for laying eggs of the bark beetle. For use - no comments.
Linen. Lnovatin
Rough material in handling, although it has all the prerequisites to become the best. Clean, hygroscopic, convenient release form. The question of how to caulk a house from a bar is easily solved.
Recognized as the best caulking raw material. Not interested in rodents or insects. Birds avoid him.
Possesses antirotten qualities, is not subject to a mold. Release form - tape - easy to use.
However, this caulking species, the leader in counterfeiting on the market building materials- It is very difficult to distinguish jute from felt or jute felt - they are similar in color and texture. It is better to trust sales companies with an established name.
The choice is up to a private person, but it is important to remember that the quality of the caulk depends on the further comfortable accommodation and operation of the house.
Stages of working with caulk of a log house
Solve the question - how to caulk correctly log house without application professional tools impossible. Using what comes to hand is fraught with a spoiled appearance of the timber at least. So, you will need:
- Straight caulk. A tool similar to a kitchen spatula. Steel must be of good quality so as not to break from the first blow. The edges must not be sharpened - the sharpness of the blade can tear the material.
- Sewing caulk. Such a sickle. It is convenient for them to get unsuccessful areas or old obsolete material.
- Dobor is a two-horned caulk. Laying a tape seal is not complete without it.
- Mallet - a wooden mallet for tapping seams.
During the construction of walls, jute or other groove sealant should hang from each side of the crown by 5 cm. This will be an excellent caulking material for the first time and a way to resolve the issue - how to caulk a house from a profiled beam.
The process takes place in several stages - immediately after construction, the second time after a year of shrinkage and the third - after 5 years of operation. The following describes the work on the caulk. It includes several stages:
- Surface preparation. Walls, both internal and external, are cleaned of small chips, knots, notches and other defects that could further affect the quality of sealing joints.
Can be used to remove debris invisible to the eye - with a vacuum cleaner. The gaps themselves should be passed with antiseptics, practically pouring them in there. Wait until each layer is completely dry.
It is necessary to carry out work in calm weather, not hot - in the range of 5-15 degrees. If defects in the form of mold and fungus are found, they are destroyed by sawing or cauterizing a piece of wood with a potent substance. You can consult on this subject in horticultural hypermarkets.
- Caulker. The remnants of the laid sealant are bent into a roller and carefully pushed into the middle. Zealous is not worth it - the risk of raising the timber big amount material is great. By the way, venerable professionals can thus save the building from a significant skew.
If the shrinkage period has expired and the gaps that have opened up to the world are visible in all their glory, they use a new sealant and work in two ways - in a set and stretched.
The first one provides for a filament material rolled into loops. Each is gently pushed into the slot, using a straight caulk for this. The second method is good for a tape seal - the strip is spread on the ground, thus measuring the desired piece.
Then the edge is carefully driven inward, while maintaining the same distance along the entire tape. Having passed the row completely, the second edge is twisted in the form of a roller and act as an extension, pulling the rest of the tape into the gap.
They check for the number and sufficiency of sealing the crowns as follows - the blade of a kitchen knife should not enter the groove by more than 1.5 cm. If the length is longer, then caulking should be added until the result is achieved.
Also, “hares” are called to check the quality of the resolved issue - how to caulk a log house. These are white appearances of hoarfrost - places where warm air leaves the house. They become visible during operation. They are marked with a marker and additional work is carried out.
You were told that it is not necessary to caulk a house from a bar, they say, everything is perfectly fitted there anyway? You can safely send such “woe” specialists home and invite real professionals in the construction of wooden houses. Like any other, the technology of building houses from a bar has its own stages and design features, which invariably includes caulk log house, even if you are going to do external and internal finishing with insulation in the future. Do not try to save time and money so as not to overpay in the future. If you don’t want drafts to constantly walk in your house, curtains flutter even in calm weather, and over time, wet and rotten places in the wood appear, it’s better to do all the caulking work at home on time.
