Frame houses are usually built from either wood or metal. Metal frame walls are much lighter because they are made of lightweight profiles. The assembly of prefabricated steel structures is done according to pre-planned drawings, which are designed at the factory.
You can assemble such a house with your own hands in a few days. Despite the fact that such a structure reduces the load on the foundation, the price of such a house will be almost twice as much as a similar timber frame. Any structure can be built from wood, it can be a bathhouse or a beautiful two-story frame house.
The walls of a frame house are canvases of bearing racks, lathing, insulation, vapor barrier and finishing material. Initial work on the construction of walls can only begin after the floor of the building is completely ready. In this case, the floor structure must be precisely aligned in the horizontal plane in order to avoid distortions of the walls.
Before making the frame, you need to calculate the height of the ceiling, taking into account all the interior decoration. A floor that is too high is difficult to heat, and no one needs an overspending of materials. A low height will create an uncomfortable indoor atmosphere.
Externally, frame houses look very attractive due to the use of natural material and compliance with the correct proportions. Several beautiful two-story frame houses, which were made by the owners themselves, are shown in the photo.
To build a residential building, you must have a project on hand, or at least a preliminary sketch. These data are needed in order to calculate the consumption of materials, order the required volume and correctly perform all the nodal connections.
OSB boards serve to level the inner or outer surface of walls and are used as a base for finishing. It is impossible to build a frame from OSB, the supporting structures must be made of a strong bar.
Sheathing with OSB plates is performed end-to-end. Seams between boards can be filled with sealant. The slabs are fastened with nails so that the emerging end of the nail enters the crate or frame at a distance not less than the thickness of the slab.
If you build a light house with your own hands, a wooden frame with OSB slabs is one of the best options. In order for the frame house to function correctly, it is necessary to provide for the correct thermal insulation and vapor barrier. In a frame house, especially with the use of OSB boards, this is the most important link, without which the house will quickly collapse.
Despite the fact that the frame house is assembled with whole walls, like an ordinary constructor, during construction it is impossible to do without additional costs for unforeseen situations. Independent work significantly reduces the budget, the main thing is to save not on the quality of materials, but on their cost price.
Before you build the frame, you need to study the drawings. The location of the bearing racks is performed depending on the load from the building elements located above. The smaller the distance between the uprights, the more durable the wall will be against vertical loads.
The uprights are attached to the floor with special pins. To provide the racks with the necessary stability, temporary jibs are mounted on both sides, which are fastened with nails to the floor and rack elements.
After the main racks are installed, it is necessary to check their compliance with the design position. Further, retaining beams are mounted, which hold the strapping beam along the top. In places where interior partitions are provided, supports should also be installed and sheathed with either OSB sheets or crate.
Fastening of short beams is always done with a tongue-and-groove half-board. This ensures the tensile strength of the joint. The vertical frame must be untied with horizontal beams.
After installing all the elements of the frame, the temporary jibs are gradually removed and replaced with permanent ones from a strong bar. These slopes must be in the plane of the wall. They give the frame additional stability.
To build a house with your own hands, you need to study the correct technological sequence. First, a project is developed, the terrain and the ability of the soil to perceive the load are studied. Some soils are so weak that ordinary houses cannot be built on them.
After that, the type of foundation is selected. Here it is important to determine the depth of soil freezing and lay the base of the foundation below this mark so that in winter the soil, swelling, does not squeeze out the base structure.
For a frame house, pile foundations with a grillage are most often made. The upper edge of the grillage must be carefully leveled; if this was not achieved the first time, beacons should be installed and a layer of leveling mortar should be laid along the guides.
Then the floor is laid, the space between the logs is filled with insulation. Wall installation begins on the finished floor. A strapping beam is laid on the top along the perimeter of the building. If the building is not being built on a one-story floor, an overlap is made and the procedure is repeated in the same way as on the first floor.
The final stage in the construction of the supporting structures of the house is the construction of the roof. After that, you can start finishing work.
Insulation in a frame house should be carried out only after carrying out a heat engineering calculation. The selection of materials decides how cozy and comfortable it will be inside the house. Insulation is placed between the crate, to which the outer trim will be attached. A frame house should be built after selecting materials for thermal insulation.
The installed insulation must be protected from moisture, otherwise after a couple of years its effectiveness will completely disappear and the house will quickly collapse. With each passing day, the deterioration of the insulation will be more and more costs for heating the entire building.
You need to know how to properly protect the insulation. This information is always indicated on insulation products. In most cases, it is enough to install a vapor barrier on top of the insulation, before the exterior finish.
It is important to use specialized materials for vapor barrier here, because they have a layered structure and are able to pass air, but not moisture. The use of ordinary polyethylene destroys the entire system of correct construction. The film prevents the building from "breathing". This leads to the appearance of condensation and fungus on wooden structures, even if they are impregnated with special protective solutions.
The Build and Live program is becoming popular in our country. Having plunged a little into construction technology, you can independently complete all the work and, after a few months, call into your own house.
The construction of a house with whole walls begins with the preparation of the base and the supporting frame. The finished walls are not load-bearing elements, but only curtain walls. The load on the foundation is transferred by the frame struts. It is advisable to make the walls themselves as lightweight as possible in order to reduce the pressure on the foundation.
The assembly of the finished walls is carried out on a separate rack, which has a flat surface. Particular attention should be paid to butt joints, they must be carefully fitted so as to exclude the formation of open areas during installation, which will subsequently have to be sealed with sealant.
The assembly of whole walls is carried out only according to previously prepared drawings. Otherwise, it will not be possible to correctly ensure the bearing capacity of the frame. The weight of each finished wall is summed up, part of it acts on the racks, all the rest of the pressure is transferred to the foundation.
