Drawing of half-timbered house structures. Attractive half-timbered houses

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What is “half-timbered timber” and how to build using this technology and in this style

Rice. 1. The wooden frame of a half-timbered house consists of posts, beams, crossbars, struts, struts, upper and lower frames.

After erecting the frame of the house, the next stage is to fill the walls with fascine panels (in Europe, fascines are woven or knitted from willow twigs, and in East Asia- bamboo), coated with clay, adobe raw brick or, as well as natural stone.

Brick inserts are attached to the frame on pins inserted at one end into beams or posts. Another the old way fastening brick inserts to the frame consists of using triangular slats, which are attached along the perimeter of the opening to the internal surfaces of the frame. At the same time, a triangular groove is cut out in the outer bricks for these slats.

Rice. 2. The strength and rigidity of the frame is given by the use various types tenon joints and notches secured with wooden dowels to increase strength.

In the old days, the cracks that inevitably formed between the inserts and the frame parts of the house were caulked with wool mixed with lime, and then plastered with lime mortar.

IN modern conditions sealing cracks is carried out in approximately the same way, but more technologically advanced industrially produced sealing and finishing materials are used.

In addition, to transform a half-timbered building into a house that meets modern requirements For comfortable living, the walls must be insulated and additional sound insulation must be provided.

However, additional heat and sound insulation is provided, usually with inside walls, trying not to violate the traditional, historically established architectural style of the half-timbered building.

According to established tradition wooden beams the frame is painted dark red, brown or even black. For plaster wooden frame Also, traditionally, they are outlined with a “thick” black line so that the frame parts appear thicker, more massive and durable. Moreover, this technique is used both in Germany and in China. Very often, plastered panels are decorated with various floral ornaments, coats of arms, inscriptions or other images. If the filling is brick, then various geometrically correct, repeating patterns are laid out of brick.

Most often, the source material for the main element of the half-timbered structure - the filling - is clay, since it is not in short supply, is distributed almost everywhere and can be extracted without causing any damage to the environment. natural environment. Clay is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that is pulverized when dry and plastic when wet. The diameter of its particles does not exceed 0.005 mm, but subject to traditional technology During the construction of half-timbered buildings, dust is not generated during their subsequent operation.

Another common filling material is ceramic brick. The main raw material for its production is the clay described above, and therefore at the operational stage the brick is safe for human health. However, when assessing the degree of influence ceramic materials on environment High energy consumption and industrial emissions during their production must be taken into account.

Occasionally, natural stone is used as filling. In most cases, natural stone is human-friendly, and in its natural state it already has the necessary construction properties, the main one of which is durability. In half-timbered construction, natural stone is used without any additional processing, so there is no waste, and when using local stone materials, the environmental burden associated with its extraction and transportation is reduced.

The roof of half-timbered houses is usually made from traditional materials: tiles, reeds and plates of natural or industrially produced slate. In humid climatic conditions, they also cover the walls of buildings. Currently, slate has ceased to be made using asbestos, replacing it with other fibrous materials that are safe for human health.

However, when choosing modern building materials and technologies, a certain amount of caution and caution should be exercised, since not all of them are compatible with the historically established and unique architectural style of half-timbered buildings.

So, for external window sills and external floor slats, you should not use wood coniferous species. Even if it is processed by modern protective equipment it has a limited service life.

For these purposes, it is better to use traditional oak, although it is more difficult to process and costs much more.

Don't get carried away either wide openings For entrance doors and entrance gates, since heavy hinged doors will inevitably lead to deformation of the wooden posts and frame beams over time. The distance between adjacent wooden posts should not exceed 120 cm, or, if this distance still needs to be increased, steel structures should be used.

Fig.3. Project of a modern house in half-timbered style with all the elements of this traditional architecture and technology.

You should also be careful when using modern insulating and sealing materials when filling a half-timbered frame. The fact is that historically the walls of half-timbered houses always had gaps. This made it possible for many decades to avoid rotting of wooden frame parts due to effective natural ventilation. When using modern sealing materials, it is necessary to provide special ventilation gaps and channels, which is not always possible to do without disturbing the traditional style of a half-timbered house.

Among the details that do not fit well with traditional trends in half-timbered architecture, we can highlight metal doors with a large glazing area, especially if they have many rounded decorative elements. Modern ones are completely unsuitable for a half-timbered house plastic windows with wide openings, devoid of small binding parts. Such windows can completely destroy the architectural style and character of the building. A similar effect is achieved when window openings are placed “stepwise” in relation to adjacent horizontal beams or trim beams. We should not forget that intersecting beams and posts should divide the wall space into even rectangles correct form. Skewed rectangles and squares are completely out of place on the facade of a house.

In contrast to the structural elements of a house, when choosing the method of finishing it, decorative details and color shades, the possibilities are much wider. The frame and its filling can be either contrasting colors, or painted in two close shades of the same color, and even in the same color.