Do I need to caulk a log house and why
In some sources you can find information that a log house can not be caulked. And the builders building your house can say the same thing. They explain this by the fact that, unlike timber in log houses shrinkage and displacement of wood is stronger and more intense, cracks and leaks appear, so it is necessary to caulk the structure. But houses built from profiled timber practically do not shrink, as the wood undergoes pre-treatment. Let's see how it actually happens when building a house from a bar with your own hands.
bar natural humidity - a relatively cheap building material, for which it is popular in the construction of economy class houses with subsequent insulation and siding. Even if you invite the best architect, he will not be able to build a house from such a bar without gaps between the crowns and gaps. Moreover, when the beam begins to dry out, and this is inevitable, additional gaps will appear, wider, the beam will decrease in size, it will begin to “twist”. As a result, such cracks will appear, due to which the wooden wall will lose its thermal insulation abilities. To avoid such a sad end, the walls must be caulked at least 3 times and carefully insulated.
It was invented precisely in order to reduce costs and time for construction. wooden house. It undergoes special processing in production, due to which it practically does not dry out during operation, and its tenon-groove joints are perfectly aligned to the nearest millimeter. The beam adjoins each other as tightly as possible, and a 5 mm insulation is placed between the crowns, which is located between the engaging parts. Despite the assurances of the seller, the house made of profiled timber still shrinks, as the timber finally falls into place under the weight of the structure. In addition, the properties of wood are highly dependent on the region of growth, climatic conditions and storage conditions. No one can guarantee that absolutely all the timber that you have purchased is the same High Quality. As a result of the movement of the building, the beam may slightly shift, the insulation may be wrinkled. Even if no gaps appear after shrinkage, and this option is possible, all the same, those gaps that are in the interventional space outside and inside the house accumulate moisture, and since the place itself is very secluded and vulnerable, mold and rot can form in it.
The caulking of a log house is necessary in order to isolate wooden walls, completely filling with natural insulation and sealing the gaps and cracks between the timber and in the corner joints. This guarantees tightness, no heat leakage through the walls, drafts and icing of the timber outside the building, which occurs when warm steam escapes through the cracks and settles as wet frost on the surface.
How to caulk a timber house
To summarize, the material that can be used to caulk a house must meet the following requirements:
- Have low thermal conductivity.
- Be immune to temperature and humidity fluctuations, as well as easily withstand the wind.
- So that insects and pathogenic fungi (mold) do not start in it.
- To be completely environmentally friendly pure material otherwise the whole point in building a wooden house is lost.
- Be relatively durable (do not lose properties for at least 20 years).
- Be breathable.
- Be hygroscopic, i.e. when it is necessary to absorb moisture, when it is necessary - to give.
- And most importantly - to be similar in its properties to wood.
Due to the fact that our ancestors caulked their houses for hundreds of generations on their own, materials that have been tested and tested by thousands of years of successful practice have come down to our days. They can be called traditional materials.
Moss- most best material even today for caulking wooden buildings. This is sphagnum moss - a swamp plant that can be red, white or brown. Subsequently, peat is formed from it. Neither of modern materials can not be compared with moss, it is so durable and environmentally friendly. You can drive around the old abandoned villages, look at the houses: the logs are already almost rotted, and the moss is still in excellent condition. As an interventional sealant, moss is simply indispensable: it has antiseptic, antibacterial and healing properties. Clamped between wood, it inhibits the development of putrefactive bacteria and mold fungi, due to which the wood lasts longer. Moss easily passes air through it, which, passing through it, is saturated with healing vapors, so the atmosphere inside the house becomes healing. Moss is hygroscopic, which means it smooths out moisture fluctuations. In general, moss has no drawbacks, except for one thing - it’s not so easy for them to caulk, otherwise no one would invent or look for anything new.
Linen tow it is used as a sealant and sealant everywhere, but for caulking - mainly in flax growing regions and where there are no swamps where you could stock up on moss. No one produces tow on purpose, it is waste from the production of ropes, ropes and linen, or waste and tow after cleaning flax fibers. Tow has some antiseptic and bactericidal properties, but to a lesser extent than moss. Therefore, in some cases, tow is treated with resins to increase resistance to high humidity. These resins may be natural, ie. tree resin, then given material can still be called environmentally friendly, but oil products are also used for impregnation, then tow no longer has anything to do with natural materials. Tow contains a large number of fires that will shake out during the first years of operation of the house, so the caulking will need to be repeated several times.