Drawings are developed individually for each construction. Even existing standard projects must be tied to the terrain, taking into account the peculiarities of the soil and relief.
The set of drawings is peer-reviewed for quality and correctness of the decisions made. Only after that construction is allowed according to drawing recommendations.
The drawings give a complete idea of where which elements need to be installed, how to fasten, at what distance to make the connection. A small sketch from a full-fledged project is shown in the photo.
In the development of the project, not only the architect is involved, but also the design engineer, who calculates the strength and stability of the structure. This guarantees that the building will last a long time and reliably.
A feature of the project is the complete assembly of all the necessary materials into the specification. Having in hand the drawings, you can pre-order not only basic materials, but also consumables with maximum accuracy.
These volumes are included in the estimated construction cost. As a result, the drawings show the exact construction costs and material costs.
Frame construction technology is deservedly popular among buyers of suburban housing due to the ease of construction, low cost and quick assembly. However, when designing such a house, one must not forget about the main thing: it must reliably protect against cold and extraneous noise.
The correct wall design is one of the most important factors in connecting all the necessary requirements together. It doesn't matter whether you build with your own hands or prefer to order a ready-made version - the knowledge of how to make the right cake for the walls of a frame house will in any case be useful for you.
Wall device of a frame house
A frame house is a special type of low-rise building, which is based on a rigid structure of vertical posts connected by horizontal bridges. Insulation is laid in the cells formed in this way, and the inner and outer surfaces are sewn up with appropriate materials.
In the construction business, such a multi-layer device of any element has a special name - a pie.
This is what a typical wall of a frame house looks like in section:
The wall cake, despite its apparent simplicity, must be carried out in accordance with certain rules:
- the thickness of the walls must correspond to the climatic zone and the purpose of the house;
- insulation selection criteria: good sound and heat insulation and a reasonable price;
- to protect the insulation from getting wet and other harmful effects, it is necessary to use special films;
- it is very important to ensure the correct laying of the insulation in order to avoid the appearance of areas of heat leakage (cold bridges);
- the device of the facade must be carried out taking into account the requirements for the materials used.
Now about all the intricacies of the process in order.
Wall thickness
The thickness of the walls of a frame house should be selected in accordance with where and why it is being built. For the main part of the territory of our country, the main task is energy saving, that is, reducing the cost of heating your own housing due to its maximum insulation. In such cases, the frame racks are made of timber, the thickness of which must be at least 200 mm. Sometimes a cross frame device is used, knocking it out of 50x50 mm bars.
For warmer areas, where the climate is mostly hot, the wall thickness can be reduced - the main goal is to reduce the cost of air conditioning and ventilation. It all depends on the size of the insulation used.
The optimal wall thickness for a country house, which is operated only in the warm season, is 40 mm. For the construction of the frame, a "forty" edged board with a width of about 15 cm is most often used.
Insulation
Insulation takes up most of the wall in the section and performs the main function of the enclosing structure of a frame house - it provides reliable heat and sound insulation of the interior.
Currently, quite a lot of different materials have been developed for insulating houses. We will not dwell in detail on the features of the choice here - a separate one is devoted to this. We note only the main points that are necessary for a better understanding of the issue, what is better to put in the wall cake.
The main types of insulation that can be used to equip a frame house are:
- Styrofoam- the cheapest, but at the same time having a number of disadvantages material: low sound insulation, fragility, flammability, susceptibility to rodents;
- mineral wool- the most popular insulation at the present time. The construction of the walls of a frame house using stone wool mats as insulation is now offered by most construction companies;
- polyurethane foam and ecowool- provide exceptional parameters of protection; when using them, vapor barrier is not required. The main disadvantage is the high price due to the need to use special equipment during application.
In the future, we will assume that the cake of the frame structure is filled with mineral wool mats, since in practice it is this structure that is most often encountered.
Correct laying of insulation
The insulation can be laid on the finished exterior finish or directly into the frame. It should be noted that most often, to ensure the required rigidity, the outer surface of a frame house is sheathed with plywood sheets or OSB boards. Then the insulation can be attached directly to them. Otherwise, between the sheets of mineral wool and the cladding, it is necessary to lay a windproof film and preferably bars for a ventilated facade.
So, the device for wall insulation using mineral wool is carried out in the following order:
- When cutting, it is better to cut pieces with a 5 cm width allowance on each side relative to the dimensions of the frame cell. This will allow them to fit tightly without gaps and gaps;
- It is best to seal the joints between the mat and the stand with narrow strips of insulation folded in half. They can be laid by hand or carefully hammered with a sharp instrument;
- The best option is a double layer of insulation between the posts and a third layer on top of them. In this case, the thermal insulation will be optimal, and the conditions for the formation of cold bridges will be eliminated;
- The insulation is fixed to a flat surface using special glue. For additional fixation, you can use plastic disc dowels;
- A vapor barrier must be installed from the inside of the room. We will tell you how to do it correctly in the next section.
Steam and waterproofing
From the side of the inner and outer cladding, the wall cake is equipped with a double protection system: vapor barrier from the inside and waterproofing from the outside.
Vapor barrier is carried out in order not to release wet vapors from the room. Otherwise, the steam will condense inside the wall of the frame house and penetrate into the insulation. When moisture gets in, stone wool greatly loses its properties, so that careless performance of this work can affect comfort: when cold weather sets in, heating costs will increase sharply.
Note again that when using hydrophobic insulation, such as polyurethane foam or ecowool, a vapor barrier is not required.
The waterproofing film is laid outside the insulation, from the side of the facade. With its help, the structure is protected from wind and precipitation.
In frame houses, vapor barrier is most often made of foil-clad materials such as penofol, waterproofing is made of glassine or membrane films. They are attached with an overlap using a construction stapler, and the joints and joints are glued with a special tape.
