We build a frame house with our own hands: step by step instructions. Pros and cons of frame houses
Every person dreams of having their own home. Moreover, it is not always presented in the form of a chorus. Most people prefer to have just a cozy and warm building in which they could safely build their family life and raise children.
Realizing such a dream is not difficult at all. For this, frame houses for permanent residence are perfect. Their construction does not require a large investment of money. But at the same time, the house can have two floors and not be inferior in quality to those buildings whose walls are built of brick or foam blocks. For those who decide to make the dream come true with their own hands, it is important to first study all the stages of construction. Let's consider them in this article.
Location selection
So, you have decided to build a frame house with your own hands. Step-by-step instructions will quite help to cope with this matter even for a beginner. First you need to choose a place where the house will stand. Of course, you should not opt for a remote village. There should be a road near the site, as well as gas, water, electricity, a school, etc. All these amenities are especially important in cases where frame houses are being built for permanent residence. Carrying out construction in a remote area from civilization greatly increases the cost of transporting materials, affects the electrical voltage supplied to the house.
In addition, there will be no paved road in a remote and unpromising village. And the poor quality of the coating will affect the repair of the car. But you will need to travel to grocery stores located far away, spend time getting qualified medical care, etc.
Site selection
An important stage of construction is the selection of a specific piece of land. It has the following requirements:
In the absence of a pipeline, it is necessary to take into account that you will have to dig a well or drill a well. Therefore, drinking water must be available on the site. At the same time, its source should not be located at a depth of more than 50 meters, since in this case it will be necessary to carry out expensive work.
- Maximum evenness of the surface, which will create additional convenience for building a house and reduce the cost of its foundation.
- Location in a non-flooded area. Areas located near rivers or other bodies of water are certainly flooded in the spring. Sometimes this problem exists in the lowlands. Water, located on the site for only 2-3 days, washes away the foundation. This is not good for the home.
- The minimum number of buildings already erected. If the site is purchased with a wooden house, which is intended for demolition, then it is desirable that the building stand on a brick foundation. In this case, preparation for work will be less expensive.
Building permit
This stage is also extremely important for those who build a frame house with their own hands. The step-by-step instructions contain an indication of the need to obtain a building permit and other documentation. The future owner needs a project for his house. This document covers all the major construction issues.
If the project does not appear before the start of the construction of the building, then it will be too late. The consequences of such rash actions are extra costs and an increase in construction time.
Frame houses (projects and prices are given below), like any others, must be built with all responsibility. In this case, it is important to re-read the opinions of those who have already built such housing for their families. For example, the best option is a frame house 6 by 6 m. Also, those who have already built such housing for themselves are advised to avoid projects that offer second floors, a considerable number of windows and more than a gable roof. Such decisions lead to the fact that frame houses are much more expensive for the owners.
Projects and prices can be offered to you and professionals. Specialists will collect a full package of documents and explain all the nuances related to construction. Such services will not cost very much (from 10 thousand rubles), but at the same time they will help to avoid certain unpleasant moments. What if the budget is limited? Then we build a frame house with our own hands and at the same time perform the functions of not only a foreman and builder, but also an architect!
Assembly technology
For someone who builds a frame house with their own hands, step-by-step instructions for its construction will be a huge help in their work. However, it should be borne in mind that, no matter which project is chosen, all buildings of this type have a common assembly technology. At the heart of such houses is a frame on which all the necessary structures are mounted. For the base, take pine, dried to 16-25% moisture.
Wood must be treated with a special septic composition. This will prevent the formation of fungi. At the same time, the design of the frame house becomes the highest quality. In addition, all the main materials used in the manufacture of frame houses or cottages are certainly covered with such a composition that can significantly improve their fire-fighting properties. When building budget options for dwellings, roof trusses are made of vertical and horizontal rafters, which are fastened together with galvanized metal plates.
Construction planning
Building a house is a process consisting of a large number of important steps. Moreover, each of them will require a special approach to work. That is why, when we build a frame house with our own hands, the step-by-step instructions are the main guide for us in the event we have begun. She will indicate the sequence of work performed, which will allow you to quickly move into your own home. It is also important to pay attention to some points that will allow developers to significantly save money and time:
1. The question of how to build a frame house requires careful thought. Prior to commencement of construction, a tentative schedule of work should be drawn up. It will allow you to plan all the actions, which will make it easier to work. For example, you will know exactly the time of purchase of the next materials and their delivery to the construction site.
2. A frame house set will cost less if you save lumber as much as possible. So, for short and small parts of the frame, trimmings left over from long elements are perfect. For these purposes, curved boards that were caught among the purchased lumber can also be used. Pieces cut out of them will not affect the quality of the structure.
