Do-it-yourself house made of simple timber. How to build a proper log house with your own hands

After preparing the tools, you can begin purchasing timber.

Which material is better to choose

For construction, you can use solid and profiled timber. Advantages of the first option:

Solid ones are several times cheaper than similar building materials.
Buying it is not a problem - it is sold on any construction market.
Such timber does not lose natural moisture, so the time for preparing wood is greatly reduced.
Where solid timber is used, there is no need to use special construction equipment.

The disadvantages when choosing solid timber are as follows:

Additionally, you will have to spend money on finishing. Since solid timber in itself is not beautiful, it is sheathed with clapboard or siding.

The tree in this version does not undergo a special drying procedure, so it may be damaged by fungus. To avoid this, treatment with special impregnations should be carried out in advance, and this additional expenses.
If you use the timber in its entirety, the room will be less warm, since the roof joints are well ventilated.

Attention! Timber without a profile cracks after shrinkage. Solid wood housing needs sheathing on both sides.

Profiled version - as the name suggests, this type of timber requires the presence of a profile. Connections (tenons and grooves) are installed along its entire length.

The advantages include:

During construction, the walls turn out to be very smooth.
Profiled timber does not need cladding - it looks great on its own.
Intervention seams during construction are very tight, and the inside of the room is correspondingly warm.
Water from precipitation will not be able to get into the tight seams, which will prevent the wood from rotting.

Attention! Profiled timber has a small percentage of moisture, so it burns easily. Before construction, it must be treated with special fire-prevention impregnations.

Of the obvious disadvantages that this option has, we can note:

In the warm season, such timber may crack.
Walls made from this material are quite thin and require additional insulation outside.

Design and laying the foundation

Build beautiful house made from timber cheaply is quite possible. A self-made project will help reduce the construction budget. It roughly looks like this:

The house itself has rectangular shape.
The roof is gable, maximum five. Corners and roof windows increase the cost of work by approximately 40%.
There is no basement. This provides significant savings, since its presence increases costs by at least 30%.
The foundation is shallowly buried.
The building has 1 floor and few window openings.
There are no columns, balconies or bay windows.
The walls are decorated very simply.
The windows are of standard size.
The facade is traditional.

Once the project is approved, you can begin laying the foundation.

A timber house is built on concrete or wooden base. The first option is most often used. First, concrete is poured, then a brick base is built on it. Only on top of this structure do they begin to lay timber. Several types of foundation can be used as the basis for a wooden house:

recessed;
shallow;
belt type;
columnar.

In most cases, under wooden building Shallow and strip versions are prepared. The laying depth is 50-70 cm.

How to build walls, a roof, arrange a floor and decorate a home

On the finished foundation, the timber is laid in rows one on top of the other until the walls of the required height are obtained. There are grooves made in the tree, with the help of which the logs fit tightly to each other. To make the walls stronger, be sure to use spikes designed for connection.

Attention! All seams must be caulked. This will make the walls windproof.

It is better not to skimp on materials when arranging a roof. You can choose a lot of options for different budgets. Experienced builders advise equipping various areas of the roof with boards different sizes. For example, a board of 140x40 mm is required for rafters, and 100x40 mm for braces and racks.

When arranging the floor, you should also be guided by your own preferences. There must be a waterproofing layer under the screed, for which several material options can be used:

jellied composition;
coating materials;
roll waterproofing;
penetrating moisture protection.

TO interior design The floor also needs to be approached after carefully considering all the details.

Advice. For housing built from beams, wood-based coatings, that is, parquet and laminate, are best suited.

The next stage of construction is the arrangement of heating, energy supply, sewerage, and water supply. At the same stage, doors between rooms are installed, and the finishing coating of the floor and ceiling is installed.

External wall decoration is also selected based on the preferences of future residents. Siding, lining, paint will do. In the case where the timber has excellent appearance, you can leave outside without finishing.

Photos and video materials attached to the article will help you get more information about construction. Of course, self-build houses made of timber are not an easy task. However, if you maintain the technology, you can get a reliable, beautiful and inexpensive home for yourself and your family.

DIY house made of timber: video

You can build a log house from timber for the purpose of either permanent or temporary residence. The log house is built from a building material such as timber, or glued laminated timber is also possible. If you plan to live permanently in a house made of timber, then the building material must be planed, but if it is for temporary use, it is not necessary. In any case, the timber is laid with the planed side inward.

Scheme of types and cross sections of timber.

