Logs have been used as a building material for a very long time, and have not lost their popularity to this day. In addition to being environmentally friendly, log houses are attractive due to their appearance and relatively low cost. In this article we will analyze step by step how to build log house on one's own.

Construction wooden houses Many companies are engaged in turnkey work today. They are also engaged in the procurement and production of logs. The price of a turnkey house depends not only on the size of the house, but also on the diameter of the logs used and the method of their production.

Building a house from a log with your own hands will be much cheaper than ordering turnkey construction. The cost of building materials is comparable to the cost of work. That is, the price of a finished house ordered from a turnkey company is twice the cost of building materials.

Types of logs

Logs are made from wood coniferous species mainly spruce, pine or larch.

According to the method of production (harvesting), a log can be:

- debarked

- scraped

- planed

- rounded

Barked logs are one of the commonly used materials for building houses. Minor processing helps the tree retain all its protective properties, which significantly increases its service life. In terms of price, houses made from debarked logs are not expensive, but they require additional finishing.

From a debarked log, by removing the underbark (bast) by scraping and grinding, a very durable scraped log is obtained. During the processing process, the logs are adjusted to each other, all irregularities, knots and other defects are removed. The price of a house made from such logs will be higher than from debarked logs, since additional processing requires quite a lot of time. A log house made from scraped logs does not require additional finishing work, but on the contrary, due to the uniqueness of each log, it looks very dignified.

The name itself – “planed log” – speaks about the technology for its production. Using an electric planer, a small upper part is removed from the logs, and all irregularities are eliminated. Thus, fairly even logs are obtained. Just as in the case of scraped logs, planed logs are adjusted to each other. Houses made from planed logs are very warm, durable and do not require additional finishing work. The price of such turnkey houses is significantly higher than that of the options listed above.

A rounded log is obtained by processing the log at rounding machine. Due to this, perfectly even logs are obtained along the entire length, which do not require adjustment. As a result of processing, the protective layer is removed from the tree, which can subsequently lead to cracking of the log and rapid deterioration of the log house (rotting). Houses made from such logs are assembled quite quickly and look beautiful without additional finishing. The price of houses made of rounded logs on a turnkey basis is not high, but it is quite difficult to obtain a high-quality log house from such material.

Project selection

After determining the material from which the house will be built, you can begin to select its design. You can design a small house yourself or find a free project on the Internet. But with the two-story project big house It's not worth experimenting. It is better to purchase it from the appropriate organization, which will most likely help with obtaining a permit for its construction.

When independently designing a future home, it is necessary to take into account the maximum possible length of logs, which is 6 meters. The height of the future house is calculated based on the diameter of the logs, which is different for everyone, with the exception of the use of galvanized logs.

Foundation for a log house

The foundation for a house made of solid logs must withstand heavy loads. The most suitable is a strip shallow foundation. The price of this type of turnkey foundation in construction companies is quite high, therefore, it is also better to complete this stage of construction yourself.

Before building a foundation for a log house, it is necessary to mark the site. To do this, pegs are driven into the corners of the future house, and a string is stretched between them, indicating its contours. Next, a trench is dug with a depth of 60-70 cm and a width equal to the width of the foundation, and it depends on the diameter chosen for the construction of the log. It is desirable that the foundation protrudes beyond the wall from the outside by 5 cm, and from the inside by 10 cm. An internal protrusion is necessary for a more stable and high-quality fit of the floor joists.

A layer of sand (sand cushion) is poured onto the bottom of the trench, which is compacted well.

The next stage is the assembly and installation of formwork. It is made from boards or plywood by assembling panels. The shields are installed on top of the trench opposite each other and are well fastened together.

Reinforcement is placed inside the formwork, which is tied together into one single frame. For the foundation of a log house, reinforcement of at least 12 diameters is used, in several rows.

After installing the formwork and reinforcing frame, concrete can be poured. When purchasing concrete from a manufacturer, you must order concrete grade M250. When pouring yourself, the proportions are as follows: 1 cement (400): 3 sand: 4.5-5 crushed stone.

Important! It is necessary to provide holes in the foundation for ventilation of the subfloor. The height of the foundation from the ground should be less than 50 cm.

Wall construction technology

Before laying the first crown of the log house, it is necessary to waterproof the foundation by laying waterproofing material on it (roofing felt, hydroglass insulation).

For the first crown, choose the largest log in diameter and the most resinous one.

You can also use larch logs, but its price is quite high. To give greater stability to the log, part of it is removed, making a flat area. Treated with an antiseptic solution and laid on the foundation.

For a good fit to each other, a longitudinal groove is selected in the logs. When ordering a finished log house made from rounded logs, this groove is already made in production. In all other cases, the groove is made manually.

Video. How to make a longitudinal groove manually:

The logs are laid with the groove down on top of each other. For a tight and warm connection, moss or tow is laid between the logs. The logs are connected to each other using wooden dowels, which are inserted vertically into pre-drilled holes.

The corner connection can have several options: with or without a remainder.

When connecting logs with the remainder, there will be an overconsumption of material, since part of the log protrudes beyond the walls of the house. This method will increase the cost of construction.

The corner connection of the logs should be warm. It can be obtained by connecting into a paw (when connecting without a residue) and by connecting into a bowl (when connecting with a remainder).

If the diameter of the logs is large enough, then, most likely, to build a house from a log you will have to resort to the help of equipment: a crane or a manipulator.

It is easier to build a house from rounded logs than from regular logs. The log is smooth, all the necessary grooves and corner connections have already been made in production, all that remains is to assemble the construction kit.

Roof construction technology

After assembling the box at home, it must be protected from exposure to precipitation. To do this, you must immediately build a roof over it.

To do this, you will need 150*50 mm boards, from which the rafter system is constructed. A roof slope of 30 degrees is optimal. The rafters are installed at a distance of 60-100 mm from each other and attached at the bottom to the wall using long nails or metal corners, and in the upper part to the ridge beam. Roofing waterproofing is laid on top of the rafters, a counter batten is nailed to provide a ventilated gap, and a wooden sheathing is installed.

Roofing material is laid on the sheathing. In the case of flexible bitumen shingles, a continuous base is made of plywood. The price of a soft roof is higher than a metal one, but in certain cases (complex hip roofs) its use will be preferable and more expedient.

A log house with a roof installed will have a beautiful finished look.

Important nuances

After erecting the frame of the house and the roof, the log house must be left for at least one year. After it shrinks, you can begin finishing (jambing) window and door openings.

As described above, houses made of rounded or planed logs do not require additional finishing, but the wood must be protected from moisture and insects. To do this, wooden houses should be periodically treated with special solutions and paints. The quality of wood processing will determine how long a log house will last.

To reduce heat loss log house, it needs to be caulked well.

To build a turnkey log house with your own hands, you need to purchase a suitable project, high-quality and affordable material and follow the technology at all stages of construction.

By choosing or drawing specific project, and counting how much is needed building material and how much money is needed to build this particular house, you will understand how much the price of the offered ready-made houses in construction companies differs from the costs of building a house with your own hands.

Video. Construction of a house from a log.

04/19/2016 by
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One of the oldest building structures– wooden frame – is now confidently returning to individual construction. The reason is not only the prestigious appearance of log buildings: a log house breathes very well - it is not hot in the summer, warm in winter without additional insulation, the humidity is kept optimal. Setting up a log house with your own hands is quite a difficult task., but feasible for a hardworking and attentive beginner, and the savings in money compared to a custom-made log house can be 2-3 times. But no less important is the fact that the service life of a home-made log house can exceed 100 and even 200 years, while the standard for log building structures is 40 years; In fact, the best standard log houses last for 50-70 years. Reason – to build a log house for several generations, you need to observe a lot of subtleties in the work, about which this article was written; they will also help extend the service life of a typical log frame and make it more durable. Good carpenters most often know them, but not every millionaire can afford to pay for such painstaking work. And with your own hands, it will only cost you about a year of extra time: before construction continues, the correct original log house must withstand from warm to warm through the winter.

Prerequisites

Not only before starting work, but first of all thinking about it, you need to clearly understand certain rules and apply them to your own conditions. After this, the material is selected - wild logs, rounded logs, timber - and the actual construction technology.

Bar, cylinder or savage?

Measured lumber is widely sold in lengths up to 12 m. But edged 3- or 4-edged timber can be spliced ​​in length (see below), so a timber frame on a normally buried foundation can, in principle, be very large, top left in Fig. below. Profile timber for a log house is quite expensive, but it is sold in ready-made kits for a home, bathhouse, etc. (see figure on the right), which are often accompanied by standard project. Its approval takes place without problems, and all that remains is to assemble the log house according to the attached instructions and let it stand for the weight shrinkage for the time indicated there. The actual service life of a house made from such timber will be 60-70 years, and with high-quality caulk and regular annual maintenance (renewing the outside impregnation) - up to 100 years.

There are no reliable methods of joining round logs along the length, so the maximum length of a house made of rounded logs is 12 m from the outside. You can add living space by building an extension along with the house and on a common foundation with it (top right in the figure), but taking into account all the restrictions on cutting into the log house, the width of the extension is no more than 2/3 of the length of the wall to which it is adjacent. The maximum possible option of this type is a 12x12 log house without piers, with a 6x6 extension sticking out of each wall. Service life is the same as timber structure, because A rounded log is actually a type of profile beam.