According to the old German tradition, upon completion of construction work, the half-timbered house is decorated with branches of deciduous trees and a housewarming party is held.

Half-timbered timber is not only a construction technology, but also an architectural style

Despite its centuries-old history and more than respectable age, half-timbered wood remains popular in modern housing construction.

A half-timbered structure is a frame structure made of wooden beams, consisting of a system of posts, beams, crossbars, braces and strapping. It is the presence of braces, as well as a wide variety of connections, secured with wooden dowels and giving rigidity to the frame, that distinguishes half-timbered timber from other types of frame house construction. Another difference is that the frame elements are not hidden under the cladding, but protrude outward from the flat surface of the walls, visually dividing the walls into geometric sections and giving the building textural clarity and expressiveness. The space between the wooden beams of the frame is filled with a variety of building materials, and the walls themselves are covered with plaster.

On a note
In the old days, almost any available material was used as wall filler in half-timbered houses: clay, wood chips, adobe (a mixture of clay with reeds or straw), broken stone and even construction garbage. Rich townspeople filled the inter-frame space with carved wooden panels.

So that it doesn't drip from above

Very often, half-timbered structures use floor projections: the upper floors hang over the lower ones, forming a kind of stepped ledge. You might think that the goal is to increase the area of each subsequent floor. This is partly true. But this is only a consequence, and the main thing was something else. In this ingenious way, medieval architects protected unburnt adobe walls with a wooden frame from destructive moisture, which primarily affected the facades of buildings with high gables and a large number of windows.

Modern version

Today for the frame instead ordinary timber Most often, glued is used, which is more durable and minimally susceptible to deformation and cracking. Glulam beams and beams, manufactured in a factory, can have different sections and non-standard lengths (up to 18 m), which allows you to realize any architectural ideas. In addition to laminated veneer lumber, modern half-timbered houses can use a load-bearing frame made of a metal thermoprofile. You can put modern fiber insulation into a half-timbered frame, although due to the presence of braces this procedure becomes noticeably more complicated, because in no case should there be empty “pockets” left in the thickness of the insulation.

Tradition and innovation

More expensive, but very effective option“insulation” – energy-saving double-glazed windows. The facades can be almost 100% glazed, while a unique spirit is created in the house, which could be called a kingdom of space and light. Application large quantity glass does not affect the strength of the building in any way. Custom-made insulating glass units with low-emissivity glass (i-glass, K-glass) allow you to achieve low level heat loss, corresponding to modern standards for heat retention of residential buildings. Which, in combination with modern heating systems, provides warmth and comfort with very modest energy consumption. Well, to isolate yourself from indiscreet gazes, you just need to close the curtains.

Half-timbered buildings in a “simplified” way

There is a simplified option - exterior and interior decoration of the house in the half-timbered style. It consists of gluing wooden decorative elements onto plastered walls to imitate posts, beams and braces of a half-timbered frame. These wooden parts are usually painted in a dark contrasting color. This solution applies to houses built in various styles from different materials. Under the elegant half-timbered “skin” any structural “skeleton” can be hidden: a frame, unplaned timber, brick or foam blocks.

Do-it-yourself half-timbered frame house - an example of design and construction

The reputation of frame-type houses, including half-timbered ones, in our country has been undermined.

Maybe not hopeless, but quite serious. There are many reasons for this. After all, we all dreamed of the cheapest and most affordable houses. And when, at the end of the last century, relatively inexpensive and energy-efficient frame structures(for some reason they immediately began to be called Canadian, although they often had nothing to do with Canada), everyone was happy.

Here it is! It happened! Simple and warm house! But instead of adopting Western experience in the construction and operation of such houses and creatively reworking it in order to adapt to Russian conditions, customers and builders rushed to save on everything.

The customer’s ideology, however, is quite clear: pay less, but get more. As a result, “Canadian” houses first lost the system air heating and cooling. Then forced supply and exhaust ventilation systems also sank into oblivion.

Builders also contributed both to the “saving” of building materials and to simplifying structures, which was often fraught with very serious consequences. unpleasant consequences. “United efforts” in a matter of years have led to the fact that most customers still do not want to hear about frame houses.

As a result, builders who know how to build good frame structures have been trying for 15 years to restore their reputation and prove that a frame house was, is and, perhaps, will remain for a long time the most inexpensive, technologically advanced, energy efficient and economical type of building to operate.

They have to prove that they are right in practice to almost every customer by demonstrating the completed objects. And advanced builders are even developing new technologies for constructing frames that are beneficial... (don't be surprised!) for the customer.

However, unfortunately, mistrust is deeply rooted somewhere, and this is probably why the volume of frame construction is growing extremely slowly. But, fortunately, they are still growing.

How to restore prestige to the frame?

It was this question that the designers and builders of the Zaoksky Open Spaces and Landscapes company thought about back in 2007. They developed a fairly simple and understandable modular system design and construction of half-timbered houses, the essence of which boils down to the following. The frame of the house is assembled from glued posts and beams with a section of 200 x 180 mm.

