Frame houses today are one of the most popular types of suburban housing. They build buildings using this technology and in the city, and this choice of homeowners is easy to explain. Frame housing is relatively inexpensive (if, for example, compared with timber and, moreover, with a brick house), such a building is erected in a short period of time (the whole process will take only a couple of months), the level of comfort in such a building (if it is correct construction) is very high. For all this, the cost of buildings erected using proven frame technologies remains quite low. However, there are several important points that every future owner of suburban frame housing should definitely pay attention to. For example, this is the correct construction of the walls of a frame house: we will consider the “pie” of such a design in this article.
"Correct" cake wall frame house
At the heart of the frame building is a rigid structure created from vertical uprights and fixed (connected) using horizontal jumpers. Thus, “cells” are obtained, in which after installation of the frame the suitable material for insulation will be laid, and then the external and internal surfaces will be sewn up with the materials most suitable for such purposes.
In construction, the device elements of residential buildings in several layers is usually called a "pie". Despite the fact that the design at first glance is quite simple, the cake of the wall of the frame house must certainly be carried out with strict observance of a number of important rules:
- the thickness of the walls of the frame house is determined, primarily, depending on the climatic zone, it is also necessary to take into account the purpose of your building (for summer holidays, for living outside the city throughout the year, etc.);
- the insulation is selected exclusively of high quality, with good thermal insulation and excellent sound insulation: at the same time, the cost of such material should be reasonable (after all, a frame house is chosen, as a rule, by those who prefer a reasonable economy);
- in order for the insulation material to be under reliable protection against possible wetting, special films for waterproofing should be used;
- Insulation of the insulation into the frame must be carried out in such a way that “cold bridges” do not appear (those areas where heat leakage may occur).
Determining the optimal wall thickness
The thickness of the entire “pie” of the wall of the frame building is determined depending on where this building is being built and why it is being built. For most of the territory of Russia, the most important task that should be solved during the construction process is effective resource saving, because if the walls are improperly installed in the cold season, a considerable amount of money will be spent on heating the house with electricity or gas. In this sense, good insulation will provide an opportunity to save significantly in the foreseeable future. In the event that the insulation layer should be large enough, the frame racks are made of thick timber (at least 20 cm is the thickness of the material), cross-mounting is also used when the frame is knocked down from 5X5 centimeter bars.
For those areas where the climate is warmer, where plus temperatures are mostly held during the year, the “cake” of the frame wall may be slightly less. In this case, the main task in the construction of the frame structure is not good insulation, but a reduction in the cost of air conditioning the interior of the building and ventilation.
For a country frame house, which will be residential only in the warm season, the optimal wall thickness will be approximately 40 mm. For the construction of the frame of such buildings, as a rule, a “forty” board is used, the width of the edged board is about 15 cm.
Insulation - the most important layer of "wall cake"
If you look at the wall of the frame building in the context, it is easy to notice that most of the "wall cake" is a material-insulation. Today, a huge number of different materials are used for thermal and for sound insulation. The most common ones are:
- polystyrene (economical option);
- mineral wool (the most popular option);
- polyurethane foam and ecowool (options with excellent performance, but high installation costs).
This video tells about the insulation of a frame house:
The insulation is usually mounted immediately in the frame, and it can also be laid on the finished exterior. For sufficient rigidity, the frame of the house is usually lined with plywood or OSB boards from above. In this case, the insulation sheets can be fixed directly to them.
Waterproofing and vapor barrier
The device of vapor barrier and laying of special materials for reliable waterproofing is another important point when arranging the wall surfaces of the frame. The construction of the “cake” of the wall without these elements is unthinkable. The vapor barrier in the frame structure is equipped from the inside of the house, and the waterproofing device must be carried out outside the building.
Vapor barrier in the walls of the frame structure is required so that wet fumes are not released from the room. If this requirement is not met, steam will condense inside the wall - which means that it will certainly fall into the insulation material. Thermal insulation, and especially the most popular stone wool today, under the influence of moisture will quickly lose its functional characteristics, which means that immediately after the onset of cold weather you will notice how quickly the cost of heating your premises rises.
The waterproofing device is carried out in compliance with an important condition: the film is laid on the outside of the insulation, from the outside (that is, from the front of the frame). Waterproofing material will reliably protect your residential building from wind, rain, snow.
Vapor barrier walls of the frame structure is usually performed using modern foil materials: for example, penofol, etc. The waterproofing device is usually carried out using special membrane films or glassine. The design of the pie of the wall of frame housing suggests that sheets of such material should be attached with an overlap - for reliable protection. Fixation is carried out by a construction stapler, and the joints are glued with a special tape.
The inner and outer “layer” of the wall “pie”
From the inside, as well as from the outside, the wall “cake”, in which the corresponding “filling” is already equipped (the frame itself, waterproofing, insulation, vapor barrier, lining material), can be sheathed with the so-called “finishing” material. Both indoors and outdoors, on the facade, you have flawlessly even surfaces that can be finished using virtually any materials available on the construction markets.
So, for the external decoration of the frame structure, as a rule are used:
- vinyl siding;
- block house;
- special front tile;
- decorative plaster;
- ordinary plaster followed by painting;
- lining, etc.
Please note: facade cladding material cannot be mounted directly on OSB panels or plywood. To equip the external finish, you should initially make a frame of 30 mm wooden blocks. This will ensure proper ventilation.
The skeleton interior decoration device is usually made using the following materials:
- lining;
- wood-fiber boards;
- drywall.
When starting wall decoration with drywall, remember: the device of the final surfaces of this material is possible only in the house where it will be warm all year round. Drywall is a material that is afraid of subzero temperatures.
The correct design of the wall "cake" and the installation of walls made of high-quality materials is the key to comfort and coziness in your home, regardless of the weather and the seasons!