Living in your own country house is the dream of almost every person. This is especially true for city dwellers. What materials can houses be made of? Brick, expanded clay block, log, timber and many others - these building materials are chosen for the construction of their own home. Log houses are one of the most demanded in today's market. This is due to the simplest construction technology, significant savings in the purchase of materials. You can build such a dwelling yourself, even without the involvement of specialists. In terms of quality and comfort, life in a log house will not be inferior to a brick one. It only needs to be properly designed, built, finished and insulated.
Beam Advantages
The main advantage of a log house is that the foundation for it can be lightweight: columnar, pile, tape. The structure is not as heavy as, for example, brick, so it does not make sense to go deep into the ground.
Timbered house does not require long-term shrinkage. It is enough for him to settle for one year. And at the same time, it is possible to carry out work on insulation and decoration in it. This is notsay about brick buildings that "settle" for 2-3 years, and it is impossible to carry out any work in them.
House thermal conductivity
Wood has one distinctive feature - the optimal ratio of its heat capacity and thermal conductivity. The same cannot be said for brick (too big) or frame structures (too little). In an example, it looks like this. Every person, household appliances, lighting - everything gives off heat. Approximately 1.3 kW of waste heat is obtained from these sources per day. Brick walls will absorb it and let it out. Premises made of aerated concrete will have to be ventilated. And only a tree will evenly distribute it in its space.
Another benefit
Periodic freezing or heating will not affect the mechanical properties and geometry of the tree in any way, if it is properly prepared for construction. There are very thin pores in the timber. They do not allow water to freeze even at very low temperatures, which cannot be said about a brick or aerated concrete house. If the last 2-3 years are only slightly heated, then the walls will become damp, and after about 3-5 seasons they will begin to crumble. A wooden house can not be heated for a long time, its qualities will not change. After the heat is started, 2-4 hours are enough to warm up. Stone will take several days to do this. At present, you can still find log cabins that have stood uninhabited for more than 50 years. Their walls are in good condition, allowing you to immediately move in after cosmetic repairs.
Projects of timber houses
There can be a great many projects of timber houses. Everyone can design their own home. It is enough to know the necessary parameters and be able to use paper and pencil or a special computer program. If there are no skills in this, you can contact specialized firms.
If the land on which the construction of the house is planned is small, then it makes sense to design a two-story house. On the first floor, you can place a kitchen, living room, bathroom, hallway, and the bedrooms can be located on the second. If the scale of the earth allows and there is no desire to climb the stairs in the house, then a one-story building will look great. If desired, you can plan a garage under the same roof with the house and other useful premises.
When designing a log house, one should take into account what time of residence it will be intended for: summer or year-round. The required thickness of the selected beam for the walls depends on this. You can also build a Finnish house that is simple in architecture - a one-story or two-story building. In the latter, heat is better retained due to increased air circulation.
Stages of building a house
The log house (photo provided below) is being built in several stages. Such material allows many works to be done independently. The walls are perfectly smooth, finishing is much easier. It is necessary to choose the right type of timber. It can be glued, ordinary, profiled. Glued - assembled fromboards, the cheapest type of timber. Regular is a calibrated log with a square or rectangular cross section. The most modern and expensive is a profiled beam with a polished surface that excludes the penetration of moisture. After creating a house project and purchasing all the necessary building materials, you can proceed to the first stage of construction - the foundation.
Preparing and pouring the foundation
The construction of log houses, like almost all other real estate buildings, begins with the foundation. First, markings are applied to the site in accordance with the developed plan. Then a trench is dug with a depth of at least 60 cm. Gravel and sand are poured into the bottom of the pit, each to a height of 10 cm. After that, a formwork of boards is created around the perimeter. For pouring, concrete of a grade not lower than M400 is required, which is mixed in certain proportions with water. When pouring, there should be no air bubbles in the mixture. The finished foundation (depending on the weather) will dry for about a month. After that, you can proceed to the next stage - the construction of the walls of a frame-timber house.
Floor device
After the foundation has dried, a waterproofing layer is installed on it, which is a roofing material. The formwork is removed. Then the first crown and floor logs are laid. It is worth paying attention that at this stage it is especially important to install everything evenly and soak it with an antiseptic that protects against moisture. The junction of the lag is carried out by the "dovetail" method. This allows the interlocking boards to be in the same plane. For thisthe end of one beam is equipped with a spike, and the second - with a groove of the same size.
Poles are installed under the floor logs, excluding their deflection. They themselves are placed on edge with a step of about 40-100 cm. The greater the load on the floor, the smaller the step width should be. After that, the boards of the subfloor are stuffed, on top of which - a finishing coating. The floor is ready.
Building the walls of the house
The walls of the house are built with crowns of timber. They are fastened in the same way as described above. The exception is profiled timber, which already has ready-made grooves. Every 2-3 crowns, the beam is fastened with dowels. The inner walls are built at the same time as the outer ones. Ceiling beams cut into the last erected crown. During the construction of a house of 2-3 floors, interfloor ceilings cut into the crowns. At this stage, openings for windows and doors should also be made.
Roof
In the construction of the roof, the same timber is used as in the construction of the floor. A truss system and a temporary roof are being built on it at a certain slope. She will stand for six months until the house shrinks. After that, layers of thermal insulation and waterproofing are laid. The top is covered with a finishing material, which is chosen by the owner individually. It can be a metal tile, ondulin, corrugated board, slate.
Insulation
Separately, it must be said about the insulation of a timber house. This is indispensable if you do not want to freeze in the cold season. In addition, insulation materials significantly reducehome heating costs. With external insulation, the interior space will not decrease.
Among the materials suitable for insulation, there are: mineral wool, expanded polystyrene, foamy substances. To do this, a crate is installed on the walls of the house, where sheets of insulation are laid. Separately, it should be said about polystyrene foam. Compared to other materials, it is much cheaper. At the same time, it is lightweight, without weighing down the structure of the house.
Finishing
After completion of all the above processes, engineering communications are brought to the house, interior and exterior decoration is performed. The exterior of a log house can be made from inexpensive siding or more expensive materials. By the way, the natural beauty of the tree itself does not require finishing. You can simply tint it with special solutions.