In this case, the racks are mounted with a strictly defined pitch - approximately 2.5 m (from which it follows that the system is modular), which corresponds to twice the width of the plasterboard sheets, DSP and OSB boards used for cladding the frame, and, therefore, reduces minimize the amount of waste.

In addition, such a powerful frame, which remains visible from the outside and inside, as is customary in half-timbering, ensures strength and reliability assembled structure. It is curious that at the same time it lacks all kinds of struts and similar elements characteristic of classic half-timbering.

Instead, the rigidity of the structure is given by sheets of OSB or DSP, mounted side by side in the openings of the frame (the technology of filling the openings is know-how).

To connect the wooden frame elements together, original unified units were developed (about ten of them in total), which is convenient for designers - now they immediately create not only a house project, but also a special file that allows them to control an automated line that produces the necessary racks and beams.

The new system is no less convenient for builders. After all, ready-made parts with connecting cups and spikes and even with grooves for installing metal parts arrive at the construction site connecting elements(they are also used in the design).

In this case, nothing needs to be customized - select the desired fragment from the delivered packs (assembly is carried out in a strictly defined order, which cannot be violated), mount it in place and fix the connection specified in the accompanying documentation metal part(jam screws, metal perforated elements, etc. are used - the need to use each of them is determined by the designer).

If some part does not fit, the assembler (it would be more correct to call him that way), without trying to fit something on his own, as is usually customary at a construction site, stops and calls the foreman.

However, the advantages new system this does not stop there. Because the created structure is not subject to shrinkage, it is permissible to install double-glazed windows in it big size directly into the openings formed by the frame, thus saving on their expensive frame framing. But that's not all.

The created structure can be insulated to the degree of energy efficiency required by the customer. The client wants to build a passive house - no problem.

Timber-timbered house on a slope

About the construction of a half-timbered house by the company “Zaokskie Prostoriya i Landscapes” with total area 302 m 2 own technology It is described in sufficient detail in the photo report from the construction site. We will add only some comments.

The development site is located near the Polenovo museum-reserve. The terrain there is quite hilly; the height difference from one end of the site purchased by the customers to the other was about 6 m.

The height difference in the “building spot” is 1.5 m, which forced the builders to make a stepped pile-grillage foundation and basement floor. The steps that appeared inside the house helped not only to conditionally, but actually to divide the internal space of the first floor into residential and public areas with ceilings different heights. The living quarters of the second floor are located on the same level.

Let's add a few words about saving money... for the customer.

If you build a similar house using modern, but, let’s say, standard half-timbered technology, then due to the increase in material consumption and lengthening the construction time, it will cost about 500 thousand rubles. expensive. And if wide window openings are filled with double-glazed windows inserted into the frame, say from warm aluminum, then the cost of construction will increase by about 800 thousand rubles. And, as it seems to us, the customer, moving to new house, will be happy to spend the money saved, for example, on furniture.

Half-timbered house - design and construction: photo

Half-timbering is a technology for building houses in which the capital load of the building is carried by vertical supports - racks made of timber in the walls of the building. Unlike traditional frame walls, the space between the supports is occupied by dense, heavy material - brick, wood, concrete, adobe, clay. At the same time, the load-bearing racks made of timber are not masked in the wall, but remain visible, creating a characteristic appearance of the structure, a special “European” flavor.

Half-timbered buildings have proven their durability. The first peak of their popularity occurred in the Middle Ages. Built several centuries ago, these buildings still perform their functions. Today technology is experiencing its peak in fashion for the second time. Wide range of possibilities design and reliability of houses make them popular among customers of frame construction.

History of origin

The history of half-timbered buildings began in the 11th century. Half-timbered timber became widespread in the 14th and 15th centuries in the northern coastal regions, where timber was available and shipbuilding was developed. The ability to carpenter and build ships allowed craftsmen to easily build strong wooden frames for future buildings.

German style.

In the 15th century, half-timbered buildings spread throughout Europe - northern countries, Holland, England, France, Switzerland. The reasons for its popularization were the following factors:

The buildings made it possible to save expensive wood and use it only for the construction of the frame, and not the entire wall mass.
The level of carpentry skill has increased, which ensured the reliability of the frames and the strength of future walls.

The peak of popularity of the technology falls on the period from the 15th to the 18th century. Hundreds of thousands of buildings were built in Europe during this period. Half-timbered houses in Germany they received the name Fachwerk, which translated into Russian means “wall of cells” (Fach is a section, cell, panel, “Werk” is a structure).

Modern style.

In England, buildings with a wooden frame were called "half-timber", and in France the technology was called "colombage". In one of the modern versions, half-timbering received another name - Post & Beam or post and beam technology. Its main feature is the use of hand-cut logs.

