Carton House. Wall

Suppose that, after weighing all the pros and cons, you decide to build a house "at the Century" from natural organic materials. What, then, is preferable: a brick or wood? As the "new house", along with natural stone and unbaked clay, these building materials are the most ancient. In the Bible there is mention of a brick as a building material is applied at the time of human settlement after the Great Flood, suppose that, after weighing all the pros and cons, you decide to build a house "at the Century" from natural organic materials. What, then, is preferable: a brick or wood? As the "new house", along with natural stone and unbaked clay, these building materials are the most ancient. In the Bible there is mention of a brick as a building material is applied at the time of human settlement after the Great Flood, ie at the dawn of a conscious history of mankind. "And they said to each other: let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone "(the Old Testament. Genesis. Ch. 11-3). This - an environmentally friendly material made of natural clay roasters, as well as pottery, from which you can eat. As you know, brick does not burn. A wall made of it, breathes, has a large inertia and impact while maintaining the heat, so in a house in hot weather, cool and cold - warm. Brick - a material durable. Photo taken at the excavation of an ancient Italian town of Ostia, which was built in 03/02 century after Christ, indicates the excellent condition of masonry, of which nearly 2000 years. It was there that I was surprised to realize that the basic construction techniques designed for a comfortable life, in fact, have not changed. The only difference is that before everything was done manually by thousands of slaves, and now widely used machines. Basically, all the latest building to achieve is to open a pre-stressed concrete, allowing the huge cover the openings. But it's all for industrial designs. Already in those days in the construction of residential buildings used foundation blocks, arched bridges, masonry, tiling a variety of materials, plaster, and much, much more. I must say that when facing us in 1996 got a similar problem - turned out to be extremely expensive and difficult. I note that overseas during the construction of expensive homes tend to use a brick, especially for this released, the most similar to the old - with deliberately aged surface having irregularities, roughness, uneven coloration. The result is like "a house with history." This is very much appreciated. People who have the means, try to purchase a brick or stone with any of the ancient ruins. For example, in France, showed me a house, whose floor is paved with stone slabs purchased in the restructuring of the monastery of X century. It is not only a source of pride hosts, but also a factor significantly raising the market value of homes. Professional psychologists also believe that such non-uniform in texture and color of the wall comfortably seen by man. It turns out, our eyes are "not like" clear repetitive geometric lines. Us closer heterogeneity and variability found in nature, so it's nice to look at the forest, sea or clouds. And so we are tired of the strict geometry of the artificial industrial buildings. We do the opposite: try to pick up bricks perfectly flat, smooth and uniform color. However, there were first line for production of artificially aged brick. In favor of the construction of this material is the fact that now we have a really good company, a detailed exhaust all the technological features and techniques of building a brick box. That is, unfortunately, are missing when building the box out of wood. This, of course, wonderful stuff. Now from Sweden, Finland and Canada received a lot of proposals for the sale of houses of timber, which, incidentally, are very expensive abroad, primarily because of the impeccable environmental cleanliness. But the trouble is that we have these wooden houses never built as a shelter at the Principal level. There's only experience of the construction of the village of log houses and wooden churches. And it is not the same thing. To trust the assembly of Swedish or Finnish log houses, even the most confident of our "Shabashkin" brigade in any case impossible, and even more so - the construction company (the general of the village huts only in fairy tales about Ivan-Tsarevich read). What's the trick here? All these houses have a lot of technological elements of the mortgage for the construction of modern engineering communications, special mounting anchors, requiring additional tension wood when it dries after the construction of houses, and much, much more. We do not yet have this, even a small experiment. I have seen, as in the construction of everything is just thrown out as something extra, accidentally released to the packaging of foreign containers. Unfortunately, there is such a good home can collect only foreign specialized companies. Naturally, in this case, taking into account shipping and the cost of labor, housing is very expensive, not conceding in the price of the brick. What would I recommend to pay attention during the construction of walls of brick. When you buy a quantity of bricks should be increased by 5-8% compared with the project. This is the norm and marriage battle, and the plants faithfully comply with this figure. Building walls of brick should start no lower than 50-70 cm above the ground. Otherwise, it will pull the moisture. In addition, to avoid the capillary suction of moisture from. foundation shall be designed horizontal waterproofing. In ancient times it was made of lead sheets. Now they use roofing material, gidrostekloizol a waterproofing material. Allowed as a layer "bold" grout. In the interior, and less and outer walls are placed air ducts and chimneys. For laying the past to be used dense (not slotted) Brick or special ventilation tubes. Unfortunately, a very common mistake of unskilled construction workers is the device of the chimney slit bricks. Since the combustion products of modern gas boilers present a very corrosive gas, then pretty soon the walls begin to break down, showering down, resulting in a chimney or completely clogged, or destroyed, together with the wall. And that, and another is fraught with serious accident. At the end of the shift crew should have to close the upper portion of the wall roofing material or cellophane. If not, then, seemingly minor infractions can lead to serious trouble. For example, it is possible that during a break in the work starts to rain, water will fill the gap cavity brick and months there will evaporate, leaving stains on the walls and divorces, for a long time, non-drying. And if this still happens and frost, the wall can be covered with a network of cracks. At any stoppage of work for the long term (over 1 month) should be done to make conservation part of the brick walls. In future, this saves you from serious trouble. To improve the reliability of construction, I would recommend to arrange an additional reinforcement of masonry walls of metal mesh, especially in the sensitive areas. Is it worth a penny, and the reliability of bandaging joints increased significantly. It is very important to comply with regulatory dimensions bearing slabs on the wall. Quite often it is violated due to the fact that the wall during construction was a little bit, just something a few inches, is shifted from the design position. Plates also have a fixed size. And often it turns out that in the end plate simply hangs in the air, miraculously caught in the edge of the wall. And God forbid that in such a house someone has once again stamped his foot - all may simply collapse. When laying the slabs there is another subtle point. Prestressed slabs large spans are so-called construction deflection, ie at the factory they are made with arching up to after the installation under its own weight (plus weight of the floor and furniture) plate has a horizontal position. Sometimes, not knowing this, plates are laid down deflection. Correct this defect can not be. And lest there be an accident, would have to completely disassemble the floor. With regard to masonry joints, then they, like any architectural element, there is a definite fashion. We now prefer deeper into the seams of natural color. Game of Shadows makes them dark. Abroad like tinted grout. In England and Holland are usually used light colors (white, light beige). Of course, this is a matter of taste. When finishing the brick facade is now applied various plaster elements, not just decorating the house, but also emphasize its architectural features. They are executed after the completion of the roof and are usually not included in the concept of "house box, but it is very important to have the construction of brick walls needed relief items, or tie reinforcing details were previously made. For example, you must put all exposed brick and shaped parts, then to the thickness of the plaster on the facade was fairly uniform. This will considerably increase its durability. Of course, easier for builders to carry out an acting element only of plaster. But while its thickness in some places is too large, and under the influence of its weight, this part may eventually collapse. Source: http://Harit M. Carton House. Wall / Janus Neruhomist. 2002. № 20. C. 26-27