Basic Rules

A wild log house made from self-purchased and prepared logs can last more than 200 years; log houses made from wild logs are known, of which there are more than 600. Wild logs are not a measured material and can be prepared in lengths of more than 12 m. But the assembly of a log house from “wild” logs is so unique that we will return to it a little later, but for now we will complete the analysis of those common to all types log construction rules (see figure and list below):

• The fire safety of log buildings is not above average. Impregnation with the best modern fire retardants (impregnating materials for fire resistance) will extinguish a burning rag that has fallen on the floor and slow down the spread of flames from a strong fire enough to allow time for people to evacuate and, possibly, partially remove property. But, even if the fire is extinguished quickly, the remains of the house will have to be demolished and a new one built.
• The cost of the materials for a cheap wild log house is at least twice as much as for a frame or panel house the same useful volume.
• The labor intensity of building a log house is very high. If, without experience, you manage to make a log house for 12 crowns over the summer (this is a ceiling of 2.5-2.7 m), and you waste no more than 10% of the prepared material, then you are a gifted carpenter.
• Chainsaw, drill, and possibly a stationary circular saw and jointer will greatly help reduce the construction time of a log house, but the share of qualified self made however, it is still high. To assemble a frame, simply swinging your hands until your bones ache is not enough. You need to work measuredly, carefully, slowly, all the time using your eye, accuracy and ingenuity.
• A log house made of wild logs for a bathhouse or a non-residential house (country house, country summer house, hunting house) can be built on a shallow foundation on soils that are even very heaving.
• The assembly of the log house is carried out all at once - along with the log porch, veranda, summer kitchen, entryway, dressing room and other outbuildings. There are technical possibilities to postpone the completion of the entire construction “for later”, see pos. 1 in Fig., they are not technically acceptable: the duration and nature of the shrinkage of the log house are significantly different from those of other wooden building structures.

• Cutting a log house into a corner without leaving a residue (see below), which significantly saves material, will require the use of connections that are asymmetrical with respect to the longitudinal axis of the log or timber. In this case, the overlapping ends of the units of material must move from one side of the corner to the other on odd and even rims, pos. 2. You can use one template for marking the grooves and tenons, but when marking the next crown, you need to not only turn it, but also turn it over so that the marking comes out in a mirror image. To do this, the sides of the template are marked “H” (odd) and “H” (even).
• Do not place the log house on support beams, pos. 3. The log house does not need either a load-bearing support or a damping cushion - it supports itself. The foundation is covered with waterproofing and the frame is assembled directly on it. And the support beams under the log house can be, and often turn out to be, a loophole for rot and pests.
• The installation of the log house is carried out immediately on site, i.e. on the foundation of the building, while immediately making a rough stretched caulk (item 4); however, . Assembling a frame for the sake of simplifying work upside down next to the foundation and then moving it into place crown by crown is a crude hack, suitable for temporary or completely unpretentious buildings, for example. taiga winter hut.
• The floor in log buildings is made only floating, pos. 5. It is unacceptable to embed load-bearing floor beams (backing beams) into logs or frame beams!

We build from logs

A log house is suitable for all types of log buildings. It is the most resistant, durable and can stand on a shallow foundation on moving soils. So let's start with a more detailed analysis.

Tool

In addition to the usual construction tools for wood, the special tool mentioned above is absolutely necessary to cut down a log house. To build an edged timber log house you can do without it.

You will need at least 2 axes: a carpenter's ax with a straight blade and a carpenter's ax with a convex blade, on the left in Fig. If you have a chainsaw, you don’t need a cleaver - you can use it to halve logs in the old fashioned way and chop off blocks from them. An axe-axe with an asymmetrically convex blade (top right in the figure) and a set of adzes (bottom right) will also be very useful. A wooden badger sledgehammer by 2-3.5 kg, in the inset, will greatly improve the quality of work and reduce the muscular effort required for it.

A carpenter's tool, the devil, will be absolutely necessary. There are many similar calipers on sale under this name, but they can accurately mark only the most expensive rounded logs. A real carpenter's tool is a weighty, rough, visible tool (see the figure on the right), which allows you to mark out wild woods that have been debarked by hand. You can make a line for marking logs yourself (see the drawing at the bottom right of the same figure), and it will be more convenient to work with it: a longitudinal through hole is drilled in the handle to the side of the axis for a guide pin, which is fixed with a screw or wedge. Even a completely green one can use this line, but a careful beginner will be able to correctly mark a very clumsy log, see below.

About wild logs

It is a wild log house that can withstand hundreds of years, gradually caking into a kind of monolith. A house or bathhouse made from wild logs breathes at full strength. If Finnish sauna can still be built from galvanized logs or beams, then the original Russian bathhouse is cut only by the “savage”. How to install a wild log house for a bathhouse, see for example. video

Video: building a sauna from wild logs

To understand the secrets of a wild log, let's look at the structure of its cut, see fig. on right. The wild log is debarked by hand lengthwise, rather than rotating in a peeling machine; Therefore, you need to purchase wild wood for felling from harvesters, and only unrooted wood from sellers. When manually debarking logs, the cambium, layers of wood with a special structure, is preserved. In a living tree, it is the cambium that gives the trunk growth in thickness and the formation of underlying layers. And in the log house there is the best breath of wood; in a Russian bath - the optimal ability of the walls to receive and release heat. Manual debarking (barking) of logs is a labor-intensive task, but if you want your descendants to be surprised: “It was my great-grandfather who built it!”, then it’s worth it, see the video:

Video: removing bark from logs (barking) yourself

Note: The cambium is most developed in the ancient contemporaries of dinosaurs - coniferous trees. In flowering dicotyledons it is thinner and has a different structure, but in arboreal monocotyledons (for example palm trees) it is not there at all.

Loggers most often sell freshly felled or, sometimes, last year's wood for pickup, otherwise there is no point in giving them a discount (and a considerable one). Wild timber purchased from loggers for felling and taking into account the payment for a timber truck trip will cost much less than even unbarked logs seasoned at a timber exchange. Which also look for - here it is more profitable for traders to give the savage wood for processing and sell off the seasoned lumber. That is, purchased wild wood will need to be dried in your own stack, see story:

Video: drying timber for a log house

Which one should I buy?

The time of wood harvesting is of great importance for the durability and longevity of a log house. A number of experts believe that the best wood for felling is chopped in the second half of summer and early autumn. At this time (after the seeds ripen), the tree’s own moisture content is the lowest. Natural moisture in wood is not just water, but sap with nutrients that are attractive to pests. Closer to winter, the tree again collects sap for wintering: in winter it sleeps, but lives, and maintains its life with reserves of sap. Indeed, Mediterranean peoples cut down ship timber in autumn equinox, but in the edges with harsh winter this argument is invalid.

In the Nordic countries the best forest for a log house it was always considered winter. The point is not that in the old days the forest was cut down selectively - logging block by block in countries rich in wood was practiced centuries before the advent of the Gulag and prisoners; The NKVD used already proven methods of forestry management. And it’s not that it’s easier to take a log out of the forest on a sleigh than on a cart: the carrying capacity, cross-country ability and maneuverability of a horse-drawn sleigh off a well-worn road is worse than that of a dray cart.

The point is in the ways in which the tree is protected from freezing moisture in the vessels. If the tree's sap freezes, it will die without being damaged by frost. Higher plants“have gotten used to” using one of the anomalous properties of water - its freezing temperature in capillaries drops; in nanotubes it is possible to keep water viscous, but still liquid at –130 Celsius (!). Conifers are very ancient plants, their vascular system is not yet so perfect, so for the winter they add more resinous substances to the juices; It is this juice that flows out in the spring when conifers are tapped for resin. From a tree cut down in winter, the water evaporates when dried, but the resin remains. In a loaded structure, it is still fluidly squeezed out to the open ends of the vessels, where in the air it quickly bituminizes and blocks the path of pests, and only occasionally a few very rare species are capable of biting or leaking spores through the dry cambium.

Note: As a result, the highest quality timber for log houses is harvested in regions with high air humidity, abundant snow and fairly low temperatures. winter temperatures. In the Russian Federation - from Karelia in a strip south to the Pskov region.

Log selection

Unmeasured timber is very roughly rejected for suitability for processing, while measured timber is calibrated as far as the properties of the wood allow: 1% along the length. That is, the curvature of the log, and, what is even more important for us, the difference in diameters of the butt and apical parts of the oryasina (butt and top of a raw commercial log) is allowed 1 cm/m. If you fall logs into a log house as you have to, then the skew of a 3x4 m bathhouse made of 10 crowns of 30 cm logs can run up to half a meter. Therefore, the logs prepared for the log house must be sorted before drying, disassembled on the sides of the building, and marked - which one will lie in which crown of which wall and in which direction.

If you assemble a log house in bulk, it will turn out like the one on the left in Fig. below. Not only is it not worthy of the standard period - for a 12-crown, due to the need to trim each crown, it will take 4 more logs. Which cost a lot of money. After 5-10 years, the log house splits in bulk, caulk climbs out of it, and rots or is infested with a bug. But the frame, assembled from logs, the butts and tops of which are oriented in mutually opposite directions from crown to crown (on the right in the figure), only settles down and gains strength over time.