Features of log houses

Assembling beams with your own hands, unlike log walls, should be done directly on a ready-made strip foundation. Houses or log houses built from timber necessarily shrink, which prevents the laying of walls immediately after the construction of the house. Usually they wait at least about a year or two years to lay high-quality walls that will serve for a long time. A building material such as timber has only positive characteristics.

Figure 1. Scheme of assembling panels for the plinth.

You can use profiled timber, saving on finishing materials. Timber can retain moisture in its structure for a long time, so the shrinkage of a built house takes quite a long time. You should not build a log house alone; you must invite an assistant. The process of building a house from timber with your own hands is not difficult.

To build a high-quality log house, be sure to use wooden dowels, which are easy to make with your own hands. For this purpose they use regular boards or their trimmings remaining after performing any work, for example, related to the installation of sheathing. It is better to make dowels from harder scraps of boards; to do this, they are trimmed on one side using a saw. Then they are sawn into boards 120 mm wide, the main thing is that they turn out even.

How to properly lay the foundation for a log house

Principles of strip foundation construction

Figure 2. Scheme of arranging the foundation with ventilation.

The first step from which the construction of timber begins is laying the foundation. Before carrying out work, a soil analysis is carried out at the construction site, which boils down to geological research related to the search for the level of occurrence groundwater and determination of soil composition.

For each type of terrain with a certain soil composition, special types of foundations are provided that will serve for decades, and the presence of groundwater will not have a destructive effect on them. Before laying the foundation for a log house, it is necessary to dig a trench for the future structure. This is due to the removal of the fertile soil layer. First, sand is poured into the trench, which is compacted by filling it with water. After this, stone is poured into the trench to begin reinforcing the foundation.

Reinforcement using reinforcing bars can be done both in the upper part of the foundation and in the lower part. This will give highest strength the entire future structure of the log house. Reinforcement is carried out using concrete; if you do it yourself in a concrete mixer, it will not cost as much as if you buy ready-made concrete at a hardware store. Concrete delivery is carried out by such a type of transport as a mixer truck, and it can only enter areas with the largest area, otherwise the concrete will have to be unloaded in another way.

The best option would be to use a concrete mixer installed on the site. This will allow you to independently prepare a concrete solution for reinforcing the foundation, but the quality of the composition will not be as high as that of ready-mixed concrete. Reinforcement is placed at the bottom of the trench with sand and stones, and then this space is filled with concrete. The entire foundation strip, if it is a strip foundation, is filled with concrete to ground level. The foundation can also be constructed using formwork, and a columnar type of foundation is also suitable for a certain soil composition.

Figure 3. Diagram reinforcement cage for the foundation.

When using a concrete mixer, it should not be covered in the place where its motor is located, since it requires constantly circulating air to cool it after and during operation. Before the construction of a log house from timber begins, after the foundation is completely installed, it should take from a week to a month for the structure to fully stand.

For a certain type of soil, for example, swampy, it will be necessary to make a spatial frame. Only after this the formwork is created and a concrete solution is poured into it. If the foundation is laid in warm weather, then its surface must be lined with sawdust or other material, for example, moss or roofing felt. You can simply fill its surface with water. The thickness of the formwork boards should be about 40 mm. You should select formwork panels of the required height and length.

Construction of the foundation plinth

The initial size of the shields is usually taken to be the distance between center lines base The shields are assembled directly on the ground using special pads. The assembly diagram of the panels for the plinth is shown in Fig. 1. Shields smooth side must face the inside of the base.

The foundation base should have special windows for ventilation, which are located at a distance of 15-20 cm from the ground surface. They are located on opposite sides of the base structure, each opposite the other. To create them, you can use asbestos-cement pipes adjacent to the ends of the shields, as shown in Fig. 2. This position of the pipes will prevent flooding ventilation holes concrete solution.

Figure 4. Methods for connecting timber.

The reinforcement frame of the plinth is located in the upper part, this is shown in Fig. 3, after this the concrete screed is poured. Reinforcing bars should be laid in an overlapping manner, tying them with wire.

Using this method, you can obtain a rigid structure that is firmly connected to the foundation of the future building. Starting to fill concrete mortar into the formwork, the filling line at the top should be marked on the panels. When the base of the log house is ready, they begin to lay the first crown.

For correct installation top harness The plinth is covered with roofing felt in two layers, taking into account the entire perimeter of the structure. To do this, a strip of roofing material is bent lengthwise and then laid on the base. To make the strapping, use even beams, on which there are no cracks, various jumps, or rot.

