What is better to build a house from - choose the material for the walls of the house

In one old, old fairy tale, three little pigs were arguing enthusiastically about what is better to build a house from. A fairy tale is a fairy tale, but even now many developers often argue about this. It is especially important what material the external walls will be made of. After all, it is they who are able to make the building durable, beautiful and long-lived.

What to consider when choosing material for the walls of the house

Walls take up to a quarter of all the costs of building a house. And if you carelessly treat this choice, then you can incur serious expenses in the future. Therefore, we will take into account and consider the most important criteria and factors that must be considered when choosing a material for building walls at home.

#1. A question of price. Costs can be reduced by using lightweight material for the walls. Then you do not have to build a powerful and expensive foundation.

#2. Thermal insulation. Cold walls will cost too much in winter. Therefore, before choosing a material, you need to make all the calculations, focusing on local climatic conditions. To achieve the desired degree of thermal insulation, you can resort to the help of heaters. If you take a material with good thermal insulation properties, then the walls can not be insulated, but it all depends on the region of development.

#3. Labor costs. Time and effort can be reduced by building walls from large blocks, and not from small pieces. Such walls are erected 3-4 times faster and easier. The highest speed is when erecting frame panel walls.

#4. Subsequent finishing costs. Modern smooth and aesthetic materials do not require additional wall decoration. You can save money on this.

To determine what is better to build the walls of the house from, we will consider the main types of suitable building materials, we will determine their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.

traditional brick

A brick house can stand for 100 - 150 years. He will perfectly survive the rains with hurricanes and hail, and severe frosts, and withering heat. Brick walls have been laid since ancient times, so the technology for their construction has been worked out to the smallest detail. Accordingly, it is easy to find a good master.

Ceramic or silicate

Ceramic brick is red. It is made of baked clay, so it is very durable and highly environmentally friendly. Such material is not afraid of cold and does not let water through. It can be full-bodied (no more than 13% of voids) and hollow (up to 49% of voids). The shape of the holes in the brick can be round, square, oval, horizontally or vertically. With an increase in their number, thermal insulation properties improve.

Varieties of ceramic bricks.

The silicate brick is white. Its main components are lime, sand and a small fraction of additives. This type of brick is also produced both solid and with cavities inside. The latter is lighter, and the walls made of it are much warmer (after all, air is an excellent heat insulator). But a solid silicate brick can pamper the developer with a variety of colors. For the strength of a brick, it does not matter whether it is full-bodied or with cavities inside.

Ordinary and front brick and their purpose

Both types of bricks are for different purposes:

• Ordinary brick is also called building brick - it is used for interior masonry walls. For him, small cracks are not considered marriage. It does not matter if the corners or ribs are slightly beaten off, there are notches in the corners.
• The front (facing) brick must have an impeccable appearance, not have notches and flaws.

Some types of facing bricks.

On the strength of bricks and resistance to frost

Strength determines the brand of brick. There is a special marking for this indicator: the letter M and a number nearby (from 75 to 300). This number is the load that this brand can withstand per square centimeter. The higher this number, the heavier the brick. For the walls of a two-story or three-story house, the M100 and M125 brands are suitable. The plinth or foundation is laid with bricks M150 or M175.

When choosing which brick to build a house from, frost resistance should also be taken into account (the ability to freeze and thaw without being damaged). To denote this indicator, the letter F was chosen, next to which there is a number from 15 to 100. It means the number of freeze and thaw cycles without damaging the material. In warmer areas, F15 is sufficient for external walls, where it is colder - F25. The cladding is usually made with F50 brand bricks.

Advantages and disadvantages of brick

Keramoblock is a durable and modern material

In Europe, when deciding what material to build a house from, they often choose a ceramic block. It is environmentally friendly (consisting of a fired mixture of clay and sawdust), and it can be built cheaply and quickly. Such a house will stand idle for at least 150 years, and it can be made multi-storey (this allows a margin of safety). On the sides, the surface of the ceramic block is corrugated, and inside there are pores. Individual elements are joined using a tongue-and-groove connection.

Ceramic blocks of various sizes.

Dimensions and characteristics of ceramic blocks

The sizes of ceramic blocks are different, but their height is standard, equal to brickwork. This is convenient - you can build according to the project of a brick house. A block measuring 50 x 24.8 x 23.8 cm weighs 25 kg, and is equal in volume to 15 bricks of 3.3 kg each. It is easier and faster to lay one such plate, and less mortar is needed. The blocks are 23, 24 and 25 cm wide. Their length (which determines the thickness of our walls) can be from 25 to 51 cm. On this side there is a tongue-and-groove lock.

For laying a load-bearing wall, blocks are taken whose length is from 30 cm. And if you make walls 38 cm thick or more, they will not have to be insulated. After all, porous blocks have a low thermal conductivity - from 0.14 to 0.29 watts per square meter per degree Celsius. Thicker blocks (38, 44 and 50 cm long) are marked as M100. If thin but reliable walls are planned, then you can take blocks of the M150 brand. Ceramoblock withstands up to 50 cycles of freezing and thawing. This corresponds to the brand F50.