Internal and external decoration
The wall cake can be sheathed with finishing materials on both sides. Since the wall of a frame house is a perfectly flat surface, it can be finished with almost any available coatings.
Most often, the walls in houses for permanent residence are plastered and tiled or painted. You can read about all the intricacies of this process in the article "How to sheathe a frame house from the outside."
In country houses, the device for external cladding is somewhat simpler. For this, wooden materials (lining, imitation for a bar or a log) or vinyl siding are usually used. Moreover, doing this work on their own, home owners often neglect the recommendations of specialists and fix the cladding directly to the frame. During summer operation, such a solution is quite viable, but if you come and live in such a house for at least a few days in winter, then condensation will begin to form under the sheathing, which will do double harm - destroy the wood and moisten the insulation.
In order to avoid such consequences and immediately lay the possibility of year-round operation, the facade must be made ventilated. It is not difficult - bars with a thickness of 30-40 mm are nailed on the surface of the frame, and cladding is already laid on them. The main difficulty here is to accurately fill the foundation so that it does not interfere with air entering the ventilation gap between the frame and the skin. Then all the condensate that forms will be eroded naturally.
As for the interior decoration, it is most often produced with sheets of drywall, clapboard or fiberboards.
It should only be borne in mind that drywall does not tolerate negative temperatures, therefore it cannot be used in houses that are not heated in winter.
The structure of the walls of a frame house is an optimal structure for high-quality insulation of internal premises. At the same time, it provides ease of installation and reasonable cost. That is why a properly assembled wall cake is the key to warmth and coziness in a comfortable and inexpensive home.
Prefab houses are usually called cheap houses, and they are wary of them. In fact, both economical and elite housing are being built using frame technology. Frame technologies in construction have been used since time immemorial - these are half-timbered houses in Europe, and huts in Ukraine. They were used as the fastest-built and most economical frame houses in the development of the American West, and as the most energy-efficient ones in the development of Siberia.
Principle frame technology consists in the fact that the frame, which is a post-and-beam structure, is erected from a durable material - metal or wood, and the walls are filled with heat-efficient and inexpensive materials.
Previously, adobe, clay, porous stone were used in the walls, and today new materials are used to make the house even lighter and warmer. At the same time, the main advantages of such a structure remain unchanged: efficiency, thermal efficiency, speed of construction, space savings due to the smaller thickness of the walls.
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1. OSB board (OSB), the base for exterior decoration; 2. Counter-lattice forming a ventilation gap; 3. Ventilation gap; 4. Wind protection in the form of a vapor-permeable membrane; 5. Fiber insulation (basalt insulation); 6. Independent double frame uprights; 7. Vapor barrier; 8. Internal OSB board (OSB); 9. GKL, base for interior decoration; 10. A layer of interior decoration. |
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1. Waterproofing, windproof film (diffusion membrane); 2. Thermal insulation 150 mm thick .; 3. OSB sheet with a thickness of 9-12 mm .; 4. Exterior decoration of the walls of the house (block house, lining, imitation of timber, siding); 5. Counter battens made of 30x40 mm bars; 6. Racks of the main frame (timber 150x50 mm., With a step of 500-600 mm.); 7. Vapor barrier; 8. OSB sheet with a thickness of 9-12 mm .; 9. Interior decoration of walls (plasterboard, lining). |
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1. External wall cladding (ISOPLAAT, ISOTEX, with a sheet thickness of 25 mm.); 2. External lathing (planed board 25 mm thick, with a step of 500-600 mm.); 3. Exterior decoration of the walls of the house (block house, lining, imitation of timber, siding); 4. Basalt insulation with a thickness of 150-200 mm .; 5. Vapor barrier film; 6. Racks of the main frame (timber 70x195 mm., With a step of 500-600 mm.); 7. Internal wall cladding made of OSB, 9-12 mm thick. |
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1. External finishing of the house (block house); 2. Lathing made of bars (50x50 mm.); 3. Waterproofing, windproof film; 4. OSB-3 sheet (OSB), thickness 12 mm .; 5. Racks of the main frame (timber 150x50 mm.); 6. Insulation 150 mm thick .; 7. Insulation 50 mm thick .; 8. Lathing made of bars (50x50 mm.); 9. Vapor barrier film; 10. OSB-3 sheet (OSB), thickness 12 mm .; 11. A sheet of drywall 12 mm thick. |
Modern frame construction- multi-part, its construction requires knowledge, experience and thoroughness, which are not always inherent in builders. As a result, since frame houses are very sensitive to the quality of construction, a distrustful attitude has formed towards them. Myths about their negative qualities are countless.
Myth 1. A frame house is short-lived
Different types of frame houses will last from 30 to 100 years. This indicator depends on the quality of the frame and insulation and their safety in the structure.
To ensure the durability of the materials, it is important to prevent moisture from entering the interior of the wall. The durability of wood and metal in conditions of normal atmospheric humidity and with proper processing exceeds 100 years.
The weak link is the insulation. A house with expanded polystyrene insulation will last at least 30 years. The use of hard mineral wool material will increase the service life of the building without repairing the wall to 60 years or more. However, these terms will be justified with high-quality performance at home, when fasteners and protective films have a high degree of reliability, ensuring the tightness of the structure for many years.
The metal frame is reliable and can carry heavy loads
The use of raw wood for the frame significantly reduces the durability of the structure. As the tree in the built house dries up, the racks and beams change their geometry, the cladding breaks down, cracks appear at the joints, so you should carefully monitor the moisture content of the material intended for the frame (for this you can use a special device - a moisture meter). The tree must be dried naturally or artificially (vacuum drying).
Most often, the frame is made of wood.
Summary: the durability of a frame house is 30-100 years, and depends on the quality of materials and work.