How to properly build a log house from timber

To protect the gaps between the beams from water ingress, chamfer the upper edges, the size of which will be 10x10 mm. The corners of the log house should be connected using the tongue-and-groove method. It is possible to connect the timber with dowels and a main tenon, as shown in Fig. 4 in the form of a diagram. The corners of the initial crown can be connected using the half-tree method, and subsequent rows are fastened with dowels using root tenons. The main tools and materials for construction are:

beam;
saw;
hammer;
dowels;
nails.

Figure 5. Different ways fastening beams and logs.

There may be gaps between the crowns of the beams, so they should be laid thermal insulation material caulk. Felt or tow, cut into strips 20 mm wide, are used as a heat insulator. smaller size timber in width.

For better outlet water from the seams running horizontally between the beams, chamfer with a width of 20 to 30 mm. It is possible to reduce the degree of conductivity between the beams by using grooves and stuffing slats in the shape of a triangle.

Using dowels having a rectangular or round shape, you can join the beams in a vertical position, as shown in Fig. 5. To disinfect all the bars that belong to the first crown, this is done by lubricating each of the bars on all sides. The ends of the beams are left without treatment with the composition.

You should cut curved beams with your own hands by creating small sections of them that fit into window openings and door openings. The oil-treated beams are laid on the base, fastening them with staples. construct paving walls can be similar to the process of erecting log walls.

Cobblestone walls have seams that are located in the horizontal direction, which is the main difference between log cabins and log buildings.

The seams are the most vulnerable areas of the log house walls, so they need to be not only insulated, but also covered with drying oil or oil paint.

You can protect log beams from biological effects on wood, as well as atmospheric influences, by sheathing the outside of timber walls with boards or facing bricks.

Plank wall cladding horizontally makes it easier to install the heat insulator. If the wall thickness is less than 150 mm, then additional heat insulators are used, and if the thickness is about 200 mm, then you can do without insulation.

After a hard working week I always want to have a good rest. And for this you need to go to nature outside the city, to your home. You can build a house from timber with your own hands, having small area land. You can landscape it yourself, install water and heating there, and make a sewer system. You will want to spend every free day in this house, and eventually move into it.

Dacha design

A house made of timber is erected without experience in construction in several stages:

design;
laying the foundation;
laying crowns;
roof;
finishing and laying of communication systems.

The beam has a rectangular shape, which allows you to initially obtain uniform walls and reduce construction time. An important point also is that it can only be used for the construction of houses up to a maximum of the 3rd floor. It has several more positive features:

good performance properties;
ecologically pure;
design and others.

A house made of wood is quite warm due to the tight fit of the wooden elements during construction. Wooden houses are also beneficial because the internal and exterior decoration It’s quite easy; you can use various decorative elements.

Before you move on to building a dacha, you need to make a design and calculate how much this construction costs.

It is better to order a building project from construction companies. Their technical specialists will calculate everything down to the smallest detail in terms of soil characteristics, construction technology, amount of material, and will even find you a developer.

But in order to save money Money It’s better to develop your own drawings, calculate the number and cost of elements. In the case of the construction of several floors, the project must have floor plan drawings. WITH finished project you need to contact a special institution to obtain permission to build a house.

If you have made or ordered a drawing, then after receiving the appropriate signatures and the approved project, we proceed to the foundation.

Laying the foundation

Main structural element of any building is the foundation. Before creating a project, it is very important to decide on the type of foundation of the house. If a mistake is made at the beginning of construction, an incorrectly designed foundation will lead to negative consequences during the operation of the house and such problems will arise. serious problems, How:

warp of the base;
cracks in the supporting structure;
deformation and others.

The reliability of the building's foundation is the durability and quality of construction.

There are several types of foundations used in the construction of country houses:

from screw piles;
tape and others.

In areas outside the city where soil moisture is high, foundations made of screw piles are often used.

Its advantages are as follows:

cost savings of 2-3 times (compared to strip foundations);
easy to do yourself;
construction time - 1-2 days;
high reliability;
you can work with it at any time of the year;
application for complex landscapes.

As practice shows, this structure should be erected and poured independently, since it will be much cheaper and more reliable than the work of so-called “specialists.”

The most popular base today in the construction of houses. Its advantage is that any house can be built on it, it is durable and less expensive. The base is quite durable and requires much less building materials, and the time allotted for work is reduced significantly.

