Reliable foundation for a house made of timber. The foundation for a house made of timber - the principle of the device in detail

In this article, we will attempt to consider the question of which foundation is better for a house made of timber? After all, they often build from timber now. The reasons why people decide to build not built of brick or stone, but houses made of natural wood, can be very different. This is the desire to live in conditions as close as possible to nature, and aesthetic preferences, and the desire to save on construction - it's no secret that these houses are cheaper. And a significant part of the funds can be saved on the construction of the foundation (base) for them. We will talk further about which foundation is better for a house made of timber.

The decisive criteria for choosing the type of foundation are its reliability, feasibility and, of course, price. Wooden buildings are much lighter than those built of brick or concrete, they create less ground load, which makes it possible to have a wider choice of them.

Foundation selection criteria

Tape, pile, columnar, slab - which foundation is better for a house made of timber?

There is no universal answer to this question - in each specific case of construction, the choice should be based on many parameters, which include mainly the features of the construction site and the design load on the foundation. For this, they produce geological and hydrological research and make appropriate calculations.

During the site survey, the following information is obtained:

• Site relief.
• Type and characteristics of soil and soil.
• Freezing depth.
• The level of occurrence of groundwater.

Before you calculate the foundation for a house from a bar, you need to select a project, since, as you know, the key parameter of the calculation is the load, i.e. the total weight of the building, including the weight of furniture and equipment, snow cover on the roof, etc.

All the data obtained is analyzed, after which a decision is made on the most optimal type of foundation for a particular building. If you have to choose from several options, preference is given to the one that is more economically or in terms of construction speed.

Types of foundations and grounds for their construction

It is up to a professional to decide what kind of foundation is needed for a log house in each case. But it is also important for the most private developer to have an idea about this issue. For these reasons, let's briefly talk about the different types of bases, their design and the conditions in which it is advisable to use them.

1. Column foundation

Column Foundation

This is the simplest and most affordable type of foundation for self-production, which is a monolithic pillars installed under load-bearing walls every 100-150 centimeters. They must be at the corners of the house from the timber and at the intersection of the outer and inner walls.

Pillars can also be made of stone, brick, concrete blocks, rubble concrete. In any case, they are buried to a shallow depth, on a pre-prepared pillow of sand with a thickness of about 20 centimeters. This work is easy to do completely on your own.

However, this foundation cannot be called reliable. They resort to its device only in the case of the construction of light one-story buildings of a small area and if the soil on the site is strong enough (for example, rocky), not subject to frost heaving.

Recommendation. If you are deciding which foundation is best for a log bath or a small garden house, then a columnar foundation is the easiest and most economical option. But for more massive buildings on heaving soils, it is not suitable.

2. Pile foundations

Foundations on screw piles are also quite economical, but more reliable than columnar ones. Their difference from the latter lies in the depth of immersion: as a rule, it reaches solid layers of soil and soil. For these reasons, the foundation on screw piles is able to withstand a very serious load (if installed correctly).

Pile screw foundation

Piles differ in the material of manufacture and methods of construction.

Screw steel piles you can also install it yourself by screwing them to the depth required by the project.

The most popular in private low-rise construction - bored. They are made by analogy with monolithic pillars right on the site by pouring concrete into pre-made deep wells. If you make a concrete grillage on top of such piles, you get a pile-grillage foundation.

Bored piles

The most costly option reinforced concrete driven piles, for the installation of which the use of special construction equipment is required.

Piles, as a rule, withstand very serious loads and are also used for more massive structures. For the construction of log houses, they are used mainly in cases where they are built on sites with difficult terrain or on unstable (“weak”) and heaving soils.

Pile foundation on a slope

Since it is not an easy task to calculate the foundation for a log house or any other material, it is usually trusted to professionals (although there are now good online calculators on the Internet - you can calculate everything yourself).