Myth 2. The frame house is cold, it will not withstand frost
On the contrary, one of the most important advantages of frame houses is the high energy-saving qualities of the walls. They are provided by a layer of insulation 15-20 cm thick, located inside the wall between the frame posts. But the insulation can be more serious - as in frame houses with increased energy efficiency.
This solution also eliminates the cold bridges that arise at the locations of the frame struts. Wood, although it has a relatively low thermal conductivity, is still greater than the thermal conductivity of the insulation. The coefficient of resistance to heat transfer of the outer wall of a standard frame house without external insulation is 2.9 m * ° C / W, the structure "sheathing-insulation-sheathing" is 3.4 m * ° C / W, and houses with external insulation from extruded polystyrene foam 5 cm thick - 4.7 m * ° С / W. The lowest value is already in compliance with the regulations. In addition, the variation in the parameters of heaters allows the use of the same structures, both in the southern and northern regions.
Many manufacturers use environmentally friendly cement-bonded particleboards for cladding. In this case, CBPB slabs with stone chips were used.
American frame house lesson
After World War II, tens of thousands of American families moved to the suburbs. This happened thanks to the construction of prefabricated frame houses, which cost several times less than traditional stone houses. The author of the idea was the builder and businessman Bill Levitt. The first town of Levittown (named so later in his honor) was built 50 kilometers from New York. "Construction of the century" began in July 1947, and after three months the first young families moved to new houses, and then 100-150 new settlers came a week.
In four years, the company has erected 17,000 houses near New York. Levitt was accused of building temporary huts, which would fall apart in a few years. But the houses justified themselves and stood for a long time: about a thousand of them are still in operation. Levitt organized factory production and a conveyor belt in construction: ready-made blocks of the house were delivered to the assembly site, the construction teams were narrowly specialized. Almost anyone could buy a house (60 years ago they cost 8 thousand dollars). Levitt's idea led to a revolution in world housing.
Summary: the frame house is warm enough.
Myth 3. All frame houses are built using the same technology
The schematic diagram of the wall for all frame houses is really the same: between the frame posts there is a heater, protected from the inside with a vapor barrier film, with an outer waterproof superdiffuse (vapor permeable) membrane. On both sides, the frame and insulation are protected by rigid sheathing, various: oriented strand boards (OSB, OSB), cement-bonded chipboards (DSP), waterproof, gypsum plasterboards (GKL). The floors are arranged in a similar way.
However, different types of buildings have significant differences in construction methods, materials and design nuances. Frame houses are prefabricated, since they are assembled from prefabricated structures, the set of which is brought to the construction site. The production of structures must necessarily be factory-based - this approach will ensure dimensional accuracy and completeness of elements. At the same time, the technology for assembling a house can be different:
assembly on site
A wall frame is installed on a pre-prepared foundation, sheathed it, filled with insulation, and protected with insulation. In the same way, floors, a roof are assembled from the prepared elements, then windows, doors, etc. are installed. The assembly time on the construction site is 3-12 weeks. The work requires thoroughness and strict adherence to the installation requirements - it is difficult for a layman to control this.
factory assembly (frame-panel houses)
The assembly of the walls and ceilings of the house is carried out in the factory on special technological lines, and they are brought to the construction site already. They come in various degrees of readiness: from the assembled frame structure to fully finished wall panels (with inserted windows and built-in utilities), multi-layer floor slabs and even roofs. Prefabricated elements must correspond to the design dimensions with an accuracy of a millimeter, and on the construction site they are only fastened together.
The box is erected within 3-7 days, depending on the complexity of the project. To a large extent, the quality of the structure depends on the factory work. Therefore, the prefabricated company must have an impeccable reputation: then the building will be reliable too. The house should be assembled by a specially trained team. However, the kit together with detailed instructions can be supplied to the customer for self-assembly. This practice is found both in foreign and domestic frame construction. Houses are distinguished by frame material:
Wooden frame
They are made from a board, solid or glued beams (which is the most durable, high-quality and expensive), as well as a wooden I-beam (wood + OSB + wood). The standard section of the rack is 50 x 150 mm. The durability and strength of the house depends on the quality of the tree. The main requirement is that the moisture content of sawn timber should be no higher than 18%. Timber framed houses are the most common.
Metal carcass
They are made from profiles of various configurations assembled on bolts. They must have an anti-corrosion coating (galvanized or painted). The metal frame allows you to arrange large spans of floors and openings in the walls (in this only a frame made of laminated veneer lumber can be compared with it).
Other differences between frame houses are in the design of the wall. The materials, thickness and number of layers of insulation, cladding, steam and waterproofing, floor structures (along beams, trusses or panels) can be different. Thus, the generalized name "Canadian houses" does not describe the whole variety of frame structures.
There are such types of them:
- timber framed houses and insulation made of basalt wool and a wall thickness of 18-25 cm (frame and frame-panel);
- houses with a metal frame , with a basalt wool insulation and a wall thickness of 18-25 cm (frame);
- frame panelse at home with insulation made of expanded polystyrene and a wall thickness of 12-25 cm;
- premium class houses with glued laminated timber frame , several layers of insulation and wall thickness up to 35-40 cm.
Summary: frame houses differ in design, assembly technology and heat engineering properties.
How is the frame house insulated?
Insulation materials that are used in the walls of frame houses must ensure the thermal insulation of the house is not lower than the standard with a layer thickness of about 15 cm (this figure is determined by the size of the frame section).
These requirements are met:
mineral (basalt) wool (sufficient thickness - 15 cm). This material also has good sound insulation properties. Insulation plates must be rigid so that they do not shrink over time and reduce the energy efficiency of the walls of the house. Basalt wool is the most common insulation in frame houses.
