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Last edited 26 Mar 2026

Chinking

Chinking is a term relating to traditional and modern log cabin approaches to construction, it is most commonly used in the US and Canada but also used in British English, although log cabin construction is less common.

It refers to the method of sealing gaps between logs once complete to create a weather-resistant, better insulated structure. Traditionally, logs for a log building would have been prepared by hand through hewing, which involves slimming and forming raw timbers to smoother deep plank forms than can be laid upon one another. The hewing helps the round woods fit more smoothly together, reducing the gaps between them, any remaining gaps between logs would then be filled or packed with natural materials such as mud, clay, sand, lime, moss, in a process called chinking.

Traditional chinking would normally be done in two steps packing their gaps chinking and then further sealing them with a finishing layer referred to as daubing, similar to the daub, commonly associated in the UK with wattle and daub. A material known as oakum may also have been employed, laid between the logs as the were constructed and in the gaps, it is a fibrous caulking material made from hemp or jute fibres. Oakham was also used traditionally as a seal for certain plumbing joints, but more commonly now replaced with a sealant or tape.

In modern log construction logs might more commonly be sealed with a flexible acrylic compound or mortar material, it is also increasingly common for the logs themselves to be faux or falsely round, with either just the external face for appearance, with the internal face insulated with a frame, or with a split log with insulation at the centre for a log finish internally and externally.