On a note

According to psychologists, the open demonstration of a load-bearing frame in the walls instills a sense of confidence in a person.

Half-timbered buildings with a frame visible from the outside have become a hallmark of northern Europe. Today the technology is experiencing a second wave of popularity. With some modifications it extends beyond Western Europe, to Canada, America and Russia.

Half-timbering and frame technology

At its core, a half-timbered house is a frame structure with a wooden frame made of load-bearing posts and floor beams that support the main load of the walls and roof. Unlike traditional modern frame houses, the gaps between the beams are filled not with synthetic insulation, but wall material- brick, stone, concrete, clay, which can be found at the link. The filling material of the walls, “half-timbered” and “frame,” determines the differences in construction technology and in the characteristics of finished buildings.

Comparison factors.	Half-timbered building	Frame.
Service life of the building.	Long service life - several hundred years. This is confirmed by hundreds of houses built in the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe.	- several decades.
Energy efficiency.	Average.	High.
Construction speed.	Average.	Minimum time - the building can be erected in a few months.
Lightness of walls and foundation costs.	The walls are heavy; a strong, deep foundation or columnar foundation is required.	The walls are light; you can get by with a small, shallow foundation.
Construction cost.	The price of a half-timbered house is minimal; the walls are based on the cheapest building material - clay.	Medium - requires the purchase of good insulation and high-quality wall cladding.
Environmental friendliness.	High - built from natural materials.	Low - built from artificial insulation.
Fire safety.	The walls are 80% fire-resistant and smoke-free. Only wooden supports and roofing can burn out.	All materials are flammable and emit acrid, toxic smoke during combustion.
Difficulty in self-construction.	Half-timbering is simpler frame technology, especially if you use ready-made house kits for half-timbered houses.	More difficult to implement, but also available as a ready-made frame house kit.
Possibility of wall restoration.	Without removing the roof and disassembling the frame, the wall material can be replaced with another, new one.
Interior design.	Any layout is possible because interior walls do not bear capital loads. You can arrange large spacious rooms.

Comparative characteristics of half-timbered and frame buildings clearly shows the main differences between the two technologies. The technology of half-timbered houses is a structure made from natural materials, environmentally friendly and durable. Frame construction is a new prefabricated structure made partly from synthetic materials. Moreover, their construction is equally accessible. It is possible to build a half-timbered house with your own hands, just like from a house kit.

Half-timbered building in the forest.

IN modern technologies half-timbered houses are acquiring more and more features of traditional frame buildings. The supports are often masked with panels; for better energy efficiency, the walls themselves are sheathed with insulation or replaced with a layer of heat insulation. Which leads to a mixture of styles, the creation of a new construction option using half-timbered features and frame house simultaneously. This is how it works.

Construction of half-timbered houses

The design features of half-timbered houses determine their differences from frame buildings. Here are the projects and prices for half-timbered houses, what elements and features are their characteristics:

Each subsequent floor protrudes above the previous one. This is due to the need to protect the wooden beams of the lower floors from getting wet. Floor projections are provided only on the front side. The side walls are blank and smooth. This is due to the history of construction. The density of buildings in the Middle Ages was so high that only the facades of buildings remained open. The ends were tightly adjacent to each other, without passages and the possibility of constructing protruding floors or hanging structures.
Visible beams in the walls of the building.
Inexpensive available wall filler - clay, lightweight concrete.

On a note

Today outdoor frame elements are often decorative. They are traditionally used in construction, but do not always carry a semantic load; more often they are a sign of style. Such a structure turns into a traditional frame building.

Sometimes style elements are used as external design for brick walls. Beams are attached on top of the brick, which imitate the frame of the building. At first glance, houses with such decor differ little from how half-timbered houses look in the photo. They have the same appearance, but a different construction technology.

Projects and prices

Projects of half-timbered houses are very diverse interior design. Since walls and partitions do not carry load-bearing loads, their location is subject to design requirements, and not technological necessity.

Frame of the building.

Designing half-timbered houses often involves large spacious rooms and huge windows. Glazing often takes most external walls. The use of laminated veneer lumber allows you to reduce the size of its cross-section without reducing strength. Thanks to the small massiveness of the load-bearing elements and the sufficient glazing area of the half-timbered houses, the walls became panoramic. Such buildings give rise to a unique decor in which the outdoor garden forms part of the interior design of the house.

The turnkey price of a half-timbered house does not exceed the cost of frame construction. Therefore, elite panoramic walls have become available to the majority. Thanks to the technology of half-timbered houses, exclusive buildings became the property of the middle class. A real design that transforms half-timbered houses, the video allows you to see all the intricacies of construction.

Technology of half-timbered houses

Today, the technology of constructing half-timbered houses is experiencing a second peak in popularity. Based on this technology, one-, two- and three-story houses are built. At the same time, the technology itself is used in a modified and improved form.