3. Strip foundations

The tape is the most popular, traditional solution in individual cottage construction. The tape base (foundation) is a solid frame under all the bearing walls of the building, made of reinforced concrete blocks or monolithic reinforced concrete. It can be shallow, shallow or laid below the freezing depth of the soil and soil.

How to make a foundation for a house from a bar, you can read in our other articles. And here we will tell you in which cases it is more expedient to arrange buried, and in which - shallow foundations.

Recessed strip foundation, scheme

Its reliability and immobility depend on the depth of the foundation. Soils below the freezing level are very dense and not subject to heaving, for this reason they serve as a solid base for the sole. But the same heaving forces act on the side surfaces of the tape. And in different areas it happens with different force. And if the load on the foundation is insufficient, it is not able to resist these forces, and as a result, the likelihood increases that in winter it will be “led” or “knocked out” of the ground due to the effect of frost heaving on it.

Buried strip foundation

Let's make a conclusion. Recessed bases are more suitable for heavy stone, brick or concrete structures. Or for houses made of timber in two or three floors or lined with bricks, the weight of which creates the necessary load. They are also arranged in the case of building a house with a basement - the foundation walls simultaneously serve as the walls of the basement.

What kind of foundation is needed for a log house of small dimensions on one floor or with an attic? A shallow foundation is quite sufficient, the sole of which is 60-0.8 m below ground level.

Shallow strip foundation

This option has a lot of advantages - from the speed of construction to significant savings in building materials and, accordingly, the money spent.

At the same time, the reliability of such a foundation for light structures, subject to compliance with building codes and technologies (for example, the installation of an anti-heaving pillow), is known to be considered high.

Trench for shallow foundation

Slab

This type of base refers to "floating", capable of withstanding any load without deforming under the influence of processes occurring in the soil. If you have to decide how to build a foundation for a log house in a peat, swampy area or in areas with a high level of groundwater, we recommend that you focus on this option.

Foundation - monolithic reinforced slab

It is a monolithic reinforced concrete (reinforced) slab located on a sand cushion, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich corresponds to the area and configuration of the house. At a cost, it exceeds other types of foundations, it requires considerable effort and time to manufacture, but in some cases this is the only way to make a solid and reliable foundation.

The technology of laying the lower crown of the timber on the foundation

The tree cannot be “attached” to concrete with a mortar, as is done in the construction of stone buildings. It is necessary to solve the question of how to fix the timber to the foundation in other ways, while not forgetting the need to protect the timber from decay.

Below are instructions for laying the first row on a concrete base - strip foundation, columnar or grillage.

It is worth noting that it is not necessary to fix the beam to the foundation. But if you decide to do this, then even while pouring concrete into the formwork, you need to install anchor studs in it - 2-3 pieces for each beam.

Before laying the beam, a waterproofing layer of two layers of roofing material should be laid under it, and the beam itself should be impregnated with an antiseptic or smeared with liquid bituminous mastic.

Advice to private developers. The roofing material should be laid immediately before laying the bottom row on the foundation, since the building material can be damaged by sunlight and other atmospheric phenomena.

In the bars of the lower trim, it is necessary to drill through holes with a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the studs, having previously marked their position. At the top, the hole is made wider so that the washer and nut can be sunk into the wood.

The beam is mounted on the studs through the drilled holes and fastened with nuts. It is preferable to place washers under them to increase the contact area.

Attention! When installing the first row, you need to monitor compliance with the horizontal level. You can eliminate the differences with the help of rails laid under the strapping. The resulting gaps are filled with mounting foam.

Between themselves in the corners and at the joints of the walls, the timber is connected using a sample (in the paw or in the floor of a tree) or metal or wooden dowels.

As a conclusion

When building a house, it is important to follow the technology and sequence of work. And it is always necessary to start with a geological examination of the soil and soil and linking the project to the terrain, since it is possible to make the foundation for a log house reliable only if it complies with the calculated loads and operating conditions.

