Assembling a house from timber: what needs to be done before it
Houses made of timber: projects and development
Any construction must begin with the development of a project. Projects must include drawings of the future construction, as well as the materials and tools that will be used. By drawing up such a document, you can not only design a house that is suitable in all respects, but also accurately calculate the required amount of building materials and total financial costs.
In the process of drawing up a project, it is important to take into account a lot of important details, namely:
- The place where building material will be purchased, as well as where it will be stored during the construction of the house;
- What kind of communications will need to be carried out;
- Before starting construction work, you must obtain a building permit from the architectural department;
- It is also important to create a detailed estimate.
Important: When developing a project, it is necessary to take into account the dimensions of the timber used.
Budgeting
In order to calculate the total financial costs of a log house, it is customary to draw up an estimate in the form of a table. All materials and tools are included in it along with their cost. The cost of the construction work itself is also included there. Depending on the specific features and parameters of the project, the final estimate may vary greatly.
Selection of timber
When choosing a material for building a log house from timber, you need to know that there are several types of this building material:
- Ordinary timber;
- Profiled;
- Glued.
Much will directly depend on financial capabilities. Of course, it is much more convenient to use glued or profiled timber. These types of timber are almost dry and also have special groove locks. And this greatly simplifies the entire process of assembling a house.
When choosing and purchasing timber, experts recommend following the following rules:
- It is better to purchase timber made from timber harvested in winter. This is due to the fact that in this way more resin will be retained in the wood, which will increase the durability of the building material;
- When purchasing timber, it is important to have a tape measure with you to check the dimensions declared by the seller, as there are often cases when the declared dimensions differ greatly from the actual parameters of the timber;
- You should also visually examine the evenness of the material;
- You need to make sure that fungus and mold have not affected the wood in any way;
- Wood with fallen knots should be rejected.
Purchase of construction materials and tools
If you are going to build a log house from timber, you will need to purchase the following building materials:
- Wood beams;
- Insulation;
- Edged and unedged boards;
- Lumber for creating ceilings, floors and interior partitions;
- Building materials for roofing;
- Windows and door panels;
- Waterproofing;
- Construction staples;
- Nails and other consumables.
The purchase of building materials can be carried out either in stages as needed, or in full at once.
If you are going to build a house from timber with your own hands, you will need the following equipment and tools:
- Excavator for preparing the site for the foundation;
- Concrete mixer;
- Wooden formwork;
- Scaffolding and scaffolding;
- Various hand tools for woodworking and concrete work.
Depending on the type of foundation used, different types of equipment can be used.
How to cut trees along a log with a chainsaw: video tutorial
Timber and boards are common materials, but not everyone benefits from buying them ready-made. An alternative is to make them yourself from unhewn logs. Before cutting down trees with a chainsaw, it is worth understanding in more detail the intricacies of this activity.
How to cut with a chainsaw?
What to cut with?
Before you cut down trees (with a chainsaw or other machine), you need to find out about the most suitable option. The choice of tools depends on the number of logs and available funds. To do business, naturally, it is better to buy a small sawmill. But for small construction this is not necessary. A regular chainsaw will do. If you compare it with an electric tool, then it is worth mentioning several advantages:
- high power;
- Duration of operation without turning off the engine is more than an hour;
- withstands high air humidity;
- You can work in the forest, far from a source of electricity.
To properly cut logs with a chainsaw, you need to have several devices with you:
- A machine that fixes tree trunks.
- A special nozzle and a frame that serves as a guide.
- The chainsaw itself should not be a simple household tool, but a professional mechanism.
These units are ready for long-term operation.
A frame for a chainsaw can be purchased or made by yourself. Using it, the width of the sawn board is adjusted. A common option is to make this device from an iron school chair.
How to cut along a log?
To obtain even boards you need a guide. There are professional mini-sawmills, but a properly made device with your own hands will be no different from an expensive device. The item must be mounted on the saw bar with bolts.
Before you can properly cut trees with a chainsaw, you need to purchase and install a chain on it to work along the log. If it is not possible to go to the store, then you should simply sharpen the links, maintaining an angle of 10°. The chain needs to be sharpened periodically, since you will have to cut along the log without frequent breaks. This will make the work much easier.
The wooden guide must be secured before sawing begins. The structure of the frame and other devices is shown in the photo. The result should be a structure that can firmly hold the log itself and at the same time have a wide enough stop for the frame mounted on the chainsaw.
For convenience, structural elements are secured with self-tapping screws rather than nails, which are difficult to remove. After this, the chainsaw is placed with its frame on the guide board, and the first cut is made. If a beam is needed, the log is turned several times, and the described operation is carried out on four sides. This is also done when smooth boards are needed. The frame rests on the flat surface of the log and, after the next cut, the first board is obtained. Then everything happens in the same way. If there is no need for straight edges of the board, then you can saw without turning the log over.