Mineral wool is one of the most popular heaters
foamed p enopolyurethane (PPU), sufficient thickness 10-12 cm). It is a durable, tough material. Its disadvantage is that it emits poisonous smoke in the event of a fire, so it must be insulated with cladding in the wall (which exactly corresponds to the design of a frame house). Polyurethane foam is used in some types of prefabricated frame-panel houses.
extruded polystyrene foam used as additional insulation (layer thickness - 3-10 cm). It is laid on the outer cladding of houses to make them more energy efficient. It is a high quality, durable, expensive material used in premium frame houses.
ecowool - cellulose insulation (thickness 20 cm). The material is a homogeneous mass resembling cotton wool. When walls are insulated, it is poured between the skins or moistened and applied to the insulated surface using blowing equipment. With the wet method of application, the material, solidifying, adheres tightly to the structures (due to the lignin present in it - wood glue, a natural binder). To reduce flammability, ecowool contains fire retardants.
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wood wool - insulation for houses with increased requirements for environmental friendliness (thickness - 16-20 cm). It is in the form of rigid boards, in which the binder of fine cellulose fibers is natural wood resin.
Another type of environmentally friendly insulation - reed (reed) mats and slabs .
Mineral wool properties
The effectiveness of a heat-insulating material for a frame house consists of several aspects:
- thermal insulation properties,
- environmental and fire safety,
- ease of installation and durability.
These criteria are met by slabs of mineral wool - a non-combustible material, which is especially important for ensuring the fire safety of timber frame houses. Quality stone wool slabs do not burn, do not emit smoke or flaming droplets, and they also serve as excellent acoustic insulation. Mineral wool is hydrophobic (almost does not absorb moisture) and, in addition, does not absorb moisture from the air. The main raw materials in the production process of this insulation are basalt and gabbro. Rocks melted at a temperature of 1400 ° C are subjected to fiber separation, forming stone wool. Thermal insulation products made of this material, with proper installation and operation, can serve for more than 50 years. Insulation in the frame structure should be laid tightly to the uprights (a rasp is installed), there should be no gaps between the heat-insulating plates. Depending on the type of framing structure, vapor barrier and wind protection may be required.
Thermal inertia of the frame wall
Feature of the frame wall - its low thermal inertia (the ability to accumulate heat and then gradually release it). High inertia is inherent in brick, concrete, less - in wood, so a cold house with stone walls heats up slowly, and when the heating is turned off, it cools down slowly. In the frame wall, in addition to wood, a significant part of the mass is insulation, which does not accumulate heat. This means that a house with frame walls heats up quickly, since heat is not consumed to heat the wall, but it also cools down quickly when the heating is turned off. Low thermal inertia is not a positive or negative quality, but it must be taken into account.
Walls with high thermal inertia smooth out daily temperature fluctuations, while in a house with frame walls they will be more pronounced. In winter, they will have to be smoothed out due to the dynamism of the heating system (its ability to quickly heat up when turned on and cool down when turned off, which is more inherent in electrical systems). But from a low-inertial wall, there will never be cold and damp air. And if necessary, the thermal inertia of the frame house as a whole can be increased by using a reinforced concrete foundation slab (which is very convenient for the construction of such buildings), a more massive finish (for example, when using two layers of gypsum board in the cladding).
Myth 4. The wall of a frame house is fragile, it can be broken and climbed into the house
There is some truth in this - the brick is stronger, but it is unlikely that thieves will break the wall when it is much easier to get into the house through a window or door. The construction of a standard wall of a frame house is similar to that of a roof and has approximately the same thickness. However, it is not easy to destroy it. OSB, with which the house is sheathed from the outside, is stronger than solid wood of the same thickness due to its multi-layer structure. Even stronger DSP. The cladding together with the frame gives the wall the necessary rigidity and stability.
Particularly high strength (due to the rigid interconnection of layers) is distinguished by a wall made of prefabricated panels and walls of houses with several layers of insulation. The strength of the house itself is also sufficient. Many foreign technologies are designed for seismic resistance up to 7 points. In addition, due to the lightness of the structure, frame houses without reinforcement can be built on soils with low bearing capacity, without fear of distortions and cracks.
Summary: frame houses are durable and resistant to natural disasters, but against a person who is determined to break a wall, he may not resist.
Ready-made panels can be ordered for self-assembly, but it is better if a team of professionals is involved in the construction.
Monitoring the implementation of the foundation of a frame house
For frame houses, they are most often used, or foundations. Savings are achieved due to lower consumption of materials, a small amount of land and installation work. The foundation is the foundation of the house, and its construction should be treated with particular care. If the customer is not sure of the high professionalism of the builders, he can control the quality of the execution himself, referring to the drawings. Calculation of foundations and production of working drawings are performed by a professional designer. In the documentation, the customer will find in detail the necessary plans, types, sections, specifications, material consumption.
When using factory concrete, a certificate for the imported material must be required from builders or suppliers. must correspond to what is stated in the drawings. When using reinforcement, it should be checked whether its diameter and method of tying corresponds to that specified by the designer. You can also take photographs of the various stages in the foundation and consult with other professionals.
For timber-framed houses with wood-based paneling, fire breaks should be larger
Myth 5. A frame house does not breathe, it is always stuffy in it
In fact, in any home a healthy microclimate is provided only by ventilation, regardless of the material of its walls. The myth is based on the misconception that brick walls breathe - they let excess moisture through themselves. However, according to experts, the diffusion of steam through a vapor-permeable wall is insignificant compared to the volume of its accumulation in a living room. In old houses, including brick ones, ventilation was provided by cracks in windows and doors, underground and in the attic.
However, an energy efficient building, whether made of stone or frame, must have a sealed structure. At the same time, fresh air in the house is provided by an efficient mechanical extraction system. Its project should be included in the plan of each frame house. So that ventilation does not reduce the thermal efficiency of the house, it is advisable to have it in the system. In addition, natural ventilation should be provided - the windows in each room should be open.