This page provides a recommendation for choosing a foundation for a house made of timber. We will consider the advantages and disadvantages of tape, slab, columnar and pile foundations, the features of their calculation and construction technology.

When choosing a foundation for a house made of timber, it is necessary to take into account the key advantages, technological features of the arrangement and external factors expressed in soil characteristics, groundwater levels and the degree of soil freezing.

Types of foundations for a house made of timber

The following types are preferred:

• pile construction - relevant in the case of building a house on sandy soils prone to shedding. Provides a redistribution of the mass of the building on deep-lying solid soil layers;
• strip foundations - in demand in the process of building a building on clay soils that are not subject to heaving. The level of penetration of the tape is determined by the degree of freezing of the soil. Actual arrangement of the base during the construction of houses with basements, basement floors;
• slab foundation - is equipped in conditions of heaving moving soils. It has the ability to float along with the building during the process of soil displacement caused by severe freezing in winter and thawing in spring.

What is the best foundation for a house made of timber

Each of the existing types of foundations is preferable for construction in specific cases, and without analyzing the accompanying factors, it is impossible to say on which foundation it is better to build a house from a bar. To make a decision on the choice of foundation, the following conditions must be taken into account:

• Floors and weight of the building under construction;
• Ground conditions at the building site;
• Requirements for the timing of the project and the budget allocated for construction.

Important: the list of soil characteristics that affect the choice of foundation includes - the depth of freezing, the level of groundwater, the tendency to heaving, the bearing capacity of the soil. You can get this information by conducting geodetic surveys on the site, saving on which during the construction of housing is highly not recommended.

The result of the column foundation:

• Can be used to build a light one-story house from a bar on stable soils;
• It cannot be used for the construction of buildings with a height of 2 or more floors, in heaving and mobile soil. The reliability of the pillars depends on many related factors.

Foundation plate- a monolithic structure 30-50 cm thick, occupying the entire area of ​​the building. It is rational to use such a foundation in problematic soils - the slab is not subjected to uneven deformation, when heaving or settling, it moves along with the building, which eliminates the risk of heeling or damage to the walls of the house.

In dense clayey and mountainous soils, the slab foundation is placed directly on the soil surface; in conditions of medium-dense soil, the slab is laid so that 2/3 of its thickness is below ground level and a compacting pad of sand 30-40 cm thick is formed under the monolith.

Rice

The slab foundation allows you to build buildings of any size with a complex configuration. With a large length of the house along the perimeter of the slab, expansion joints are created that redistribute the load on separate sections of the monolith.

The result of a monolithic slab:

• A reliable foundation with a relatively simple manufacturing technology. Suitable for the construction of houses from a bar with a height of 1-3 floors in any soil. A large bearing area provides increased load-bearing capabilities of the foundation.
• The disadvantage is the high consumption of building materials and, as a result, the high cost of arrangement.

Strip foundation

The tape type foundation is considered a universal version of the reinforced concrete foundation. Different configurations of the tape allow you to build houses in almost any soil conditions:

• In heaving soil, a deep-laid belt (1.5-2 m) is used, deepened below the soil freezing line;
• In soil not prone to heaving, a shallow tape is used (30-80 cm below ground level).

Important: strip foundation can be prefabricated (made of brickwork or FBS blocks) or monolithic. Prefabricated foundations cannot be used in heaving soils, because due to push-out loads, the upper masonry belt can be torn off from the lower one. Also, monolithic foundations benefit in terms of durability.

Rice

In comparison with slab foundations, the tape has a smaller bearing area, which causes a limited load-bearing capacity of the foundation in low-density soil, and it is not financially profitable to deepen the base of the foundation to hard soil rocks - the consumption of concrete and reinforcement increases.

The result on the strip foundation:

• The best option for building a house from a bar 1-3 floors high in solid ground, allows you to build in heaving soil;
• Poorly suitable for construction in areas with high GWL and low-density soil.

pile foundation

For the construction of houses from timber, it makes sense to use 2 types of pile foundations:

• On screw piles;
• On driven piles.