Instead of solid wooden logs, glued and profiled timber is used. They are additionally impregnated with antiseptics and fire retardants to prevent rotting and increase resistance to fire.

Panoramic glazing Houses.

The gaps between the vertical supports are filled with insulation, and multi-chamber double-glazed windows are installed. Energy-efficient glazing of half-timbered houses, along with insulation, ensures their heat capacity and reduces energy costs during the heating season.

To ensure that the outside walls of the house are not completely transparent, surface coating of glass is used - lamination. From the inside and outside, such a house looks like a spacious, fairy-tale palace.

Step-by-step technology of half-timbered houses

Foundation: USHP + its surface waterproofing.
Frame:, vertical columns, top harness, rafters. A one-story half-timbered house - the rafters are placed on top of the frame of the first floor. In two- or three-story construction, the second floor frame is constructed, the supports are attached, and then the second upper frame, rafters. The roof overhang is designed to be quite large - up to 1.5 m. This protects the walls and wooden frame from getting wet.
Roof: traditional choice for frame houses, light metal profiled sheets, flexible roofing.
Filling cells: double-glazed windows, brick, wood concrete blocks (lightweight concrete with wood shavings, wood chips), foam concrete, clay concrete, multi-layer cake with insulation and wall cladding.

Frame features

The frame of a modern half-timbered house is not only a load-bearing structure, but also decorative element. It divides the wall into segments and gives the appearance of the building clarity and expressiveness.

Two-story frame house.

The frame of a half-timbered house consists of vertical, horizontal, and inclined elements. Vertical supports withstand basic bearing loads. Horizontal - distribute the pressure of vertical load-bearing elements, making it uniform over the entire area of the walls of the house. Inclined - create additional strength, strengthen the structure, make it stable for lateral loads.

The frame elements are connected to each other using metal pins. One of the options for half-timbered construction uses studs along with the excavation of the timber at the joints - the so-called groove.

This system was called Herrenbald. It differs from the traditional frame in the absence of jibs. The stability of the frame is ensured by precise selection of wood at the joints, as a result of which adjacent elements fit tightly together and are additionally secured with through metal pins.

Construction with flat roof.

The technology of half-timbered houses does not require time for shrinkage. However, we must make allowances for mentality. If the timber is solid and dry, shrinkage is not needed. It is also not needed for laminated timber. If the timber is solid and fresh, raw, it is necessary to firmly fasten the frame (with metal pins, nails, with grooves at the joints) and condition it for at least several months. Turnkey half-timbered houses can be completed when the walls of the frame have been insulated and finishing work remains.

The frame is laid on an insulated foundation. The ideal combination is an insulated Swedish plate or USHP, which simultaneously provides strength, rigidity and insulation of heat loss to the base of the house.

Interior of half-timbered houses

The construction of half-timbered houses ends with the creation of an interior design that can be anything. Traditional classics, medieval Provence or modern minimalism– any style will fit into a real European home.

Often modern trends are used - minimalism, hi-tech, brick style - not plastered walls. Natural wood has retained its popularity in Russia.

Half-timbered houses are firmly associated in the mind with something fabulous and European. Surprisingly, the creation of these buildings, in principle, does not require significant effort, and installing them on a suburban area is quite feasible. To do this, you certainly need to know construction technologies and use high-quality materials. When you look at houses in the half-timbered style, you want to touch them with your hands and, if not live in them, then live in them for a while in order to appreciate this building as it deserves.

Translated from German, “fachwerk” means “working panel”. This construction technology appeared back in the Middle Ages, when wealthy residents, for whom ancient Roman building construction techniques were completely inaccessible, were forced to rework them to suit their capabilities. The Romans, as you know, made many military campaigns, during which they built frame houses in the conquered territories. For this purpose, wooden log houses were used, which were filled with cement and gravel and thus formed a frame. Later it was filled with brick and stone. A characteristic feature of these buildings was the display of vertical frame posts, struts and horizontal beams on the surface. After the base and walls of the house were whitewashed with lime, the wooden components of the house stood out more and more against their background, creating a unique identity of the home.

In the period from the 14th to the 16th centuries, German, English and other European half-timbered houses were improved, and the technologies for their creation were perfected. As a result, each part of Europe developed its own decorative patterns and motifs for these buildings. They were often very complex.

Modern half-timbered houses (video)

Construction of the foundation and installation of the frame

The construction of a half-timbered house begins with preparing the site. It is very important to test the soil for strength. Half-timbered houses can be built on the basis of any foundation designed to create a wooden house, but in terms of their weight they are quite light and have minimal impact on the soil. Accordingly, if the soil is prone to heaving and there is a lot of water inside it, then the building will be extremely unstable. To do this, the choice of foundation should be approached with all responsibility. In some cases, you can be content with columnar, slab or pile foundation, but sometimes you will need to create a tape version.

