Ceilings and floors in frame house are elements that delimit space. They are mounted on floors, which are also part of the building’s load-bearing frame. That is why their role is very important. The ceiling in a frame house gives rigidity to the floors and ceilings, and also acts as thermal insulation for the entire structure.
Floor structure
The ceiling and the materials used for its construction depend on the location in the house and the purpose of the structure. In frame houses, three types of floors are used - attic, floor and interfloor.
Floor coverings are needed to ensure the rigidity and reliability of the floor covering. Ceilings in the attic are designed to hold layers of finishing and thermal insulation. The ceiling between the floors serves as both a floor and an attic, being the floor of the second floor in a frame house and the ceiling of the first.
The greatest loads on the floors are carried out vertically. That is why the base for the floor is designed taking into account the reduction of deflections in the vertical part.
Materials from which floors are made
For floors, coniferous wood is usually used: pine, larch, spruce.
The basis of the attic floors are ceiling beams; in the case of floors, these are logs.
Most of the load in frame-type houses falls on them, which is then transferred to the internal partitions, frame and foundation of the building.
As floor beams, timber processed into two edges or boards secured at the end are used. You can use either a board with a large cross-section or a thin one, but fasten the boards together. A more difficult option is to install boards that have a box-like structure, but they can provide the necessary rigidity and are inexpensive.
Type and section for load-bearing beams are selected based on loads, span and deflection. Since the design of frame houses is often the same, the standard load calculation can be used, thus the average values are also suitable for determining the section of the floor beam.
Load calculation
The load on the floors in a frame house comes from its own weight and variable loads that appear during the operation of the house.
The weight of a square meter of flooring or interfloor depends on design features, sound and thermal insulation used. The average is about 220-240 kilograms.
Attic floors weigh more because they contain a variety of insulation materials. Weight is about 250-300 kilograms. However, the variable load is much less and its maximum is 100 kg per square meter, while this figure for interfloor ceilings is 200 kilograms per square meter.
To determine the total load on the floors, you need to add the variable and constant values. It is also necessary to take into account the length of the floor beams and their profile by calculating the cross-sectional area. Based on this, the installation step of the beams is determined, which is usually 50-100 cm.
The attic floor beams are attached to the frame and fixed to metal corners, or cut directly into the beam. Attic and interfloor beams must be mounted above the vertical posts of the building frame.
Sheeting and flooring
After installing and fastening the ceiling beams, the flooring is mounted on them, and under them - the filing. The interfloor ceiling in a frame house requires a lining, the task of which is to hold its mass, ceiling finishing, and sound insulation.
There are no special requirements for load-bearing capacity. For filing, any sheet material can be used, for example, plasterboard, which will increase the fire resistance of the building. The ceiling and floor lining must support the weight of the insulation and the floor structure elements. This is why most often a tongue and groove board is used.
Rewind device
Skull blocks are packed along the bottom of the ceiling beams. This must be done along the entire length from the sides. For this, slats measuring 30 by 50 millimeters are used. Rolling boards are laid on them: sheet material or boards that hold the insulation.
Then the entire weight of the internal part of the structure acts on the roll. The purpose of the underlayment is to support the weight of the ceiling trim.
Floorings come in rough and running types. The chassis can be used in the attic to move along its surface. Running flooring means finished floors made of boards. Both options are mounted by attaching boards to beams or using elastic spacers. However, the installation is still slightly different.
Boards for the subfloor must have a ventilation gap to ensure air movement from reverse side floors In the case of running flooring, the boards are nailed together. If you do not plan to use the attic as a living space, then there is no need to equip the flooring on top. It is better to install boards around the perimeter of the emergency passage.
Cover pie
The ceiling of any house has a similar design. First, roofing felt, glassine or plastic film is laid on the hem or rolled. Insulation is attached to the surface.
For insulation, you can use bulk materials: expanded clay, furnace slag, perlite. In addition, you can use roll insulation - mineral wool, glass wool. Foam plastic is also used.
It is worth noting that only the basement, ceiling and floor of a frame house are insulated, and interior floors are protected from noise using acoustic wool. After backfilling thermal insulation material you need to fill in the sand-cement mortar. This will help protect the insulation.
Operating conditions
In order for the floors of a house to work out the entire period allotted to them, it is necessary to create acceptable operating conditions for them. Factors that negatively affect wooden structures are dampness and moisture.
Ceilings do not allow air to circulate freely throughout the house. In addition, during temperature changes, condensation may form on wooden surfaces.