It is very similar to tow, only its fibers are coarser, so they are sometimes confused. Hemp is not afraid of temperature changes and high humidity, so it can be used even in very humid regions. These properties are due great content lignin polymer, it is also found in any wood for bonding cellulose fibers. Hemp does not lose its properties even after getting wet, therefore it is resistant to decay.
Among the modern materials for caulking, the following can be distinguished:
A foreign product, it is imported to us from China, India, Egypt and other countries with a tropical climate or heavy rainfall. Produced from the shoots of the jute plant of the Malvaceae family. Jute fiber is very strong, it is not affected by mold, putrefactive bacteria, it is not interesting for insects and birds, it is hygroscopic, i.e. easily accumulates and releases moisture, passes air. Jute contains about the same amount of lignin as wood, so their properties are similar and together they are a perfect match.
Jute is available in both fibers and ribbons in various widths. Tape jute insulation it is very convenient to use for laying between the crowns of a log house. In addition, pure jute compacts evenly. These advantages more than cover the price of this material.
In addition to materials made of fibers for caulking, felt heaters (interventional felt) are also used:
Jute interventional insulation 90% jute and 10% linen. But it is better to follow this ratio, since there is jute felt, 70% consisting of jute and 30% of flax, which significantly worsens its properties.
Linen felt also called eurolen or lnovatin. It is a needle-punched material made from highly refined linen.
Flax jute felt consists of jute and flax in the ratio 1:1.
Full jute modern heaters are considered the best, as they ideally interact with wood and shrink evenly, and other materials with the addition of flax worsen the properties of the insulation. The more flax, the worse the properties.
When to caulk a log house
Caulking at home is carried out in several stages, this is due to the fact that the beam dries out gradually, the house sags under its own weight. The largest shrinkage occurs in the first year and a half after construction, and every year it is less and less. Experts say that after 5 - 6 years, shrinkage practically stops.
First time a log house is caulked immediately after construction. During the construction process, a heater is laid between the crowns, and after the whole house has been erected, the gaps between the bars are filled with caulking material, but not too tightly.
Second caulk produced a year and a half after the completion of the construction of the house. The house will already sit down, so it is necessary to caulk tightly, leaving no gaps and hanging material.
Third time work on caulking will have to be done again in 5 - 6 years, carefully filling all the newly formed gaps and crevices and adding material where it accidentally spilled out or was pulled out by birds.
If the log house is planned to be sheathed with siding from the outside, then the third caulk is not made, but the first two must be completed without fail. Do not rush and save on something for which you will later have to pay much more.
Do-it-yourself caulk of a log house
Caulking is a very responsible and time-consuming process, despite a certain monotony of the operations performed. not many construction teams agree to work on caulking, they just don’t know how to do it and are afraid to spoil it, which is why they recommend not caulking at all. We have already discussed why they should not be listened to.
But there are teams and entire organizations that deal with caulking professionally. For a caulk of a timber house, the price depends on the stage of work and amounts to a certain amount per 1 linear meter of each crown. average cost caulking is 50 - 60 rubles. for 1 r.m. A caulk corner connections can reach up to 200 rubles. for 1 r.m. Caulking will be carried out at a separate rate decorative rope(rope), which decorates the appearance of caulked walls and prevents birds from pulling out the material. By the way, it is customary to pay for the material separately. If you are offered to perform freckled work for 25 rubles. m.p., you should not agree, as the work will be performed out of the ordinary badly.
If you want to do all the work yourself, then be patient, material, tool and subsequent information.
How to caulk a log house with jute
Jute, as a material for warming a log house, is gaining wild popularity. It is often used in the construction of the house itself.
Before you caulk a timber house, you first need to properly lay and secure the timber. A heater is always laid in the interventional space with a layer of at least 5 mm. Even if the beam is profiled, jute is necessarily laid between the spike and the groove. But its width depends on the shape of the tenon-groove system. The easiest option when lower bar has a convex crescent-shaped surface, and the upper one has the same notch (somewhat reminiscent of the connection of logs), in this case the space between the crowns is completely filled with insulation, and its edges remain hanging by 4-5 cm on each side. A more complex version of a profiled beam, when it is impossible to lay the insulation with a continuous carpet, then it is laid only in the middle, and the outer and inner slots are then caulked separately.