Half-timbered houses, since they have a wooden frame, largely depend on high-quality waterproofing. To do this, a layer of waterproofing material is laid on the surface of the foundation and only then the strapping crown is mounted. Its cross-section must be at least 50x200 mm. All beams must be treated with antiseptics before installation to protect the wood from pests. Besides, everything wooden elements coated with fireproof liquid. The binding crown subsequently becomes the basis of the frame, because all its lower parts are attached to it.

Invisible wooden wall elements, which will be hidden under the cladding, create edged boards(45x145 mm). They are also treated with materials to prevent fire and protect against pests.

The rigidity and strength of the frame of a half-timbered house is achieved by creating hidden spikes and “ dovetail" Outwardly, they may look somewhat dubious, but houses built using this technology have been standing in Europe for more than 300 years, which is the best evidence the strength of such fastenings.

After installing the frame, the house requires the creation hipped roof, which is carried out using the standard for this method rafter system. Metal tiles are most often chosen for roofing. In general terms, a half-timbered house is created like any frame house, with the only difference being that the walls are covered.

Dovetail connection

This is an old method of fastening wooden beams between themselves. However, it is still considered the most complex and time-consuming to create. It is best used at a distance between joints of 3 to 4 m. This is enough to ensure that half-timbered houses have good rigidity. As a rule, even in the most critical places load-bearing structure the use of a “dovetail” is completely justified and does not lead to premature repairs.

Distinctive features of the style

Half-timbered houses are always wooden structures. Their basis is vertical racks, horizontal beams and braces (the so-called beams that fix the walls of houses diagonally). The pitch between the racks is traditionally kept at a distance of 3 to 4 m. Fastenings between beams and beams can be visible and invisible. In the first case, a dovetail is used, and in the second, a hidden tenon. To do this, a groove is created on one beam, and a tenon on the adjacent one.

Half-timbered houses (video)

Wall cladding

In the old days, clay and reeds were actively used for insulation and wall covering, but now the need for this has completely disappeared. Most often used for home insulation basalt wool, and for wall cladding they take cement bonded particle boards(DSP), which connect the load-bearing parts of the structure. In addition, you will need a special windproof and vapor barrier material.

The inside of the house is lined with familiar plasterboard boards or glass-magnesium sheets (SML). The latter type of cladding is quite unfamiliar in the post-Soviet expanses, but at the same time it allows high-quality replacement of plasterboard, asbestos-cement boards, gypsum fiber sheets and others similar materials. Its advantages are that it does not burn at all, does not absorb moisture, and withstands shocks well. That is, it is very difficult to break a glass-magnesium sheet.

Exterior wall finishing

The exterior of the house is finished using ordinary putty and white paint. All floor beams must be left untreated. The half-timbered style also requires that all roof overhangs not be hemmed, and that the braces, posts and beams remain visible. The only thing that can be done is to treat them with a special tinted wood impregnation to highlight them against the background of a white wall.

Finishing the façade of a half-timbered structure will require careful selection of plastic windows, which must have Brown color under the tree. Today there are many known color designs for half-timbered houses with various dimensions and plans. Designers offer their clients various options The colors of the bars range from light brown to black. Accordingly, it is quite possible to create a half-timbered house with your own hands using one of them.

Half-timbering, that is, a frame house filled with clay or brick, appeared in the 11th century, but the heyday of this technology occurred in the Renaissance, that is, the 15th century. Despite such a venerable age, this technology makes it possible to build very durable and relatively inexpensive houses, characterized by an unusual appearance. In this article we will tell you how to build a half-timbered house and avoid the most common mistakes.

Two types of half-timbered houses

Today you can find two types of houses in this style:

built using half-timbered technology;
decorated with half-timbered wood.

In the first case, the house not only looks the part, but is also built using a frame method, then filled with some kind of filler. The basis of such a house is a frame made of softwood timber. It is he who has all the advantages that have made houses in this style reliable and popular throughout medieval Europe. There are still houses in this style, whose age reaches 500 years. In the second case, the house can be built from anything, then decoratively decorated in a half-timbered style. Such a house cannot have those positive qualities, which are inherent in original houses, so the only advantage of such finishing is its unusual and stylish appearance.

Materials for a half-timbered house

The best material for the supporting frame is laminated larch timber. He has high strength, resistant to fungus and mold. Instead, you can use laminated pine timber, which has less good characteristics. As a filler, you can use traditional adobe, that is, a mixture of clay and straw, but we recommend making an analogue of SIP panels from two sheets of wood concrete and some kind of insulation. Instead of wood concrete, you can use a thin board, plywood or oriented strand board (OSB). You can use other materials that meet four basic qualities:

high strength;
ease of processing;
low cost;
low thermal conductivity.

When building the walls of such a house, you can also use recycled products, for example, organic cellulose insulation. It is made from waste paper, so the cost is low, and the level of thermal conductivity is only slightly higher than that of mineral wool. Another very successful filler material is granules or crumbs of polyurethane foam or polystyrene foam. These materials are also very inexpensive and have a very low thermal conductivity coefficient. In addition, they do not have to be cut, because this material is poured into the cavity. To better understand the design of such a wall, we recommend reading about houses made of double timber.