Advantages and disadvantages of ceramic blocks

Aerated concrete blocks - material for warm walls

Externally, aerated concrete blocks look worse than a ceramic block, but they keep heat perfectly. Walls made of aerated concrete with a thickness of 30 - 40 cm, built in one layer, have the same characteristics as multi-layer ones made of bricks or ceramic blocks. At the same time, a fairly comfortable microclimate is maintained in the room, since aerated concrete effectively resists fluctuations in temperature and humidity. This material will not rot and deteriorate over time - after all, it has an unlimited service life. And in terms of thermal insulation, it is 3 times better than brick. This is the merit of the air pores inside the material.

The structure of aerated concrete blocks.

Characteristics of aerated concrete blocks

Aerated concrete is cheap to transport and easy to install. If you need to cut a block, then a regular hacksaw does an excellent job with it. A little mortar or special glue is needed, construction is proceeding quickly. If the masonry is made on glue, then it turns out to be thin-seam, which contributes to better thermal insulation of the room. Made in the factory, lightweight blocks have a perfect cut, so that the walls are quite even. This allows you to save on interior decoration.

Aerated concrete blocks are lightweight, which reduces the cost of their transportation, and this material can be used at various stages of construction. In view of the fact that the material is very easy to process, has a small weight and large dimensions, the bricklayer does less labor.

Aerated concrete is a non-combustible material that has a good compressive strength. It is made exclusively from natural ingredients and is absolutely environmentally friendly. This material is quite frost-resistant, and the level of vapor permeability of a house made of aerated concrete can only be compared with a house built of wood.

Varieties of aerated concrete blocks.

For aerated concrete, the most important characteristic is density (D). It can vary - from 350 to 1200 kg / m 3. Depending on the density, grades of aerated concrete are distinguished, they are designated by the letter "D" and a number. For the construction of a cottage, it is better to take the D500 - D900 brands. A block with standard dimensions (20 x 25 x 60 cm) weighs 18 kg. It will replace up to 20 bricks (total weight up to 80 kg). Therefore, if you have not yet decided what to build a house from, take a closer look at this material.

• Read more about it in the article: Aerated concrete blocks shortcomings and declared characteristics.

Advantages and disadvantages of aerated concrete blocks

Good old wood - comfortable, but troublesome

People who are wondering what it is better to build a private house from, this material often comes to mind. After all, a wooden house is health and comfort. Its walls not only "breathe", but also make the air healing, retaining all harmful substances. Wooden walls create optimal humidity in the room and smell pleasant.

The walls of the house made of wood have good thermal insulation and keep warm in winter and cool in summer. The heating costs of a wooden house can be significantly lower compared to brick walls.

Hand-cut log house

This method is the oldest, it was used by our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. It's a hand-crafted cut. The tree trunk is cut to the desired length, and then locks and grooves are made on it. Next, the logs are connected, laying out the outline of the house. You definitely need to wait for shrinkage - this is about a year, no less. Then they caulk the cracks and sheathe the boxes of windows and doors.

Today, this method of building a wooden house is not used. Everyone can build a house from round logs. Such a structure is assembled, like a designer, we will talk about this later.

It is easier and faster to build a house from a bar

Neat smooth logs are processed under production conditions and marked. Ready-made parts are delivered to the construction site from which the walls are assembled. The beam can have different sizes and sections (rectangular, square, in the form of the letter D). If it is profiled, then it has protrusions and grooves for connection. An oblique cut helps drain excess water. You can build a house from this material with your own hands.

There are several types of timber for building a house:

Sawn timber is made from logs with a moisture content of 50 to 70%. As soon as he is cut out, he immediately goes to the construction site. Because of this, the house is subject to shrinkage (up to 10 cm). And sometimes there are cracks on the walls.

Photo: www.derevo.by

Planed timber is dried under production conditions. Humidity of the finished product - from 20 to 25%. After drying on a special machine, the products are planed. As a result, the shrinkage of the house, although it exists, is very small.

Glued timber is made from several layers of lamellas (special boards dried to 6 or 10% humidity). They are glued under pressure, while the fibers of adjacent layers are perpendicular to each other. Finished products are up to 12 m long and 7.5 to 30 cm thick. They do not shrink, deform or crack. Therefore, many believe that glued laminated timber is the best material for the walls of a wooden house.

Advantages and disadvantages of wood as a material for building walls at home

Lightweight and inexpensive frame house

What is the cheapest way to build a house? For some, the answer to this question is the most important. Then take a closer look at the frame technology. In addition to the cheapness of such a home, the speed of assembly is also impressive. Just a few weeks - and you can move into a five-room house, which will be warm and comfortable.

The basis of such buildings is a frame made of wood or metal. It includes rafters, racks, trusses and other elements. Then a heater is placed, and on top all this is sheathed with dense sheets of chipboard or OSB. The wall of such a house weighs 15 times less than a brick one. There is not much expensive wood for the frame - 5 or 10 times less than for a log house. Insulation is the main item of expenditure. However, he, even the best, gives the cost of the wall 1.5 times cheaper than from timber, and compared to brick - 2.7 times.

Frame houses can be of two types:

Assembled from ready-made shields. First they connect them, then they make partitions between the rooms. The final stage is the construction of the roof.

Made on the basis of the "frame" - a frame of beams and logs, based on the foundation. Next, they put the rafters and make the crate. After the roof is made, the frame is sheathed with insulation (mineral wool or PPS). At the end, the outer skin is made.

Since the main material in the construction of a frame house is a heater, when making correct calculations of the required amount, the structure turns out to be quite warm. That will allow you to significantly save on heating.

Advantages and disadvantages of frame houses

Table: Comparison of different wall materials

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