3. Short boards and trimmings should be stored in such a way that they are always at hand. This will allow you not to cut high-quality lumber into short elements once again.
4. Boards must be stored carefully. They should not get wet and dirty.
5. Do not burn in the bath waste lumber treated with an antiseptic. This is dangerous to health.
Foundation
So, if you have already completed all the preparatory work described above, then you can safely build a frame house with your own hands. Step by step instructions will definitely help you with this.
First of all, let's start building the foundation. What type of it is preferable for a frame house? The foundation can be anything, but when choosing it, it is necessary to take into account the cost of materials, ease of installation and the type of soil of the selected area. In addition, it is desirable to build a stronger house so that in the future it will be possible to build various superstructures and outbuildings. That is why there is a need to bind the selected foundation to the house.
What should be the basis of the future dwelling? When choosing the type of foundation, several factors must be taken into account. So, if the site on which your house will stand has weak soil, then the base of the structure should be a shallowly recessed slab. For future completion or rebuilding, an insulated, so-called Swedish stove is most suitable. This type of foundation is specially designed for the construction of frame houses. He's strong enough. This confirms the fact that sometimes Swedish slab foundations are used in the construction of one-story brick houses. And if your goal is to build a small building for a summer residence? In such cases, a grillage metal foundation, equipped on screw piles, is suitable.
As for areas with normal soil, but increased heaving, it is possible to build on them the foundation of a pile-tape type structure with reinforced concrete shallowly buried grillages.
What is required for medium soil? In areas with such soil, the most appropriate solution would be to build a columnar, normally buried foundation. In this case, you will need plinth jumpers and a brick plinth.
A house on slightly heaving soils should stand on a shallowly buried strip foundation. Suitable in such cases and columnar option, as in the previous case.
If we are still building a frame house on a strip foundation (the most common option for this type of building), then it should be poured in advance. It is best to do this a couple of weeks before the start of the construction of the walls.
How to build a frame house from scratch? To begin with, we lay the width of the strip foundation we have chosen. It, as a rule, is 25 cm. The depth of laying the foundation of the future structure is 40 cm. We install the formwork in the prepared trench, which we sheathe from the inside with glassine using a stapler. The upper edge of such a device must be set strictly according to the level. This will facilitate the construction of the foundation, since after filling the formwork with concrete to the brim, the surface will not require additional leveling with plaster.
After completion of these works, the construction site must be abandoned. And only after the concrete has completely hardened, the formwork boards are disassembled and set aside for their further use in the frame structure. This will save lumber.
frame
How to build a frame house after arranging the foundation? The next stage of work is the construction of the frame. For him, unplaned edged boards, which are pre-treated with an antiseptic, must be bought in advance.
First of all, 3 layers of roofing material are laid on top of the foundation. This material will create an anti-capillary waterproofing. Further along the outer edge of the foundation, boards of the lower trim are laid on the roofing material. This is the basis of the frame, located around the perimeter. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the boards (beams) of the first floor will subsequently be installed on the edge based on the grooves previously cut in the foundation. The binding will also serve as the basis for them. The support for the beams installed in the middle will be only the foundation.
The next step is the installation of vertical racks. They must first be sawn, based on the required length. The frame begins to form from the corner posts. They are fixed with temporary jibs.
If the most common frame house 6 by 6 m is being built, then the strapping, racks and braces should be made of beams having a cross-sectional size of 100x100 mm or 50x100 mm.
Next, the installation of non-corner racks is carried out, the step of which is selected based on the size of the insulation. After that, the top trim boards are cut. This detail is arranged similarly to the bottom. Boards rise up and are attached to the racks with nails. It is worth remembering that the lower and upper trims should be the same.
For the frame, ordinary nails can be used. From below, two of them are driven into the racks at once. In this case, the nails should enter the tree at an angle of 45 degrees. For the rigidity of the entire structure, it is recommended to fix the corner posts with metal corners. Also, frame elements can be connected using other hardware. It can be screws, spikes or staples.
On the frame of the first floor, if necessary, the frame of the second is mounted. And in this case, fastening is done with nails. Self-tapping screws and metal fittings are used only in the most necessary cases.
Ceiling beams are cut into the upper harness. Rafters are laid on them. When erecting the frame, support for the partitions of future rooms should also be provided. There are different options here. The first of them is the placement of additional bars between the floor joists. Further, vertical boards rest on these elements, which form the basis of the inner wall. The second variant of the device of partitions is the support of boards directly on the floor in a frame house or on a board screwed to it.
When mounting the frame, it is important to follow the diagonals. This will prevent distortion of the structure.