Summary: in a frame house equipped with a mechanical exhaust ventilation system, even with the windows closed, there will always be fresh air.
Myth 6. A frame house is not environmentally friendly
Most of the frame houses meet the environmental requirements, and many of them have the corresponding European certificates. The wood or metal from which the frame is made is one of the most sustainable materials known. Stone wool, which is usually used in frame houses, is positioned as a neutral material that is not harmful to health (although there are different opinions on this). Expanded polystyrene, which is used in the most economical buildings, does not pose a danger at temperatures below 85 ° C, moreover, in the wall it is completely isolated from the inner space by cladding. Inside the walls, gypsum boards are sheathed, the environmental friendliness of which is beyond doubt, or OSB, which are 95% wood (the percentage of harmful binding resins in them is minimized). The insulating films included in the wall are environmentally neutral. Overlappings in frame houses are made on wooden beams, partitions - on the basis of a wooden frame.
Of course, if the frame house is too cheap, the likelihood of using low-quality materials hazardous to health is high. But such a danger can arise not only in the construction of frame houses. In any case, if you doubt the quality of the components, ask for certificates confirming their environmental friendliness and the conclusion of the SES.
Summary: the structure of a high-quality frame house should not contain materials that are harmful to health.
House building technologies and environmental friendliness
Today there are three technologies for the construction of prefabricated frame houses: 1) frame, 2) panel and 3) frame-panel (Canadian). They differ from each other in design nuances. In the first case, enclosing structures and internal partitions (walls) are mounted on the erected frame. With panel housing construction, the walls of the house do not need additional reinforcement, since they themselves are load-bearing.
Canadian technology for the construction of frame houses is a kind of symbiosis of the first two, since those used, being load-bearing, are additionally reinforced with a wooden frame. The main structural elements of frame houses are wood and its derivatives, or rather OSB. There has been a lot of controversy about the environmental friendliness of OSB. At the very beginning of the production of these boards, manufacturers used a formaldehyde-based adhesive, but after much research, a better solution was proposed that meets the strict standards and requirements for environmental protection. As a result, now we have frame-panel houses that are environmentally friendly and comfortable for living.
Myth 7. A frame house is fire hazardous
In such buildings, all load-bearing elements of walls and roofs must have a fire retardant treatment. It is also desirable to protect them from exposure to high temperatures with sheet or plate materials. These include sheathing made of DSP and GKL - non-combustible materials. Sheathing of two layers of gypsum board will increase the fire resistance of the structure by 30 minutes (and at the same time improve the sound insulation of the wall). In general, the fire resistance limit of frame house structures is 30-60 minutes, which corresponds to the standards and should be reflected in the manufacturer's certificate. Also, fire safety requirements should be taken into account when placing a house on a site. Between frame structures, a greater fire-prevention distance is required than between stone ones.
Abstract: the degree of fire resistance of frame houses is lower than that of stone ones; to increase their fire safety, wooden structures are treated with fire retardants and two layers of gypsum board are used for the inner lining.
Myth 8. All frame houses are built according to standard designs.
Indeed, every company that builds frame houses has at its disposal detailed standard projects, the designs of which are included in factory production programs. But if necessary, the company's design bureau develops an individual project or adapts one that the customer already has for frame structures. Building a house in this case will cost more than a standard project, for which the factory has already established the manufacture of structures. In addition, more time will pass from the beginning of the design to the end of construction.
Summary: a frame house can be built according to both a standard and an individual project.
Features of the metal frame
In our country, some developers are still skeptical of frame buildings. We are accustomed to the fact that a house must be built “for centuries” and from massive materials, while pre-fabricated buildings seem too unreliable. A rigid and durable metal frame as a supporting structure allows the transition to new construction technologies, while remaining true to the tradition of solidity.
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A finished frame house built on the basis of a metal frame does not outwardly differ from buildings made of other materials.
The metal frame also has a number of other advantages. So, it can withstand heavy loads, for example, beautiful, but at the same time rather heavy natural ceramic or cement-sand tiles. The metal also provides stability to the geometry of the house (wood construction made from poorly dried and untreated raw materials can lead to problems, and additional preparation is a waste that construction companies are trying to avoid). Metal also wins in terms of fire safety. Some customers are afraid that metal carcass will be cold or start to rust. But this is just a myth - the metal is covered with a sufficient layer of heat and waterproofing so as not to freeze and serve for many years.
Myth 9. A frame house is unrepresentative in appearance.
One cannot agree with this. A frame house is just a construction technology. And its appearance depends on the finish and architectural qualities of the project. The decoration is the same as for houses made of stone materials: plaster, painting, ventilated facade using siding, block house, etc. It is also possible to clad the walls with bricks, and the basement with stone (it is still not recommended to finish the walls with stone). Architecturally, the project of a frame house does not differ from projects of buildings made of stone materials, and almost any of them can be recycled for frame structures. Thus, a frame house can be quite representative.
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Houses built using frame technology can look modern and representative.
There are almost no restrictions in interior design: any finish can be applied to drywall, except, perhaps, heavy materials such as stone. However, the architecture of frame buildings does have its own peculiarities. The frame allows, without additional constructive tricks, to create large open spaces in the interior, arrange wide windows, which, even with small areas, creates a feeling of spaciousness in the house. The idea of the low-budget appearance of the frame structure has developed due to the fact that most often they are built when it is necessary to save money. However, in foreign practice, frame houses are often referred to as objects of modern, progressive architecture: environmentally friendly, economical and lightweight.
Summary: a frame house can look beautiful and solid.
Myth 10. All frame houses are cheap.