Due to the lack of ventilation, the wood remains damp and wet for a long time, which entails Negative consequences, one of which is the appearance of mold.
In addition, having absorbed moisture, the tree swells, changing in size. Such a situation will create tension in the structure, which will lead to breakage of the ceiling fasteners, making its further operation impossible.
In addition, high humidity allows mold and mildew to develop. Dampness can destroy the floors of a house in just a few years.
This problem is most noticeable for floors, and less so for ceilings. Partitions between rooms are least susceptible to destruction due to dampness.
For bath, kitchen and toilet floors, it is necessary to create a layer of waterproofing. It is also not necessary to mount the bottom lining. Thanks to this, air exchange will improve, and it will also be possible to check the condition of the elements and parts of the ceiling.
Installing the floor of a frame house is a feasible task. It is only important to carry out all work in the correct order and in compliance with technology. And then this element the structure will not cause you any trouble for the entire life of the house.
One can often hear the opinion that frame houses- one of the simplest, most rational and inexpensive types of building structures. Based on this idea, many developers choose frame technologies for construction, thinking about savings and even the possibility of building a house on their own. Unfortunately, the idea of the simplicity and cheapness of frame technologies applies only to those buildings that do not comply with any building codes and rules, which are erected by guest workers and inexperienced DIYers. However, the same can be said about building log houses from wood with your own hands.
Frame technologies indeed have many advantages, but only in cases where the house is erected by experienced builders from industrially produced components for frame house construction. An inexperienced or illiterate builder, working with frame technology, can make many more mistakes than when building a house from solid wood or stone materials. Where, when building a house from massive wall materials, only a few technological operations are required, frame technologies will require a much larger number of technological “passes”. At more operations, the risk of making mistakes, non-compliance with technology and improper use of materials increases significantly. Therefore, frame houses built without a project and the involvement of qualified specialists “at random” or on trust in guest workers may be short-lived and will soon require overhaul due to unsatisfactory consumer qualities (freezing, wet insulation, heavy expenses for heating, rotting of structural elements, destruction of both individual elements and the entire structure as a whole). Unfortunately, in Russia the list of regulatory construction documentation for the design and construction of frame houses is significantly limited. Currently, the 2002 set of rules SP 31-105-2002 “Design and construction of energy-efficient single-apartment residential buildings with wooden frame”, developed from the outdated 1998 National Housing Code of Canada.
In this article we will provide short review main mistakes and violations of frame house construction technology.
Construction without a project.
This is a universal “general” mistake when choosing any construction technology. However, it is in frame technology the cost of mistakes can be especially high and lead to cost overruns instead of savings, both due to the use of an excess amount of material (frame made of large-section timber) and the need for repairs due to insufficient sections of beams, a rare step of their installation, destruction of structural elements due to for unaccounted loads, incorrectly selected connection methods in nodes and fastening materials, biological destruction of wood due to impaired steam and moisture removal.
Construction from "natural moisture" wood.
Almost nowhere in civilized countries are houses built from raw wood, just as before in Rus' they never built houses from freshly cut tree trunks. SP 31-105-2002 clause 4.3.1 states: “The load-bearing structures (frame elements) of houses of this system are made from softwood lumber, dried and protected from moisture during storage.” Raw wood is only a semi-finished product for the production of building materials. In Russia, sellers and suppliers delicately call raw lumber wood of “natural moisture.” Let us remind you that a freshly cut tree has a humidity of 50-100%. If the wood was rafted on water, then the humidity is 100% or more (the amount of water exceeds the amount of dry matter). “Natural moisture” usually means that the wood has dried out slightly during processing and transportation, and it contains between 30 and 80% moisture. When drying in the open air, the amount of moisture is reduced to 15-20%. Normal equilibrium moisture content of dried industrially wood in contact with the atmosphere will have a moisture content of 11-12%. When drying wet wood, the length of lumber is reduced by 3-7%, and the volume of wood by 11-17%. The use of “natural moisture” wood for the construction of frame houses leads to uncontrolled shrinkage of the wood, which changes the linear dimensions of structural elements and can lead to deformation, cracking and rupture of the wood with destruction of fasteners. When a wooden frame dries out, numerous cracks and gaps open up, significantly increasing the thermal conductivity of the walls of the frame house, tearing the insulating materials, preventing the penetration of moisture. When wood shrinks, its density increases, which leads to better conductivity of vibrations and sounds.
Construction from lumber without preliminary antiseptic treatment.
