Many people do not represent a complete Vacation home without a cozy bath. If you haven’t got it yet, you should learn how to choose a log cabin for a bath so as not to lose a lot of money and time.
The frame can consist of timber processed in any of the ways or from beams connected in horizontal rows. It is generally accepted that only a log with a natural shape can be considered the right log cabin for a bath. In any case, doors, windows, ceilings, floors and stairs cannot be attributed to the log cabin of a wooden bath.
What is a log cabin?
A log cabin is a construction of crowns of logs stacked one on top of the other and fixed at the corners into grooves. Each log is adjusted to each other to get an even structure. Baths made of wood are very popular, many people love the unique aroma of wood when heated. Tannins are useful for the body.
The walls of a log bath warm up faster, they “breathe” and absorb moisture well. The joints of chopped log crowns can be insulated with jute tape, linen tow, felt or moss.
wooden log house
It is necessary to install a shallow strip foundation. There is an option and screw piles. To protect the log from getting wet, foundation ventilation is required. To do this, the vents are placed on all sides, and in the cold season they are closed. Do not skimp on roof overhangs. The higher the structure, the longer the overhangs are needed.
The distance between the building and other buildings is specified in the regulations. Compliance is checked government bodies. There are distance standards that apply only to baths, regardless of their materials. The log cabin of a log bath must be treated with a flame retardant and an antiseptic. Every time after using the bath, it must be ventilated.
Dimensions, diameters and cutting features
For even masonry, it is better to use not cone-shaped, but cylindrical shape logs. There are three types of stem processing:
- cylindering,
- Planing,
- Scraping.
The most even log is obtained by rounding. This method is also the most economical. It is important that during processing the wood is dried according to certain rules.
With a planed version, you need to follow the rule when laying logs: for each running meter a change in diameter of 1 centimeter is allowed (tapering). In the variant of scraping, all the flaws remain. There is no elimination of the curvature of the trunk. It is worth preferring only the first two processing options when choosing logs for a bath.
The design is directly affected by the uniformity of the logs. Linear dimensions in all cases depend on the overall design and climatic conditions. For summer bath thin logs are suitable, for all-weather - no.
If the building is to be used all year round, you should choose the diameters of the logs in the range of 22-28 centimeters. In cold climates, log diameters up to 36 centimeters are recommended.
Eat a large number of log cutting methods. Most popular:
- Bowl,
- Paw,
- Norwegian and Canadian cabins,
- With a fat tail groove,
- In the gun carriage
- Comb in the groove.
Popular cutting methods and their features
The choice of wood species
Answering the question: how to choose a log cabin for a bath, it should be noted that the log cabin is made of coniferous or hardwood.
conifers
Baths are made from logs of 1 and 2 grades, these can be:
- fir,
- spruce,
- Pine logs.
Their average thickness is from 14 to 24 centimeters, and the length is from 3 to 6.5 meters. It is important to know that log cabins are not made from cedar, since this type of wood releases harmful substances when heated.
Using pine and spruce, often the lower crowns are made from harder larch. It also goes under the rafters and the floor.
Spruce perfectly brings out excess moisture, and pine is better breathable. There is no difference in durability. A log house made of larch will cost more because it requires a lot of effort during processing. At the same time, the walls will be heavier and a little colder. The level of fire resistance of larch is higher than that of pine and spruce. The core of the larch trunk is moisture resistant and durable.
hardwood
For a log house from hardwood wood logs of 2 grades are suitable. Their thickness can vary from 12 to 24 centimeters, and the length from 4 to 6.5 meters. Design can get complicated internal partitions. The bath can be made from trunks of birch, linden, maple, poplar, aspen, beech, hornbeam.
On logs for the floor and the mortgage crown, you can take oak. Often, aspen is taken for a log house, it is resistant to moisture, resistant to pests and fires, and has a low cost. After polishing, the aspen looks great, the steam in the aspen bath is softer and more pleasant. But a bath made of such wood does not pass moisture well, the room must be regularly ventilated.
Linden is similar to aspen in terms of softness and its many irregularities. But it should be noted the tendency of linden to rot. You can make the top crowns or only the shelves fake. They won't get very hot. Birch is harder than linden and aspen, it is less prone to decay. Birch warms up better than linden.