In a log house made of rounded logs, it is also advisable to orient the butts with the tops in the opposite direction; this increases its actual service life by 1.5-2 times compared to the calculated one. In both cases, in addition to the evenness of the laying, the direction of convergence of the annual layers plays a role. The resinous balsam is squeezed out more towards the butt, and in a correctly folded log house the logs seem to help each other resist external influences. It is difficult to determine the direction of convergence of layers based on the texture of a rounded log, and on spruce and larch it is often impossible, but the “tails” of knots are an excellent indicator: in crowns adjacent in height they should be in different directions, compare left and right in Fig.

Note: When sorting logs for a frame, set aside those that are thicker for the crowns that are lower. The thickness of the logs should decrease upward. Which way does a beer bottle stand - on the bottom or on the neck? A log house made of logs, distributed unevenly in size and height, will at best last a standard period of time.

Which one to chop?

A log house in a corner has one advantage: significantly less material consumption. The correct protrusion of the area is from 1 foot, i.e. more than 30.5 cm. Now they give a burl of 20-25 cm, but this reduces the maximum possible service life of a log house made from a given log by 1.5-2 times. A short block makes sense only in a log house made of re-glued logs. Let's estimate: a log house in a 6x9 oblo with 12 crowns. A total of 96 protruding ends of 30 cm each - 28.8 m of logs! The obla took either almost 5 short logs, or more than 3 long ones. For the money, it bites painfully. In all other respects - in strength, rigidity, durability, appearance - the log house in the corner is inferior to the log house with the remainder. Especially in terms of durability: none of the log houses, which are definitely more than 100 years old, were cut into a corner. The oblas serve as a kind of bituminized plugs that do not allow pests into the tree, and the grooves of the frame (see below) are closed. The ends of the logs in the corner are more open to external influences.

Cover crown

The lowest and most important crown of a log house is called the frame. The quality of the log house as a whole depends a lot on the quality of its assembly. The conventional plane covering the casing crown must be horizontal, so the logs for it are selected and prepared especially carefully.

Not only in RuNet, but also in many old printed manuals for carpenters, one important point in laying the flashing crown is missed: what to do with the gap between it and the foundation formed on 2 sides, if the flashing crown is made like the rest (shown by red arrows in pos. 1 and 2 Fig.)

Lay it with a board or timber? Gates for harmful living creatures, rot and mold: there is no cambium on lumber. Lay a foundation with ledges (pos. 3)? Where is it said about such things with SNIPs? It will crack when it settles. Correctly the framed crown of a log house, especially a log house for a house, is assembled using a split log (item 4):

1. For the short sides of the log house, 1 (one) thickest log, least converging to the top, is selected; ideally cylindrical.
2. On long sides select 2 logs of possibly more equal thickness and also smaller ones converging at the tops.
3. Edges are removed from long logs for laying on the foundation so that the heights of the cross sections of the logs from the plane of the edge to the top of the cut D are equal along the entire length, see below.
4. The short sides of the log are halved lengthwise or a block is cut out of it (this will come in handy) so that the height of the resulting slabs T along the entire length is equal to half D.
5. The slabs are laid on the foundation.
6. Long logs are placed on the slabs with their edges down and their tops in opposite directions.
7. A line is used to mark the cutting of grooves on long logs for assembly into a clapper (an inverted bowl, see below).
8. Long logs are removed and grooves are selected in them.
9. Long logs are placed in place - they will protrude halfway above the short slabs.
10. Further assembly of the log house is carried out in accordance with everyday instructions (see below).

Note: do not forget here and everywhere else when making grooves to give an allowance of 5-7 mm for caulking! How to make a carriage for a chainsaw for longitudinal cutting of logs, see the video below.

Video: carriage for longitudinal cutting of logs for a log house

How to remove the piping

Removing the edging from long logs (by the way, in the frame they are called beds, and short slabs are called boys) for laying on the foundation is also a responsible matter. You won't be able to walk along the path with a chainsaw; you'll have to work with your hands. Knock the edge into a laying position, as shown in the inset at the top left of Fig. below, maybe an experienced carpenter, and even then in a hurry. The fact is that the ax under its own weight will turn the blade down, and a person’s tactile (muscular) sense has a sensitivity threshold. A beginner without developed muscular skills will feel the ax leaving when it has already bitten down below the cuts (see below), mechanically turn it upward, and the entire edge will turn out to be humpbacked. Correctly, the edging from the bed is removed with an ax in the air (see also the figure below):

• From a pair of beds, choose the thinner one, place it with its top (!) on the support (preferably in the groove on it) and temporarily secure it with staples, pos. 1 in Fig.
• Using a plumb line, mark the axial (central) line, make a notch along it on the support, and mark a plumb line corresponding to the width of the edge equal to half the diameter of the log (forming the edge). Measure the height of the bed at the top D, pos. 4, pos. 2 and 3.
• Shift the bed with its butt onto a support. The plumb line is set vertically axial at the top. A D is laid on the butt, and according to the marks on the butt and top, the contour of the edging is beaten out with a coated cord, pos. 4. It will turn out to be a little divergent, but when laying the bench, its top line will be horizontal.
• Repeat the operations with another leg, putting the resulting D value on its butt and top.
• They place the beds on the boys, mark the bowls on them and assemble the frame crown, as described above.

Longitudinal grooves

Before continuing work, we will decide what longitudinal grooves will be in the logs of the log house, or logs with which grooves to purchase. The durability and longevity of the log house depend on this more than on the cutting methods, because It is the longitudinal grooves that hold the caulking, and if they are not executed correctly, they represent the most convenient place for warping and/or the introduction of rot and pests to begin.

The corner groove (item 1 in the figure) can be cut out with any ax, incl. camping. But you need a lot of caulk in it, and when the frame shrinks and shrinks, the wings of the groove diverge, revealing layers of wood without cambium, which are less resistant to external influences. The waste of material is large. It is used for self-construction of non-residential buildings on a quick fix from waste or donated materials, for example. taiga huts made of dead wood.

The lunar groove (item 2) is often called Canadian, and the corner groove Russian, which is incorrect. Both of these grooves are Russian, because... The traditions and techniques of wooden architecture were brought to Canada and America in general by the Russian pioneers of Alaska. The lunar groove does not open during shrinkage (item 3). To cut it out (see below) you need a carpenter's ax, or, better, an ax, or, even better, an adze. The disadvantage is that caulking requires quite a lot of rough (in a puff), and to go with it you need a high-quality finishing one (in a set).

If a log house is being cut from a wild log, then so that the rudimentary crack goes as it should, and a shallow, 2-3 cm, longitudinal pioneer cut is made into the groove (marked in bright green in position 2). If the frame is made of galvanized or laminated logs with a moon groove, then it has already undergone its own shrinkage and shrinkage, and only the weight remains in the structure. Then a deep pioneer cut, through the entire sapwood to the core, is made on the arch of the log, pos. 4a. Under weight load, the groove will not diverge on its own, but will compress the arch of the lower log.

Note: Over time, cracks will appear on the outer surface of the log, but they are not dangerous - they do not violate the strength of the structure and appear when the core of the log turns into pure lignin, unsuitable for the settlement of pest germs.

Choose finished logs with a moon groove (and a Finnish one, see below), you need to be very careful. The groove should fit on the lower log with its wings in a small, up to 7 mm, gap inside, pos. 4a. If the upper log sits on the lower one, somewhat softening the professional jargon, “butt on pussy,” pos. 4b, i.e. the gap is “squeezed out” onto the wings of the groove, this is an unacceptable defect - caulk will climb out of such a groove immediately, and a log house made from such logs is unlikely to last more than 10-15 years.

Finnish groove, pos. 5, is also performed without a top cut on wild logs (pos. 5a) and with a cut on rounded and glued logs, pos. 5 B. There is less moss suitable for caulking a log house the farther north you go, and flax, hemp (for tow), and especially jute, do not grow in Finland. Therefore, the Finnish groove requires a minimum of rough caulk and does not require finishing caulk at all. However, you can only choose it at a timber mill or, manually, with special tools, being a very experienced carpenter. Just in case, we provide a drawing of a Finnish groove for the most common log with a diameter of 260 mm (see figure on the right); the required accuracy is 0.25 mm.

Log house in the region

Depending on local conditions and the type of foundation, the log house can be assembled into an oblo different ways. It will come from the wild forest from the harvester and not be overly expensive.

Cutting logs into a bowl, see fig. below., or Russian (but see above) is the easiest: marking the bowl and longitudinal groove is done at the same time along the upper log, which is not processed when set aside, see fig. on right. The top log is placed in place, the groove is marked with a line lower crown. The top log is removed, the groove is selected, the top log is put back. Marking accuracy is the highest possible: good log house You can put it into a bowl from completely clumsy waste logs. But the durability of the log frame in the bowl is low, even if it is made from selected winter savage - water flows into the bowl and longitudinal groove. Temporary and non-residential buildings are quickly cut into the bowl; sometimes - log houses with re-laying. They are collected away from the foundation upside down (from the upper crowns to the lower ones) and then crown by crown are transferred to the foundation, see above. This is a bad way, because... either during rough assembly the frame will not fit together exactly, or if you do not give allowances for caulking, it will initially come out cracked.