Even in the most properly designed frame house, a certain amount of condensation is inevitable on the media sections, of which there is much more in frame houses than in buildings made of solid materials. A moistened tree, containing polysaccharides in its structure, is an excellent nutrient medium for various forms of microflora and microfauna, representatives of which are capable of destroying the structure of the tree in a short period of time. SP 31-105-2002 (clause 4.3.2) states that all wooden elements located closer than 25 cm from ground level and all wooden elements not made of dry wood are subject to antiseptic treatment.
Incorrect use of materials.
In classical frame technology, the corner posts of the frame should not be made of timber or three boards knocked together closely - in this case, increased heat loss through the “cold corners” is ensured. The correct “warm corner” is assembled from three vertical posts located in mutually perperdicular planes.
Materials that can bear loads are used to cover the frame. For example, OSB must be structural and intended specifically for outdoor use.
Insulation of vertical frame walls is permissible only with rigid insulation boards. Due to shrinkage and sliding over time, fill-in and roll insulation can only be used on horizontal surfaces or in roofs with a slope of up to 1:5. When using economical versions of low-density insulation slabs, it is recommended to secure each row of slabs with spacers between the slabs to prevent slipping. This decision makes the structure more expensive and increases the thermal conductivity of the wall, so it is more profitable to use high-quality, more expensive insulation of higher density. The size of the openings between the frame racks should not exceed the transverse size of the insulation slabs - 60 cm. It is even better if the size of the opening is reduced to 59 cm in order to eliminate gaps between the racks and the insulation slabs. You cannot fill the walls with scraps of insulation - there will be many gaps.Incorrect fastening of materials.
Black self-tapping screws can only be used for fastening sheet materials. The use of black self-tapping screws in a load-bearing frame, especially in a frame made of damp wood, can lead to the rupture of these unreliable fasteners that have low shear strength.
In all cases of assembling the load-bearing elements of the frame, galvanized nails or chrome-plated or brass-plated screws with a minimum diameter of 5 mm are used. The use of perforated steel fasteners without ligating wooden elements does not always guarantee the design strength of the frame.
It is unacceptable to fasten fastening elements of beams and other elements of the load-bearing frame to OSB boards, especially with nails.
When nailing sheet elements or screwing them with self-tapping screws, it is unacceptable to recess the cap or head deeper than the plane of the surface of the material. From the point of view of structural strength, the deepening of the head or cap by half the thickness of the material is considered a missing fastening element and must be duplicated with a correctly installed screw or nail.
Minimum distance from the edge of the covering material to the cap or head of the fastener is 10 mm.
Since 2012, the International building code for residential buildings (International building code, paragraph 2308.12.8) requires to prevent shifting during earthquakes, wind loads, etc. secure the frame of all newly erected frame buildings to the foundation with anchor bolts through pressure plates measuring at least 7.6 by 7.6 mm with a steel plate thickness of at least 5.8 mm. The minimum diameter of bolts or anchors is 12 mm.
Construction of frame houses using “innovative” technologies.
The most common frame construction technology in the world involves the sequential assembly of “platforms” - floors with floors, followed by the assembly of walls on them and their installation in a vertical position. In this case, it is convenient for builders to move along a continuous surface, it is convenient to work with materials, any deviations from the design position can be eliminated before the construction of walls begins, and the floors themselves rest securely on the underlying structures. For some reason, domestic builders are trying to invent their own options for building a frame house with assembling walls “on site”, mixing the technology of building a frame house with the technology of half-timbering or “posts and beams” with the installation of floors last, which is fraught with the need for inserting or “hanging” floor beams, the need to move on temporary flooring, with a high probability of injury when falling from a height.
Errors in working with floor beams of a frame house.
Most mistakes are made with the fastening of beams. It is best to rest the beams on the top frame of the load-bearing walls, on the purlins. It is prohibited to reduce the cross-section of the beam by cutting down the cutout for joining with the trim. If it is necessary to connect the floor beam with the strapping beam or beam purlin, it must be secured through a backing support bar with nails, or using steel beam supports. The steel beam support must have a height equal to the height of the beam and be fastened with nails through all mounting holes. Fastening beams using smaller supports, not punching through all fastening holes, fastening with black self-tapping screws, fastening only with nails without a support bar are mistakes.
The most common spacing of floor beams in the world practice of frame house construction is from 30 to 40 cm. This spacing of beams allows you to obtain strong floors that do not sag under impact loads. The installation of floors with a pitch of more than 60 cm is generally not recommended. The minimum thickness of sheet materials for flooring on floor beams is 16 mm for a beam spacing of 40 cm.