How to choose logs for a log house correctly?
It is worth knowing that in winter time the trees "sleep" and there is no sap flow in them. wood from winter trees is durable and dry. In the summer, the trees are filled with sap, so the logs often crack when they dry out. Each crack opens the way for rot, moisture and insects.
Log sellers are well aware of these nuances. When people buy a log cabin in the summer, the sellers try to prove that it is from "winter" trees. More often than not, this is not the case. Forest storage is too expensive. If we are really talking about a “winter” forest, then logs can be stored in the open air, which destroys all the advantages of such wood. The conclusion is simple: choose good logs you can, but you need to do it in the winter. Better time for the purchase of a log house: from the end of October to March.
The quality of the log house is also affected by the place where the trees grow. A strong and dense product is obtained from trees grown on high ground and in sandy soil. If the trees grew in wetlands or lowlands, then the wood will be of lower quality. It is loose and "watery".
Often log cabins are sold in sets. This includes windows, ceilings, doors and other structures. On the one hand, it is convenient, because everything is combined with each other. But on the other hand, the kits may be too overpriced.
It is worth noting that it is better to purchase a log house directly from the manufacturer. It is always better to avoid intermediaries. Unfortunately, there are too many of them on the market. Using the services of intermediaries, you overpay a lot. The cost of the log house includes the seller's salary, advertising costs, etc.
It is more profitable to buy a log house without additional goods. Often low-quality lumber is sold complete with a log house, and from another wood. When ordering a log house, you should ask the seller what is included in the basic kit.
Log house insulation
Usually log cabins are insulated with moss. This method was used several centuries ago. Materials such as tow and jute are also popular. They do not deform over time and are realized in the form of convenient tapes. They are easy to assemble during assembly. Tape insulation is laid between a log or timber. All this is then fixed with a stapler. If this procedure is done even when assembling the bath, then it will not need to be caulked further.
log house caulk (log house insulation)
Wood has a low thermal conductivity. Heated air is stored in the bath for a long time even in winter. Often the building is not insulated at all, but simply heated for a long time. It is more expensive in terms of operation, but bath experts say that this is the only way to create the famous atmosphere of a Russian bath.
If you use pine logs that have not been pre-treated, then often resin can appear when heated, which often causes burns. This should be taken into account when inner lining premises.
When choosing logs for a bath, pay attention to such nuances:
- There should be no black or blue spots on the cut,
- The core should not occupy ¾ of the diameter of the log. It should have an even color
- There should not be a lot of resin pockets and branches on the blanks,
5 / 5 ( 5 )
A house or a bathhouse made of rounded logs (to readers interested in a beam for a bathhouse) is a widespread practice, to the point that you can not know anything about the subject at all, order a construction company on a turnkey basis and get the finished result. But it is unlikely that you would read our articles if everything suited you in this version.
Yes, and we ourselves believe that a good owner will definitely consider it necessary to delve into the subject, learn more about the material- which log is better for a bath, what size, diameter, how they differ, what properties they have. This knowledge is also useful in order to understand what construction is being done from, and to control some parameters or processes. Yes, and after, too - the log house is not to say that it is capricious, but still requires care.
So let's deal with everything, and along the way, you see, and dispel some myths.
Which one is better
I would like to start with the consideration of wood. And not immediately by breed, but for now only with conventional wisdom that the best wood will be the one that was harvested in winter.
IMPORTANT! Antiseptics must be distinguished for internal and external works, and not to be confused with each other. It is worth processing the log after laying it, and with the part that will be inaccessible in the future, they do this - they do not impregnate the tree with an antiseptic, but a jute gasket (for example).
What breeds are suitable for felling
As already mentioned, for the most part, these will be coniferous breeds. It is them that you will most often meet on the market and in the offers of construction companies.
Of course, there are many taiga in Russia, but main reason will still strength And resistance to decay due to resins. And, of course, trunk straightness- it is higher in conifers than in deciduous ones. All this applies not only to the cheap pine and spruce mentioned above, but also to the more expensive species - larch and cedar. You can also offer fir.
From deciduous we would call oak, birch, aspen, alder And linden. But only it has sufficient strength and resistance to external influences. And he is very expensive.
