Wooden eco houses come into fashion again. The ability to quickly build, ease of assembly of such structures, contributed to their popularity. With the increase in the number of types of building material from wood and its variety in the domestic market, it became possible to build better and insulated buildings.
Profile beam - one of the main materials for the construction of eco houses. Often, it is customary to use it for the construction of wooden structures: grooves of the beam contribute to tight joining between structural elements. However, is this material so good? To understand the advantages of a profiled beam, to find out all the pros and cons, you need to compare it with its two closest competitors in the building materials market - analogues of wood and stone houses.
Profiled timber and similar materials
A large profiled beam is used for the construction of massive and, one might say, capital buildings. For this reason, it makes no sense to compare it with material such as a minibus. After all, although they are similar to each other, they have a slightly different purpose and construction technology. To start the analysis, you need to find out what you can build a wooden house from:
- Raw timber. It is an unsweetened square material with a high level of humidity. Sometimes it is used in the construction of wooden houses, but only its affordable price can be distinguished from its advantages. It can be used for outbuildings or arbors.
- Calibrated timber is another very popular material that has a sufficient degree of drying, but does not have additional joints or grooves that would simplify the assembly of houses. One of the varieties can be called a calibrated log, but such material is already more suitable for building a wooden hut thanks to special semicircular recesses designed to facilitate joining. Accordingly, the log is significantly different in cost from a cheaper timber.
- Profiled beam. This is one of the materials of the golden mean. It is made mainly from pine. It perfectly combines the level of drying, and relatively affordable cost, and ease of installation. On such a bar there are special grooves that contribute to the exact fastening of the structure and minimize the gaps between the boards.
- Glued beam. It can be called the most practical and high-quality material of all of the above. It is made by combining several lamella boards under the influence of high temperatures and pressure. Differ from analogs in the greater durability and ease. However, the complexity of the manufacturing process greatly affects its cost.
Are there any differences in construction technology?
In this case, it is not necessary to compare the technologies for building houses, they are all approximately similar and consist in the installation of wooden elements with the help of corner locks. Significant differences can be found immediately after the construction of the house.
This is due to shrinkage of the structure, possible methods of insulation, as well as variations in the internal and external finishes.
Raw pine timber has a long shrink period due to its high moisture content. Calibrated timber is more practical in this regard, but significantly lags behind profiled heat conservation. The best choice would be glued beams. Firstly, it does not need shrinkage, and secondly, it does not require finishing.
As for the house from a profiled beam, it is several times superior in all respects to a raw and calibrated board, but still has a rather long shrink period. In some cases, we can talk about the so-called raw profile beam. This is a cheaper version of the material for building houses, which also has recently begun to be actively used. Its affordable price is achieved by the absence of a drying stage, which ultimately greatly affects the increase in the time of construction of a house.
It should be noted that raw pine logs are difficult to treat with protective agents and impregnations, which makes it susceptible to damage by fungi and mold.
Drying after the construction of the house can lead to deformation of the walls, roof, as well as to deformation of the doors and window frames. Dry profiled timber does not have such problems. However, even he, in comparison with the glued analogue, cannot boast of the speed of work. The construction of a house in this case has the following stages:
- assembly of the box of the house on the foundation;
- stopping work for a period of up to 4 months for shrinkage (there is no such procedure during the construction of a house from glued beams);
- installation of all necessary elements of interior decoration and communications.
Generally speaking, among similar materials from wood, profiled timber is a fairly popular material due to the excellent combination of quality and affordable price. The only significant drawback of this material for the construction of houses can be considered the need to suspend work for shrinkage. However, due to the increase in time for building a house, you can significantly save money, which is the main argument for choosing a profiled beam.
Bar or stone?
It can be difficult to choose when the choice is between building a house of wood or stone. Buildings made of cinder block or red brick are very familiar and tested, but wood is very attractive in terms of aesthetics and ease of work - often it is a pine board made to fit the profile that becomes the choice for the construction of wooden houses. So what exactly then are the advantages of a profile beam, if we compare it with a stone?
- Ease of assembly. The manufacturer of materials for houses from profile timber are firms that are engaged in the final adjustment of strips for a specific structure. Using such machines, specialists of such companies create special grooves for corner locks and cut the board depending on the assortment. Due to this, work on assembling a house from a profiled beam does not require any refinement of the material.
- Construction period. As stated earlier, a profiled pine beam should have a shrinkage period, and this greatly slows down the construction. However, brick houses should also be built on a concrete foundation, which also has a long period of sludge and hardening. In addition, the creation of stone walls is a lengthy process, since the solution allows you to lay out only a certain amount of bricks per day. Then again it takes time to harden. In this regard, we can talk about the practicality of wood, because the construction of a house from a timber is suspended only once. And all the work takes no more than 1-2 months.
- Appearance. Buildings from the profile beam stand out perfectly against the background of stone analogues, both from the outside and look great from the inside, and after completion of work they will require only finishing with any protective equipment. Masonry in this regard is not particularly practical. She, of course, has more options for external design, but at the same time needs additional costs and work with building mixtures.
Profile beam, the advantages of which occupy a considerable list, but not in all parameters surpass stone structures. Cons of using wood material:
- Combustibility The tree burns perfectly. As a result of an insignificant fire, in just half an hour, the flame can destroy up to half of the house, the construction of which does not require repair. The restoration of the home will be impossible, only the construction of a new house, which can be attributed only to the disadvantages of using timber.
It should be understood that flame retardants (fire retardants) only minimize the possibility of ignition, but do not exclude it.
- Thermotechnical cons. Even the most massive bar will not be able to provide a comfortable temperature inside the houses during the winter. For this reason, it is necessary to equip it with a heater, which carries additional costs.
- Cons of construction. After the construction of a house from a profiled beam is completed, it is impossible to build on it or redevelop it, which cannot be said about brick structures, which can easily be changed or completed.
As a result of comparing the stone and the profile beam, we can conclude that both materials have both their drawbacks and undeniable advantages. However, in favor of the profile beam can be attributed to the fact that at the moment wooden houses are still not an everyday occurrence and look quite impressive. In addition, the total cost of building a stone building “from scratch” diverges insignificantly, which allows the choice to be made only in accordance with the preferences of the consumer, without the influence of a price factor.