How to make a strip foundation yourself:

First, let's mark the area around the perimeter of the house.
Then we designate the location interior walls(carrying). The width of the dug trenches should exceed the width of the walls by at least 10 cm, and the depth should be above the freezing level of the soil, but not less than 0.6 m.
Pillows made of crushed stone and sand (10 cm each), poured into the trench, need to be filled with a half-smaller layer of concrete (5 cm).
Formwork made from 2.5 cm boards must be installed so that its top is visible above ground level (about 0.4 m).
For reinforcement, use 1 cm rods in two layers. The structure of them is laid longitudinally, then transversely, and the intersection points are secured with strong wire with a gap of about 5 cm.
Used for concreting popular look cement M400. To mix the solution, take it together with sand in a ratio of 1:3.
Concrete is poured into the trenches with a special pump or shovel.

The main thing is to prevent bubbles from appearing before it hardens. This is done using special technology. The concrete surface (not hardened) is periodically sprayed with water.

After pouring, construction of the house is suspended for a month. This is necessary for the concrete to harden and prepare to take on a heavy load.

Construction of a building

How to build a house from timber with your own hands? To build a warm and cozy cottage you should take the choice of materials seriously. As practice shows, it is better to use timber from trees coniferous species, as it is strong and durable. There are two types:

profiled;
whole.

Let's consider each of them separately.

Profiled timber

It differs from the solid one in that it has crown grooves or tenons over the entire surface. Building a house from it is quite easy and quick.

The advantages of such a building:

excellent thermal characteristics;
modern design;
smooth walls that do not require additional cladding;
the design does not allow moisture to enter the inter-crown seam.

is easily flammable (to eliminate this drawback, it should be impregnated with special means);
requires insulation on both sides when living in the cold season;
redevelopment in a house built from profiled timber is impossible.

This material should be chosen with a humidity of no more than 20% (this is achieved in special dryers for wood).

Solid timber

It has many advantages, but outwardly it looks bad. The process of preparing it for installation is quite fast. You can purchase the material at any construction company and in the construction market at minimal cost.

How to build a house from solid elements after choosing the material:

it is worth preparing for the fact that there will be additional costs for its finishing (siding, lining) to give it a more aesthetic appearance;
use wood only highest quality; It should be treated before use antiseptics(to prevent the appearance of fungus).

In solid slats, the inter-crown seams are weaker than in profile ones. When wood shrinks and subsides, cracks and cracks appear. They are eliminated with the help of sheathing, which leads to additional costs.

We build a house from solid elements:

The first crown is made on a double layer of waterproofing, which covers the foundation. The quality factor of the building depends on its assembly. As a rule, elements measuring 150x150 mm are used.
The insulation is laid 0.3 meters more than the width of the foundation itself.
Then we assemble the walls from timber, which we pre-treat with an antiseptic. Each rail needs to be processed.

The tree is laid out in rows. If the timber is solid, its grooves are additionally insulated with special material. For strength, the elements can be connected with special spikes.

Roof of a wooden house

The roof, as the final stage of building construction, should also look efficient and original. To begin with, lay the Mauerlat (it is better to use 150x150 elements) and attach it with hardware to the crown.

The rafter frame defines the shape of the roof. All parameters rafter system specified in advance in the project. Slats up to 180 mm wide and 50 mm thick are secured with steel plates.

We install the rafter frame and cover it with a layer of high-quality vapor barrier. Then we install the sheathing (across the rafters) using nails. The distance between the slats will depend on the type of roofing material:

tiles - solid (slats end to end);
slate, corrugated sheeting - with a distance of 0.3 m.

It is worth remembering that a wooden house “shrinks” over several years. During this period, you can live there, but it is strictly forbidden to decorate and tile it.

One of the most interesting, popular and widely used materials for the construction of private houses and cottages today is timber. The construction of a residential building from timber requires much more modest financial investments and time costs than building a house from more conventional materials. Moreover, in the case of timber, you can carry out all construction activities with your own hands.

Before starting any work, you need to draw up a plan for your future home. If you do not have design skills, entrust this work to some third-party organization or select suitable drawings from open sources.

Before you start designing, you need to install optimal sizes future building. When choosing the optimal dimensions, focus primarily on the available space, as well as your personal needs.

If you have a small family and a little free space, you can give preference to a small log house measuring 3x4 m. If properly arranged, even in such a small building there will be enough usable space. The lack of space can be compensated for by a terrace or attic space.

If there are no special problems with space, but you still don’t want to build a huge building, build a house measuring 5x4 m.

Standard sizes for summer and summer cottages timber houses are indicators at the level of 6x6 m, 6x8 m, etc. Such a house can already be made two-story without any fear.

For the rest, focus on the conditions of your specific situation. The larger your family, the large area must have a home. In most cases, everything is limited solely by the size of the plot and the available budget.