If the house of their timber is of natural humidity, then the thickness of the interventional insulation should be 10 - 15 mm.
Important! Caulking is necessarily made from top to bottom. In this case, first one crown is caulked completely outside, then inside, and only then they move on to the second crown. It is better if the work will be done by 4 people at the same time on 4 walls. This is necessary so that the house does not warp. After all, after the completion of the caulking, it will rise a few centimeters, from 5 to 15 cm.
Consider the option when the insulation hangs between the bars by 4 - 5 cm. The caulking technology is very well shown in the video example. With the help of a caulk (tool), the jute is tucked under the bottom and slightly pushed into the slot. Then gently, but already more strongly pushed in the upper part, and finally - in the middle. To push the material into the slot, a rubber or wooden hammer (mallet) is used, which is gently beaten on the caulk.
If after the work done, loosely clogged slots are still observed, then additional caulking is performed.
Consider the option when the gaps between the crowns are not filled (the insulation is located somewhere in the middle of the beam). The work will be exactly the same as with an additional caulk.
Usually, the gaps between the beams are quite narrow, so this method of caulking is used: a rope as thick as a gap is twisted from jute fiber and hammered into the gap with a mallet.
There is another way - "stretching". Individual fibers of jute are laid with fibers across the beam and pushed inward with a spatula or caulk until the gap is completely filled. We leave the remaining ends of the material to hang down, it should turn out about 5 - 6 cm. Next, a little more jute is taken, twisted into a ball (roller), which is wrapped in these hanging ends and pushed into the slot.
Important! How can you check whether it is enough to push the insulation already or do you still need to add a little more? If a kitchen knife enters the gap between the crowns by 15 mm or less, then the caulking has been completed successfully. If the knife goes further, then the material should be added.
When large gaps are formed, the “in-set” caulking method is used. Long strands are twisted from jute and rolled into a ball. Then loops are drawn from the ball and pushed into the slots until they are filled.
After completion of all caulking work, the house is loaded and, if possible, operated whole year. In winter, it will be possible to check for cracks by the so-called "hares". These are pockets of frost on the outer side of the wall. If you find them, mark the place, it means that there is a leak warm air from home. A year and a half after the first caulk, a second one is made, the house is carefully inspected, insulation is added to those places from where it spilled out or frayed, where the cracks have increased, where the beam has warped, and also in places of “hares”.
Only after repeated caulking, you can proceed to the external and interior decoration Houses. Even if it assumes 100 mm mineral wool and ventilated façade.
You can also caulk a log house with other materials. But there are some exceptions. For example, only a house made of non-profiled timber can be caulked with moss, since this material fits and fills the interventional space completely, which is absolutely impossible if the timber has a thorn-groove system. The work on caulking at home is complex and painstaking, although it seems painfully simple from the outside. If you are not confident in your abilities, invite a specialist.
Log house caulk: video - example
Timber houses are always attractive not only in their appearance, but also technical specifications. Their distribution in individual construction widespread due to the availability of the material, as well as due to the diverse range. The features of wooden houses are a lot of advantages, about which much has already been written.
However, wooden houses also have disadvantages, among which is the appearance of gaps between the elements of the structure. This is caused by the fact that even factory processing of timber cannot provide and guarantee ideal flat surface and tight adhesion of the bars. The second reason is the shrinkage of the material. Preforms that have undergone heat treatment still contain a certain percentage of moisture. To make the house look presentable and be able to keep warm, you will need to caulk the structure.
Caulking a house from a bar is a process of compacting the space between the logs and the crowns. Such sealing of gaps saves heat inside the premises, helps to maintain optimal temperature regime and also to avoid draft problems.
Tools and materials - how and what to caulk
The tool for caulking should be convenient and properly selected. For a long time, the following tools have been used for this:
- Type-setting caulk;
- Crooked caulk;
- Road builder;
- Breaker caulk;
- Mallet (mushel).