How to cut a trunk crosswise for firewood
Cutting wood with a chainsaw is much easier than making boards. This method is also used to make discs for decorating garden paths and small benches and tables. Trees are sawn crosswise and then along the log. Decorative disks are made about 15 cm thick. If the work takes place on a plot, then you also need to be able to cut down trees. The main thing is to accurately find out the trajectory of the fall and make deep enough cuts. You can even fell large logs with a tool whose tire is smaller than the diameter of the trunk, you just have to do it skillfully.
To start sawing a log crosswise for firewood, it is mounted on strong sawhorses. If it is necessary to remove the bark, this is done before work is carried out. When trees are too large, they are rolled onto a raised platform made of several boards. If the length of the saw bar is less than the diameter of the trunk, the cut is made in a circle. First, a small groove is made to serve as a guide, because if you start sawing suddenly, it may turn out uneven. But for firewood, a flat surface is completely useless.
You should start sawing trees with a chainsaw (the video shows the process in detail) after studying the safety precautions.
Safety regulations
When cutting logs with a chainsaw into firewood, workers must use protective equipment, such as:
- headphones;
- clothes made of thick fabric;
- gloves.
It is necessary to have a first aid kit nearby, because a chainsaw is very dangerous, and even with a small wrong movement it causes deep wounds. For safety reasons, you should only add fuel after the tank has cooled, and start the engine with a chain brake to prevent premature rotation of the cutting links.
If we talk about the features of working with a chainsaw, then we should talk about one of the main ones - you need to press it smoothly so that the chain easily sinks into the tree, and not press on it with all your might. Another important point is that when working at a height of more than one and a half meters, you need to use a ladder. Otherwise, the tool will pose a serious danger to the worker. When the chain approaches the side of the trunk opposite from the person, you need to hold it in such a way that after complete sawing it does not fall on your feet, but moves slightly forward.
To learn more about the intricacies of working with this tool, you can watch videos and photos, drawing up a plan for your intended actions.
fermerteh.ru
Foundation for a house made of timber
For timber houses, foundations that are not too massive are ideal, for example:
- Tape with a shallow type of filling over the entire area and with all load-bearing walls;
- From screw piles with overlaying concrete slabs;
- Columnar type foundation followed by the use of siding for cladding.
Conclusion
Timber is an excellent material for the construction of this structure
Thin timber has many advantages when building a steam room. However, we must not forget that it must be protected from external and internal influences. If you watch the video provided to you in this article, you will learn a lot of useful information on the topic we have discussed.
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Houses made of timber: how to assemble
Timber processing process
A log house necessarily involves treating the wood with various chemical compounds. To maximize the protection of wood from premature destruction and ignition, you must adhere to the following scheme:
- First, the wood is treated with a special antiseptic;
- Next, a fire retardant composition;
- Then light protection;
- At the very end, waterproofing is used.
Wiring a house made of timber
Anyone who is interested in the question of how to make a log house from timber with their own hands should know this. The first crown of the log house (or frame) should be laid level on the pre-dried waterproofing. It is important to remember that the first crown must have a larger cross-section than the others. In this way, the overall stability of the entire structure is achieved. The first crown must be laid on a backing board.
The wooden frame is fixed to the foundation with metal anchors. The box is attached to the foundation only if we are talking about a small building. Large houses with several floors will be stable due to their weight without additional fixation.
The walls of a timber house are built by laying alternate rows. For this reason, the main thing is to understand how the first crown is laid. All crowns and rows are fixed using a dowel.
All layers of timber alternate with tenons and grooves to achieve maximum strength and reliability of the entire structure. In addition, this allows you to make the corners of the building completely windproof. And this has a positive effect on maintaining heat indoors.
Connecting timber in corners and lengthwise
There are two ways to connect timber in the corners:
- With remainder;
• No residue.
Moreover, for each method there are several pairing options, which depend on the method of forming the angle itself.
At the same time, there are four options for longitudinal connections:
- Half a tree;
- Longitudinal tenon on dowels;
- Longitudinal root spine;
- With an oblique lock.
The longitudinal connection method using a tenon on dowels is the most reliable. Therefore, it is most widely used when building a log house from timber. In this case, the groove manufacturing technology completely repeats the technology of corner joints with keys.
The concept of delivery for sawing round timber
A stand is a set of saws, clamping and inter-saw spacers installed in a saw frame to produce lumber with specified thickness parameters.
In other words, delivery is a plan for cutting sawn raw materials (logs) of uniform quality and size into products of given parameters and quality.
When sawing, waddling is realized by a digital series showing the thickness of the boards being cut in millimeters:
19-19-32-32-19-19.
This series of numbers means that two boards 32 mm thick are cut from the central part of the log, and four boards 19 mm thick are cut from the side parts.