Since we are talking about a bath, where heat softens the resin of conifers and causes it to flow to the surface, there are two options: either partially use hardwood to build a steam room, or sheathe a steam room from coniferous hardwood.
Spruce has less resin and is lighter than pine. Larch and - noble species. Larch is not afraid of water, it only makes it stronger.
BY THE WAY! As for the cedar, you should not flatter yourself - this is not at all the tree from which King Solomon built. Here you will find not Lebanese cedar, but Russian ... cedar pine. That's what we call "cedar".
Whom to choose? Focus on budget. If it allows, take a larch, if not, then it will go. Although ... I would like to advise not to trust myths too much - under adverse conditions, larch may well rot, and under favorable conditions, it can stand for decades.
And be warned that round log, into which cone-shaped trunks turn, over time can present many unpleasant surprises. Especially from the same larch. If a log is taken atmospheric drying, then it very often begins to lead over time. It can twist, bend, or just go into deep cracks.
This can be avoided only if you take trunks that have been subjected to heat treatment. It is of two types - ordinary And chamber. In the first case, uniform shrinkage is achieved, but with the preservation of the resin.
The second lasts much longer, and the output is wood with evaporated resin, which does not no shrinkage, no torsional deformation, buckling, no cracking. All this is extremely valuable, but only the price of such wood is too big.
Dimensions, diameter
Before naming the dimensions of a log for a bath, let's briefly go over what we know about the trunks. First, they tend thin out closer to the crown. Therefore, the top diameter will be smaller than the bottom diameter of the cut.
And for even laying preferably cylindrical rather than cone-shaped. Therefore, of the three types of trunk processing - rounding, planing And scraping, we get the most equal only in the first case, the minimum - in the third, and the second - something in between.
In this case, the cylindering is given cheaper everything, as it is produced on machines, and the rest is connected with manual labor. Manual labor is more expensive than machine labor. But is a rounded log ideal during operation?
There is nothing wrong with the operation itself, and it gives a form that is ideal for construction.
IMPORTANT only that the wood itself does not have defects and is properly dried. In this case, everything will be fine.
Planed the option has one nuance: after all, when laying logs in a wall, one should adhere to the Gostov rule, according to which a taper of 1 cm is allowed for each linear meter. (Let us explain: taper is a change in diameter.)
At scraped there is no need to wait for the option of complying with GOST in terms of fluency. Yes, and all the flaws remain there - changes in thickness are possible in places where branches grow, and the curvature of the trunk is also not eliminated.
It is clear that the first and second options should be preferred, but not the third.
Now about homogeneity logs. There is also a rule for this:
ATTENTION! The permissible difference in the diameters of crowns used in construction should not exceed 30 mm.
That is, it does not matter if your diameters are large or small, the main thing is that they do not differ much from each other. Otherwise strength structures will be questionable.
As for the dimensions, the linear dimensions depend on project and from climatic conditions of the area where the bath will be. It should also be taken into account seasonality its use - thinner logs will fit for a summer bath than for an all-weather one.
If the task is to do very light summer building- you need to take the material with a diameter up to 18 cm. And it is also useful in all-season baths to create partitions.
More solid summer(!) bath can be made of logs with a diameter 18-22 cm.
For all-season bath suitable diameters from 22 to 28 cm. Large numbers are applicable where we are talking about objects of a large area or climatic zones with very low temperatures, there logs can be up to 36 cm in diameter (at -45 degrees, that's it).
How many pieces do you need
There is nothing difficult in the task of calculating how many logs you need for a bath. Let's describe the solution step by step:
- We look at the plan () and write out the lengths of all the walls. If you take a smaller diameter for the partition, then count the partitions separately.
- Add up the lengths of the walls. The resulting figure is the total length of one conditional crown.
- Decide what diameter the logs will be.
- The height of the bath is included in the project. Divide the height by the diameter of one crown. The resulting figure is the number of crowns.
- We multiply the length of the conditional crown by the number of crowns. We get the total length of all logs.
- The length of one standard rounded log is 6 meters. Divide the resulting length of all logs by the length of one log. The final figure is the amount of material to be purchased.
- Gables are considered in a similar way.
Bath from large and huge logs
Baths from large and huge logs, we would refer to design projects. Because there is clearly not so much a construction need as aesthetic preference. The owner of such a bath obviously likes fabulous, epic times when heroes walked the earth 🙂 And indeed the building will inspire just such feelings, even if we are talking about a bath.