Often beams-purlins that work in bending are assembled from boards flat, rather than installing them on an edge.
The load-bearing capacity of the floors increases if the covering sheet material of the subfloors is additionally glued to the floor beams.
The load-bearing capacity of frame floors can be increased due to rigid transverse connections of the beams. Such connections are installed in increments of 120 cm and can serve as support for internal non-load-bearing partitions (through the subfloor). Also, transverse struts serve as an obstacle to the spread of flame during a fire.
How to properly drill holes in floor beams:
I-beams:
Composite I-beams can only be cut or drilled in certain locations per the manufacturer's specifications. The upper and lower elements of I-beams must not be disturbed. No more than 3 holes are allowed per beam. One hole with a diameter of up to 40 mm can be drilled in any part of the I-beam with the exception of the support parts. I-beams glued Wood-OSB-Wood are designated “Top”. At self-production beams based on OSB, the direction of the force axis of the material should be taken into account.
Floor beams made of sawn wood:
Errors in working with the cladding of a frame house.
For foreign building codes and the recommendations of the American Engineered Wood Association (APA), the frame can be sheathed with OSB boards both vertically and horizontally. However, if the OSB board is sewn along the frame posts, then the force axis (indicated on the OSB panel by arrows and the inscription Strength axis) will be parallel to the posts. This arrangement of the plates is useful only for strengthening weak frame struts that work in compression without significant lateral and tangential loads (which is almost unrealistic in real operating conditions). If OSB boards are sewn perpendicular to the racks, they strengthen the building frame to absorb tangential and lateral loads that arise when exposed to wind and base movements due to soil movement. Particularly relevant is horizontal cladding of OSB panels in frames with missing slopes, to impart the required structural rigidity. If OSB sheets are laid across the racks, then the force axis will be perpendicular to them, and the OSB sheets will withstand greater compressive and tensile loads. So, for example, in the domestic SP 31-105-2002. “Design and Construction of Energy Efficient Single-Apartment Residential Buildings with Wood Frames” provides (Table 10-4) the recommended minimum plywood thickness for framing the frame: if the plywood fibers are parallel to the frame posts at a pitch of 60 cm, then the minimum plywood thickness is 11 mm. If the plywood fibers are placed perpendicular to the posts, then thinner sheets with a thickness of 8 mm can be used. Therefore, it is preferable to sew OSB sheets with the long side not along, but across the racks or rafters. For the outer cladding of one-story frame houses, OSB 9 mm thick can be used. But during construction two-story houses and any houses in areas of strong winds, the minimum thickness of OSB for external cladding is 12 mm. If a frame house is sheathed with soft fiber boards of the Isoplat type, then the frame structure must have jibs that provide lateral rigidity to the structure.
Gaps of 2-3 mm should be left between all sheet sheathing materials for thermal expansion. If this is not done, the sheets will “swell” as they expand.
Joining of sheathing sheets is carried out only on racks and cross members. The sheets are sewn “staggered” to ensure greater strength of the load-bearing frame structure using chain ligation. The outer sheathing should connect the wall frame with the lower and upper trim.
« Pies" of the floors of the walls and roof of the frame house.
The main mistake in the design of frame pies for floors, walls and roofs is the possibility of the insulation getting wet from moisture penetrating inside. General rule building walls in heated rooms - the vapor permeability of materials should increase from inside to outside. Even in the floor, where they often do the opposite: a vapor barrier is laid on the ground side, and a vapor-permeable membrane on the room side.
Any insulated frame house pie must have a continuous layer of vapor barrier from the inside. “Continuous layer” really means that the vapor barrier should not have any defects: the sheets must be glued together with an overlap along the entire protected contour, without exceptions. For example, almost all builders, at the stage of assembling the frame, forget to lay a vapor barrier under the junction of internal partitions and external walls according to the standard diagrams for arranging junctions in clause 7.2.12 of SP 31-105-2002.
Additionally, all gaps between the sheet materials of the sheathing in wet areas and the roof must be taped waterproofing materials to prevent moisture from getting inside the insulated “pies”.
In addition to preventing moisture from entering the insulated cake, it is necessary to ensure that moisture is removed: from the outside frame wall should either be covered with OSB boards, which is a “smart” vapor-permeable material that can increase vapor permeability when the environment is humidified, or protected by a semi-permeable membrane that ensures the removal of moisture from the insulation. Cheap single-layer membranes have unsatisfactory vapor permeability and require an air gap between the insulation and the membrane. Also, cheap single-layer membranes provide poor protection against moisture penetration from the outside. It is preferable to use expensive superdiffusion membranes, which have really good vapor permeability and can be mounted directly over the insulation.