The cost of building a frame house ranges from $ 150 to $ 1200 / m². Such a wide range is due to various technologies and the possibility for the customer to choose the degree of construction readiness: from purchasing a set of houses for self-construction to turnkey construction. Within the framework of one technology, fluctuations in cost are possible depending on the materials used. For example, a house with a frame made of laminated veneer lumber will cost more than one made of solid wood. The material of insulation and cladding, etc. matters. Houses with insulation from expanded polystyrene are cheaper than from basalt wool, cladding from OSB is cheaper than from CBPB.
With additional insulation, the cost of the house will increase. Some technologies use imported energy-efficient windows and doors, especially reliable membranes, which also increases the cost of construction. But in general, in terms of material consumption and labor intensity, frame walls are among the most economical. This is due to the smaller volume of the foundation and walls, as well as the lower price of insulation compared to massive materials.
The cost of 1 m² of a standard frame wall 20 cm thick is 1.3 times cheaper than a wall made of timber, 1.7 times cheaper than a wall made of foam concrete blocks and 2.2 times cheaper than a wall made of bricks (with the same energy-saving ability and different wall thicknesses required for it achievements). But too low a price should alert: perhaps the frame tree will not be dry enough, the cladding will be of minimum thickness, etc. You should always make sure of the quality of the structures and materials for assembling the house. A reliable indicator of quality is a certificate of technology compliance with European standards (construction, energy-saving, environmental), as well as a guarantee provided by the company (for the highest quality frame houses it is 30 years). One of the advantages of frame construction is the transparency of investments and the accuracy of the estimate. The cost of a house kit is determined individually after the development of the project and does not change further.
Summary: the price range of 1 m² of frame houses ranges from the cheapest to the elite.
Today we will consider with you frame walls, the construction principle of which is simple and ingenious at the same time. For example, consider a wooden frame, which is currently used for the construction of 80 percent of all frame residential low-rise buildings.
So, timber frame walls. The principle of construction is simple and in essence resembles, on the one hand, a children's designer, on the other hand, labor lessons at school. Remember we banged stools in labor lessons? So, the principle of constructing a frame wall is exactly the same. Each adjacent post, each frame element support each other through fasteners and ties.
It turns out that any individual part of the supporting frame, be it a stand or a jib, is, individually, rather fragile. However, in a bundle, when all the frame parts are correctly assembled and secured, the frame elements create an amazingly strong system.
This page contains general schemes of frame walls and their individual elements. As can be seen from the drawings, the following principles must be followed when installing a frame wall:
- The rigidity of the structure.
- Reasonable use of material.
- Construction speed.
In fact, these are racks that are interconnected by jibs. With the help of the lower and upper strapping, the load is transferred from the roof through the posts to the foundation. Power elements of window and door openings unload these nodes and remove the load from the window and door blocks.
The outer cladding of the frame wall also serves as a load-bearing element. Sometimes the reinforcement is done not through the outer skin, but through the inner one. Sheathing can be done with any rigid slab material (plywood, OSB), and with thin boards (20-30 mm thick) diagonally.
The use of DSP to strengthen the frame is unreasonable, since in this material hardware (nails, screws) do not have a rigid attachment. Over time, the design will begin to "walk", which will contradict the principle number 1.
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Any structure of a frame house, the nodes of which are calculated and correctly executed, is reliable by default. You can read the nodes of the frame yourself on a calculator, or you can use ready-made ... -
To imagine what a cake of a wall of a frame house with mineral wool as insulation looks like, just look at the diagrams on this page. For different conditions ... -
This page shows a sectional frame wall together with insulation, which is mounted between the frame posts. Simply put, a sectional frame wall is like this ... -
Vapor barrier during the construction of a frame house is used to prevent moisture from entering the house into the thermal insulation materials located in the walls of the frame. One of the main conditions for using a heat insulator ... -
The simplest structure of the walls of a frame house is vertical posts, connected by an upper and lower strapping and tied with jibs for additional rigidity of the structure. When using a slab ...
Warm, comfortable, modern - the frame will be so provided that it is built according to all the rules. Particular attention should be paid to the correct pie of the frame wall. The users of the site argue about what should be, what materials can be taken to replace those already familiar to us.
We list the main mistakes that some make when constructing a frame wall:
- do not take into account the possibility of a dew point;
- do not install vapor barrier material;
- install a vapor barrier on both sides of the insulation;
- do not glue the joints of the vapor barrier;
- do not mount the windscreen or install it under the slab sheathing.
There is only one way to avoid these mistakes: to use reliable pie schemes that have been worked out over the years.
1. Neglecting vapor barrier and wind protection
Many novice developers do not think about what processes can occur inside the wall. The insulation starts to get wet, and the frame racks become moldy and rot. This is due to the fact that the wind protection is not installed, or the sequence of the layers of the wall cake is disrupted.
Wall cake in a frame house:
In the opinion Linkozavr, the classic cake of the frame wall, (from the inside - out) is:
1. Drywall - as a base layer for interior decoration.
2. Vapor barrier.
3. Insulation (mineral wool).
4. OSB. Layers of a frame house
5. Wind protection.
6. Exterior finish: air-gap siding on counter grill, etc.
The layers in a frame house should be located exactly like this, it is impossible to replace this sequence with another, and each element performs a strictly defined function.
Denis Reznichenko, Moscow(nickname on the forum silent):
- The vapor barrier is installed from the inside, because it limits the flow of moisture into the wall. Wind protection is always placed outside, because it prevents the wind from blowing through the thermal insulation, protects it from precipitation and allows excess moisture to escape.
Wall cake of a frame house.
To understand the need for high-quality vapor barrier, you need to understand the term "dew point".
Dew point is a condition in which, under the influence of low temperature, water vapor contained in the air begins to condense, forming water droplets.
The appearance of the dew point depends on:
- air temperature (inside and outside the room);
- relative humidity (indoor and outdoor).