Note, our opinion is that this idea has little functional meaning and often causes critical reviews, due to the inappropriate destruction of valuable ancient trees.
It would be nice if the project was done by a professional, because it is he who will have to find the perfect ratio between the dimensions of the bath itself and the diameter of the logs. Because not grotesque proportions are sweet to the eye.
A tree from which crowns with a diameter of more than 30 cm are made must grow for three hundred years, no less. Such logs for a bath need to be selected piece, sometimes designers deliberately use barrels without rounding - this enhances the feeling of antiquity and fabulousness. However, laying them in a log house will require great skill from the builders. In most cases, the choice is between cedar And larch.
In general, this is a wonderful and expensive undertaking, which is worth implementing on a large plot with a good landscape design. Or better yet, maybe not at all.
lower crown
Of course, in one article the specifics wooden construction it is unlikely that it will be possible to somehow reveal it, but the fact that the lower log in the bathhouse differs from subsequent logs is worth mentioning.
- First, it is made by several more all other crowns in the log house.
- Secondly, it does not have a completely round shape in cross section. In order to have a complete fit to the foundation, it is cut off from below edging, whose width must not be less than 15-20 cm. The second edging is cut from the inside of the room and has similar dimensions.
Outside, the crown is desirable to protect low tide, which will not allow moisture precipitation to fall on it.
Treatment inside the bath
The log house needs protection from all sides, but from the outside it is simpler, more precisely, there are simply no restrictions that operate inside, since we are talking about a bath. The fact is that the compounds that should be used for processing are often poisonous, especially for antiseptic impregnations. And the bath is hot and humid, so the substances with which the logs are impregnated will enter the air that you breathe, which surrounds your skin.
So now let's just talk about acceptable processing logs inside the bath. However, it will vary depending on the location. So for a dressing room or hallway there are no restrictions on the use of poisonous antiseptics. The rest room can also be processed by them.
ADVICE! Choosing an antiseptic for internal works, check with the seller or Google that we are talking about a bath.
IN washing you should use formulations that are not afraid of water, and most antiseptics are water-soluble.
IN steam room you can use bleach based on bleach - it will lighten the surface of the wood and serve. You can use the steam room only after the smell of bleach has disappeared.
In the future, you can do a simple moisture protection, because mold settles on wet wood. For moisture protection, use compositions based on oil and / or wax, or Finnish acrylic varnishes for the sauna, in which they add antiseptics acceptable for the steam room.
Seams can be filled sealant for wood, and the very surface of the logs is simply grind, to reveal a beautiful "moiré" texture. Painting is acceptable almost everywhere, but in the steam room you should use only those paints that are intended for it. In the sink, paints suitable for bathrooms will do. About the paints for the bath with us.
What to caulk
The idea of caulking a log bath suggests that not all bath owners are familiar with modern means sealing joints (or do not consider them the best). Traditional the methods, of course, are time-tested, but they are very laborious and require periodic labor-intensive renewal, since the log house is constantly slowly changing its dimensions during the first 20 years of life.
Concerning materials, then it is usually used for caulking moss, tow, jute and linen. However, below we will provide a link to the video of the master, who categorically does not advise caulking with jute, because it picks up moisture well. He considers lnovatin to be the optimal material. Moss is traditional, but not common everywhere.
Tow is of different quality. The one that is worse has inclusions of all sorts of straw. Masters also do not recommend using it, because part of it will crumble over time. Linen tow good quality- excellent material for caulking.
Lnovatin- a quilted cloth, somewhat reminiscent of jute, but differing from it in quality. It is convenient for work and is not inferior to tow in terms of heat-insulating properties.
Significantly speed up, simplify and reduce the cost of the process of building a house can buy a finished log house from rounded logs or timber. At the same time, it is important that it is assembled correctly and from quality material. After all, a log house is the basis of construction and, with poor quality, significantly worsens living conditions.
Therefore, before choosing a log cabin for your home, you should consider the following characteristics of logs:
- type of wood,
- felling season,
- thickness
- type of felling for laying.
When is the best time to cut down trees for felling logs?