Assembling the log house into the hood, i.e. into an inverted bowl (“Canadian”, and again - see above!) requires careful marking and selection of grooves (see below), because They are also marked in place, but separately, and the top log after marking is processed separately to the side. But every single log house, which is over 100 years old, is collected exclusively for the purpose.

There are several types of grooves in the upper log for cutting into the clapboard, see on the right in Fig. higher. A notch in an okhryap is also called a Russian lock, and from this point of view it is “even more russian” - choosing a groove with a flat bottom is much easier than a compass (semicircular) one. Used for non-residential buildings (baths, etc.) without internal load-bearing partitions; if on a shallow foundation, then on stable, well-bearing (from 0.7 kgf/sq. cm) non-heaving and slightly heaving soils.

Cutting into the ridge (sometimes written into an oval ridge) is carried out for the same buildings, on the contrary, on moving soils in areas where the wood is not subject to rotting. A less common method, because Water flows into the longitudinal groove, and the top log needs to be removed and processed to the side to make the groove. Cutting into the okhryap with finishing (edging) of the ends is decorative - this is how log houses are installed, the external and internal surfaces of the walls of which are hewn for finishing. Log houses for residential buildings in areas where wood is susceptible to rotting are placed in a shell with a fat tail, on moving soils, and in a shell with a fat tail and a ridge - on the same soil, but in drier places and where pests are not so common.

Marking logs for a log house

Marking grooves on logs for log houses in the burrow and in the corner is done in various ways, but in both cases it requires extreme accuracy from the master. And therefore it is considered in one section.

When marking the logs of a log house in the clapboard, the bowls are first marked (on the left in the figure; the calculated ratios for both grooves are also given there), but are not cut down yet. Attention: if you are installing a log house from a wild log, then the diameter d for marking the bowl must be taken from the bottom log, already laid in the log house, transverse to the relatively new one!

The longitudinal groove is also marked in place and along the lower, but now longitudinal, log, i.e. lying under the new one, pos. 1 on the right in Fig. It is extremely important not to skew the line (position 2), so it is either put on the hammer handle or equipped with a guide pin (see above); This technique is not disdained by experienced carpenters, who care primarily about the quality of the work, and not about showing off.

After marking, first saw down a longitudinal groove for the sample. With a chainsaw (item 3) this is not so easy: without seeing the end of the blade with the chain, you need to draw it exactly along the arc of a circle, so many craftsmen still prefer not to file the groove, but to cut it with an ax or, in extreme cases, a carpenter’s with an axe. In any case, cuts/notches are made evenly along the length so that the groove appears to be divided into squares. After this, the groove is cut out with diagonal blows with a carpenter's ax (item 4) or, better, with an ax. If the frame is made of wild logs, this is enough - the logs will fit tightly on top of each other. If the groove is on a rounded log, then they do not select it completely with an ax, but finish it clean with an adze. Now you can select the groove-bowl, lay the rough caulk and lay the log in place.

Note 6: the selection of grooves and the placement of logs in place are carried out in pairs - two short, two long. After assembling each crown, check its horizontalness and, if necessary, trim it. And don’t forget about 5-7 mm allowances for caulking!

Log cabins in a corner (corner) are assembled almost exclusively into a paw. There is no need to use methods for connecting beams (see below) for a length of material up to 12 m: round log much stronger and stiffer than timber rectangular section that transverse area.

How to mark logs for felling is shown in Fig. A paw with a notch is used if any of the sides of the log house is longer than 4.5 m. After rough filing (cutting), the notch (an additional tenon that strengthens the connection) and the groove under it are finalized with a chisel.

When planning to place a frame in a paw, be sure to consider the following: first, due to the transition of the tenon and groove under it from one side of the corner to the other on the odd and even crowns (see above), the markings must be made, respectively, straight or mirrored. Secondly, when assembling from a wild log, the smallest diameter of the logs of the previous already folded crown is taken as the base size for dividing into 8 shares in height (see figure). The task is troublesome, so often the top and bottom edges are removed from logs for felling to create a floor edged timber the same height. Then the same template is suitable for marking, the log house will come out stronger, warmer, and more suitable for a bathhouse. True, this will cost 4 extra logs for 3-5 crowns, so in the end, a log house made from logs into a paw ends up saving material only in length, and its consumption in cubic meters may turn out to be even more than not chopped into a log.

About the reinforcement of the log house

When dismantling old, but still quite suitable for intended use, log cabins on any side longer than 14 feet (4.27 m), it turns out that almost all of them are additionally fastened with oak or beech dowels, see fig. on right. A frame made of wild logs on dowels acquires extraordinary strength over time: it can be torn from the foundation with jacks without carriages, loaded by crane into the back of a truck and transported intact to a museum. And if you still needed to break it, then sometimes you had to use a ball, otherwise disassembly would turn into an unbearable burden.

The diameter of the dowels for fastening the log house is 40-60 mm. Length – 100-130 mm. Blind holes for dowels are drilled 1.5-2 mm after marking, processing and fitting in place of all the logs of the next crown. In the rough caulk, holes are cut for the dowels at the location, on the contrary, 3-5 mm wider. The dowels are carefully driven into the lower log using a leopard. Then the top log is placed and pressed into place with a heavy piece of wood with a handle, similar to a wooden rammer.

Log house made of timber

A timber frame is predominantly “home” - it provides, in addition to the opportunity to increase the size of the building (see above), walls that breathe more freely than logs, which is more suitable for residential premises. A Finnish or Russian light family sauna is best made from timber. Also see video:

Video: do-it-yourself log house using the example of a bathhouse

Longitudinal connection

The possibility of extending the beams for a log house in length is so significant that it should be considered first: if the joint of the beams comes apart, then the best thing that will follow is a complex repair. And in the worst case scenario, temporary eviction from the house and re-building of the log house.

A direct lock connection (on the left in the figure) is the most reliable mechanically and technologically simple, but it locks. It is recommended to use it if it is under an additional moisture-protecting finish, for example. siding covering. A bias lock connection does not attract moisture, but it is more difficult to perform and is less durable. The joint of the beams into an oblique lock must be reinforced with dowels fastening the crowns (see below), 0.6 m on both sides.

Straight and oblique half-timber connections (on the right in the figure) with dowels at the joint in the log house are absolutely unreliable: operational stresses can simply cut off the dowels, and the beam will suddenly turn out of the log house; especially if the joint is oblique. The author of these lines, in the days of his rather careless youth, had the opportunity to witness how a beam “shot” from a log house killed a coven-goer on the spot. Literally knocked my brains out with the splashes. The case is already painful, and then there’s the investigation – it’s still a corpse. The local district police officer sided with the workers, but an investigator for particularly important cases came from the region. And this last one of Stalin, with a circular mark from his cap on his brain, instead of all the convolutions, it was tightly sewn up where people have thoughts: nothing happens without a culprit. An accident - Trotskyist-bourgeois inventions. As it turned out, not at all for ideological reasons: in order to please the excuse of this, I beg your pardon, rubbish from the Soviet Union, the brigade had to fork out almost half of their summer earnings. There simply weren't any more available. As the men discussed this incident among themselves, the boatswain from the flagship of Peter the Great’s fleet would have listened. But enough dark lyrics, let's get back to the topic.

Connecting corners

A timber frame can also be assembled into a burl and into a corner without leaving any residue. It is not so rare to see timber log cabins: they still look more or less “original”, but more often than not, log log houses are assembled in a corner: the savings on material here are not relative.

Methods for assembling a log house from timber into a clapper are shown on the left in Fig. The half-tree connection is the simplest and least durable. It is used for small non-residential buildings (up to 4x6 m) without load-bearing partitions. It doesn’t make much difference to put such a log house in an okhlop or in a bowl, because... grooves with a flat bottom and steep walls. A fat tail connection is used if the frame is made of beams that are composite along the length; in ohryap - for log houses of residential buildings from solid timber. Most commercial log kits are prepared for jointing.

The connections of the corners of the timber frame are shown at the top in Fig. Butt jointing of high-quality beams significantly saves material, but is fragile. Assembly on a tenon for corners is rarely used, and only for buildings no larger than about 3.5x5 m. More often, a connection on a tenon is used as an additional one when installing load-bearing partitions.

If the corner of the log house is connected end-to-end on a tenon, then it is highly advisable to use a pair (more precisely, a triple) of tenon-groove(s) of the dovetail type, see Fig. The tenon itself is made from hard, fine-grained hardwood that is resistant to external influences, e.g. oak A mirror template for marking the dovetail is not needed; it is enough to alternate the overlapping beams of the crowns of adjacent heights.