Today, interventional tape seals are widely used as a material for caulking. They are made using linen or jute. During the assembly of the log house, they fit into the grooves, after which they are fixed with a construction stapler. The jute sealant is able to give off moisture well, does not rot, and is not in demand among birds. During the period of shrinkage of the log house, it is evenly compacted.
From nonwovens flax can be considered the most affordable. Its qualities are elasticity, durability, good heat retention. For the caulking process, it is produced in the form of euroline (linen fibers) and linen tow. Unfortunately, flax can be attacked by insects and attract the attention of birds.
In addition to these materials, others are also used:
- Wool is a material that deserves close attention. In terms of its thermal insulation ability, sheep wool is superior to wood. This material operates on the principle of a spring, that is, during the assembly of the log house, a sealant 20 mm thick is compressed to 6 mm. During the period of shrinkage of the bars, it expands, thus filling the voids;
- Moss is a sealant that has been tested for centuries. This natural material with bioactive properties. It protects against the formation and spread of mold. Red swamp moss can easily withstand sudden temperature changes. Also, for caulking, linseed moss, another name for which is cuckoo flax, can be used.
- Felt and tow - it is on the basis of these materials that insulation is made. Naturalness is considered their advantage, but there are also disadvantages, which include a short shelf life or the ability to absorb moisture;
- Artificial materials made on the basis of polyethylene foam and mineral wool.
When choosing a heater, other materials can be used if they meet the following provisions:
- Possess low thermal conductivity;
- The composition does not contain harmful and toxic elements;
- Resistant to microbes and insects;
- Resistant to internal and external factors, for example, to elevated level humidity or strong wind;
- They should not have an unpleasant odor;
- A mandatory parameter is durability. The period of their use without loss of all properties and qualities should be 20 years.
Tip: You need to be able to distinguish plain felt from the jute variety. The latter option is one of the most favorite materials of moths, in addition, jute felt is prone to decay.
Types and methods of caulking
In total, two types of caulking are distinguished:
- Primary caulking is a process carried out at the stage - building a house from a bar. The material used is placed in a log row;
- The final caulking takes place 7-12 months after the completion of the log assembly. For this, the master uses special equipment. With its help, they are again placed in the gaps and voids thermal insulation material.
In addition, there are two ways to caulk a log house:
- "In set" - a method in which caulking of wide voids occurs. To perform the process, the sealant is twisted into strands, the thickness of which is 20 mm, after which they are wound into a small ball. When filling the free space, start from the top edge, gradually moving towards the bottom. After that, a tool such as a road builder is used;
- Stretching is a method in which a heater is applied to the groove. It is pushed inward by hands, then the remaining edges are tucked in and, using caulking, begin to clog inward. To correctly perform all the steps, it is recommended to watch the video.
Building insulation from the inside
After caulking the outer walls, it is worthwhile to carefully deal with this process inside the log house. Building a house from glued laminated timber also implies insulation from the inside. For the correct implementation of the work, it is worth adhering to the same rules, that is, caulking a groove only along the perimeter of the walls. It is worth pre-preparing the tool for work.
Walls inside the room should have an aesthetic appearance. For this reason, the choice of material for insulation should be approached doubly carefully. Grooves must be carefully sealed so that there is no violation general interior. Inside the house, the insulation should be checked every three years. Do-it-yourself external walls need to be caulked during the assembly of a log cabin, after a year, and after five years. In the future, this procedure should be carried out as needed. If you watch a video on the Internet, you can learn more about the internal caulking with your own hands.
Do-it-yourself caulking is a meticulous and time-consuming work, during which you need to make every effort. To make the activities carried out more efficient and also produce good effect, you need not only to select and prepare a tool, but also to know some tips and tricks that are given by experts and professionals in their field.
Firstly, to avoid skewing the building, it is not necessary to process each wall with your own hands in turn. It is required to carry out work in a circle, around the entire perimeter of a log house, starting from the bottom and gradually moving higher. After watching the video, the technology of actions will become more understandable.