In winter, trees are in a kind of hibernation, when all the processes occurring inside them slow down or stop. This also applies to the circulation of juice, a significant part of which goes from the trunk to the roots. Therefore, trees cut down in winter can be dried to the full depth. And logs from them keep longer White color and resistant to external influences.
A log from a forest felled in the summer is of poor quality: it quickly darkens, becomes brittle and has low biological stability. Felled trees are often stored in outdoors, being exposed to high humidity. One of the manifestations of the described shortcomings of the "summer" frame is the formation of cracks on the surface of its logs, which worsen its thermal insulation and aesthetics.
Therefore, it is advisable to choose a log house for the house and buy it in the winter (preferably closer to spring). Moreover, it must be assembled from fresh logs. Thus, with the onset of warming (storage of the log house in winter conditions excludes the biological destruction of wood), you can immediately proceed with the installation of the log house.
How does the type of wood affect the quality of the log house?
The best logs in terms of quality are obtained from small-layer wood, which is durable and resinous. It is usually found in trees growing in dry soils and on hills. If you use wood that grows in damp places (for example, in wetlands), then the log house from it will be prone to decay.
The best option for making logs for a log house are conifers trees. They are best suited for log cabins of pine or larch, since their wood is characterized by high density, which determines mechanical strength and biological resistance. Spruce is characterized by a low density, which makes it possible for the walls to pass air, effectively regulating the microclimate inside the house. The disadvantage of spruce is the presence of numerous knots in its structure.
Hardwoods should be used in exceptional cases and only for the middle crowns of the log house, since they are not resistant to temperature, humidity and biological influences. The exception is oak, since its wood is characterized by high density and hardness. This allows the use of logs from it for the manufacture of the lower ones (they get wet and serve as a support for the entire structure of the house) and the upper ones (they act as a support unit). truss system roofs) log crowns.
Influence of log thickness on log quality
The diameter of the logs is directly proportional to the strength and thermal insulation of the log house. But the thickness of its walls also directly proportionally determines the mass and cost of construction. Therefore, it is cost-effective to choose a log house for the house from a log of the minimum diameter that can provide comfortable living in given climatic conditions.
For example, if in winter the air temperature drops to -40°C, then the minimum diameter of a log log is 22 cm for larch or oak and 18 cm for spruce or pine. Width longitudinal groove in this case, it is taken equal to 14 ÷ 16 cm. For building a house, it is most advisable to use log cabins from logs with a diameter of 24 cm. A wall of them is equivalent in terms of thermal parameters brickwork 50 cm thick.
How logs are cut for laying in a log house
There are 2 main ways of felling a log house. The first is called "no residue" - the connecting elements are located at the ends of the logs. As a result, a log cabin built of them is characterized by efficiency in terms of the volume of materials used and a larger usable area. Among the disadvantages of this method, one can note the reduced thermal insulation of the corners and the worst stability of the house.
In logs cut down "with the rest", connecting element located at some distance from their ends. As a result, the structure outside corners it turns out to be cruciform, which achieves their high thermal insulation and improved rigidity of the house structure. Most often, such a scheme is implemented by cutting a log “into a bowl”, which provides (with right technology manufacturing):
- no gap in the interventional junction,
- sealing joints during shrinkage of the log house,
- prevention of relative displacement of logs,
- manufacturability of the production process.
How to choose the right log house for a log house
In order to choose the best quality log house for your home, ideally, you should fully control the process of making a log house, including:
- felled trees,
- processing trunks to the required dimensions,
- preliminary log house assembly,
- all important time intervals (drying time, shrinkage, etc.).
To do this, it is useful to visit the seller's production site and see the tools and equipment used. It also does not hurt to get acquainted with the projects he completed, which stood idle for several years, in order to evaluate them. Current state. Only in this way can you be sure that a house built from such a log house will be warm, strong and durable.
03/08/2016Introduction
Preliminary decision on the use of a log house for the construction of your own country house, is quite justified. Log cabins are available, they are quickly assembled, with correct assembly they hold heat well and can be lived in all year round. However, not all log cabins are the same, and in order to choose a truly high-quality log house, you need to understand the basic concepts of manufacturing, felling and the production of log cabins, as well as understand what types of log cabins exist.
Choosing the right log house for yourself, that is, choosing a log house that will not only please the eye, but also serve for many years.