Important: the design of any pile foundation consists of supports evenly distributed around the perimeter of the building, and a grillage connecting them, which also acts as a supporting surface for raising walls from a bar.

Rice

Screw piles have a length of 3 to 6 meters. Their supporting part - the blades, is located below the soil freezing limit, which makes it possible to build houses in heaving soils.

Driven piles are more massive structures, the length of which reaches 12 m and the cross section is up to 40x40 cm - they open a layer of surface soil and transfer the load from the house to incompressible deep soil, which ensures the maximum possible load-bearing capacity and reliability of the foundation in any conditions.

Rice

Summary of pile foundations:

• Screw foundation - economical, quick to install and inexpensive foundation, applicable for houses made of timber with a height of 1-2 floors;
• The foundation of reinforced concrete piles is a universal foundation for any soil conditions, the weight and size characteristics of the building are not limited.

The technology of building a foundation for a log house

Pile foundations are constructed using screw, driven or bored structures. If a small structure is being built from a bar, then asbestos-cement pipes (D = 150mm) are used. Structures are mounted in drilled wells and fastened with a grillage, through which the piles are tied using reinforced concrete tape.

Attention! The grillage has a section of 300 × 150 - 700 × 500 mm, if the structures are mounted in increments of 3 meters.

It is required to raise the grillage above the ground by 50 mm, and fill the vacant space with sand.

Important! When the pile foundation rises to a height of 60mm, the foundation is tied with a beam.

The construction of the strip foundation

begins with earthmoving, which consists in digging a trench (depth up to 90 cm). The bottom of the pit is covered with a sand cushion, having a height of up to 30 cm, filled with water and carefully rammed.

The reinforcing core is being installed, consisting of transverse and longitudinal steel bars fastened with a knitting wire. Formwork is installed, and then the base is poured in layers of concrete (20 cm each), with simultaneous tapping with metal rods that eliminate air bubbles.

A monolithic floating slab is equipped by digging a pit, the bottom of which is tamped and covered with a sandy half mixed with gravel. A waterproofing material is applied over the formed embankment, poured with the thinnest layer of concrete mortar. On top of the hardened and hardened concrete, a reinforcing core is installed, completely filled with mortar.

Rice

Installation of the screw foundation is carried out in the following sequence:

• The pile field is marked on the site;
• The screwing of the supports starts from the corner of the building; during manual installation, the pile is screwed in by means of a lever threaded into the hole on the trunk. Installation is carried out with the involvement of three people, two of whom screw the pile and the third level controls the verticality of its entry into the ground;
• Upon completion of the installation of all piles, the supports are cut off by a grinder at one level, after which the heads are welded to the trunks;
• The foundation is tied with a grillage made of timber (fixed on the heads with anchors) or a channel (attached by welding).

Rice

The arrangement of the foundation from reinforced concrete piles requires the involvement of pile drivers - special equipment that performs the driving of supports. The technology for arranging the foundation is as follows:

• Pile field marking;
• Pile driving by impact driving before design failure occurs;
• Reinforcement exposure of pile columns by destroying the concrete body of the pile with a hydraulic chipper;
• Installation of formwork under the grillage along the perimeter of the pile field;
• Assembly of the reinforcement cage, its installation in the formwork and welding of pile supports to the reinforcement;
• Concreting of the grillage with concrete grade M200-M300.

Video about the foundations for a house from a bar

Check out the video that reveals the installation technologies for different types of foundations for a house made of timber:

Video #1- installation of a strip foundation for a log house

Video #2- the use of a screw foundation for building a house from a bar

Video #3- slab foundation for a house made of timber

Load and cost calculation

The best option is the arrangement of a pile monolithic base with a grillage, ideal for a house made of timber. The calculation of the foundation is carried out based on the following parameters:
The location of structural elements and the load experienced by the base during operation are taken into account. The area of ​​the foundation is calculated taking into account the division of the sum of loads by the supporting characteristics of the soil, adjusting the total amount of materials.