Buy timber whose cross-section best matches the dimensions of the future home. The thicker the beam, the less money you will have to spend on thermal insulation material and sound insulation.

Usually for construction load-bearing walls use timber 200x200 mm. For construction small house in a region with a mild climate, you can use material with a cross-section of 150x150 mm or even 100x100 mm.

During the process of assembling the walls, it is necessary to lay a sealant made of flax or jute between the rows. This seal allows you to get rid of all the cracks and additionally insulate the walls.

Before starting construction work, be sure to study the properties of the soil on your site. It is quite difficult to cope with such work on your own - it is better to immediately contact a specialist. Additionally, you need to find out the level of groundwater flow.

Select the length of the beam in accordance with the size of the house. Standard length elements is 600 cm. If the walls of your future home have longer length, try to find a company that can produce timber to your dimensions. This will require additional financial investments, but solid timber is superior to prefabricated elements in all respects.

The beam needs mandatory finishing water-repellent composition. Without such impregnation, the material will very soon begin to become moldy and rot, and as a result will be completely destroyed.

If insulation is necessary finished house Thermal insulation materials are best placed from the inside. Mineral wool heat insulators are excellent for insulation, with the obligatory laying of waterproofing material between the thermal insulation and the walls.

If possible, it is better not to do the external cladding of a timber house - such finishing will hide all the aesthetic beauty of the building material.

Pre-calculate required quantity materials in order to avoid problems with the sale of excess timber or the additional purchase of missing elements in the future.

First step. Determine the height of the house and calculate the perimeter of the walls of the building. Choose the height of the ceilings taking into account the thickness of the ceilings and floors. Calculate the area of internal and external walls taking into account the thickness of the beam section.

Second step. Calculate total bars To do this, you need to divide the height of the house wall by the height of one element. This way you will know how many beams will be needed to build each wall. Calculate the length based on the length of the walls. Sum up the number of beams needed to build all the walls of the house.

Third step. Add to the calculated value a 5-15% margin for defects or unexpected damage during the construction process.

Initially, the walls of your house will have a height slightly higher than the design value. This increase will occur due to the use of an insulating gasket between the crowns. Over time, the wood will shrink, and the height of the walls will be restored to the design height.

Guide to building a house

Purchase the required amount of finished timber and begin construction. Start by preparing the site and laying out the foundation.

Foundation

First step. Remove from construction site garbage and all obstructive objects. Mark the area using pegs driven into the ground and a rope stretched between them.

Second step. Dig a trench for the foundation. Log houses are traditionally built on strip foundations with a depth of up to 80-100 cm. Select the specific depth taking into account the conditions of your particular situation.

Third step. Fill the bottom of the trench with a layer of sand and gravel. Compact the backfill thoroughly. For better compaction, spill the backfill with water.

Fourth step. Attach the formwork to the walls of the trench.

Fifth step. Place reinforcing mesh on top of the backfill.

Sixth step. Fill the trench with concrete. Leave the foundation until it has fully gained strength (3-5 weeks).

In warm weather, the foundation will need to be watered for the first few days after pouring to prevent it from cracking. It is better to leave the formwork until the foundation has completely hardened. If necessary, it can be dismantled earlier, but not less than 10 days after the last moistening of the base.

First crown

First step. Coat the frozen foundation with molten bitumen and lay a layer of roofing felt on it for waterproofing.

Second step. Proceed with laying the first crown. Pre-soak everything wooden elements antiseptic. Traditionally, the first row of timber is laid using the “half-tree” method. To make such a connection, you need to saw off the lower part of one beam, and the upper part of the other.

Third step. Lay out the bottom crown. Adjust the bars as carefully as possible.

At the same stage, prepare wooden dowels. Using these elements you will connect the rows of timber. It is advisable to make dowels from the same type of wood that was used for the manufacture of the main building elements. Make holes for the dowels in advance. Optimal step between fasteners – 1.2-1.5 m.

Form the first row of walls and proceed to further work.

Walls

Continue laying the walls in even horizontal rows. Make the cut directly into the lower crown using the dovetail method. Place floor beams in increments of no more than 40 cm, otherwise the floor will sag.

The walls are laid out according to an extremely simple principle: you lay the beams, connect them together in the corners using the “root tenon” method, connect the top row to the underlying row using dowels. Drive the dowels about a third of the depth of the beam of the bottom row, i.e. With the help of one dowel you can connect 2-3 rows at once. Be sure to lay insulation between the rows. You can use jute or moss.

Check each row building level. Use a sledgehammer to level the rows.