The claw connection is most often used in log houses of bathhouses and non-residential buildings; We will dwell on it in more detail below. The butt joint on the main tenon (see figure) is technologically the most difficult, but durable, suitable for residential buildings and has the most valuable quality: it allows the use of defective warped timber for the assembly of a log house. After a year of shrinkage, it levels out, and if you take it out of the log house, it will be no worse than standard. However, at least 4-6 high-quality beams should be placed in each of the log walls between the “screw” ones, i.e. it is impossible to buy completely substandard equipment for a log house on the cheap: joining the main one only allows you to put into action a defect that was accidentally inserted into the party; Under no circumstances should you install defective timber into the frame crown!

When assembling a log house, the warped timber is gradually pulled into place with hoists, while straightening it is fastened to the already laid dowels, see fig. on right. When it comes to the tenon, it is cut to fit into the groove, hammered into place with a badger and wedged, tucking the very end of the warped beam so that it fits tightly onto the bottom one. Now we need a technical break in work for 2-3 days so that the strongest internal stresses in the forcibly shoved timber are released.

A half-tree connection on a plug-in tenon is rarely used, because requires the finest, ideally even timber that is naturally dried (not in a heat chamber or microwave). More commonly used when installing partitions is a butt joint with a plug-in tenon, see fig.:

Note: For the corner connections of a timber frame, see also the video review below.

Video: about corner joints of timber

Partitions in a timber frame

Another important advantage of a timber frame is that it is much easier than a log frame to be partitioned inside with both load-bearing and simple planning bulkheads. Methods for inserting partitions into a timber frame are shown below in Fig. above with beam connection diagrams.

Butt-to-tenon assembly is used to install lightweight bulkheads: it does not weaken the frame itself, and the bulkhead timber may not be the same size as the one in the frame. Half-frying insert (so to speak, dovetail “half-tail”) is most suitable for load-bearing partitions of a residential building, because practically does not weaken the chopped box, but, on the contrary, strengthens it and itself adheres tightly to it. The spikes of the half-frying pan should be made mirror-like from crown to crown (shown by the red arrow).

Inserting a single partition with a frying pan (dovetail) weakens the frame, but will strengthen it if a box-shaped structure that holds the load well is attached: chopped canopy, summer cuisine, bathhouse at the house, etc. log extension on a common foundation with the house. On the 2-sided main tenon, partitions are embedded, subject to periodic operational loads; preim. thermal. For example, enclosing a kitchen, a cold entryway, a bathroom, or next to which there is a house stove. In this case, the insets on the main tenon of the crowns, starting from the 2nd, must alternate with butt joints on the insert tenon (shown by the red arrow), otherwise the frame itself will be excessively weakened.

Installation of timber frame

The main problems of a log house are the transverse displacement of the beams due to warping and the extrusion of caulk. Many timber profiles for log houses designed to avoid both have been developed (for some examples, see the figure), but there are no methods yet for installing a timber frame without reinforcing it with dowels (through dowels).

How to install a log house into a timber claw is shown in the following. rice. using the example of 150 mm timber. Marking for other standard sizes (top left) is carried out similarly: on top – square; on the side – a bevel of half the thickness. Mortise-tenon joints should alternate in a mirror image from crown to crown, bottom left. Hardwood dowels should fit into the bottom beam at 1/3 of its height; Based on this, the drilling depth limiter 5 on the right in Fig. is set. Plus an allowance of 5-7 mm for caulking, don’t forget! Diameter of dowels – 30-40 mm; the diameter of the holes for them is 1.5-2 mm smaller. It is better to hammer in the dowels with a leopard, so much less expensive oak or beech round timber will be wasted. There should be at least 120 cm from the edge of any opening to the nearest dowel.

Beams for a log house imitating a log

Sometimes, to imitate (however, not particularly convincing for a non-specialist) a timber frame under a log frame, they use a 3-edged edged beam or one re-laminated from lamellas of the same profile. This is so popular that 3-edge timber is sold under the clever name D-log. D-logs are often sold with ready-made tenons and grooves for butt joints (in the corner) or in the burl. When buying these, keep in mind that they are “mirror” and are sold as “round-flat” and “flat-round”, see fig. on right. From both of them, opposite walls are assembled in pairs (if the beams are of the same length) or adjacent crowns of neighboring heights, if the lengths of the beams are different.

Openings in a log house

A log house without windows and doors was erected only in the old days as a cruel punishment for dangerous criminals, rebels and those disliked by the authorities. If given a choice, many convicts preferred the death penalty by beheading or hanging to imprisonment. So anyone will have to make openings for windows and doors in a log house.

It is much easier to make an opening in a log house than in any other wall: it is simply cut out, see figure:

Only 3 conditions need to be met: at least 1.5 logs or at least 2.5 beams must remain at the top and bottom of the opening; the opening is cut into the upper and lower logs/beams to half their height, and from the edges of the opening to the adjacent corner, partition or nearest dowel there must be at least 1.2 m. The blocks for assembling door and window jambs do not necessarily need to be cut down or cut out from logs; in all respects it would be better to make them from ordinary edged boards. So the work of putting up a log house with your own hands does not consist only of difficulties.

Wooden house construction is gaining momentum, which is no wonder, because living in an environmentally friendly building in the age of the concrete jungle is much healthier. It is quite possible to build your dream home yourself, provided that the owner suburban area has carpentry skills. Below are descriptions of the important processes preceding such work, the answer to the question of how to make a log house with your own hands, as well as recommendations for its operation after installation.

Site preparation

What is it? The site must be cleared of any type of vegetation. Moreover, after uprooting all the bushes, you should water the ground with chemicals so that the roots do not stretch out again. If this is not done, then you can wait for the trees to appear in the log house. Perhaps, from a design point of view, it will look stylish and unusual, but broken floorboards and constant dampness are unlikely to suit the owners.

The cleared site is fenced off, thereby preventing the passage of other vehicles and marking the boundaries of the construction site. It is necessary to ensure the arrival of special equipment, if any, and provide electricity and water to the site. Thus, the area can be considered ready for next stage– foundation.

It would be nice to have a storage area for wood. This is usually a canopy that protects the material from the elements. In addition, it will need to be covered with film if construction is delayed.

Construction of the foundation

When choosing a foundation for a log house, you should proceed from its size and terrain conditions:

1. Tape. Suitable for any type of building. Works well on problematic soils. You can be sure that the log house will not “go away” over time. Minus - requires large quantity concrete, which cannot reduce the cost of construction, even if you make the log house yourself.
2. Pile. Suitable for lungs one-story buildings. It behaves well on heaving and rocky soils, reduces construction costs, but you can forget about floor insulation: a blowing wind sweeping snowdrifts under the log house is a common occurrence. It is erected in warm areas.
3. Columnar. First of all, it is intended for damp lands. It is too capricious: after shrinkage, the level will definitely move, so its construction should be left to specialists. Economical.
4. Slab. The most reliable, but expensive. It is a completely poured concrete base. It performs well on problematic soil: it does not lead, does not allow dampness or heaving. Labor intensive.

Below is a description of the installation for a strip foundation as the best in terms of price-quality ratio.

To work you will need:

• shovel;
• level;
• measuring instruments;
• formwork – panels, boards;
• crushed stone, sand;
• fittings;
• insulation;
• concrete pouring.

The process begins with marking. Each load-bearing wall of the log house must be firmly placed on the foundation. With this condition, the outline is outlined. It is very convenient to use wooden stakes and harsh threads.

Then ditches are dug along the marked lines. The soil should be immediately stored separately; it may still be needed. The depth, depending on freezing conditions, cannot be less than 70 cm.

After this, the future foundation needs to be insulated. Styrene is used for this. The slabs are laid on the sides of the ditch and secured with pins, piercing and thus fixing them along the walls. If you neglect the insulation, this will subsequently affect the quality of operation.

The installation of reinforcement begins. It is absolutely necessary for the rigidity of the structure. To do this, steel rods are laid out at the intersection and welded at the nodes and corners of the future log house.

Place the formwork up to the edge ground floor. Shields or boards are strengthened in accordance with the level so that the future foundation is level.

Do concrete pouring. To save money, rubble is poured into the ditch - construction waste: crushed stone, broken bricks, stones, etc. The pouring is carried out slowly, until complete shrinkage, pouring water each time until a milky foam appears on the surface. This is done to prevent the surface of the foundation from cracking. Then it must be given time to completely harden - 2-3 weeks.

Once the formwork has been removed, immediate construction cannot begin. Shrinkage of the base occurs throughout the year. During this time, it is possible to review all the nuances of the material.

Thus, the construction of the foundation can be considered completed. If the owners want to have some kind of extension in the future, then they need to think about it when planning the site. It is best when the common frame is made on one foundation.

Direct selection of material

Probably, even before walking around the offices, the owners had already decided on the choice of wood for their future brainchild. Based financial opportunities, the material in the log house corresponds to them. An array is considered more expensive, but with it you can be sure that the house will be warm and durable. In addition, due to the beauty of wild or rounded logs, there is no need to decorate it. Profiled or laminated timber will be no less beautiful. In this case, construction with such materials will be easier due to the correct geometric shape material.

Types of logs that are used for log houses.

The problem with the question of how to properly make the log house itself lies in cutting the corners. Without the appropriate skill, you can get at least a waste of material. The greater evil is a windswept house. There are many types of felling. The most popular were “in the paw” and “in the bowl”. In the first case, material consumption is reduced, but the corners become cold bridges. In the second, skill is required, but a house with such a log is reliable.