Secondly, it should be taken into account that quality work it will increase the height of the house by at least 10 cm. It is worth considering this even during the design, so that after that there will be no difficulties;
Thirdly, during the construction of the log house, the insulation must be laid between the rows. Be sure to provide for the final caulking of the walls. To do this, it is necessary to lay the heat-insulating material so that there is free space (3-4 cm) before the wall cut. For this, a tool such as a road builder can be used. Thanks to this, it is possible to qualitatively and correctly lay the material during the sealing of gaps.
Cost and price of caulk
The feasibility of caulking the walls with your own hands will largely depend on the availability of free time and experience. Building a house from profiled timber needs additional caulking, but due to the complexity of the lock connection, it is difficult to do it yourself. In the case when it is decided to involve specialists in the business, additional costs must be foreseen.
The cost of the work will be based on several factors:
Some average prices for services provided by specialized firms:
- Removal of insulation from the gaps - from 25 rubles / running meter;
- Caulker (with self-purchase of material) - from 60 rubles / linear meter;
- Subsequent impregnation of joints - from 13 rubles / m.
A poorly caulked house made of timber can lose symmetry over time, so the whole process should be carried out thoughtfully and carefully. It is recommended to take the help of specialists in this matter in order to avoid possible problems.
Any person dreams of living in comfortable conditions, the list of which includes a well-maintained house, a pleasant and stable microclimate. Special attention in such buildings is given quality insulation building. This stage has great importance for owners of log houses. How to properly caulk a house so that in the future you do not have to redo the erected creation? The answer to this question is trying to find a large number of private developers.
The caulk of a house made of timber is necessary for its insulation.
Having searched for a sufficient amount of material on this topic, one can come across the statement that it is not necessary to use a similar method of building insulation. Such arguments are argued by the following fact: wood undergoes special processing before use, and structures erected from it should not shrink. This means that the appearance of cracks in the structures of the timber is excluded.
Despite this point of view, profiled beams are central to the ranking of building materials, and they also have a nice price. Any beam is wooden base with all its characteristics. It can dry out if a material of natural moisture content is chosen for construction.
Despite the fact that insulation can be laid between the logs, this will not save the wood from shrinkage, as a result of which its dimensions will noticeably decrease, and the gaps will become more noticeable. If you do not caulk the log house, the warmed air from the room will be on the street. Timely work will exclude the occurrence of dampness on the walls and rotting of the surface.
Necessary tools for work
Do I need to caulk a house from a bar? Yes, it is necessary to do this, because a correctly carried out process will eliminate the gaps in the space between the timber and at the connection points of the crowns, the heat will be stored in the room, there will be no drafts and icing.
The material used for caulking must meet certain requirements. In terms of quality, it should be similar to a tree and have a clean, from an environmental point of view, base. Such raw materials do not tend to change external data under the influence of high humidity and temperature indicators. Air should not pass through it, at the same time, the source must absorb moisture from the surrounding air and get rid of it in a timely manner. In such material there should be no rot or pests. An important indicator of such a source will be the preservation of valuable indicators for the longest possible time.
Among the materials used to insulate the seams of houses, swamp moss-sphagnum, flax tow, and hemp hemp have long been used. Modern achievements of the construction field provided for mass use new material, jute. One of the best options swamp moss becomes, which reliably protects the walls of the building from putrefactive processes, fungal manifestations.
As a result, buildings last much longer. Moss is able to actively absorb moisture, and if necessary, it saturates the wood with it. Its base perfectly passes air, has antiseptic properties. Moss can be attributed to impeccable materials for a caulk. However, it is quite difficult to finish them with seams in a log house. Yes, and to collect such raw materials in the right amount is not easy.
Linen tow and hemp hemp are also used for caulking at home, but their quality indicators are much lower than the considered option. These options are classified as industrial waste, have a similar structure, hemp has thicker and stronger fibers. The disadvantage of such materials will be the residue in the form of a fire, it begins to crumble over time, and it becomes necessary to carry out repeated work.
Jute is an imported product, it has been used in construction not so long ago. Any house will be reliably caulked with this kind of materials, providing it with a special strength, hygroscopicity, and excellent air conduction. Jute is not able to rot, become moldy, its strong base does not allow birds to pull fibers out of the cracks, which is often observed when using tow and hemp.
