The technology of building houses from a bar

A full-fledged log house made of solid wood has always been not only considered a symbol of prosperity and good taste, but also demonstrated the owner’s desire to take care of the well-being and health of his household. The construction of a wooden house from a bar can be considered the most justified from the point of view of ecology, maintaining a healthy indoor atmosphere and providing good thermal insulation. The wide use of lumber materials has always been hindered by the high price of lumber and the rather complicated technology for building a wooden house.

Features of the construction of premises and buildings from timber

When using the technology of building wooden houses from timber, it must be taken into account that wood has always been a capricious material that requires careful observance of all technological operations:

• The properties of a wooden beam depend on the moisture content of the wood, therefore, during the construction process, it is necessary to make allowances for possible shrinkage and deformation of the beams;
• The technology for the construction of wooden houses and buildings provides for a large number of manual operations for sawing, cutting grooves and joints, so the quality of construction depends on the carpentry skills of the builders;
• The construction of any wooden buildings from a simple profiled beam is carried out in two stages, initially the building box, frame and roof are assembled, and only after six months or a year they begin finishing operations.

Important! After laying the walls, the house made of timber material gradually gains moisture, because of this, the wood becomes softer and more pliable, which invariably leads to the building box settling under its own weight.

Even glued timber grades, the wood of which is impregnated with resins and adhesives, can change their rigidity, which leads to the formation of cracks and divergence of joints.

The main points of the construction technology of wooden log houses

In addition to being highly sensitive to the conditions and method of storage, wood also has such an unpleasant drawback as different strength and rigidity of the wooden material in different directions of applying force to the timber. Therefore, during the construction of a building, in order to obtain maximum adhesion strength of individual beams by side surfaces, special methods of joining timber are used:

To seal the joints at the joints, especially if the construction is carried out from an ordinary beam, linen fiber tow must be used; grated dry moss was laid in the old days. Many builders consider moss to be more resistant to moisture and decay and are often used in the construction of wooden baths, summer cottages or country cottages from timber.

Important! Immediately after the purchase of the material and at least two weeks before the start of construction, the timber must be treated with a high-quality antiseptic and flame retardant in an organic solvent.

How houses are built from timber

A simple construction technology and a relatively low weight of the material make it possible to assemble wooden buildings of almost any complexity, provided that the project of a log house is preliminarily calculated and worked out in detail with the layout of all the key elements of a wooden building.

The process of building the main box of the house consists of the following steps:

• Foundation laying;
• Assembly of walls, inter-wall bulkheads and ceilings;
• Assembling the roof truss structure, arranging the roof and sealing the gables;
• Finishing operations.

The construction technology does not require the use of heavy handling equipment. Moreover, a small wooden house can be built almost alone, but it is better to work with a team of two or three people, especially since the installation of a roof truss frame, 4x5 m in size, cannot be mastered alone.

How to make a foundation when building a timber box

It is generally accepted that the wooden structure of the box of a building made of timber has high rigidity, so it can be installed on almost any known type of foundation. In practice, a newly built structure, until the completion of the settlement and the final strengthening of the walls, has only 50% rigidity. After the construction is completed, there are considerable cracks and gaps in the joints and joints, clogged with tow or moss. As the required moisture is gained, the timber of the timber swells and seizes into a hard wooden box.

The most difficult time for a “fresh” log house is winter with severe frosts. At this time, the wooden material of the walls dries out and partially loses its rigidity at the joints. If the construction of a house from a bar was carried out on insufficiently deeply twisted piles with a weak lower crown or an insufficiently rigid grillage, there is a danger of opening the crowns of the walls with the formation of cracks under the pressure of heaving soils.

Most often, a pile or pile-grillage foundation is used for the construction of a wooden building, less often for small frame houses, a tape, shallow version of the foundation can be used. Lumber beams, like any wooden structural element, are especially sensitive to moisture and dampness, so the best choice would be to use pile-grillage foundation types. In addition, proper arrangement of ventilation and ventilation of the basement parts of the building will provide good protection of the timber and a long service life.

Timber wall laying

After arranging the waterproofing, the first crown row of beams is laid on the grillage or foundation tape. During the construction of the foundation tape, anchor bolts are embedded in the concrete surface with a step of 60-70 cm, with the help of which the first row of the timber is attached.

When laying out the first crown, you will need to make every effort to accurately level the concrete base under the timber along the horizon. If it was not possible to make a horizon, you will need to trim the surface of the timber, otherwise the next rows of wooden beams will lie unevenly, and the walls will turn out to be crooked. The trimming procedure sometimes has to be used, especially if the beams themselves have small deviations. All cuts and washed down planes must be treated with antiseptics and preservatives. At the next stage, with a step of 40-50 cm, logs are laid under the future floor.

Usually, before starting construction, the wooden material is sorted and discarded in order to get rid of the most defective and crooked timber. Rejected parts go to short inserts and tie-ins.

The connection and docking of the beam is performed in the classical way, the corners and side joints are connected “half-tree” with the obligatory dressing with a solid beam of the next row, as in the photo.

In the corners and at the tie-in points of the ceiling beams, the log and the internal bulkheads, a dowel must be hammered, connecting at least three rows of beams. In this case, you can use not only metal, but also a two-wedge version made of the same wood as the material of the walls.

Sometimes corner joints are made in the form of a dovetail interlock or ligation with a T-joint cut.

In the course of laying the timber on the walls, cross beams are simultaneously cut, on which internal partitions and ceilings will be mounted. But until the construction and erection of the wooden box of the building is completed, partitions cannot be installed. Even temporary work platforms for moving along the walls are reduced to two or three boards.

During the construction of the walls, the frame and vertical panels of the outer parts, the porch, the hallway, and outbuildings are assembled. They are also left uncovered.

Only after the ceiling beams are laid and the truss system with the crate is installed, you can proceed to flooring, installing partitions and bulkheads.

Finishing and finishing operations

If the construction of a wooden house from a bar is made of dry or high-quality glued material, the roof can be mounted in six months. Otherwise, put a draft version. Roof installation usually involves the use of a sliding joint at the fulcrum of the rafter on the top row of timber used as a mauerlat. On the ridge run, pairs of rafters are connected using a steel lining and bolts. Thus, in the process of settling and settling the walls, the truss beams have the ability to change the slope, thereby compensating for the formation of a gap between the roof and the upper beam. Immediately after the assembly of the rafters, the crate is stuffed, vapor barrier and waterproofing material are laid.

The gables of the roof are temporarily sewn up with a vertical clapboard and covered with plastic wrap until the end of the shrinkage processes. Finishing operations are carried out after a year of building standing. Finishing comes down to re-treatment with an antiseptic, chasing cracks, installing bulkheads and door shells, windows. The inner surfaces of wooden walls after thermal insulation are most often sheathed with drywall.

Conclusion

The construction of a log house requires at least skills in working with wood and a good knowledge of the ways and methods of joining the beam. Having built a bathhouse or a small shed with your own hands, you can proceed to the construction of a summer house, and only after the successful construction of a wooden country house is it worth trying to work in a team of professional carpenters in order to fully master the intricacies of building a house from a bar.