Price construction depends on the size of the house from the timber and the number of piles. A foundation measuring 6 × 6 - 8 × 9 meters will cost 32,000 - 72,000 rubles.

Contact our company, ready to build any type of pile foundation according to your desire, taking into account the characteristics of the house and the characteristics of the soil, exactly on time with the provision of guarantees.

In private construction, the use of timber as a building material is popular. Houses made of timber look beautiful without additional cladding, natural wood creates a pleasant microclimate in the house. In addition, a house made of timber is cheaper than a brick one. It has a small mass, so making a foundation for a house from a bar can be not as powerful and expensive as for a brick building. What types of foundation are suitable for timber houses and what features do they have?

Selecting the type of foundation

The foundation for the house is made of timber

• tape,
• pile,
• columnar.

The features of these types of foundation will be discussed later. Each of them is suitable for certain cases.

The choice of foundation type is influenced by the following factors:

• weight and area of ​​the building,
• the composition and structure of the soil,
• depth of soil freezing,
• ground water level,
• height differences.

To determine the characteristics of the soil, it is necessary to order a geodetic examination, since it will not be possible to independently determine these parameters.

Column type foundation

The columnar foundation is suitable for light wooden buildings on heaving and freezing soil. The advantage of this type of foundation:

• the ability to redistribute the load, which is why it is made on soil prone to frost heaving,
• opportunity to do it yourself.

Such a base is a column located under the points of the house, which account for the greatest load. The posts can be made of bricks, made of concrete blocks, or be concrete, poured into pits or asbestos-cement pipes. This is a traditional type for log or timber houses, with the use of modern materials, its properties can be significantly improved. The pillars are installed on a sand cushion, placed at intervals of 1.2-2 m with a depth of 0.5 m into the ground and a sand cushion of 0.25 m. Such a base is suitable for 6 * 6 m houses, verandas, outbuildings and baths.

Dimensions of brick pillars - 38 * 38 or 51 * 51 cm, depending on the load. To prepare the site, the fertile soil layer is removed (about 0.15 m), then in the places where the pillars will stand, they dig holes 60 cm deep. The bottom is compacted, concrete is poured with a layer of 0.15 m. Then brick pillars are laid out 0.4 high m above the soil level, making a free space inside, where reinforcement is then inserted and concrete is poured. . After the concrete has hardened, the pits are covered with soil, and a grillage is installed on the pillars.

Important! Any brick foundation requires good waterproofing. You can coat the poles with bitumen or use rolled materials.

After the construction of the pillars, the columnar foundation is covered with non-porous soil, sand or sand-gravel mixture (SGM). Backfilling is needed to reduce the influence of the forces of frost heaving of the soil. If the soil in the area is heaving, then the earth removed from the pit for backfilling should not be used.

pile foundation

This type of foundation for a house made of profiled or glued beams is suitable for marshy and other difficult soils, for example, in the presence of quicksand, as well as with a large elevation difference on the site. Piles go deep into the ground and rest on denser and more reliable layers. The pile foundation is considered very strong, on it you can build a house from a bar 8 * 8 m, one-story or two-story.

Piles are of several types:

• printed,
• bored,
• screw.

Stuffed piles are installed using special equipment. It is necessary to drill wells along the perimeter of the future foundation using a drilling machine, then reinforced concrete piles are driven into the wells with a hydraulic hammer, then a log house is placed on them.

bored foundation assumes that the piles are poured right on the spot into the wells drilled by the drill. At the bottom of the pile, they must make a thickening - a heel, lifting the pipe after pouring the solution. It keeps the pile in the ground and does not allow the forces of frost heaving to squeeze it out. The advantage of this type is less excavation than for columnar. On the other hand, the consumption of concrete and reinforcement for it is greater than for columnar. How to make a bored foundation for a house from a bar?

