Since ancient times, log walls have been the most in demand in the construction of residential buildings, especially in the rural and suburban segment. The construction of a log cabin in modern conditions attracts owners of summer cottages and suburban areas for the opportunity to create environmentally friendly buildings that have an attractive appearance.
Therefore, before building a residential building with log walls, you must carefully familiarize yourself with the features of their construction and decoration. In this case, you must strictly follow the basic rules for choosing a tree for the construction of such structures.
Tree properties
Great importance in creating a quality wall of a log house is given to the main characteristics of the wood used in the construction process.
These indicators include:
- The hardness of wood directly depends on the type of wood and its moisture content. This indicator indicates the resistance of the material to various physical influences. For the construction of walls, hard or medium-hard rocks are most often used.
- For strengthwood is particularly affected by its moisture content. High humidity material is prone to rot and shrinkage, which can cause the wall to warp.
- Shrinkage of wood material is a very important indicator. Thoroughly dried wood avoids deformation of the building material. There are tree species with strong shrinkage (elm, oak, alder, linden, beech). Pine, aspen, poplar, willow have an average degree of shrinkage. Larch and spruce are weakly drying species.
- Also, the quality of wood has a significant impact on the presence of various defects. Such defects include mold, surface damage by fungus, structural changes. Structural defects include a large number of knots and cracks that can occur during tree growth.
All these properties and characteristics must be considered when choosing a material for a log wall.
Basic woods for log cabins
Since ancient times, softwood has been the most common material for making log walls.
Such trees include:
- Pine occupies a leading position in the list of materials used for log cabins. Due to the possibility of easy processing and increased resistance to decay, this wood is most effective in the construction of country houses. Consumers are also attracted by the affordable price of this material.
- Spruce is used to make a log house much less often, since a large number of knots significantly hinders the process of high-quality processingmaterial.
- Larch is one of the hardest woods, but its use is limited by its high cost.
- Cedar also has a high price, although it has excellent strength characteristics.
The practice of combined construction is very often used, in which the first crown of a log house is made of larch, and the rest of pine.
Hardwoods have high strength and hardness, but their use for building a wooden log wall is limited by the rather high cost of the material.
Methods of building walls
The whole process of processing and fitting wooden logs for a log house is carried out manually. And if earlier only axes and hand saws were used for these purposes, then in modern conditions, chainsaws and electric planers have become indispensable assistants for carpenters when building a log wall.
There are two main technological ways of felling:
1. Corner connection in oblo, or, as it is often called, in a bowl. The peculiarity of this method is that the edges of the logs protrude beyond the joining plane by 20-30 cm. With this method, the dimensions of the structure are reduced by almost 50 cm on each side compared to the length of the log used. This technology greatly improves the stability of the log house and protects the walls well from external influences.
2. Cutting corners into a paw does not have protruding edges of the log. A strong connection of logs is ensured by the creation of a special lockclutch. A house built using this technology has a large usable area, but is much more susceptible to weathering.
Less labor-intensive work is the construction of a wall using timber, but such a structure loses to a log house in appearance.
Causes of wall curvature
Over time, old log walls can warp. This is most often due to a violation of the technological process of performing operations for joining log logs.
Also of great importance for creating a quality log house is the correct selection of the material used. Wood with a natural moisture content of up to 12% lasts much longer without visible surface defects. Whereas, when working with dry wood, it is very difficult to ensure that there are no cracks that can cause the log wall to warp.
It is worth noting that the shrinkage of raw wood can continue for many years, changing its shape right in the wall. Therefore, an important step is the proper impregnation of logs with protective compounds that prevent the harmful effects of precipitation on wood.
Wall Alignment
If, over time, a violation of the surface has become noticeable, then it is necessary to carefully study the question of how to level the log wall. There are only two main ways - mechanical and decorative. Applying both methods to eliminate surface curvature gives the best result.
Decorative waywall alignment is carried out after mechanical removal of irregularities, since shrinkage of the house can lead to damage to the finishing material inside the room.
Mechanical way to eliminate wall irregularities
Elimination of irregularities that have arisen mechanically is as follows:
- First you need to make or buy metal corners or steel plates, as well as threaded rods with a diameter of 1-1.5 cm. Drill several identical holes on the plates, corresponding to the diameter of the studs.
- Then marking holes for fasteners and drilling through holes in the log. In this case, a drill with a diameter smaller than the cross section of the rods is selected.
- With the help of a sledgehammer, the studs are hammered tightly into the log. Plates are put on the free ends of the rods, and this is done on both sides of the wall.
- Then, the logs are tightened with nuts, focusing on flat areas.
- The protruding ends of the studs are cut off with a circular saw.
This method is effective for leveling single logs. If there is a curvature of a large surface, then a jack must be used.
Insulation of the inner wall of the house
Most often, log walls are insulated from the inside of the room, since the outer surface can be lined with bricks or adjoin other buildings. Mineral wool or expanded polystyrene boards can be used to insulate the wall.
To increase the effective service life of wooden structures,it is necessary to pre-treat the surface of the wall. The places where the logs are joined should be carefully caulked with tow to eliminate gaps. Then the walls must be cleaned of dust. A special composition is applied to the cleaned surface, which prevents the development of the log decay process, as well as excluding wood damage by harmful insects. Coating the wood with a special fire-resistant composition will greatly reduce the possibility of a fire.
The next step will be the device of the crate for fastening the mineral wool. For these purposes, a bar 50 × 50 mm is used. The bars are mounted in a vertical position with a step depending on the width of the insulation. After the installation of the crate, you need to lay the mineral wool and, for reliability, fix it with special dowels.
A layer of vapor barrier must be attached over the insulation. In this case, the material must be placed with foil inside the room, with an overlap at the joints of at least 10 cm. The insulation layer can be fastened with a stapler. You can use polyethylene film for vapor barrier.
Insulation with polystyrene foam
The technology of insulating a log wall with expanded polystyrene plates is in many ways similar to the use of mineral wool:
- surface preparation first;
- then the crate is made;
- insulation plates are laid and fixed with special dowels;
- a layer of vapor barrier is attached over the insulation.
Insulation plates made of dense material can be fixed with glue without mounting the crate. Next, we attach a special reinforcing mesh to the insulation and plaster the log wall.
Finishing the wall of the log house
Finishing work on the wall of a wooden log house must be started only after the structure has completely shrunk. Shrinkage time depends on the used log material, its moisture content, as well as the quality of cutting. Most often, in a warm climate, a log house must stand for at least one year in order for the structure to naturally shrink.
Finishing log walls can be done with clapboard, gypsum boards, as well as various panels.
Fixing the finishing material is carried out on a pre-assembled crate. At the same time, in order to avoid damage to the material, you need to leave a small gap near the ceiling and floor.
Before lathing, the surface of wooden structures must be treated with a protective compound.
Remember that the correct selection of wood and strict adherence to cutting technology will allow you to create a cozy, environmentally friendly country house that can please the look of even the most picky owner.