Lay out the walls of the house at the required height using the same pattern. All rows laid above lower crown, are arranged according to the same principle.

There is no need to secure the top two crowns. You will remove them before you begin installing the roof and installing the ceiling beams.

Start arranging the roof. If you are planning to do residential attic space, For ceiling beams use a beam measuring 15x20 cm. Fix the beams themselves in increments of about 1-1.1 m.

Proceed with the construction of the roof structure frame. The frame includes the following elements:

Install the Mauerlat, rafters and other listed elements. Attach sheathing boards to the rafters. For lathing, use boards about 150 mm wide and 15-20 mm thick. Continuous sheathing is characterized by the greatest reliability. For the rest, focus on the specifics of your situation, taking into account the angle of inclination of the slope, the type and weight of the finishing coating, etc.

Finally, all that remains is to lay the final roofing covering with the preliminary installation of steam, heat and moisture insulation layers.

After this, you can, if necessary, insulate the house and perform finishing touches. Finishing work. Laying communications, installing doors and window structures, lighting, furniture and other aspects - all this is at your discretion.

In the case of timber chamber drying, finishing can begin almost immediately after completion of construction work. When using another material, you will have to wait until the wood shrinks. This requires at least 6 months.

Log house built in accordance with all building codes and recommendations, will serve you well for many decades. Follow the instructions, and very soon you will be able to enjoy comfortable living in a reliable home built with your own hands.

Good luck!

Video - DIY timber house

Construction own home- a very responsible step. And if you decide to do this work yourself, then there will be even more questions and doubts. Today we will discuss whether it is possible to build a house from timber with your own hands, we will cover each of the stages of construction, we will try to reveal everything possible options. Whether you have enough strength and skills for this difficult task is up to you to decide. Where to begin? What to look for Special attention? You will find brief answers to all these questions in this article.

The very first questions that arise long before construction:

Where to build?

Perhaps this issue will not be pressing for you. Often used for construction country cottage area, where individual housing construction; inherited from parents or relatives an empty plot or with dilapidated housing; state assistance for a third child. There can be many reasons for the ownership of land. Often it is with the appearance land plot There is a desire to acquire your own spacious house for living or a cozy country house for a summer holiday.

What to do if there is no site? How to choose the right place for construction? Here you should decide on the purpose of your home. For country house Any site is suitable for temporary stay. The main criteria here are: environment and ecology. When it comes to building a home for permanent residence, many more factors need to be taken into account. You should pay close attention to the terrain and soil. This can significantly complicate construction in terms of arranging the foundation. It is important to pay attention to the location of communications. It's hard to imagine comfortable life without electricity. Gas makes home heating easier and cheaper. The problem with the water supply can be solved with the help of a well. But here we return again to the geological study of soils. Sometimes drilling can become big problem at great expense.

Expert opinion

Sergey Yurievich

Construction of houses, extensions, terraces and verandas.

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The environmental issue is also important. Often the most contaminated areas are the cheapest. In such a place it makes no sense to build environmentally friendly houses from timber.

What to build?

What purpose do you plan to build the house for? We have already mentioned how important it is to determine how your building will be used: a temporary place to spend time with family and friends or a cozy nest for permanent residence. It is also necessary to select the size of the object commensurate with the building site. It may be worth planning the location of other buildings on your site in order to harmoniously arrange the bathhouse, garage, gazebo, garden and other elements of comfortable living.

What to build from?

Nowadays there are a lot of materials and technologies for construction. We will not consider the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. We decided to build a house from timber for ourselves.

After solving these issues, you can immediately begin construction, although here, too, you will first have to work with your head. There is still quite a long way to go before working directly with your hands.

Preparatory work before construction begins

Before starting work on the site, you must have a clear design of your facility. Without it, it is difficult to imagine the construction of even small buildings. How to draw up a project for your home?

Long before construction, we made a choice in favor of a residential cottage or country house. Now you need to choose the size of your future home. This may depend on the size of your family and financial capabilities.
Having decided on the size of the house, it is necessary to decide on the choice of technology for constructing a house from timber. Some of the materials may not solve your project.
Houses made of sawn timber. The material used is edged timber with 4 or 2 sawn flat edges. The material has natural moisture. The main advantage of this material is its availability and low cost. You can easily find a supplier of such material. Disadvantages: the need to use additional seals between the crowns, low aesthetics (requires external and internal finishing), significant shrinkage of the house, the appearance of cracks.
Houses made of profiled timber. Planed timber with a special section. The workpiece is equipped with a tongue and groove for tight installation without additional seals. Can be made of wood natural humidity or chamber drying.
Houses made of laminated veneer lumber. The same profiled timber, but made by gluing individual boards using a special technology. Made only from kiln-dried wood.
. The wall is a “pie” of two parallel walls made of boards with a section of 45 (47) x 135 (140) mm with the space between them filled with insulation.