Ventilation of a frame house.
Figuratively speaking, the interior space of a properly built frame house is identical to the interior space of a thermos: heat loss through the walls is very small, and moisture transfer through the walls is most often practically absent (but can persist during use). Accordingly, it should be vented outside. Without a thoughtful one, this becomes impossible. In a frame house, ventilation valves must be installed in each room, or the windows must have a micro-ventilation mode or built-in slot ventilation valves. Should be installed in the kitchen and bathroom exhaust ventilation. Abroad frame houses for permanent residence practically no one builds without supply and exhaust ventilation with a recovery system.
At the end of the article, we present illustrations of the widespread “folk” construction of a frame house, in which, upon closer examination, there is not a single correctly executed element.
The typical mistakes that we described in the article are easily preventable. Before you start building your first frame house or hiring builders, study in detail the albeit slightly outdated, but the only set of rules for frame house construction available in Russian, SP 31-105-2002. By paying attention to all the details and subtleties of creating a power frame of a building and ensuring the durability of its operation, you can avoid costly mistakes when building or ordering your frame house.
The interfloor ceiling in a frame house is not only the basis for the floor or ceiling. It combines all vertical structures into a rigid structure unified system. Therefore, the installation of interfloor ceilings is no less important stage of construction than, for example, the construction.
Work order
After installing the bottom trim boards, the installation of interfloor floors on the first floor begins. Floor beams are made up of several smooth, high-quality boards or LVL beams are used.
Each beam rests on the concrete foundation wall by at least 100 mm. Its end is adjacent to the bottom trim board. The width of the niche for support should be 13 mm greater than the width of the beam. Niches for supporting beams are laid according to the project at the stage.
The floor joists rest on the floor beams. The distance between the lags depends on the platform sheathing material (subfloor). For example, if they are sheathed with plywood, the lag pitch is taken as a multiple of the size of the plywood slabs.
Eat constructive solution, in which the floor joists are adjacent to the end of the floor beam. In this case, they rest on an additional console nailed to the beam (Figure 1). Another option for attaching the joist to the end of the beam is using metal hangers (Figure 2).
For the manufacture of logs, only smooth boards are chosen. The use of small “sabers” is allowed. They are installed with an upward bend.
First, the joist is installed in the center of the span so that there are no shifts in the structure during installation. If the length of the log consists of two boards, the overlap at the junction must be at least 75 mm. The overlap is fixed with nails. Nails are used to attach the lag to the beam and to the strapping board.
When all the logs are installed and secured, check the accuracy of the installation, the horizontalness of the surface so that there are no problems at the stage, and nail the outer perimeter board.
To strengthen the floor structure with composite joists, blocks are placed between them. They are made from scraps of boards, metal rods or wooden strips fastened crosswise. Wooden planks must be sawn at the desired angle. Usually several types of blocks are made at once.
Then they begin laying the subfloor from plywood or OSB boards with a thickness of 15-21 mm. When using OSB boards with a special tongue-and-groove edge, it is not necessary to install blocks between the joists. Plywood without a special edge is nailed to joists and blocks. The plywood slabs are placed in a checkerboard pattern, with the long side across the floor joist.
Glue is carefully applied to the side surface of the log. The slab is laid, being careful not to smear the glue on the joist. A gap of 2-3 mm is left between the plates so that it can expand freely as the humidity and air temperature in the room increases. The slabs are secured to the joists with wood screws or rough nails.
If the installation of the wall frame is postponed for some time, the subfloor slabs are protected from precipitation - either the plywood is treated with a special water-repellent compound, or the platform is covered with plastic film so that the water flows to the ground.
Ceiling above the first floor
In a frame house, the ceiling above the first floor, in addition to its main function - to be part of the floor and ceiling - becomes an important stabilizing element. If the first floor has already been completed, then after installing the interfloor ceiling, you can remove the temporary jibs supporting the walls.
There is not much difference between the floor structures of different floors (1st and 2nd). They consist of the same structural elements. But in the interfloor ceiling of a frame house, LVL beams are more often used. After all, they can cover a long-span space without intermediate interior walls.
LVL beam consists of layers of softwood veneer glued with formaldehyde glue. It happens that from several standard beams, fastened with wood grouse, a beam is assembled that can withstand heavy loads. But even such a prefabricated beam can be installed by two or three people.