The higher the relative humidity, the higher the dew point temperature.
When moisture condensation occurs, the following occurs:
- the insulation gets wet and loses its thermal insulation properties;
- the wall begins to freeze;
- frame boards are moldy and rot.
2. Incorrectly installed vapor barrier
The most common mistake in the construction of a frame is an incorrectly mounted vapor barrier. Because of this, moisture passes unhindered into the insulation.
Roracotta:
- The easiest and cheapest way is to use ordinary high-density polyethylene, not less than 200 microns, as a vapor barrier.
You can install a vapor barrier in three steps:
1. Polyethylene is mounted with an overlap between rolls, about 15 centimeters in each direction.
2. Polyethylene beats with a stapler on the racks, with a step between the staples of 30-40 cm.
3. All joints are carefully glued with bituminous glue. If the joints do not overlap, then they must be glued with a special adhesive tape.
Foil insulation can be used as a vapor barrier. This, due to the foil layer, does not allow steam to penetrate into the insulation. Everything the joints are glued with butyl rubber tape.
Frame house pie with OSB outside
The classic pie of a frame wall involves the installation of a power cladding - OSB slabs outside the house. In addition to such a scheme, another one is also used - the so-called "inverted" frame, where the load-bearing sheathing is oriented towards the inside of the house. Let's see why this option is being done.
The OSB slab is low vapor permeable, and the classical one violates the main principle of building a frame structure - vapor permeability should increase from the inside to the outside.
Dmitry1000:
- In my opinion, even if I make an internal vapor barrier, dew will still fall out in the insulation, because from the inside of the house there is a vapor barrier, and from the outside there is OSB, and the moisture trapped in the insulation simply has nowhere to go.
Let's see if this is actually correct.
Paulspb suggests the following calculation:
- The total generation of water vapor in a house with an area of 120 sq. m, with a family of three, will be - 6320 g / day. With a ceiling height of a one-story house of 2.8 m, the volume of the house is approximately 336 m3, the amount of "generated" moisture, that is, remaining in the air after ventilation, will be 2670 g, or 7.95 g / m3.
Now let's imagine it's winter outside and -10. At 100% humidity, the air contains 2.37 g / m3 of water. There is much more moisture inside the house - about 10.32 g / m3. This leads to the movement of steam from the inside out through the building envelope.
Paulspb:
- Water vapor will escape through the walls and ceiling, the total area of which is about 240 sq. M.
In this case, 10.9 g of water should pass through 1 square meter of surface per day.
An OSB slab with a thickness of 20 mm passes 5.39 g of steam per day through 1 square meter. Slab in 12 mm - 8.98 g of steam, in 10 mm - 10.8 g.
OSB with a thickness of 9 - 12 mm has a low vapor permeability. OSB with a thickness of 18 mm and above is practically vapor tight.
Since outdoor structures most often try to sheathe OSB with a thickness of 9 or 12 mm, moisture will gradually come out.
The classic correct pie for the wireframe.
3. Correct frame house wall: breathable.
You can often hear the expression: "breathing" frame walls, i.e. those that let steam in both directions and regulate the air exchange in the room.
User with nickname Vitla offers a pie like this (from the inside out):
1. Drywall.
3. Thermal insulation
4. Wind and moisture protection.
5. Ventzazor.
6. Exterior decoration.
- The load-bearing sheathing must be fixed from the inside of the house. Suitable for this purpose: OSB, plywood, fiberboard, or you can replace them with a grooved board. GKL takes excess moisture from the room, and, if necessary, gives it back. That is, this kind of cake turns out to be "breathing", which is important for a comfortable stay in the house.
Correct pie of a frame wall with OSB cladding
Let's figure out whether such a scheme has the right to life
“There are no“ breathing ”walls. My advice is to do a standard assembly and a reliable vapor barrier.
Correct pie of the frame wall
Roracotta:
- Any correct frame needs a reliable vapor barrier.
Air exchange in the frame is provided by ventilation, not by "breathing" structures!
In addition, the load-bearing OSB sheathing installed from the inside without additional vapor barrier allows steam to pass through.
Because OSB is mounted with a small gap between the sheets (3-5 mm), then without additional vapor barrier, moisture-saturated steam will enter the insulation through this gap.
Frame house pie with osb
When installing OSB from the inside, it is difficult to insulate an open wall in the rain or in winter. The slab, installed outside, additionally connects the floors of the first and second floors, the frame posts and acts as a load-bearing element.
4. Pie of a frame house with OSB outside - Western approach
Roracotta:
- In Canada, it is unprofitable to insulate walls by laying fiberglass wadded insulation with a thickness of more than 150 mm.
They do this: lay mineral wool 15 cm thick, and outside, on the OSB, attach foam plastic 50-100 mm thick.
Thus, the cold bridges are completely eliminated, and a very warm structure is obtained.
- With such insulation, a special drainage membrane is laid between the OSB and the foam.
It is not worth using extruded polystyrene foam as an additional external insulation. Due to its almost zero vapor permeability, EPS locks moisture inside. This can lead to a dew point on the inside of such a heater.
Options for the wall design of a frame house without OSB
In the Scandinavian countries, another option is used, and the pie (outside - in) is as follows:
1. Facade gypsum board or windproof film.
2. Racks of the frame, filled with insulation.
3. Vapor barrier
4. GKL on the crate.
An interesting point: neither OSB boards nor plywood to replace it as a power frame cladding in such a pie are used, and all communications are carried out in an air gap between drywall and vapor barrier.
Porcupine:
- In Finland, in such a pie of a frame house, the replacement of OSB is basalt wool. A layer of vapor barrier is always put in the construction of the cake! Conventional plastic sheeting is commonly used.
The inner lining of the frame should be less vapor permeable than the outer one.
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