Projects of two-story houses made of timber: features of the main structural elements

Today, projects of two-story wooden houses made of timber are in quite significant demand. On the one hand, the design of such buildings saves space on the site, and on the other hand, timber, as an environmentally friendly material with good performance properties, provides a comfortable microclimate in residential premises.

Below we will consider the characteristics of such projects, analyze the features of the main components and elements, and briefly summarize the main pros and cons.

Analysis of typical projects

Building layout

An analysis of typical projects of two-story houses made of wooden beams should begin with a consideration of the most common layouts. Of course, it should be noted that, first of all, the layout of the building depends on its area, and the project of a two-story house from a 10x10 bar.

And yet, if we study the most popular design schemes, then a certain general pattern can be traced:

• The first floor of the building is occupied, as a rule, by a living room and a kitchen with a bathroom.
• In houses of a larger area, a dressing room or a rest room can also be located here.
• As a rule, the entrance hall and corridor have a small area, and are often connected to the living room not through a door, but through a wide arched opening.
• The second floor is mostly occupied by bedrooms. Also, in large-area houses (if we take, for example, the project of a two-story house made of 8x10 timber), a small living room, an office, a terrace, etc. can be located on the top floor.
• An almost obligatory element of planning is a loggia.

Note!
Often, portal or sliding glazing is used on the loggias, which allows you to get a large open space in the summer, and provides quite effective thermal insulation in the winter.

Of course, all of the above applies exclusively to typical developments. If you do it yourself, then you can plan any configuration of rooms, up to a single studio space.

And yet, when planning, it should be remembered that wooden buildings have a slightly lower bearing capacity compared to brick and concrete ones, and therefore it is not worth overloading the second floor.

Materials used

After studying the possible layout, it is necessary to find out what material the supporting structures will be built from.

The thing is that projects of two-story log houses may involve the use of different blanks, and the design of the walls, the type of finish, and the cost of the project depend on this:

• The cheapest material is an even massive beam. It is cut from a single log, and therefore contains a significant amount of bound moisture. The use of an even beam of natural moisture leads to the fact that the log house of the building must stand for about a year before finishing until it shrinks completely.
• In addition, when an even beam shrinks, ventilated cracks form in the walls, which need to be caulked and covered with trim.
• The profiled beam is distinguished by the presence of special locks - protrusions and depressions on the planes. The use of profiled blanks facilitates the assembly of walls (this can even be done with your own hands), and during shrinkage, the likelihood of the formation of blown gaps is minimal.

• If you want to minimize the time from building the “box” to finishing, you should use blanks glued from pre-dried boards. They practically do not deform when dried, and therefore the sheathing can be started very soon.

Based on these considerations, many construction companies make a choice in favor of glued profiled raw materials. If you are not satisfied with the price of such a project, then you can purchase cheaper material. But then, of course, you will have to wait until the log house shrinks, and the cladding will “eat up” part of the budget.

Foundation of the house

After choosing the material, you should pay attention to the bases that the designers propose to lay under the timber houses.

Among the most common options are:

• Columnar foundation - erected under the buildings of a small area. It is a concrete element vertically buried in the ground, which is located under the bearing walls and partitions of buildings.
• Tape construction is one of the most popular in private construction. The concrete strip, placed around the perimeter of the house and under the load-bearing partitions, has sufficient strength to fully cope with the load from the walls of wooden beams.

Note!
As a rule, strip foundations are made shallow, but on difficult soils and during the construction of large-sized buildings (and two-story houses of a large area belong to them in full), the depth of the foundation can reach 1.5 m.

• Pile-screw foundations began to be used relatively recently. Under the supporting structures of the house, metal pipes are placed buried in the soil, filled with concrete for strength. The pile foundation can be erected very quickly, while its cost is quite democratic.

Regardless of the type of foundation for the installation of walls and partitions, waterproofing is laid on the foundation grillage. A thick lining beam, treated with moisture-proof impregnation, is mounted on top of the waterproofing.

Wall design features

Most companies specializing in the construction of wooden houses initially offer "under the roof" options, i.e. without finishing. At the same time, the design of the walls of the house can be very different, and this depends on the specific object.

So, for example, a typical project of a two-story house made of 8x8 m timber has the following characteristics:

• The walls are built from profiled timber 100x150 mm. If necessary, it is possible to replace blanks with materials 150x200 or 200x200 mm, but this seriously increases the cost of the entire structure.
• The cheapest option is to connect with metal dowels. The use of wooden connecting elements is preferable both in terms of shrinkage and thermal insulation, but their installation is more labor intensive.
• The instruction provides for the obligatory laying of jute between the crowns, however, in order to save money, some leave the sealing tape only in the corner joints.
• Cutting corners in most cases is carried out "in half a tree". To ensure better thermal insulation of the house, the connection of the bars "into a warm corner" is used, but it is quite difficult to make it. Therefore, companies often offer a "warm corner" as a separate type of work, the cost of which ranges from 500 to 1000 rubles. for one crown.

As for floors and ceilings, they are built using standard technology. Logs 50x150 mm are taken as the basis, and the sheathing is made of high-quality boards.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of timber houses

The advantages of such houses are quite widely known, so here we will focus only on the main points:

• Firstly, wood is a natural material, and therefore a house made of wooden beams will be absolutely safe from an environmental point of view.

• The layout and layout of the two-story building allows you to accommodate a fairly large family.
• The thermal insulation characteristics of the building are also very high. Subject to the technology of assembling the log house and sealing the interventional joints, the walls turn out to be very warm. At the same time, their thickness remains quite small.
• The manufacturability of the installation of timber is another plus, obvious to those who assemble the log house on their own. With a minimum skill, you can quickly build the main supporting structures, which is why they are popular with self-taught masters.
• The exterior of the building is also very attractive. The texture of natural wood does not require mandatory painting, and even without finishing, the walls look beautiful both from the outside and from the inside.

Disadvantages of timber buildings

There are also disadvantages of two-story houses made of timber:

• Firstly, a wooden frame, especially built from a material of natural moisture, must stand for complete shrinkage. It will take from one and a half to two years from the start of work to the completion of finishing, which may be unacceptable in this situation.
• The use of an even beam for the construction leads to the formation of cracks that require sealing and mandatory finishing.
• Wooden walls must be periodically treated with protective compounds that prevent them from rotting. It is also worth taking care to protect the tree from ultraviolet radiation, because under the bright sun the wood darkens, and the house can quickly lose its attractiveness.
  
• The cost of the entire project cannot be called low. Even if you buy cheap material, some of the money will have to be spent on finishing, so it is not known whether it will be possible to save money. In addition, payment for the work of craftsmen will be a significant expense item, since it is very difficult to build a two-story building on your own.

Conclusion