Jute is sold in ribbons and fibers. The first form creates comfortable conditions to determine them in the space between the crowns in the log house. Pure jute fiber helps in the construction of a uniform seal. But such material will have enough high price. To reduce its cost, flax becomes an integral component of jute, which does not have the best effect on its quality indicators.
Technological features of building caulking
How to caulk a house from a bar? To study this issue, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of the procedure. The process of sealing holes in a structure is not as easy as it seems. Beams must be clearly and stably fixed and reinforced. To connect the crowns of the house, you need to use a layer of insulating material, the thickness of which is equal to 5 mm. A log house erected from a material with a natural degree of moisture allows you to increase these figures to 10-15 cm. When constructing a building from a profiled beam, an insulating layer is placed in the space of spikes and grooves.
It happens that the beam connection resembles the combination in a log house, Bottom part they have a relief plane, and the opposite concave shape. In this case, the space between the logs is filled with insulating material, its edges must hang down by 4-5 cm from outer side. A timber structure that does not allow fixing material in the gap between the beams, gaps from the inside and from outside warmed up one by one.
Traditionally, the log house is caulked, starting from the top, gradually moving down. The ideal way out of this situation would be to attract assistants, it’s good if they start working in four, that is, each of the walls is engaged in workers. In this case, you don’t have to worry about the skew of the building, on the contrary, its height may increase slightly, up to 15 cm. In order to carry out this process in a coordinated and organized manner, they use for work:
- caulk;
- ordinary knife;
- spatulas.
Caulker has the appearance of a flattened spatula made of wood with a long handle and a narrowed base. One side looks like a pen, the other side looks like a spatula.
Options for caulking a house from a bar
Such measures are carried out in two ways, which depend on the width of the gaps. For the most part, such gaps are very small in the gap between the logs, so it is advisable to use the “stretch” technique here. Thanks to it, the insulating fibers are placed along the opening, after which they are hammered inside with the help of a caulk. Thus, it should be continued until the gap finally disappears.
The presence between the seams of large gaps gives rise to the use of the "in set" method. The insulating material is twisted in the form of thin and long ropes, the thickness of which corresponds to the gap. The gaps must be completely filled. To check the quality of the work, you must use a kitchen knife, which must be inserted into the slot.
When it penetrates into the gap by 1.5 cm or less, we can talk about good quality insulation. With deep penetration of this item, you need to add another layer of insulating material. In the process of work, care should be taken: excessively applied efforts can lead to separation of the laid timber.
Caulking at home with jute fiber gives good results.
It is worth noting that the process of insulating a building by filling cracks with insulating materials is not as simple as it seems at first glance. Efforts for high-quality work should be made maximum, layers should be hammered 3 times: first at the time of construction, then 1 year later and after the completion of the natural shrinkage process. The time period of caulking can stretch for 5 years.
These measures must be carried out on time, which will protect against drafts, condensation and wood decay. Qualitatively carried out work contributes to good sealing of the seams and the complete absence of cracks in the walls.
All technologies for building a house from a bar suggest that in the process it will be necessary to insulate the walls, or rather the interventional joints. Moreover, it doesn’t matter at all whether the owner plans to insulate the house from a bar from the outside with siding or other material, the caulking of a bar house must still be carried out. In the article we will consider why this is necessary and, how to caulk a log house.
Photo of caulking the walls of a house from a bar
Why do you need a caulk
You can write a whole article about the caulk of a log house, since several important points in operation of a wooden house:
- Caulking eliminates "cold bridges". Without a good caulk between the timber crowns, the cold will pass, and then the house will be cold, uncomfortable and it will take a lot of money to heat it in winter.
- Caulker eliminates drafts, which appear due to the appearance of cracks between the bars when the house shrinks.
- The caulk prevents moisture from penetrating through the cracks between the timber, which contributes to a longer shelf life of the wood in the wall.
As a result of caulking, we get the following positive points:
- Lack of ways for heat leakage from the premises.
- Lack of icing on the outer (sometimes also on the inner) side timber wall.
- A significant increase in the life of the timber and, accordingly, the entire timber house.