The choice of construction technology is inextricably linked with the search for a reliable supplier required material. The Internet and telephone allow you to solve this issue even without visiting the manufacturer’s office. You can clarify the price and delivery time; all you have to do is read the reviews about the supplier.

We chose the size and material

Now you can begin the final design of the house. The Internet can also be useful to you here. You just have to write a request “project of a house made of 6 by 6 timber” or “house made of 8 by 8 timber”, and you will receive a huge list of projects, often even with a calculated cost. You should not redesign the project to suit yourself without good knowledge of wooden architecture. You can also use a standard project from a materials supplier (especially for profiled or laminated timber). Often design services can be offered free of charge when ordering a house kit from the manufacturer.

With the finished project, it is necessary to draw up an estimate of materials. Even if you are confident in the availability of the chosen project, you should not refuse estimate work. It is necessary to at least calculate the supply of construction materials so that there are no delays in work or difficulties in storing them. At this stage, you can afford to call suppliers and choose the most best option in terms of price and quality. Often, careless developers have to hastily look for some material at a significant overpayment. Almost all suppliers of building materials are familiar with the question: “We need it yesterday...” They use this to earn additional income.

The estimate will also have to include the cost of the house's foundation. You have a project, you know approximately the entire object, the soil was studied even before design - choosing the type of foundation will be a simple matter.

Now we are ready to go to the construction site. You can begin field work, but before that, one more important issue must be resolved.

Tools for building a house from timber

Building a house from timber does not require a wide range of special tools. But not every man has even this insignificant list, especially if he is not involved in construction. So what you need:

Chainsaw or electric saw. Definitely required chain Saw, for precision work you will also need Circular Saw or a cross-cutting machine (for finishing work).
Tape measure, string for measuring and marking.
Level, hydraulic level, plumb lines, level. The construction of all house structures requires constant monitoring of horizontality and verticality. The most expensive of these tools, a level, will only be needed for foundation work.
Hammer, axe, sledgehammer - it’s hard to imagine any carpentry work without these tools.
Hammer, drill, screwdriver. It’s hard to imagine modern work without working with fasteners.
A number of means personal protection. These include goggles, respirators, safety devices (a lot of work will be done at height).
Grinder for cutting metal elements (especially for working with roofing materials).

Foundation arrangement

So, it's time to start construction. Where does any object begin? Of course, from the construction of the foundation, the reliability of the entire structure depends on it. This is not the most difficult, but one of the most important stages construction of a house from timber. We will not consider the features of the choice different types foundation. We have already made a choice based on an assessment of the soil and the weight of the finished house. We will only talk about the features of the work of installing the foundation with your own hands.

Foundation on screw piles

It has become widespread due to its versatility and speed of installation. How to install? First you need to calculate the number of piles and their diameter. Then you need to calculate the location of the piles on the site. Even at the design stage, you should have a drawing of a pile field for your house. According to this plan, the site is marked using strings and pegs.

Now you can start screwing the piles. To make it easier to start screwing, you can dig holes no more than 20 cm deep. The pile is installed in the hole, and with the help of a special rod and assistants, the pile is screwed strictly vertically. The pile sites must be at the same level, this is controlled using a level. You can begin installing the grillage. In case of use wooden grillage made of timber or metal from a channel, they are simply fixed on the pile sites. For a reinforced concrete grillage, you will need to install formwork from boards or plywood and lay reinforcement.

Foundation on concrete piles

Factory-produced concrete piles can be driven (heavy special equipment will be required) or bored piles. In the case of bored piles, the pile field is also marked. After this, holes are drilled to the freezing depth or holes are dug required depth. Formwork made of roofing felt or boards is installed in the hole. Concrete is poured and pre-connected reinforcement is immersed in it. Now you can begin installing the grillage. This is done by analogy with a foundation on screw piles.

Strip foundation

For houses made of timber, a shallow strip foundation is often used, which perfectly distributes the load of the house. To install a strip foundation, a trench is dug according to the house design. The bottom of the trench is filled with sand, which is compacted or spilled with water. Next, formwork from boards or plywood is installed, and specially connected reinforcement is laid. The foundation is poured with level control.