When cambering with timbering, for example, the setting is written in two rows of numbers, for sawing logs (first pass) and timber (second pass):
19-19-150-19-19 (first pass);
19-32-40-40-32-19 (second pass).
As in the previous example, these figures mean that on the head machine of the first row, on which the log is sawed, one beam with a thickness of 150 mm and, accordingly, four unedged boards of 19 mm each (two on each side) are obtained, and on the machine of the second rows, the resulting timber is sawn into boards 40, 32 and 19 mm thick.
When sawing logs on single-saw machines, the position determines the cutting order.
Application of dowels
If wooden dowels are used in the construction of timber buildings, it is important to make them from the same type of wood as the timber itself.
It happens that for greater reliability, the timber is tightened with metal dowels. In this case, such a solution will be significantly more expensive, which may affect the overall cost of construction.
Installation of dowels occurs by analogy with brickwork. A hole several centimeters in diameter is drilled for the pins so that they can be inserted without effort. The installation of dowels should be done at a distance of one and a half meters from each other.
DIY multi-tool
The most popular attachment, which is even produced by chainsaw manufacturers themselves, is the petrol cutter attachment, which turns the chainsaw into an autonomous version of an angle grinder. The nozzle device is a bearing assembly with a shaft, with a pulley installed at one end, which is driven into rotation by a V-belt. At the other end there is a mandrel for fastening abrasive wheels. By changing circles, such a grinder chainsaw will be able to cut stone, tile, brick and even metal. Of course, the circle is hidden in a protective casing, without which working with such a tool would be pure playing roulette - lucky or not!
Caulking process
When a log house is built from glued or profiled timber, caulking is not carried out. At the same time, if we are talking about building a house from ordinary timber, you cannot do without it. Caulking is a process of insulating inter-crown joints by compacting various natural insulation materials.
The following materials are used for caulking:
- Natural moss with excellent thermal insulation properties. This material also perfectly resists the formation of fungus and mold. And this increases the service life of the building. In all respects, this material is ideal. Its only drawback is that it is very inconvenient to make caulk with its help;
- Linen tow. This material also has a number of advantages, which are completely negated by the fact that it crumbles after five years. Because of this, you have to re-caulk;
- Hemp hemp is an excellent material. It was widely used by our great-grandfathers. Its structure is very similar to natural wood;
- Jute is an imported natural material that is produced in ribbon format. It is very convenient to use, which is why it is widely used in modern construction of timber buildings;
- Linen batting is a material that is a mixture of flax and batting; its main disadvantage is its strong absorption of moisture.
Main features of the caulk:
- The process starts from the top crown moving downwards;
- First, the crown is caulked from the outside and then from the inside;
- First, rough caulking is carried out to isolate large cracks, and then cosmetic caulking is carried out to give a pleasant appearance to the seams.
How long should a log bathhouse dry?
After completing the installation, I installed the rafters and built a temporary roofing material roofing material so that the bathhouse frame would dry out within a year. I spent exactly three weeks on all this work (the log house for the bathhouse and its temporary shelter), even though the autumn weather was not always conducive to fruitful work.
Ahead was a winter with frosts, which should have properly dried the wood of the log house, and a hot summer, which should have completed the drying.
Log shrinkage compensator
Important point. When wood shrinks along the grain, it shrinks much less than across the grain. If the structure of the log house has vertical posts, as I have on the terrace of the bathhouse, it is necessary to provide expansion joints. I made them from threaded rods with a diameter of 14 mm and nuts with washers. As the log house shrinked, I reduced the height of the racks by adjusting the length of the compensator.
I returned to working with wood again after just over a year. Of course, it would be possible to buy a log house ready-made and not waste time on installation and drying, but then the price for a log house would be 2-3 times higher. A finished bathhouse made of timber measuring 6 x 4 m can cost up to 500-600 thousand rubles.
But for me, the year of drying was not lost, since during this time I built a roof , built a sauna stove inside the log house, and also installed and insulated the ceiling. If you plan the work correctly, you can avoid downtime and save a lot of money. Is not it?
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Perhaps the information will be useful to someone and they will be grateful to you. To receive information about site news, subscribe to them or join groups on social networks. Everything about the construction of a bathhouse from the foundation to the roof is in the section “Bathhouse made of timber. How I built it with my own hands"
Shrinkage of a timber house
The greatest shrinkage is observed near log walls. In some cases, per three meters of wall, shrinkage can reach ten centimeters. For rounded logs, the shrinkage is slightly less, it can reach eight centimeters.
Depending on the moisture content of the timber, shrinkage may vary:
- Timber with natural humidity parameters shrinks from 6 to 10 centimeters per 3 meters of wall;
- Glued laminated timber shrinks up to two centimeters.