The wall of the house with insulation between the crowns
How to caulk a house from a bar
Now let's figure out how to caulk a house from a bar. Any interventional insulation that we choose for caulking must meet the requirements:
- Have low thermal conductivity;
- The insulation must be resistant to temperature fluctuations and humidity fluctuations.
- Possess antiseptic properties, i.e. the insulation should not become a "home" for both mold and fungus, and even more so for insects.
- The service life of the insulation should be at least 20 years.
- The insulation material must "breathe", i.e. be airtight.
- Be hygroscopic.
- Its properties should be similar to wood.
Let us now consider how to caulk a house from a bar, i.e. the most popular materials that are used for caulking timber houses.
Treatment of cracks with moss.
One of the best traditional materials for caulking wooden houses is sphagnum moss. In Rus' it is used in wooden housing construction from time immemorial.
Moss has big advantages:
- Environmental friendliness. This natural material, just perfect for interacting with both the bar and the person.
- Durability. Sometimes, when dismantling old houses in which the walls have rotted, you can find that the logs have rotted, but not the moss at the interventional joints.
- Moss has antiseptic and antibacterial properties.
- Moss has good hygroscopicity.
Note!
Moss, as a material for caulking, has 2 small minuses:
- for an inexperienced caulker, working with moss is a real challenge;
- birds sometimes like to pull moss out of the grooves, so it is advisable to close the joints with something (sealant, rope punching, slats, etc.).
Tow
Tow, as an interventional sealant, is used in construction quite often, but less frequently than in past decades.
Tow bar caulking has a little fewer benefits than moss, but working with it is already much easier. For caulking, tow is often treated with resin, which increases its resistance to moisture, and, of course, increases its durability. By the way, birds love to pull the tow out of the grooves (they are used for nests), so it is advisable to close the seams with something.
Jute
This is an overseas insulation made from the tropical Jute tree of the same name.
Note that jute has the same positive properties, which is moss, but in its composition the maximum approaches the bar. In addition, jute is produced both in the form of a ribbon and in the form of a fiber suitable for caulking. With a tape it is very easy to work even for a beginner with their own hands.
When to start caulking?
The caulking process is phased work, due to physical properties wood, the beam dries out gradually and the house shrinks (about 5% of the height):
- 1st caulk immediately after construction. When laying the timber, insulation is immediately placed between the crowns, and after the construction of the house is completed, the gaps are filled with this material, but not tightly.
- The 2nd caulk is produced after about 15-18 months. In this case, the caulking is already carried out so tightly that the insulation does not protrude from the cracks.
- The 3rd caulk, if you have not insulated the log house outside with mineral wool and finished it with siding, blockhouse, etc., can be carried out in 5-6 years. All cracks are carefully and tightly clogged with the selected sealant (tow, jute or moss).
The process of warming and caulking
The first stage of warming a house from a bar is carried out already in the process of building a house - jute tape or tape and other materials are laid in the space between the crowns of the bar.
Important note!
If we are building a house from a profiled timber that is already dry, then it is possible to lay a 4 mm thick tape between the rows of timber, and if we are building from a timber of natural moisture, then the jute tape should already be 10-15 mm thick.
First option. Sometimes, using a wide jute tape, it turns out that the insulation hangs a couple of centimeters on both sides of the timber. Further, with the help of a tool called "caulking", this protruding jute is wrapped under the bottom and pushed into the intervention gap.
In order to normally push the sealant inside the gap between the crowns of the beam, you can hit the caulk with a rubber (or even a simple) hammer. Insulation is based on the principle of driving in a wedge, only instead of a wedge, a sealant-insulator is clogged.
In principle, there is nothing complicated about how to caulk a house from a bar on your own, no. The main thing is, after all the work, to inspect the gaps between the crowns, and to caulk additional suspicious places, if any.
The second option is when a tape no wider than the beam was used when laying the beam, i.e. the insulation does not hang out of the cracks, then you just need to additionally caulk. To do this, a kind of rope can be twisted from jute or other fiber, which is hammered along the length inside the gap.
Independent caulking will be more thorough (we do it for ourselves). If you hire workers, then you need to control both the process and the result, so that you don’t have to redo all the work later.
Loading...