It also makes sense to choose softwood or hardwood. The advantage of conifers is the presence of phytoncides, which protect the tree from mold, mildew and bark beetles. The disadvantage of coniferous trees is that, due to their resinous nature, it is not recommended to build bathhouses from them. The resin flows and poses a threat to people with high blood pressure, as it clogs all ventilation. The choice should be optimal in terms of price, decent quality and durability.

The laying of the first crown - the main element in the entire log house - begins. To make it high quality, it is recommended to choose larch for such a task. This tree has established itself as an excellent material that does not interact with moisture. An example of this is the piles in Venice, which stood in the water for many hundreds of years. They were made from Russian larch, by the way.

So, layers of roofing material are laid on the foundation, or it is tarred with bitumen mastic. Then a beam or log with grooves already cut out is placed. Naturally, strictly according to the level. Also, don’t forget to stock up on inter-crown insulation. It could be moss, jute or tow. Although builders refuse the latter. Logs for the subfloor are immediately installed (for the convenience of the entire installation process).

The next crowns do not differ from the installation of the first one. The only difference is that the initial log or beam should be slightly wider than the rest. The work is carried out according to the plan or project, accurately combining the drawings with the realities. That is, window or door openings should be in place immediately, and not later. The material for fastening is usually wooden dowels. The use of metal is undesirable, since corrosion will lead to destruction of the wood. Work is carried out to the desired height, placing the crowns with insulation. The last two rows in the log house are not secured with anything. After shrinking, they need to be removed in order to be properly mounted and strengthened. rafter system. Thus, you can build a log house yourself. This is not the most difficult, but responsible job.

Caulk and some construction nuances

Construction, of course, is not finished.

The log needs at least a year for final shrinkage.

After laying the crowns, you can carry out preliminary caulking, but you shouldn’t get too carried away with this. Due to inexperience, you can overdo it, and then the house will turn out crooked, with protruding elements. However, without preliminary caulking, you may subsequently not see construction flaws.

What is caulk? This is the sealing of inter-crown gaps suitable material. For this purpose, moss, tow, jute, flax and rope are used. Tow is considered the worst. After time, it will turn into dust. In addition, birds love it very much and will pull it out even before the owners start using the house. When purchasing jute, you need to be careful not to purchase jute felt instead. No matter how much the seller assures that its properties are the same as those of the above-mentioned material, it is worth knowing that felt is a favorite delicacy of moths. For beautiful rounded logs, you can use a rope to aesthetic appearance the log house was full.

Caulking is carried out with special tools: a spatula, a mallet and a hammer. The essence of the process comes down to plugging all the cracks and gaps between the logs, even if they are not visible at first glance.

There are two methods: dialing and stretching. The first one is good for thread seals. A thread is twisted from the material and pushed into the cracks by a set of loops. The second is faster and of better quality: the material spreads along the entire length of the log, and one edge is tightly tucked into the gap. The second one is rolled up and sent there. It is worth knowing that caulking is carried out from the bottom up and from both sides of the log house. After another 3-5 years, the process must be repeated.

After caulking, you can erect the roof and begin internal insulation and finishing.

The described process of how to make a high-quality log house yourself is simple only on paper. U wood construction a lot of nuances. You can comply with them provided you take a responsible approach to the matter and study the supporting information. Only then will the operation of a home built by oneself fully please the owners and make them proud of themselves.

When wondering what kind of house I would like to live in, for some reason I remember a tower from children's fairy tales. Why not? A wooden house has an excellent internal climate: warm in winter and cool in summer, always dry, even in very humid areas, the wonderful rich aroma of wood creates not just comfort, but also a wonderful atmosphere for life and creativity. In your search for the ideal home, you inevitably come to the realization that no one has come up with anything better than log houses. They are beautiful, practical, do not require finishing, retain heat perfectly and are absolutely environmentally friendly, if not even healing. Building a log house is a very responsible and labor-intensive task, although our ancestors overwhelmingly built such houses on their own, everyone knew the technology that was passed on from generation to generation, but today the thread of knowledge has been broken. There are very few good architects left, but industrial methods for building wooden houses have appeared. Of course, you can choose turnkey log houses, but within the framework of this article we will consider options on how you can build a log house with your own hands.

Rounded or planed (chopped) log - which is better?

In total, two types of buildings are called log houses: the first is made of chopped logs, i.e. planed by hand, it is also called “wild log house”, the second is made from logs rounded on a special machine. Let's figure out which option is better.

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, all log houses were exclusively "wild log house". What does this mean? All the logs were processed by hand, the top layer - the bark - was carefully removed from a freshly cut tree, while trying to keep the bast layer intact, which protects the deeper layers of wood from moisture from the outside. This provided amazing resistance to fungi and mold. Obviously, the sawn log tapers from the lower end, which is closer to the root, to the upper end, which is closest to the top. Even after processing, this difference in diameter remains; the closer to the top, the thinner the log. A sufficiently tall tree can be cut into 3 logs: the thickest one, the end of which is located near the rhizome, is called the butt, the middle one is called the drug, and the top one is the third or top. The butt was always used for construction, as it is the most durable, thickest and has a smaller change in diameter. To compensate for the difference in thickness, when constructing a log house, the butt and top were always alternated. In one crown, the butt “looks” in one direction, and in the next, in the opposite direction. Selecting hand-cut logs is not an easy task, because it is necessary to create an even, durable structure from logs of different diameters.

The technology for building log houses has remained virtually unchanged to this day. Everyone also builds houses from different-sized logs, trying to fit them as perfectly as possible. Moreover, such houses are considered luxury housing, and the services for their construction are much more expensive than houses made of timber or even rounded logs. This is dictated by the complexity, duration and labor intensity of the work. After construction, a log house made from chopped logs must stand for at least 1 - 1.5 years, during which time the wood will shrink by about 5 - 7%. Only after this can you start decorating the house: installing doors, windows, installing communications, etc. In general, in addition to the colossal work of preparing and individually fitting the logs, a lot of waiting time will be required.

Thanks to modern technologies, all inconveniences using planed logs can be avoided. On special machines in industrial conditions, logs are processed to a perfectly cylindrical shape, and a groove is cut into them for further fastening into crowns. All dimensions are adjusted to the millimeter. This greatly simplifies the work when constructing a log house; it simply resembles assembling a construction kit according to instructions and drawings.

Very light and comfortable material for construction, but he lost all the advantages of planed logs in production. The fact is that during the production process, not only the bark is removed from the log, but also all the upper layers, including the sapwood, leaving only mature and sound wood, which is not protected from external factors. Therefore, when used, a rounded log is treated with special antiseptics and other antifungal and anti-rot impregnations, as well as agents that prevent insect damage. The result is: comfortable, beautiful, very smooth and less durable and environmentally friendly. In addition, the maximum diameter of such a log is less than 300 mm, while a chopped log can be of any diameter.

For ready-made log houses, the price depends precisely on what kind of log was used: chopped or rounded. Log houses are more expensive. And although many say that they look less aesthetically pleasing, in fact this is not so: from hand-planed logs you can create a masterpiece according to your personal taste. individual order, which will not be like any other house in the world. At the same time, the walls look primitive and unusual. It is much easier to build a house from rounded logs, especially on your own, since the human factor is almost completely eliminated.

Log houses: projects, technologies, cost

Any construction begins with the creation of a project, and the construction of a log house is no exception. You can take a ready-made project, or you can make it individual by ordering it from a special bureau. You shouldn’t first pour the foundation and then think about what kind of house you would like to build, because it will be quite difficult to adjust it to the dimensions of a ready-made foundation.

The cost of a log house depends on its number of storeys, material and complexity of the structure. Houses may have one floor, or two or three. The walls can be adjacent to each other at almost any angle, since the logs can be cut into a bowl of any shape. Those. a polygon-shaped wall is quite normal for a log house.

Today, log houses are built in two ways: logs are prepared directly on the construction site from chopped wood, or a house is assembled according to a drawing from rounded logs pre-made and fitted at the factory.

In the first case, the forest is always natural humidity, i.e. After construction, the log house is caulked and left for a year and a half to shrink, and only then work continues. Installation of windows and doors is carried out using two technologies: the first is to immediately cut the logs to the required length, leaving space for a window or doorway, the second is based on first allowing the wood to dry evenly, shrink, and only then, the next year, cut out openings. The second option is preferable, as it ensures the strength and durability of the log house due to uniform shrinkage. But this is a waste of time. And the first option is faster, so it is used more often, although to the detriment of the log house itself.

Rounded logs are sold both at natural moisture content and dried in production. The designer always assumes that all the logs already have their final length, all that remains is to assemble it. Companies involved in the construction of houses from rounded logs rarely agree to build from untreated logs, almost always the fitting and complete assembly of the house is carried out in production, then the log house is marked, disassembled and transported to the site where it is reassembled.

How much a log house costs depends not only on the type of log, but also on its diameter, as well as related work, which the customer asks to fulfill. For example, the construction of only a log house from rounded logs will cost approximately 280 - 350 USD. for 1 m2, from chopped logs - 350 - 450 USD. for 1 m2. If you order from a construction company the arrangement of the foundation, communications, finishing of the house, in general, everything, then count on 1000 USD. for 1 m2.