The step of the frame racks must correspond to the distance provided between the beams of the basement and attic floors. To increase the rigidity of the entire structure, which is especially important in cases where a winter frame house is being built, it is planned to install wooden struts.
When building a home, one should not forget about windows and doors. For their installation, additional bars cut between the racks.
Roof
In order to install this final element of the building, you will need to go through several stages. First, you need to assemble the rafters on the ground. For the convenience of work, curly brackets are needed. Then the rafters will need to be installed, starting from one of the edges of the house. They are attached to each other with boards. The process of building a roof will need to be constantly monitored. It will be necessary to ensure that the already mounted rafters are located directly at the edges of the upper trim.
At the next stage of roof equipment, you will need to lay roofing material or other synthetic waterproofing.
Roofing material must be laid on top of this layer. The final step in the construction of the roof is the installation of the ridge. Under it lay the details of the drainage system and the windbreak.
House insulation
What is the next stage of construction after the construction of the frame? With properly installed racks and braces, you can begin to insulate. The walls of the house are sheathed from the outside with planed boards, plywood, OSB boards or asbestos-cement sheets. Next, a windproof membrane is attached to them. This element gets in the way of atmospheric moisture penetration into the house, and also prevents the building from blowing through from the outside. Water vapor, with the membrane installed, freely exits the wall to the outside. Wind protection is not required if the finishing of the frame house is a “wet” facade.
Next, you need to lay out the heater. It is placed inside the frame. What kind of insulation can be used? For a frame house, foam plastic or ecowool, basalt fiber or glass wool, as well as sprayed polyurethane foam are currently used. It is especially important to pay attention to the quality of laying these materials when a winter frame house is being built. From the inside, the insulation is covered with a special vapor barrier film-membrane. And only after that, the interior decoration of the frame house can be carried out.
But not only walls must keep warm. The floor in a frame house can also be insulated. Slabs of foam or other material are laid on special slats nailed to the floor beams. Only after that are the finishing boards placed. They will serve as the floor in the house. Further, all the necessary partitions are placed on these boards.
After the insulation for the frame house is laid, all the gaps between it and the beams are filled with mounting foam. At the same time, it is enough to walk with foam only along the edges, without filling the entire depth of the gaps.
If frame houses are being built for permanent residence, then they will need to equip a warm roof. To do this, expanded clay or sawdust can be scattered in the attic. This will not particularly increase financial costs, but will significantly reduce heat loss in the house.
Heating
According to the reviews of the owners, houses built using frame technology have remarkable energy-saving qualities. That is why any heating system can be installed in them, up to the installation of a traditional Russian stove.
On the modern market of thermal equipment, there are many technical solutions that allow heating a frame house with an independent device of such a system. So, solar collectors and heat pumps, infrared heaters, etc. will help create comfort in the premises.
The most commonly used combined heating scheme, in which:
The energy source is electricity, solar energy and solid fuel (usually wood).
- An electric boiler is installed in the boiler room, which operates at night, when the tariff is most beneficial for residents. In the evening, the owners of a frame house may well warm up from a firewood-fired fireplace equipped with a water jacket. As for free solar energy, in cloudless weather it will be accumulated by solar panels installed on the roof.
- The floors in the house are heated from the internal water heating system.
Such heating of a frame house is used, as a rule, in cases where it is not possible to use liquefied or natural gas. It is easy to make a combined system with your own hands and, if necessary, install different boiler options.
Advantages and disadvantages of frame houses
The most significant plus of such housing is the small cash costs for construction. That is why recently frame houses have become so widespread in Russia.
In addition to the cheapness of the foundation, the owners also save on laying it, and besides, it never shrinks. The fact is that structures made using this technology are very light. In this regard, they give a minimum vertical load.
What other advantages do frame houses have? The feedback from the owners suggests that such housing can always be built both according to your own plan and according to the one offered by specialists.
Self-construction of such a dwelling takes about six months. It also appeals to those who dream of moving into their own home as soon as possible.
What else is attractive frame houses? Feedback from the owners suggests that their construction can be carried out at any time of the year. In addition, buildings perfectly store heat in winter.
The advantage of frame houses is their high strength. Thanks to this, such structures can withstand various bad weather well.
What are the disadvantages of frame houses? They are enclosed in their:
Tightness, which necessitates the installation of a ventilation system;
- high fire hazard, which will require additional costs for the purchase of special means and coatings from fire.
The disadvantages of frame houses are also in the fact that these structures are best erected as one-story ones. Arrangement of the second floor becomes the main reason for the loss of project efficiency.
Another disadvantage of such housing, which its owners point out, is low soundproofing qualities. This must be taken into account during the construction process. Special soundproofing materials will help to correct the deficiency.