Due to the fact that a log house made of laminated veneer lumber is characterized by minimal shrinkage, it can be finished immediately upon completion of construction work.
Stage 5. Preparing tools
To work you will need the following equipment:
- chisel;
Chisel - carpenter's axe;
Carpenter's Ax - medium power chainsaw;
- plumb line;
Plumb - level;
Laser level - electric drill;
Cordless drill/driver - mallet;
Wooden mallet - "trait".
Trait (tool)
We will pay special attention to the last tool - the “line”. For manufacturing you will need steel wire with sharpened ends. Bend the wire in half so that it takes the shape of a compass; you can additionally secure the handle. This tool will be needed when marking logs.
Log house from timber after assembly - what needs to be done
Construction and installation of the roof
The rough roof consists of ceiling beams, sheathing and rafters, which are installed according to the project. After the walls are erected, the lags are laid. In this case, the ends of the logs should protrude half a meter from the wall.
For logs, a beam with a cross-section of 15x10 centimeters is ideal. The logs are installed on edge, at a distance of 90 centimeters from each other. At the next stage, the rafter system is installed, for which boards of 5x15 centimeters are used.
A variety of materials can be used as roofing, for example:
- Metal tiles;
- Ruberoid;
- Ondulin;
- Corrugated sheeting, etc.
Floor construction
After completing the installation process of the bottom trim, the floor joists are laid. The logs are laid on edge, after which they are covered with a subfloor, which is made from boards 2.5x15 centimeters. The finished flooring is often made from tongue and groove boards.
Installation of windows and doors
Shrinkage compensation is the most important nuance when installing windows and doors in a log house. For this reason, window frames and doors are attached to a special casing. Thermal insulation material is placed in the gap between such a box and the wall to prevent heat loss.
Insulation of the house
Such houses are distinguished by good thermal insulation, as wood retains heat well inside the room. For this reason, the entire procedure for insulating such a building comes down to high-quality caulking to eliminate all cracks.
Interior decoration of a timber house
Work on the interior decoration of the house is carried out only after it has completely settled. In general, the inside of a house made of timber can be decorated with absolutely any materials; everything will depend on the specific wishes of the owner of the house.
On a band sawmill - the fastest!
There are a huge number of techniques that can help you cut logs. To study them, I recommend reading my books on woodworking.
Now I’ll tell you the technique for doing it on a band sawmill. First you need to form a carriage.
To do this, you need to make cuts on two sides, or on four, but this is in special cases! The next stage is the creation of a map, which is needed so that the process of cutting the workpiece can be carefully prepared; it is at this stage that we indicate the dimensions of the board.
The determining parameter in this work is the direction of processing the log; it is especially important to pay attention to the movement of the edge that cuts the tree relative to the annual rings! It is by this criterion that various lumber with unique properties is formed. The aesthetic qualities and price of the board depend on the work performed at this stage.
There are several types of cuts that you need to know about: radial, cross, rustic and tangential.
Radial is the highest quality, because in the end you get an almost perfect board: uniform in color and texture! It does not deform under any conditions, it is clear that the price of such a product is quite high!
The tangential method is a little worse, because the boards are not so strong, but the pattern remains good, sometimes you get fancy patterns! Radical is also not bad, but it differs significantly from radial and tangential in the quality and beauty of the design! Rustic is the most unreliable, because boards of this type are heterogeneous and fragile.
It would be more expedient to talk about the simplest cutting method. It's called circular. They remove the first slab, then turn the log one hundred and eighty degrees, place it on the edge, then you have to turn it many, many times! And so you will definitely succeed!
Results
The process when you build a log house yourself is not something very complicated. Of course, it is advisable to have at least minimal construction experience. However, even a complete beginner can easily construct such a building.
The main thing is patience, determination, and adherence to the basic rules for building houses made of timber.
If you use high-quality building materials, and also carefully approach the smallest details, then the finished house will turn out not only beautiful and comfortable, but also durable.
Wall decoration
After we complete the construction of the log house, it needs to be allowed to stand. This is done so that during the drying process the wood is completely deformed, and the linear dimensions of the structure return to normal - otherwise, along with the walls, the finishing, installed windows, etc. will be deformed.
After the alignment is completed, we begin finishing processing:
- We clean all cracks and cracks in the beams from sawdust and debris. If necessary, cracks can be expanded, limiting their spread.
Caulking walls
- We caulk the cracks by driving moss, tow or jute cords into the cavities.
- We also caulk the cracks from the inside, ensuring maximum tightness of the walls.
- We clean the surface of the beams with a grinding machine, simultaneously opening the pores in the wood, removing dirt and cutting off excess caulking.
- We carry out moisture protection treatment using antiseptic impregnations.
This completes the work on the log house itself, and we get the opportunity to move on to arranging the interior of our house.
Moisture-proof treatment