How to choose a log house for yourself at the place of felling
When choosing a log house, it is important to know where the log house is being cut. For example, if a company offers log cabins in Moscow and the Moscow Region, this most likely does not mean that the log cabin is being cut in this area. Please note that log cabins cut above the 55th parallel, in the so-called "northern" forests, are considered correct.
Types of log cabins
By definition, a log house is prefabricated wooden structure, made and assembled from long wooden products. The elements from which the frame is assembled can be logs with a diameter of 160-280-400 mm or a wooden beam with sections of 150 × 150 mm and more. Depending on the elements used to assemble the log house, we distinguish three types of log house:
- Log cabin from logs of manual felling;
- Log cabin from a bar;
- Log house made of industrially rounded logs.
Log cabin
A log house made from hand-cut logs is made from solid trunks of coniferous (spruce, pine, cedar) or deciduous (alder) species. The logs of this type of log house are distinguished by a small difference in the diameter of the log along its length (log run-off), which is why they distinguish the butt (wide bottom) and the top of the hand-cut log. A log cabin is cut and assembled with alternating butts and peaks. This type of felling requires manual straightening, and sometimes additional felling of locks and grooves of supplied logs.
You can live in a log cabin in 1-2 years after assembly, and this is at best. For a year, a log house is settled from logs, and only after a year can the first caulking (sealing of gaps) of the log house and its finishing be carried out.
Log cabin
Logging timber is puff, glued or solid wooden product, which has a textured section close in section to a rectangle. The cross section of the beam is such that when assembling a log house from a beam, the adjacent crowns of the log house are fixed not only with locks, but also with a profile along the length of the log. Such log cabins are delivered as a designer, completely ready for assembly, with the exception of holes for dowels: wedges fastening the beams in adjacent log crowns.
You can live in a log cabin made of glued laminated timber immediately after assembly. Live in a log cabin made of solid timber natural humidity, it is possible for the next season, after its natural drying.
Log house from logs
The rounded log is made of wood, all the same, coniferous or hardwood, with processing throughout longer logs on an industrial machine. Thanks to the processing, the log along the entire length becomes a single diameter. Log cabins made of rounded logs are distinguished by their graceful appearance and somewhat simplified assembly. Such log cabins are delivered in ready-made, completely ready for assembly, with the exception of holes for dowels: wedges fastening logs in adjacent crowns.
Finishing in a log house made of rounded logs can be carried out a year later, after its shrinkage by 1/25 of the height. You can live after finishing.
What are winter log cabins
In advertisements, the concept is often found, a log house for winter felling. This is a professional concept regarding the season for harvesting timber for a log house. For example, you need a chopped bath in Moscow and the Moscow region. You need to order a log cabin of a bath at the end of summer, so that it is cut down in the winter, and collected in the spring. You need to understand that no one cuts log cabins in the Moscow region. Wood is harvested closer to the north of the country. It is believed that best wood for a log house, it should be harvested in winter, from the end of autumn (the first frosts) to the beginning of spring (the first thaws). It is in winter that the fermentation of juices in the wood subsides and the life of bacteria freezes. Wood winter forest, dry, with the minimum amount humidity. It is worth noting that peeling (barking) of logs (removing the bark) should be carried out immediately on the plot, before they are delivered to the felling site.
These simple tips will help you choose a log house for yourself and it will serve you for many years.
Own bath in the courtyard of a private house or is the dream of many owners of suburban areas. Everyone knows that the bath serves as a place not only for regular washing, but also for wellness procedures- healing steam cleanses pores, improves blood circulation and gives vitality. In addition, there is a tradition that this particular building often turns into a kind of “club”, where you can have such a great time with friends or relatives.
Therefore, before the owners planning to create such a useful "complex", the question inevitably arises - what is better to build a bathhouse from, so that it can be in it at any time of the year and without extra costs create and maintain an optimal microclimate. The choice of material directly affects the creation of a healthy, relaxing bath atmosphere.
In addition, the right material is the key to the durability of this structure. It is essential to take into account that internal surfaces walls will be constantly exposed to humid hot air and temperature changes.
The modern market offers a wide variety of different building materials suitable for building walls for houses, utility, utility and other specific buildings. However, it is worth considering in more detail and figuring out which one is ideal for a bath.