Foundation

The choice of foundation depends on the materials from which the walls will be made. For walls made of lightweight materials, piles are best suited screw foundation which we talked about in this article. If the walls are heavy, for example, filled with adobe, then a more powerful foundation will be required. In addition, a house built using half-timbered technology is very sensitive to frost heaving of the soil, so the foundation must be lowered below the freezing depth. Otherwise, frost heaving will first tear the foundation and then destroy the integrity of the walls, covering them with cracks and crevices. The worst thing to tolerate is frost heaving of walls made of heavy materials– brick, adobe and others.

Frame and walls

The basis of the frame is vertical pillars installed at a distance of 50–70 cm from each other. At the level of ceilings and windows, vertical beams are tied with horizontal ones, to which the floors are then attached. It is necessary to connect vertical and horizontal beams in half a tree or in a tenon, fixing them with a wooden dowel. If possible, use a dovetail connection and also secure with a dowel. Braces or inclined beams not only increase the rigidity of the structure, but also give it that unique charm of the houses of old Europe.

The braces must be distributed so that they create a beautiful pattern, so they can be inserted either into small cells or fit into several cells formed by vertical and horizontal beams. The methods for attaching the braces to the beam are the same as for the junction of vertical and horizontal beams. Fixation with a dowel will make the entire structure more durable and reliable. Use as a frame reinforcer metal corners, which are attached to vertical and horizontal corners. If you find the corners of the desired shape, then reinforce the braces with them. While creating the frame, prepare places for installing windows and doors.

IN original houses, built using half-timbered technology, vertical pillars were dug directly into the ground or placed on large stones. However, it is more practical to do the same as when constructing a regular frame house, that is, attach the frame (lower) beam to the foundation or grillage, and then attach it to it vertical bars. This method of fastening is especially preferable in regions with:

high groundwater levels;
frequent and heavy precipitation;
very low winter temperatures;
strong winds;
unstable ground.

Before assembling the frame, treat the entire beam with hydrophobic impregnations and an antiseptic, and also consider a method for attaching the filler. A lattice made of branches or thin slats is well suited for adobe and wood concrete mass. To insert such a lattice, you need to make a groove in each beam along the diameter or width of the branches or slats, then simultaneously assemble the frame and insert the slats into the groove. You can also use a steel mesh with small cells (up to 5x5 cm).

The walls of a half-timbered house must meet three basic requirements:

be slightly thinner than timber;
have sufficient strength;
have low thermal conductivity.

Adobe and arbolite walls are the most correct in terms of style, but they hold heat worse than a sandwich made of insulation and two facing slabs. Therefore, you will have to decide for yourself what is more important to you – reliability or reduced heating costs. Walls made of wood concrete and adobe will need to be caulked after drying, because cracks will appear between them and the timber. In the summer, when the timber dries out as much as possible, these cracks will increase. The same caulking methods apply to houses in the half-timbered style as for conventional log houses. To reduce the amount of shrinkage of the frame, and hence the size of the cracks, it is necessary to use well-dried laminated veneer lumber, treated with reliable hydrophobic preparations. In addition, it is necessary to repeat the treatment of all frame beams with such preparations every 2–3 years.

Windows, doors and ventilation

Modern plastic windows fit harmoniously into the exterior of a half-timbered house. However, they cannot be fixed in the same way as in concrete or brick houses. To install windows and doors, you need to make a frame, which we talked about in the article (Window in wooden house). If you install windows and doors without frames, then under the influence of seasonal shrinkage and swelling of the frame beams, the windows and doors will either jam, or more gaps will appear between them and the frame, which are very difficult to deal with. In addition, it is necessary to consider the ventilation system, because a half-timbered house, unlike a wooden one, cannot independently remove excess moisture outside and discharge it into the atmosphere. Therefore, lack of good ventilation leads to mold and rot.

Floors, ceilings and roof

External and internal finishing

The outside of the half-timbered house is carefully caulked, then the walls are painted light colors, and the frame bars are dark. This creates a unique flavor of ancient half-timbered houses. When painting timber, it is advisable to use vapor-permeable paints; this will reduce the likelihood of rot or mold appearing in the wood. To paint walls, you can use any paint, because neither adobe or crossbow, nor moisture-resistant plywood or OSB are afraid of any paints. The inside of such a house can be finished in any way, for example, covered with plasterboard or clapboard. You can also plaster the entire interior surface of the house or maintain the original appearance of the walls.

Conclusion

Half-timbered houses still retain their popularity and medieval ambience. They are simpler and cheaper to manufacture than a full-fledged house made of timber and are comparable in price to inexpensive frame houses. However, you are unlikely to be able to sell such a house quickly and expensively, because most people prefer traditional brick, concrete or wooden houses, but if you are building it for yourself and your family, then it will serve you for hundreds of years.

