Everyday Examples of Sealants
You may not realize it, but sealants are all around us:
- The windshield of your car is held in place with a sealant to keep water out.
- There’s a bead of sealant around your bathtub to prevent water from seeping behind tiles.
- Your windows are sealed with a special material to stop cold air, rain, and drafts from entering your home.
If you take a close look, you’ll notice that sealants vary in texture, flexibility, and performance. The best sealants are those that remain flexible and durable across a wide range of temperatures, sunlight, and environmental conditions. And this is where Perma-Chink Systems really shines.
Why Choose Perma-Chink Systems Sealants?
So, why do homeowners choose Perma-Chink Systems sealants for their log homes? Here are three key reasons:
- Keep the Elements Out: First and foremost, Perma-Chink sealants provide a reliable barrier that keeps water, air, and insects where they belong—outside your home.
- Attractive Appearance: Our sealants are designed to blend seamlessly with the natural look of your log home, offering an attractive finish that complements your decor.
- Proven Performance: With a reputation for long-lasting durability and superior performance, Perma-Chink products are trusted by homeowners and professionals alike to deliver reliable, long-term protection.
Why Sealing a Log Home Is Different
Sealing a log home presents unique challenges. Logs are naturally irregular, and when stacked on top of each other, gaps can form between the logs or around window and door frames. These gaps allow cold air, water, and even bugs to infiltrate your home. That’s where Energy Seal® comes in.
Energy Seal: The Ideal Solution for Log Homes
Energy Seal is a textured, acrylic polymer sealant specifically designed for log homes. It provides a flexible, durable seal that adapts to the natural movement of logs as they expand, contract, and shift with changing weather conditions. Here’s why Energy Seal stands out:
- Flexibility: Energy Seal’s flexibility allows it to maintain a tight seal as logs twist, turn, and shift with the seasons, ensuring that gaps don’t reopen over time.
- Water & Air Tight: It creates a resilient, water- and air-tight barrier, preventing moisture infiltration and keeping drafts at bay.
- Texture for a Natural Look: The textured surface of Energy Seal serves two purposes:
- Flat, Non-Shiny Finish: Once cured, Energy Seal doesn’t have the shiny, artificial look of typical caulking. Instead, it achieves a natural, matte finish that blends seamlessly with your logs and stain.
- Better Stain Adhesion: The textured surface also allows Energy Seal to accept stain more effectively, ensuring it blends in and virtually disappears when you stain your log walls.
Pro Tip: Staining Over Energy Seal
If you plan to stain over Energy Seal, here’s a helpful tip: choose a stain that’s slightly lighter than the color you intend to use for your logs. It’s easier to cover light-colored Energy Seal with a darker stain than it is to cover darker sealant with a lighter one.
Seal in Comfort, Save on Energy
By sealing your log home with Energy Seal, you’re ensuring long-lasting protection against the elements while also boosting your home’s energy efficiency. Don’t let gaps and cracks waste your energy and money—choose Perma-Chink Systems sealants for the best in performance, durability, and aesthetics.
Let us help you keep your home snug and energy-efficient this winter.
The RHEOLOGY of Perma-Chink
Theoretical aspects of rheology - a branch of physics - deal with understanding the relation of the flow and deformation behavior of material and its internal structure.
The rheology additives in Perma-Chink help ensure that the polymer properties meet specifications for the end use (texture, product film properties) and product quality.
Rheological properties of Perma-Chink
- Greatly improved low shear (as in standing after application) results in high viscosity to prevent slumping
- High shear (as in pumping ) decreases viscosity to make the product easier to apply and tool.
Tips On Applying Perma-Chink
Some people think that Perma-Chink sealant is just like any other caulking product on the market, so they apply and finish it with the same methods. Typically, silicone caulking can be smoothed just by running a damp finger along the bead of caulking. Using that method with Perma-Chink will give you less than desirable results. To get a smooth, clean finish with Perma-Chink, spray the sealant liberally with water then tool it with a metal spatula or similar. It may seem counter-intuitive to apply water to smooth it, but it's the best method. Unlike smooth caulking, the texture in Perma-Chink (and Energy Seal) needs more water to maintain a smooth finish. And it'll be much, much easier.
Blister Test Result for Perma-Chink
Blister Test Result for Other Brand
Slump Test Result for Perma-Chink
Slump Test Result for Other Brand
*Substrate conditions such as substrate outgassing, volatiles in the wood and backing materials can contribute to formation of blisters.
Want to learn how to apply log home chinking? Download our Sealants Application Guide here.