How to choose the right wood for a log house

Most often, the construction of log houses is made from coniferous wood: pine, spruce, larch, cedar, but you can also use aspen, oak, ash and other deciduous trees. Pine and spruce are the most affordable materials, so they prevail. It is necessary to purchase logs cut down in winter; such wood has ideal moisture resistance characteristics.

If you have the opportunity to choose, it is better to opt for northern coniferous wood, it is more resistant to negative impacts. A good option is pine from the Baltic coast and Canadian spruce. But prepared in middle lane wood is also not bad if all storage, drying and transportation conditions are met.

Important! Please note when choosing wood that wood grown in different climatic zones will have completely different characteristics and density level, despite the same processing conditions.

It is better to buy wood from a proven and reliable harvester. The strength of the entire house depends on this. If you make a mistake with the wood, it's a waste of money. The diameter of the logs is selected depending on the design of the house and the severity of the winter cold. For example, if the temperature in winter does not drop below -20 °C, 200 mm of logs are enough, if up to -30 °C, then 220 mm of logs, and if up to -40 °C, then 240 - 260 mm. Of course, these calculations are purely advisory in nature. You can safely choose logs of greater thickness, up to 500 - 600 mm in diameter, or use 250 mm logs in a fairly warm climate, the tree compensates for temperature changes.

When you come to a sawmill or timber warehouse, pay attention to the following features:

• The surface of the logs should be yellow or dark yellow.
• The cut should be tight and even, without blue spots.
• The core should occupy ¾ of the cut and have an even dark shade.
• There should be no resin pockets.
• It's better if there are no branches. But even if they are present, they should sit without gaps. If you see such a picture, it means the core is rotten.
• When the ax hits the end of the log, there should be a ringing sound.
• The maximum depth of a permissible crack in a log should be 1/3 of the cut.
• The logs should not be twisted; in the construction of a house they can only be used for floorboards and rafters, having previously been cut into bars.

Feel free to reject logs with the above flaws. If you are buying a project house made of rounded logs, be sure to include a clause in the contract obliging you to replace substandard logs at the company’s expense upon the customer’s first request. Pay attention to the conditions in which the timber was stored, whether all requirements were met, or maybe after a couple of months mold will appear on the logs.

DIY log house

The easiest option for self-construction is a house made of rounded logs. We will consider this further, since a log house will still require not only the ability to hold a tool in your hands, but also decent experience in working with wood.

First of all, we order a project or a house already finished project in a special company. After we have discussed all the issues, the factory produces full set logs for our house, as well as floor beams, joists and rafters. This is where the house is assembled for the first time to make sure that all the logs are cut correctly. The house is then dismantled.

Our participation begins with an inspection of the timber package. Then we must prepare a place on the building site for storing wood, equipping it with a canopy so that the wood does not get wet in the rain.

Foundation for a log house

Before building a log house, it is necessary to arrange the foundation on which it will stand. Because wooden house- the structure is relatively light, and the foundation can be made shallow. Most often they use pile- strip foundation, pile, slab and less often buried strip.

Let's consider pile-strip foundation.

• We mark the area, then remove the top fertile layer and set it aside for landscaping needs.
• We excavate the soil to a depth of up to 30 cm across the width of the strip foundation.
• Along the perimeter of the building, in increments of about 2 m, we drill wells with a diameter of up to 180 mm, to the depth of soil freezing, i.e. 150 cm.
• We fill the wells with a layer of sand and crushed stone.
• We weld the frame from the reinforcement and lower it into the well.
• We fill the well with concrete, then tamp it with a vibrator.
• Install wooden formwork for strip foundation. It should protrude no less than 50 - 60 cm above the ground level.
• We weld the frame for the strip foundation and connect it to the reinforcement sticking out of the wells.
• We fill the strip foundation with concrete, compact it and wait for it to harden.

After completely dry foundation, you can begin to waterproof it. This is especially important since our house is made of wood. We lay roofing material on the foundation in 3 - 4 layers and additionally coat it with mastic.

Construction of a log house from rounded logs: erection of walls

Please note, this is extremely important; the first crown - the mortgage - cannot be installed directly on the foundation. Although you may encounter such a design, be aware that it threatens that the mortgage crown will quickly become unusable.

So, to begin with, we lay the so-called “backing” linden board on the foundation. This can be a beam about 50 - 100 mm thick and at least 150 mm wide. Then we begin to assemble the log house:

Important! The lower mortgage rim must have an end cut off at the bottom with a width of at least 150 mm. This is necessary so that the house rests firmly on the plane of the end. If you suddenly notice that the crown logs have the same groove as all the others, contact the manufacturer and request a replacement.

• The first two logs of the foundation crown are laid on opposite walls of the foundation parallel to each other, on a backing board. We carefully check their even position.

Important! All logs included in the set already have a factory-made groove for a longitudinal connection and a locking corner connection. Most often this is a moon groove and a “bowl” connection.

• We lay insulation on the logs that we will lay on the remaining two sides. We fill the entire groove and recess of the bowl with caulking material. It could be moss, tow, hemp or jute. Most often, for caulking rounded logs, jute or linen tape insulation is used with a width corresponding to the width of the groove in the log. We spread the insulation so that at the edges it hangs 5 ​​- 6 cm on each side. We fasten it using a construction stapler.

Important! The recess must be completely filled with insulation. When the jute tape is spread, it covers the entire longitudinal groove, but in the bowl it only goes through the middle. Therefore, in the area of ​​the bowl it is necessary to insulate with two pieces.

• We install two logs on the transverse sides of the foundation, resting them on the mortgage crown. The bowls should fit together neatly. We check that there is the required angle between the logs, for example, 90 °. We control the level of their horizontality. The insulation should hang from the log.

• We install all other crowns according to the same scheme, assembling them like a construction set.
• For greater strength, some technologies involve fastening the crowns together not only with the help of grooves and bowls, but also with dowels. This wooden slats from more dense wood. A hole is drilled in the logs to a depth of more than one log and a dowel is inserted into the hole.

• The last two crowns are not secured. This is necessary for proper shrinkage.

Important! We must treat all logs with antiseptics, otherwise they will rot in the first winter.

Do not forget to constantly check the correct installation. Horizontal logs and strict verticality of the log house are required. The rounded log house includes holes for window and door frames. We carefully lay the short logs and secure them carefully.

Installation of a log house roof

Log walls cannot be left without a roof, so immediately after the walls are erected, we cover the frame. Rafters and floor beams are included in the kit. The rafters can be installed directly on the logs of the upper crown, or you can first lay the mauerlat (beam for the rafters).

If the project provides for a veranda, then we insert special shrinkage compensators, because horizontally laid logs will dry out and shrink, but vertical logs will not. To prevent the house from warping, all vertical logs must be equipped with compensators.

We connect the ridge logs using metal pins. We install the rafters in increments of 600 mm. For this we use 50x200 mm timber. We attach the rafters to the last crown on sliding supports. We lay a waterproofing film on top of the rafters. Then we attach the sheathing, the pitch of which depends on the selected roofing material. IN last resort laying roofing material.

After the walls of the log house are ready and the roof is installed, all the insulation that sticks out of the logs should be carefully caulked. To do this, using a caulking tool (tool), we wrap these 5 - 6 cm of insulation down and push it inside the gap between the crowns. Then we make a pushing movement at the top of the gap and in the middle.

In this condition: with the roof and walls caulked for the first time, we leave the house for a year to shrink.

A year later, we repeat the caulking, sealing all newly formed cracks and gaps with tow, hemp or jute.

Important! Sometimes it is advised to carry out another caulk after the house has been in operation for a whole year with the heating turned on in winter.

Installation of doors, windows, installation of ceilings and floors

All windows, doors and partitions are installed only after maximum shrinkage of the log house, i.e. a year after construction.

Neither doors nor windows are placed directly into openings. To begin with, wooden casing boxes with compensation fastening and they already have windows and doors. This precaution is due to the fact that wood is a plastic material. It expands from moisture and shrinks from its lack, in addition, shrinkage wooden house lasts 5 - 6 years. And although a rounded log is less susceptible to shrinkage, casing is still necessary.

The floor joists of the first floor cut into the embedded crown or the subsequent one. They must be firmly attached. Since the embedded crown must be well ventilated so as not to rot longer, it is recommended to install the floor on the joists with the crown higher.

At this stage, it is already possible to install the heating system and other communications, install interior doors, slopes, baseboards, plumbing and other finishing.

Now that the log house is ready, you can move in. In conclusion, I would like to note that logs of insufficient length can be joined, but it is important to make a connecting groove, and there should not be many such joints in one wall. Vents should be provided in the foundation for free ventilation of the underground. And don’t forget, you can’t leave the log house uncovered with a roof or at least a film, and also don’t treat it with an antiseptic. A rounded log can deteriorate even in one season.

For a long time in Rus', the main material for building houses was wood. The most interesting thing is that such buildings have survived to this day. Despite the fact that these days there are different technologies and materials for building houses, they still have not been able to displace wood. There are many reasons for this. Wood is a “living”, natural and environmentally friendly material created by nature itself. Wood has high heat-saving properties and is capable of accumulating and releasing moisture, so living in such a house is much more comfortable and breathing is much more pleasant.