Beams rest on external and internal load-bearing walls and secured with temporary jibs and nails. After installing the LVL beams, floor joists from edged boards are installed. They are attached with nails to the outer perimeter board and to the top trim of the load-bearing walls.
Depth of support on carrier wooden wall is at least 38 mm. The overlap between the joists, when resting on the internal wall, must be at least 75 mm.
The logs are placed above the frame racks of the internal walls. When attaching joists to the end of LVL beams, steel hangers are used (Figure 2).
If the house does not have a second floor or attic, then the ceiling of the 1st floor becomes part of the ceiling. Then the roof rafters are nailed to the ceiling joists. The frame is ready for roof construction.
Wooden buildings today occupy a fairly large niche in the field of private housing construction. Due to the fact that wood is a traditionally available building material in our country, the cost of such buildings is low. Technologically, wood is a very convenient and practical material. New technologies have made it possible to create ready-made structural elements, frame panels, from which you can assemble a full-fledged residential building in a matter of days. Frame houses have become a kind of know-how in the field of private housing construction, giving people the opportunity to build accessible, comfortable and inexpensive housing.
All materials, except the foundation, in such a building are made of wood or wood-based. The house structures, ready for subsequent assembly directly on site, ensure quick installation and assembly of the residential building. Having a good-quality and durable frame, you can do interior decoration using all the materials and components available today. Of particular interest is the aspect related to the equipment of the ceiling part in a prefabricated house. What should the ceiling be like inside a frame house due to the lack of massive and durable floors in the structure? This and many other aspects put forward certain requirements for the ceiling design.
Let's consider options for solving the problem that can be used in the case of frame houses.
What is a ceiling in a frame house?
The ceiling for any home, building and structure is one of the most basic structures. Frame houses in this case are no exception. As usual wooden house, the presence of a frame does not relieve the owners of the building from the need to make a beautiful, durable and reliable ceiling. First of all, a well-made ceiling design ensures good heat conservation inside the house. Secondly and thirdly, the ceiling performs an aesthetic function, creating the necessary comfort and coziness inside living spaces.
On a note: the absence of a properly constructed ceiling in a frame house will negate all measures taken to heat a residential property. The ceiling creates a reliable barrier between the unheated attic space and the interior spaces. For residential buildings with a flat roof, the ceiling is a key element, providing additional rigidity to the entire structure and the necessary thermal insulation.
In most cases, block house projects have attic floors. It is often possible to use attics, the floors of which also play the role of elements of a single thermal insulation circuit. Attic floors are the main element of one-story frame houses, while attic options are the prerogative of cottages and country houses. Usually the attic is a living space, but in some cases it is used for domestic purposes or for recreation. In both cases, to give the frame building the appearance of a full-fledged residential building, the installation of ceilings will be required.
In buildings such as frame houses, beam-type floors are used. To make a ceiling in such a building, you need to take into account a number of technological nuances. Frame assembly involves the use of floor beams of a certain section, as well as with the necessary laying step.
For one-story buildings with an attic floor, the optimal beam section is 50x100 mm. Frame houses with two tiers can be equipped with more massive beam structures.
On a note: the construction of frame houses made of timber in several levels is allowed only if there are lower floors made of stone. The higher the building, the greater the load on load-bearing walls and partitions. Accordingly, the cross-section of the interfloor floor beams increases.
Existing standards for frame-type buildings limit the options for installing ceiling structures when it comes to a one-story building. As a rule, the following types of ceilings are used in frame houses:
- false ceilings, under panels or for painting;
- dropped ceilings;
- tensile structures.
Due to the fact that in frame houses the rooms usually do not have a height of more than 240-260 cm, during the finishing process they try to focus on false ceilings. This allows you to save the internal volume of living space. If the house design does not have significant height restrictions, you can use suspended structures.
Technological subtleties and nuances for the ceiling in a frame house
For residential premises in a frame house, ceiling installation differs in a number of aspects. The insulation of the ceiling part was mentioned earlier. The attic floor is the basis, representing a board panel. The rough foundation provides the necessary strength to the structure, and is done first. Due to the layer cake, the necessary insulation of the floor is achieved. Only then the entire space between the beams is filled from the inside with mineral wool or polystyrene foam to insulate the entire structure. The ceiling in a frame house already plays an aesthetic role, masking layered cake from the inside and hiding the entire main structure.
At this stage, a wide field for imagination and maneuver opens up. When working with ceilings in frame buildings, you can use the most convenient and common materials. The reason is this.
Unlike wooden structure, where shrinkage already in the first year is 8-10%, the frame structure is devoid of such a drawback. The whole reason is that only dried and treated wood is used to make the assembly panels. This feature is very convenient for use as finishing of lightweight and durable finishing materials. Having covered the insulation layer with film as a vapor barrier, you can freely begin installing sheets of drywall and other materials on the floor beams. If desired, electrical wiring and lighting equipment can be hidden in the existing inter-beam space.
In addition to plasterboard, the following are usually used to finish the ceiling structure:
- tongue and groove boards, the thickness of which does not exceed 3 cm;
- lining;
- MDF boards;
- plastic panels.
In the video you can get acquainted in detail with the process that represents the equipment and installation of the ceiling in frame houses.
Assessing the information seen, a conclusion arises. Making a ceiling in a house with your own hands is a task that is quite possible.
What materials for ceilings in frame buildings should be emphasized
Taking into account the specifics of frame houses and installation technology, we can say that the installation of the ceiling part directly involves the work of equipping the wooden floor. As a rule, such designs do not require the use of special lifting mechanisms. A trained team of installers is able to assemble a turnkey frame house, including installation flooring and ceiling.
For the manufacture of floors are used wooden beam. The required dimensions of beams, span width and permissible distance between beams are given in the table. Data is given in meters
| Span width in meters | Distance between beams in meters | Beam cross-section in mm. |
| 2 | 1 | 120x60 |
| 2 | 0,6 | 100x70 |
| 3 | 1 | 160x110 |
| 3 | 0,6 | 140x90 |
| 4 | 1 | 200x120 |
| 4 | 0,6 | 160x120 |
| 5 | 1 | 220x160 |
| 5 | 0,6 | 180x140 |
| 6 | 1 | 250x180 |
| 6 | 0,6 | 220x140 |
We use edged tongue-and-groove boards made of coniferous trees, the thickness of which reaches 30 mm. The racks are made of timber, the cross-section of which is 100x80 mm. For installation, fastening equipment is used - construction staples and nails, the length of which is slightly greater than the thickness of the ceiling board. All installation must be carefully thought out and done strictly in accordance with the project. Otherwise, there is a risk of the wooden floor collapsing when working on the ceiling.
To decorate the ceiling part, you can use modern Construction Materials. The technology for covering the ceiling in a frame house is accessible and not complicated. The most common options for finishing the ceiling structure are: frame construction:
- stretch ceiling can be made of fabric or film material;
- drywall, which allows you to quickly level the rough base and create multi-level structures;
- lining, MDF boards, with the help of which coffered ceilings are made;
- plastic ceiling panels used for bathrooms and utility rooms, technical rooms;
- fiberboard slabs.
The last option is the cheapest and most accessible, just like working with drywall. The economic factor in this regard is one of the most important. Modern projects frame country houses and country houses designed for quick assembly of the structure and its readiness for subsequent use. The cost of such a building is not commensurate with the costs that may arise when installing ceilings made of expensive wood.
Conclusion
Studying information about the types of ceilings for frame buildings and finishing methods, the following conclusions arise. The house must be designed in one specific style and the ceilings in this regard are the place where the project idea is realized. Complex design in in this case does not make sense, since in most cases frame houses have non-residential attic space. The absence of a large load on the ceiling allows you to install ceilings from the most affordable and convenient finishing materials.
In order to make your home as safe and environmentally friendly as possible, it is better to focus on drywall. This material is not flammable and in addition to everything, plasterboard ceilings can be painted in any color, following a certain interior style.
Greetings to all readers of the blog, Sergey Menkov is in touch with you.
In this article I will continue to describe the construction of my house, and now I will tell you how I made the floors for my house.
I have three floors, this is the lower floor - the floor of the first floor, the interfloor floor, and the attic floor in the attic.
Brief outline of the article:
- Types of floors
- Floors of frame buildings
- Floor covering
- Ceiling lining
- Insulation
- Soundproofing
- Construction order
The ceiling in a frame house must have certain properties. The most important thing is to have sufficient deflection strength of the beams. I will tell you later how to calculate the size and pitch of beams depending on the width of the overlapped span, but for now let’s go through a little theory.
Types of floors
For private housing construction they are used different kinds floors, the most widespread are wooden beam floors, and with the help concrete slabs ceilings
Monolithic floors without beams are used less frequently in independent house construction, since they are more labor-intensive in execution, with a large number preparatory work.
I will not consider them all in this article, but will talk about how frame floors are arranged; my house is frame
Floors of frame buildings
Frame floor beams must have a number of properties; I will list the main ones that you should rely on when designing a frame house:
- Safety margin for deflection - so as not to get a trampoline instead of a floor, and it won’t simply fall into the underground.
- Resistance to biological effects is touches the bottom floor, it is close to the ground, and if rotting happens, the weak wood will quickly collapse.
- Thermal insulation properties - this determines how warm the house will be. This is especially true for the upper ceiling, it is through it that the a large number of warmth from home.
- Sound insulation is a property characteristic of interfloor slabs. Complete sound insulation is very difficult to achieve. I neglected this, and will limit myself to only partial, with laying soundproofing slabs, or backfilling with some kind of bulk material.
- Ease of construction is also very important; as a rule, frame houses are erected by one or two people during self-construction, so the technology should be feasible. Below I’ll tell you how I made the floors for my house, all by hand, no cranes, lifts or other devices.
In order to start calculations, you will need to stock up on data on the interaxial distance between the walls on which the beams will rest.
The material for the beams was larch; it is a very durable tree, resistant to various influences, we have a large quantity of it in stock, and it is cheaper than pine.
Of course, there are also disadvantages, such as a tendency to twist and heavy weight boards But they are easily offset by the positive qualities described above.
Floor covering
The frame floor beams are covered with decking. They use different types of subfloors, I used a magpie board and 10 mm plywood on top of it, and in the kitchen 18 mm plywood, it so happened that I miscalculated the quantity of tens and ordered a little less than necessary.
A quarter of the house was left unprotected by plywood. And then a friend of mine offered me 18 plywood right into my hand for half the price (it came out at the price of tens). I quickly bought ten sheets from him, the problem disappeared by itself, and I will cover the most popular rooms in the house with thicker plywood, this will only improve the quality of the floor.
If the pitch of the beams is small, then you can use plywood or OSB sheets as a rough flooring; this is a common practice; I did not do this, so I cannot talk about it in detail. If anyone wants to do this, then google it, everything will be found)
Ceiling lining
My ceiling has not been hemmed yet, for the first time I plan to sheathe it with boards or gypsum plasterboard sheets over the sheathing. There, under the plasterboard, I will place the electrical wiring leading to the lighting.
To be honest, I have not yet decided how I will make the ceiling, so the frame interfloor ceiling is still in question. I depicted the option in the picture below. Think.
This is where my mistake lies; it was necessary to think in advance about insulating these places. Now you will have to work hard to blow out these places efficiently. I want to hire an installation and blow foam into this distance to a thickness of approximately 15-20 cm, I think this will be enough.
When using mineral wool at the junction of walls, it is recommended to lay insulation 60 cm from the edge of the wall, approximately as in this picture.
My attic is insulated with sawdust, the layer thickness is still 25 cm, when this layer dries completely, I will gradually increase it to 40-50 cm. Sawdust as an insulation material is a very good material, and most importantly, it is practically free. The sawmills themselves call and ask where to unload.
I did not use cotton wool in the attic for reasons of steam regulation in the house. The sawdust will easily release some of the steam to the street, without losing its thermal insulation properties. Therefore, there is no vapor barrier in the house on the second floor ceiling.
Soundproofing
Used as sound insulation for floors various materials, let's look at the main ones:
- Mineral wool - these include all types mineral wool used for sound insulation. It is recommended to use a denser one, although sound waves are well damped by light glass wool. Still, only an integrated approach will save you from impact noise.
- Bulk - various backfills, for example, ecowool, sawdust, sand, expanded clay and other materials with soundproofing characteristics.
- Sheet materials in the form of vibration-isolating sheets, special floor coverings for finishing, cork coverings. They are more often used in complex sound insulation methods.
- An integrated approach to eliminating noise consists of a combination various solutions, for example, the use of layers of different density and strength.
Construction order
Well, let's finish with the theory, now I'll tell you how I made my ceilings.
The lower and interfloor ceilings in a frame house are almost identical in construction technology. The only thing is that when working on the second floor you should take precautions; falling from there is not very pleasant.
Well, I think it’s time to finish, I hope that after reading the article you will not have any questions about how to make a ceiling in a frame house. If you leave a comment, I will definitely answer.
And if anyone wants to add anything, don’t be shy!
PS.
And one more thing, we had a discussion with my wife, and she decided to try to take on a couple of blog columns. So maybe the blog will soon become a family blog!
Well, that’s all bye everyone, don’t forget to subscribe to updates, I’m off to bed….