Half-timbered houses have become one of the business cards medieval architecture. Features of this architectural style it becomes clear from the word itself - the German Fachwerk, consisting of two semantic parts: Fach, which means part, panel, section, and Werk - structure. Medieval technology turned out to be so successful that half-timbered houses - frame house projects, which appeared in Germany in the 15th century, are again popular centuries later.

Construction of half-timbered houses: technologies tested over centuries

Created in Germany, half-timbered houses, the construction technology of which has undergone virtually no significant changes, appeared as a result of an acute shortage quality wood in medieval Europe. Therefore, a wooden frame was created from wood, and the space between the beams was initially filled with clay, which was replaced by more durable materials: stone and brick. Another undoubted advantage in the Middle Ages was the ability to quickly restore a destroyed or damaged half-timbered house with your own hands. For the constantly warring Europe of that time, this was very important.

The basis of a half-timbered house is a complex wooden frame consisting of horizontal, vertical and diagonal elements, which are main feature half-timbered architectural style. Diagonal elements - braces located between beams and racks, add rigidity and strength to the structure. To create the frame structure, wood was used - spruce, oak, fir, Douglas fir, and the strength of the frame is achieved through accurate calculation of loads and precise connection of all parts.

The vertical arrangement of the beams has fully justified itself - today you can find houses built more than 500 years ago. The reason for such longevity is due to the well-polished vertical beam rainwater flows down quickly, practically without lingering or being absorbed. And this is the fundamental difference between half-timbered houses and traditional log Russian huts, in which the logs were located horizontally and, as a result, absorbed more moisture, which led to a faster gradual destruction of the wood.

Half-timbered houses: revival of popularity

Interest in half-timbered houses was revived in the mid-70s of the last century, primarily due to the emergence of new, technologically advanced materials. Modern design trends have made it possible to give a new sound and content to what has already become classical methods decoration and construction. And although modern half-timbered houses differ quite seriously from classic samples, they are popular among lovers of classic European rustic style.

If initially clay was used to fill the space between the beams, then wooden panels, stone or brick, then with the advent of double-glazed glass technology it became possible to build half-timbered houses with full glazing. Full glass facade it looks very impressive and elegant, while maintaining the visual division of the wall - the main architectural feature of buildings in the half-timbered style.

One of the features of half-timbered architecture is the decorative function of the frame. This is its main difference from ordinary frame houses, in which, when finishing load-bearing beams turn out to be hidden. The special arrangement of the frame elements not only visually divides the facade into panels of various shapes, but also creates a bizarre pattern (they are also called “figures”): “man”, “St. Andrew’s cross”, “wild man” and others.

Advice! To make the exterior of the house more decorative and attractive, corner posts are decorated with carving, and the heads of the beams protruding onto the facade are given curly forms, for example, horse's head, races, etc.

At the same time, modern technologies have made it possible to obtain warm "glass House– installed special, low-emission double-glazed windows allow short-wave solar radiation to pass through, but at the same time acts as an insurmountable barrier to long-wave thermal radiation. As a result, to calculate the heating power of such a house, the formula traditional for stone and concrete houses is often used - 1 W of power per 10 m 2. At the same time, the glass only looks fragile from the outside - in fact, it is made using technology and can reach a thickness of up to 6 mm. In addition, even if suddenly, which is unlikely under normal conditions, such glass breaks, the fragments will not fly to the sides - they will remain hanging on the elastic polymer film.

As a result, using a half-timbered structure, it is possible to create large glazed areas, turning the entire facade into one large glass wall. This makes it possible to realize the effect of merging with nature and the surrounding space. The landscapes that surround the house seem to become part of the interior.

Another reason for the increased popularity of half-timbered houses was the use of glued timber instead of ordinary wood, which made it possible to build a very strong frame. At the same time, the frame elements (laminated veneer lumber and metal fastenings, which connect the frame elements) additionally act as a decorative part of the exterior and interior of the building. In addition, the durable frame allows you to create any building layout that features spacious open spaces with exterior glass walls adjacent to cozy and quiet secluded rooms inside the building. And since the concept of “load-bearing wall” is absent in principle, the entire load falls on the frame, in such a house you can easily carry out redevelopment at any time.

The use of laminated veneer lumber for the frame made it possible to get rid of a number of disadvantages characteristic of natural wood:

increased fire safety - laminated veneer lumber ignites when more high temperatures than a normal tree. In addition, it does not burn, but smolders, retaining its shape and load-bearing capacity, thereby giving significantly more time than natural timber, for evacuation of people

no shrinkage - over time, laminated veneer lumber practically does not change its linear dimensions, which allows you to begin interior and exterior finishing immediately after installing the frame

immunity to moisture, resistance to mold and fungi
high strength - according to this indicator, laminated veneer lumber is 2 times superior to solid wood