One of the important advantages is economic factor, since building such a house can be cheaper than building one made of brick or stone. The whole point is that Finishing work for such a house they are not needed; it is enough to simply sand the wood, which has a pleasant color and appearance. Moreover, if you compare a wooden house with a similar house made of stone or brick, it will be much lighter. In this case, you can save on building a foundation. In the end, such a house looks very beautiful. Based on all of the above, let's look at how you can make a house from a log with your own hands.

If you want to build a wooden house, you should know that there are 3 types of wood processing that are now used in construction:

• construction from natural logs;
• construction from rounded or profiled logs;
• construction from simple, profiled or laminated timber.

Most houses are built from natural or rounded logs. The first option is an ordinary chopped tree, which was planed by hand and removed the bark. In this case, you have to manually adjust the wood to size and make the grooves. But due to the fact that the upper layers of wood were not affected, the structure is reliable, resistant to moisture, mold and mildew.

Procuring material manually is a difficult and time-consuming task, since the logs have different diameters, and the structure must be smooth and durable. This is why log houses are considered elite. After all, construction services for such structures are much more expensive.

The disadvantage of this technology is that after the house is built, it must stand for 1–1.5 years in order to dry out. During this time, the building should shrink. Windows, doors, and communications can be installed only after shrinkage.

Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers used this method. But modern technologies allow you to avoid all these inconveniences. Purchased logs can be processed in industrial conditions using special machines. The result is logs of ideal cylindrical shape, length, and, according to the design, all grooves and joints are made in them. Everything is done with millimeter precision. In this case, build own house much simpler, just fold it like a construction set according to the drawing and instructions. Such logs are called rounded; they are more convenient to use.

The only drawback is that during processing the log lost its top layer, thanks to which it was protected from external factors. Therefore, before work, such logs need to be coated with a special antiseptic, antifungal and antiputrefactive agent. But despite this, its advantages are obvious:

1. Easy to use.
2. Thanks to machining All trunks are perfectly straight and have grooves in them.
3. Based on your project, the logs are adjusted. All you need to do is pour the foundation and assemble the house.

If you plan to build your house yourself, it is much easier and more efficient to use rounded logs. Let's look at how you can turn your plans into reality.

Where to start?

The first thing you need to do is design a future home. Here you have two options: do it yourself or seek the help of specialists. If your design knowledge is not very deep, it is better not to try experiments. Mistakes in design can cost you dearly, and even worse, such a home may be uninhabitable. What to do in this case?

Many ready-made room designs can be found on the World Wide Web. Some of them can be obtained for free, while others are only available for money. If you are not sure of the reliability of such sources, you can turn to specialized companies that will think through the design of your home down to the smallest detail.

Next you need to choose what kind of wood the house will be built from. These are mainly the following species: pine, spruce, larch, cedar, aspen, oak and ash. Often, coniferous wood is used for such purposes, since their trunks are quite smooth, and the wood itself is easy to process. Moreover, pine and spruce can be purchased at an affordable price. And thanks to the resin with which the wood is impregnated, moisture resistance and a pleasant smell are ensured.

It is better to purchase logs in winter, since then the moisture resistance indicators are the highest.

After this, you need to order wood cutting according to the finished project from a company that provides such services. After discussing all the issues, the factory will produce a whole set of logs for your house, floor beams, rafters and joists. To make sure that everything is done as it should, the house is assembled for the first time at the factory. After inspection, it is disassembled and delivered to you.

Now your participation is needed. You inspect a set of wood for quality and prepare a place in which you will store the material for subsequent work.

To prevent the tree from getting wet when it rains, the storage area should be equipped with a canopy.

At this point, all preparatory work is completed, you can move on to the next stage.

Laying the foundation for the future home

It's no secret that the foundation for any building is the foundation. It is thanks to him that the entire building will stand reliably for many years. What exactly your foundation will be depends on the number of storeys of the house and its size. Since wood is relative lightweight material, there is no need to deepen the foundation by 2 m and make it massive. This is one of the advantages of wood over brick. The structure of the foundation can be varied, but the main thing to remember is that it must be done in accordance with all standards of reliability and strength. To make a foundation, you can use several options suitable for a wooden house:

• strip shallow foundation;
• slab foundation.

Basically, a strip foundation is chosen for foundation construction. But pile foundations are also often used. And if the soil on the site is wet and loose, then they resort to making a slab foundation. To choose the right foundation, you first need to analyze the soil.

For example, you chose a strip foundation. Thanks to its design, it is quite reliable, as it follows all the contours of the building: load-bearing walls and the walls between them. To do all the work, you need:

• Mark the area according to the house design, transfer it from paper to the ground. To do this, you need to drive stakes into the corners of the building and in places where there will be walls, and stretch a rope between them. This way you will give yourself a guideline for further work.
• Dig a trench based on the intended landmark.
• Make formwork for pouring concrete. It can be either made of plywood or simple boards. The main thing is to do everything without cracks, holes and securely fasten it so that the weight of the concrete does not knock it down.
• In the trench you should make a cushion of small crushed stone, stones or sand. Recommended cushion height 50 mm. It must be compacted well.
• If the load on the foundation is large, then you can make a frame from reinforcement.
• Directly pour the foundation with concrete. It is important that the pouring occurs quickly and in several layers throughout the entire foundation. If you only do certain vertical sections or pour concrete partially, there is a chance that the concrete may crack in those areas.
• Remove air from concrete using a deep vibrator.
• Level the surface and leave to dry for a month.

After pouring, it is important to carefully check the surface with a hydraulic level to ensure it is level. The difference can be up to 10 mm. If it is larger, those places need to be leveled with mortar or waterproofing. After all the work, the concrete will dry in a week, but you need to continue working in a month, when it is completely strengthened.

As practice shows, if you live in a climate with harsh winters, where the snow can be knee-deep, the base of the building should be high, approximately 500 mm. If it is made smaller, the first two crowns or logs, which are at the base, will constantly be under snow, which will negatively affect their properties and further suitability.

Now you have moved on to the main type of work - erecting walls and forming the frame of the future house. But before laying the first crown, it is important to ensure good waterproofing of the material, especially if we are talking about wood. Because if you simply place the first embedded log directly on the foundation, it will quickly become unusable. Therefore, the first step is to lubricate the concrete with molten bitumen. After which it is necessary to lay 2-3 layers of waterproofing (roofing felt or waterproofing) on ​​the foundation. Then you need to install the laying board. It is better to choose linden timber with a thickness of 50–100 mm and a width of at least 150 mm. Then another layer of waterproofing is laid on the board so that it extends 250 mm beyond the edge of the foundation on each side. Thanks to this, the first stowing log will be protected from moisture and will serve you for many years.

Now, you can safely begin assembling walls from rounded logs.

All logs must be treated with an antiseptic so that they do not rot in the first winter.

During the stages of wall construction, it is important to constantly check whether the installation is done correctly. It is important to ensure that the logs are horizontal and the frame is strictly vertical. Since your home has openings for door and window openings, you need to carefully lay short logs, carefully securing them.

That's all, now you can see the result of your work - the house is almost ready. But please note that doing everything yourself will be unrealistic. Logs need to be lifted to a certain height. So ask your family, friends or neighbors for help.

Roof over your head

You should know that log walls cannot be left without covering, so you should not hesitate to install the roof. Floor beams and rafters should be included with your home. The rafters can be installed either directly on the top logs or on a laid mauerlat (special beam for rafters).

If the project includes a veranda, then a special shrinkage compensator must be inserted into the vertical log supporting the structure. After all, logs that are laid horizontally will shrink and dry out, but logs laid vertically will not. Therefore, in order to avoid skewing of the house, each vertical log must be equipped with a compensator.

Ridge logs must be connected with metal pins. The rafters should be installed in 600 mm increments. For this, a wooden beam 50x200 mm is used. The rafters must be secured to the last log of the masonry on sliding supports. After which a waterproofing film is laid on the rafters. Depending on the roofing material, the sheathing is attached. And at the end, the roofing material you have chosen is laid.

If, when laying the walls, you left 50 mm of insulation hanging from the logs, it needs to be carefully caulked. To do this, use a special caulk, turning the insulation down and pushing it inside the cracks between the logs.

The final stage is the installation of windows, doors, floors and installation of the ceiling

Although for construction you used rounded logs that were dried and there was little moisture left in them, the house still needs to be given time to shrink. You cannot immediately proceed to installing windows and doors.

When shrinkage has occurred at home, you can do finishing touches. Install windows and doors in the desired location. Please note that you cannot insert them directly into the opening. First you need to install the casing wooden box, having a compensation fastening. Only then should doors and windows be installed. For what, you ask? Since wood tends to expand from moisture and shrink in the absence of it, this can have a critical effect on windows and doors; they can become deformed and completely collapse. And thanks to the casing, the window and the opening become independent.

This completes the construction. Now you know how to build your own wooden house. If you did everything right, your “fairytale” home will serve you for many years. Such natural material has a beneficial effect on well-being and health.

Video

This video shows how to assemble a house from rounded logs: