How we build. How we build How we built the house ourselves

Our company strives to minimize construction costs, which do not affect the quality of construction. We cut SIP panels and lumber at the customer’s site. This significantly reduces costs and the estimated cost of building a house. The option of assembling a house kit is also possible, but it will be significantly more expensive. You don’t have to worry about the cleanliness of the site. We cut materials under a canopy. We collect waste in bags. The building material is covered with an awning from precipitation.

Types of foundations used.

The foundation transfers the load from the house to the ground and ensures its stability. In this case, the price of the foundation can reach up to 30% of the cost of the house. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to the choice of the type of this element of the structure.
There are various types of foundations that are used in the construction of SIP houses. Most often we build the following foundations:

• Shallow. At its core, it is a floating foundation. A reinforced concrete strip with two or three reinforcement belts is buried 10 cm into the ground onto a prepared base - a compacted sand cushion. The formwork is being assembled. Then the reinforcement cage is laid in the formwork, then concrete is poured. After 15–20 days, the solution hardens, the formwork is removed, and it becomes possible to build walls. Unlike a pile foundation, a shallow foundation makes it difficult to ventilate the underground, and the construction of such a foundation takes several weeks.

• Insulated Swedish stove- this type of foundation is advisable to use on soft soils. Concrete is poured over the entire area of ​​the building. This reduces the pressure of the house on the ground. The resulting monolithic slab serves as the base of the floor. Due to the large volume of concrete and reinforcement needed for the work, this type of foundation is expensive.

• Bored piles with high grillage. Often used in the construction of SIP houses. It is advisable to build such a foundation in areas with heaving soil, on slopes. First, wells are drilled, casing pipes are placed there, then the grillage formwork and reinforcement cage are assembled. Next comes concreting. The grillage hangs above the ground at a distance of 10-15 cm to prevent soil pressure on it during frost heaving;

• Screw piles. The most popular and frequently used foundation by our company. Installed in one day at any time of the year. The piles are screwed into the ground below the freezing level. The blade reduces the load of the pile on the ground, prevents it from bulging by frost heaving forces, thereby ensuring its immobility. Service life - more than 100 years. The piles can be dismantled. You can screw in additional piles and install extensions to the house. Another advantage is the relatively low price.

Stages of assembling a house kit.

• Zero overlap. The next stage after installing the foundation is the installation of a zero overlap. As a rule, it is made of SIP panels with an insulation thickness of 20 cm.

The walls are assembled using the tongue-and-groove principle. Grooves are made in SIP panels by cutting out polystyrene foam. After applying the foam, a connecting antiseptic beam is inserted into them, which is secured with self-tapping screws. At this stage, it is very important to measure the horizontal and vertical position of the parts with a building level.

It is advisable to make frame walls that are not load-bearing. Utilities can be hidden in the frame, which is also an undeniable advantage.

You can use classic rafter roofs insulated with mineral slabs to construct attic floors. This not only saves money, but also makes the attic floor more noise-proof.

• Roof. Today, there are a wide variety of roofing materials that differ in price and durability. The most popular are metal roofing and “soft” roofing. This is due to its affordable price, ease of installation and long service life. Flexible bitumen shingles are best used on roofs with complex structures; they are also less noisy in the rain. But due to the fact that it is necessary to lay OSB-3 sheets and lining carpet underneath, the price is 30-50% higher than for metal. Also, flexible tiles cannot be laid at subzero temperatures.

• Window. The main heat loss in a house occurs through window structures and low-quality windows can minimize the main advantages of a SIP house. The MOSSIP company cooperates with a large plant that uses the VEKA profile. Therefore, we can offer our clients class “A” windows at a competitive price.

• Dormer windows. If a house made of SIP panels has a residential attic, then windows can be installed in the roof.

Dormer windows have their own specific technical characteristics, since they are located at an angle to the ground level.
Attic windows are made of plastic or wood. They can be installed both at the stage of roof installation and on the finished roof.

In 1964, my husband and I came to Russia to the Volgograd region from Kazakhstan, where my husband, a driver, had gone to explore virgin lands in 1951. The climate there, in the Pavlodar region, is harsh, + 40 degrees in summer. In winter - 40. 12 km from the Irtysh there is bare steppe all around, not a bush, not a tree.
We lived near the regional center on the outskirts of a large village near a motor depot. There wasn't even fresh water there. They brought them once a day in tanks from the Irtysh, sometimes even with fish. You can fill three or four buckets for the whole day and do as you please. Of course, there was no time for a garden.
The settlement was large, close to the city, a commuter train went to Pavlodar three times, there were three schools in the village, two clubs, a good bakery, a hospital, a pharmacy, a rich library where I worked. But the nature is poor, plain, salt marshes, salt lakes. Sandstorms.
In the spring, the Irtysh flooded, and the water reached the outskirts of our 7th village.
And my childhood passed in Mordovia, in the village. Atyashevo. There is greenery all around, forest, berries, nuts, springs with wonderful water coming out of the ground.
And so, when my daughter finished fourth grade, she really wanted to live among the greenery, to have her own garden. We left the state-owned two-room apartment and in 1964, having visited the Urals and the north of the country, we finally stopped in the Volgograd region in the then small regional center of Surovikino, which later became a city.
Before leaving, we sold a motorcycle and some household items, and with these funds we began to build our house. We bought a frame on credit - posts, window frames, door jambs and doors, on credit for two years, the rest was bought from my husband's salary - 90 rubles. He was disabled during the Great Patriotic War due to injury, I was in the second group due to illness and did not work. We spent the winter in a private apartment, and in the summer we moved to our own site and lived in a trailer there.
The two of us poured the foundation of the house, which was small by today’s standards, six by seven meters, but there was enough space for the three of us. The street was new, the neighbors were also building, and in difficult cases they came to each other’s aid.
They put up a frame and covered the walls with wood. They filled them with slats and coated the house inside and out with clay. I had to learn how to work with a hammer, and smear walls, and plaster. My daughter was twelve, and she also helped to knead the clay, carry water, and even collect horse “apples” for the interior plaster of the walls.
The main work, of course, went to the head of the family, my beloved husband Pavel.
From the foundation to the roof, he did everything with his own hands conscientiously. I watched how people worked, learned, and then built them myself. So, for example, it happened with the stove. For the first time in his life, he laid it, remade it several times, but by winter the stove of his work was already warming us.
At the end of August we had to move to a new house. In one room they laid the floor and put glass in the window, and they settled in, continuing work until the cold weather.
They lived very poorly, only buying the most necessary things for themselves. Everything went to construction. The food was poor, black bread cost 14 kopecks, dry milk (there was a dairy plant in Surovikino; they sold burnt milk at a reduced price). Sugar was a luxury. The entire salary was spent on construction, one month was spent on cement, the other on glass, nails, slate, brick.
It was still cool in the fall, I caught a cold, got sick again, and had to take a long time to get injections. Although treatment was free back then, there were no large expenses.
But they still built the house in one summer without any financial help and spent the winter in it.
The daughter studied well, was an activist at school, the school gave her a free ticket to the Artek pioneer camp, even though she visited the Black Sea.
My husband had an elementary education, two grades, the third was a corridor, that’s what he said about himself, but he knew how to do any job. He installed the glass himself, sawed it himself, planed it himself, and did the electrical wiring in the house himself. Gradually he brought water into the house, made a drain, then a cellar, and courtyard buildings. I planted a garden, planted a vegetable garden - the dream of owning my own farm came true. For twenty years later, my husband and I lived in our house, where everything was made with our own hands and therefore very expensive. And then in 1986 he died, and I was left alone.
I had to sell my house and move to my daughter in the Saratov region.

According to the author. Our young family built this house for 3.5 years, and our parents on both sides and my husband’s brother helped us. At first they built on weekends and vacations, and after that they happily devoted almost all their free time to it. And although it was not easy, I remember these moments with such warmth! All stages were captured - as a result, today we have more than 1800 photographs and a wealth of experience behind us. But first things first.

By a happy coincidence, around 2000, my husband’s parents got tired of traveling to their dacha 60 km from Minsk, and 20 acres of land were then sold (just think!) for $300. A new plot was found 3 km from Minsk - 6 acres of dacha land with a small shed cost $800.

At that time, the intended purpose of this land was clearly a vegetable garden, but life made its own adjustments. My husband and I met at the university and after a couple of years of close relationship we started thinking about the housing issue: a job placement with the opportunity to move to different parts of the country was hanging in the balance. Therefore, we decided to take root next to our parents. Our families could not afford to buy an apartment, and besides, we also had to think about solving this issue for my husband’s brother. Then the idea of ​​building my own house was born. I really liked the idea, because I myself grew up in a private house and was well aware of its advantages over a city apartment.

We were aware that everything would not be easy at all, but we did not deviate from our plans. Having found out that the previously introduced restrictions on the area and configuration of the garden house no longer apply, we started with the project. By the way, the Internet helped us in everything, where there were answers to any questions, which allowed us, who were not related to construction, to still get down to business on our own.

The sketch of the house was developed in the 3Dhome program. The box was designed to be rectangular (the best in terms of price/quality) and divided into 2 halves (our family and my husband’s brother’s family). Then we turned to one of the architectural firms, where for a small amount (we’ll write about the financial side in more detail at the very end) our drawing was implemented into a multi-page project (however, it still had to be finalized later); a separate pile of documentation was the design of utility networks.

In the fall of 2008, preparations began - the fertile layer of soil was removed, the foundation (12.8 × 7.6 m) was marked, and a trench was dug for it using a small excavator.

True, the next day it rained heavily, and everything collapsed... There were even thoughts about stopping work until spring (they say it was a bad omen). However, we decided to try again. I’ll say right away that that unfortunate rain became the biggest problem during the entire construction period.

The second time (we dug by hand, with shovels, standing chest-deep in a trench) turned out to be more successful. The final depth of the trench was 150 cm; the foundation rose 1 m above ground level at the lowest point of the site (a total of 51 m³ of concrete was used).

The pillow and reinforcement were made in accordance with the project. We made it just in time for the first snow. During the thaw, they dug a basement (3.5 × 5 × 2.2 m) under one of the future kitchens - and froze until spring.

In March 2009, having already missed construction, they began to make formwork for the ceiling between the basement and the future room, and soon they filled it (18 cm thick). Thus, the foundation for the load-bearing walls was ready.

Next stage. 75 m³ of gas silicate blocks 40 cm thick were brought, which with our hands, under the strict guidance of a familiar mason, were slowly transformed into walls. We made the lintels above the windows ourselves (by pouring a reinforced strip of concrete into a cut groove along the upper edge of the blocks placed close together), and we made a reinforced concrete belt between the floors.

The foundation for the partitions was made shallow. Here we made a mistake - we did not take into account the clayiness of the soil and did not backfill with sand, as a result of which in the first winter frost heaving lifted the partitions, and they, being in places tied to the load-bearing block walls, developed cracks at the joints. Which, however, did not happen again, since the next winter the house was already heated. The ceiling between the floors was made of wood - beams 200 × 100 per edge every 80 cm.

Then the second floor began, and behind it the gables. We were afraid to tackle the roof ourselves and turned to specialists, who completed it in 2 weeks and $2120.

They laid vapor and waterproofing films, insulation (between the 2nd floor and the attic), and left a manhole. The roof covering is metal tiles (roof area 140 sq. m, the most affordable configuration is gable).

We decided to make the partitions on the second floor plasterboard, and taking into account the prices of the profile, we replaced it with wooden blocks, sawn from inherited boards.

With the arrival of spring, we ordered windows (double-glazed windows 6-4-4 for sound insulation, since there is a railway nearby), finished the wiring and built the frame of the future stairs to the second floor - welded from a metal square and a corner. To give it a comfortable climbing angle, the staircase was designed so that it “cut off” part of the bathroom.

They started working on the attic only in May, which, frankly speaking, was very inconvenient - even at 20 degrees outside in sunny May weather, in the attic you feel like you’re in a steam room! We covered the floor with a board with a selected quarter - we even bought a machine for this (in the expectation that we would also process the boards for the finished floor in the house). But here we clearly overestimated the capabilities of a household woodworking machine.

By this time, we had graduated from the university and, upon moving out of the dormitory, we happily moved into a growing house - work immediately became more fun. At this point the first stage was completed, and we moved on to finishing: finishing screed, plastering of brick walls inside along beacons, gas silicate walls - without beacons, plaster outside (a total of 220 25-kilogram bags of plaster mortar were used!), plasterboard ceilings on wooden profiles... Here it must be said that July 2010 beat everything temperature records, and it was possible to work in accordance with the conditions indicated on the packaging of the plaster solution (not higher than +25ºС) only in the morning and evening.

Using a folding attic ladder system we spotted in hardware stores, we tried to do something similar - it turned out quite well! The lock was replaced with a clip of magnets for cabinets: smooth opening is ensured by several door springs. Folding into three, the ladder fits perfectly into the manhole space, covered from below with an insulated lid.

Then we took up the internal plumbing and heating system from a double-circuit boiler with an open combustion chamber with a capacity of 25 kW (by the way, during the last heating period, 150 sq. m “ate” 2830 m³ of gas). Gas was supplied to the site two years ago. When it came to introducing it into the house, it turned out that supplying gas underground required expensive design work, “introducing a new point,” etc. It turned out to be much easier to conduct it by air, on supports. Moreover, plans for the construction of a garage in the future were taken into account (and the location of the foundations, according to the standards, should be no closer than 2 m from underground gas pipelines). That's what we did.

After the main interior work, we returned to the street again: we lined the roof with soffit, insulated the foundation, plastered it, built a carport and fenced off the future tiled area (blind area).

We worked inside throughout the late fall, winter, and early spring of 2011. The ceilings, as already written, were made of plasterboard. True, we slightly shortened the scheme for its finishing: only the seams were filled with putty after gluing them with sickle and the places where the screws were screwed in, and the sheet of drywall itself was only painted.

And then the fun began - the house had to be filled with colors and gain individuality. The wallpaper was bought from Belarusian paper with the expectation that it would soon be painted anyway, and the variety of patterns and colors was pleasing - there was plenty to choose from.

The bedroom was designed in African motifs (we dream of visiting Kenya!). We made the bed with our own hands so that it was both wide and not very high, and there were drawers under it (we couldn’t find one like this in stores with a reasonable price).

The footprints of a large cat were depicted on the floor under the varnish and stain.

There will definitely be paintings hanging above the bed, someday brought from Africa itself!

The lamps for the bedroom and corridors were made from fabric and a wooden frame, as well as from threads passed through glue onto an inflated balloon.

It’s interesting that we glued the ceiling skirting boards to styrofoam, which, according to the instructions, should have set in 10 minutes. But for some reason they fell off - we had to temporarily prop them up with floor skirting boards.

We hung the curtain rods, chose fabric for the curtains, which we simply processed on a sewing machine. And the side holders were made of thick wire bent to 2/3 of the circumference, coated with gold paint. The cornices in the hallway are made from ordinary dried sticks, covered with stain and varnish.

In the gap between the wall and the ventilation shaft, shelves were installed from the remnants of chipboard after assembling the wardrobe.

After preliminary leveling, the floor in the kitchen was covered with linoleum, which we have never regretted. The table was made from a piece of chipboard, always with rounded edges. We glued a decorative film on top and wrapped the whole thing around the perimeter with a furniture PVC profile.

Then it was the turn of the tiles.

At the same time, the staircase was finished: the remains of the floorboard were used for the steps. The space under the stairs was covered with plasterboard - it turned out to be a mini-wardrobe. The railings were sawn from wooden blocks; we couldn’t resist buying balusters to start and complete the railing.