Slab foundation

Installation is carried out similarly to a strip foundation. The only difference is that a pit is being dug under the entire area of the house. Sand is poured onto the same area, reinforcement is laid and concrete is poured.

After the concrete has hardened, waterproofing is laid and the mauerlat or first crown of the frame is installed.

Walling

It should be noted that after laying the first crown, floor beams can be installed. They can crash into walls (a groove is sawed into the wall beams) or be fastened with metal supports.

The construction of walls is inextricably linked with the chosen technology. We will analyze the work process for each construction option.

Edged timber. Before laying each subsequent crown, sealing material is laid: jute, flax fiber, tow, moss. After laying the row, it is necessary to drill through the two beams using a drill and a serpentine drill. A wooden dowel will be driven into this hole to give the wall height rigidity. Instead of wooden dowels, special ones can be used metal elements, but in this case, markings of their location are left on the timber for subsequent sawing of openings for windows and doors (houses made from edged timber are not made according to the design with ready-made openings).
Profiled or laminated timber. These two technologies have the same workpiece profile, so the assembly has identical operations. First of all, it is necessary to lay out the set of timber according to technological map(each beam is marked, and its position is specified in the project). The exception is profiled timber purchased in the form of moldings. This material is supplied 6 meters long without bowls. In this case, the assembly is carried out by analogy with edged timber except for the installation of sealing material. The dowels are driven in according to the technology described above.
Double beam. Absolutely different technology. The boards are driven into each other using a sledgehammer and special pads. The verticality of the wall is ensured by driving in the cuts. Using the same cuts, the constant gap between the outer and inner walls is controlled. Before you start building a house from double timber with your own hands, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with all the intricacies of working with this material. A slight violation of technology can lead to disastrous results.

Difficulties in constructing walls are associated only with raising the timber to a greater height. 2-3 people are quite capable of assembling a house from timber of any size.

Roof installation

One of the most difficult stages of building a house is installing the rafter system. Even experienced builders treat this stage of work with the greatest responsibility. Let's not delve into complex roof shapes. If you decide to install a cuckoo roof, a hip roof or a complex multi-slope roof, it means that you have a lot of your own knowledge. Let's consider the installation of a gable roof.

After laying the timber for the top frame, future trusses are marked. The pitch of the trusses usually does not exceed 1.5 meters. The first truss is assembled on site, the rest can be cut on the ground according to a template. First, two outer trusses are installed, on which the ridge beam. A cord is pulled to control the level of intermediate trusses. The sheathing is sewn from edged boards or OSB. The waterproofing contour is laid, the counter-batten is sewn on. Now you can lay the roofing material. Range roofing materials is very wide, and you can find training for each of them on the Internet. The easiest for non experienced builder corrugated sheets, metal tiles, ondulin and onduvilla.

Finishing

Putting a roof on a house is a big victory when building on your own. Now you don't have to worry about the durability of your log house.

Finishing work should begin from the facade. If planed timber was used, then only it needs to be painted with protective decorative compositions. When working with edged timber, they are treated with an antiseptic and the façade is sheathed with finishing materials. For cladding, imitation timber, blockhouse, siding (vinyl or metal), facade panels, fiber cement siding or panels can be used. Working with sheathing materials is always the same: installing sheathing from timber or profiles and fastening the sheathing material using self-tapping screws or special fasteners - a clamp.

A special place in the finishing is occupied by the installation of windows and doors. Shrinkage of the log house in height requires the installation of additional shrinkage boxes. The simplest is the installation of rough T-shaped casing boxes. At the ends of the timber in the sawn openings, a groove measuring 50x50 mm or 50x40 mm is selected using a router. A beam is placed in it, along which the settling timber of the walls will slide. A dry board with a thickness of at least 40 mm and a width equal to the thickness of the wall is attached to this beam. A board of a similar cross-section is placed at the top and bottom. A gap of 2 to 10 cm is left above the top board of the box, depending on the material used (dry or natural moisture). You can safely install windows and doors in these boxes in accordance with their standard technology for brick houses.

ABOUT interior decoration at home and communications, you can talk a lot and for a long time. Diversity finishing materials, engineering systems can lead even an experienced builder into the wilds. Try to study the issue specifically for your finishing option. The Internet and expert advice on forums will provide you with real help with this.

Conclusion

We only briefly told you about the stages of building a house from timber with your own hands. Now all that remains is to decide whether you are ready to go this route, or is it better to trust the professionals. Of course, you cannot do all the work yourself. But what part of the work should you take into your own hands? You decide. Remember that ill-conducted work can only bring you additional costs, not savings.