Frame house: pros and cons
Frame house building so adored in the USA, Canada and Finland is hard to take root in our country. It is difficult to find an objective and solid assessment of houses of this type, since manufacturers flood the information space with advertisements that promote frame frames to the masses. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of frame houses and determine if they are as good as they say.
The advantages of frame houses
- The main advantage of the frame is its low cost. More than half of houses of this type are built on pile-screw foundations, which gives significant cost savings in the early stages of construction. You can still build on pillar-support foundations, but this is fraught with problems in the future. It is the pile-screw foundation that gives the lion's share of the savings. If you make a wooden frame on a concrete foundation, its cost will approach the price of a brick house.
- Frame houses come with interior decoration. This is also considered a plus, since there is no need for additional internal work. The most popular is the interior decoration with imitation of a bar or clapboard. The cost of a frame with such a finish will be approximately equal to a box made of aerated concrete, but without finishing.
- Another advantage is the speed of construction. The construction of a house using frame technology takes from several weeks if the house is small, and up to several months if the building is large.
- The frame is very warm, since the structure consists almost entirely of insulation. A wall of this design can be thinner than a brick one, but retain heat more efficiently. From here comes another plus - energy efficiency.
- With proper insulation, which corresponds to the technology, the frame can be heated using electricity. In monetary terms, this will be comparable to heating a house with a gas boiler. This is very convenient when the gas line is located far away, and the cost of its piping fluctuates in the range of several hundred thousand rubles.
This is where the advantages end and you can proceed to an overview of the disadvantages, of which there are more. But it should be noted right away that most of the disadvantages come from non-compliance with technology, savings, and imperfections. If you build for yourself, all this can be avoided, now we are talking about what the construction companies offer.
Disadvantages of frame houses
- You should start with the foundation, the cheapness of which is a plus of frame housing construction. The fact is that it is metallic, and metal tends to rust (corrode) in the soil. But how quickly this happens depends on the corrosive zone of the soil. If you rely on the table of corrosive zones, a galvanized steel pile with a thickness of 3.5 mm will completely dissolve in the ground: in zone 0 - within 30 years; in zone 5 - up to 70 years. Examine the soil for corrosiveness before laying the pile-screw foundation!
- Even on the pile-screw foundation, the floors are located along the logs. From this come: vibrations; dancing floors; feeling of flimsy construction. This factor will lead to the fact that they will walk: furniture, bathtub, toilet bowl, household appliances. It is difficult to install floor tiles. This can be avoided by setting the pitch of the piles to 120 cm. Another option is a rigid piping of piles with a pipe or an I-beam. The measures, of course, will lead to an increase in the cost of the house, but will eliminate the problem.
- Fire hazard. The factor is also important, it is worth paying attention to. The tree burns well, and even very much, and in order to avoid a fire, it is necessary to make a very high-quality electrical wiring, as well as take additional fire safety measures in the boiler room, in the kitchen.
- The need for good ventilation. As you know, with the use of vapor barrier, the frame turns into a thermos, especially if you use anything as these materials. The owners of the frameworks note that the air in the house stagnates, and studies show that without ventilation, a dangerous dose of carbon dioxide accumulates in the operated room. If there is no normal ventilation in the purchased house, solving this problem again requires additional costs.
- A frame house is noisy, especially with a second floor. Wood is very good at transmitting sounds and vibrations. Whoever says that there is good sound insulation in the frame frames, he simply did not live in a brick house.
- The need to completely change the insulation in 15–20 years. It also depends on vibrations and pressure changes. Slamming doors in such a room, vibration and an air wave causes the insulation to move slightly, which gives it shrinkage and leads to a decrease in thermal insulation qualities. In the west, the insulation is completely changed after 15–20 years.
- And also, sooner or later, residents will appear in the insulation: insects, mice, rats, squirrels. You can hold the defense, establish protection, but it will not work for a long time. For frame houses, extraneous living creatures in thermal insulation are not fully a drawback - this is a given that you just need to come to terms with.
The conclusion will be brief: if you want a frame house, study the Western and domestic experience of frame house building and demand compliance with construction technology. Perhaps, having studied how to do it correctly according to technology and having estimated the cost of a solid frame house, you will want a stone house. Most of the troubles of the frame makers are unscrupulous firms, crooked builders and blind customers.
How do you feel about frame housing construction? Write in the comments!
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