For a bored foundation, wells are drilled to a depth greater than the depth of soil freezing. As a formwork, asbestos-cement pipes or roofing felt rolled into a tube and glued with bituminous mastic are used. The hole diameter must be at least 10 cm larger than the pile diameter. Sand is poured at the bottom of the wells and it is well compacted. Reinforcement of such piles is mandatory. For reinforcement, metal rods are used with a length equal to the depth of the well or 300 mm more if the house is on a monolithic grillage. The main rods should be 10 mm in diameter, and the binders 6 mm. The fittings are lowered into the pipe, the outside of the pipe is sprinkled with sand, then the formwork is poured with concrete mortar. For more details on the process of installing a bored foundation, see the video.

Steel screw piles are screwed into the ground without the use of heavy equipment. Frost heaving forces act less on such a foundation due to the smaller surface of the pile. Pile and column foundations do not imply the presence of a basement or basement. To insulate such foundations, an imitation of the basement is made.

Strip foundation

The strip foundation can be prefabricated or monolithic.

For small buildings, you can lay it out of concrete blocks weighing 32 kg and 20 * 20 * 400 cm in size. Its device is quite laborious due to the large weight of the blocks. The advantage of this type is its applicability on different types of soil.

For a prefabricated foundation, they usually use:

• brick - suitable in cases where groundwater is deep, good waterproofing is required,
• rubble concrete - blocks about 30 cm long and weighing about 30 kg are relatively inexpensive, the foundation made of them is considered the strongest of the prefabricated ones, but it can crack on rocky and light sandy soil.

A deep monolithic strip foundation is justified in the construction of a two- or three-story house, a house with a basement or basement, or brick-lined. For a small one-story house, it will have an excess margin of safety, in addition, it is quite expensive due to the high price of concrete. The best option for a glued beam house is a shallow strip foundation.

Important! The foundation must be sufficiently loaded. If you make a deep monolithic foundation for a light house from a bar, then the forces of frost heaving can deform the base or squeeze it out of the ground. Therefore, do not make bases with an excessive margin of safety.

How to pour a strip foundation for a house from a bar yourself

The first stage is the marking of the site. To do this, you must have a plan or project for the future home.

Then they dig a pit. First, the fertile soil layer is removed (15-20 cm). Then remove the required amount of soil. Narrow trenches are made for the tape base. If the soil is loose, then the walls of the trench are made with a slight slope.

Geotextiles are placed at the bottom of the pit and a sand cushion is poured. It is needed to obtain an even, dense and strong base, and geotextiles - so that the sand does not mix with the soil. Sand is poured with a layer of at least 25 cm, leveled and compacted. To make the sand easier to compact, it is moistened with water. If the soil is wet, clayey, then, if possible, wet clay should be removed and the bottom of the pit should be covered with crushed stone, ramming it into the ground. Sand can only be poured into a dry pit. Sand should be of medium or coarse fraction.

Formwork is usually made from hardwood edged boards measuring 25 * 100 cm. First, shields are hammered together (it is better to use nails, bending them, self-tapping screws can pop out from concrete pressure), then connect them to each other. The formwork is reinforced with spacers. To make it easier to remove the boards after the concrete has hardened, the formwork is laid out with polyethylene. The figure shows how to make formwork depending on the depth of the pit.

When building a foundation for a house, it is very important to properly reinforce it. Reinforce the future foundation immediately after the installation of the formwork. To do this, use metal rods no more than 10 mm thick. A mesh is made from this reinforcement, which is placed at a distance of 5 cm from the walls of the formwork. She shouldn't be in contact with them.

Important! The thinner the base, the more reinforcement should be. If a deep foundation can be poured without it at all, then reinforcement is mandatory for a shallow foundation. The video shows how the reinforcement of the strip foundation is made, in particular, in the corners.

Concrete is usually kneaded using the M300 or M400 cement brand. Crushed stone, sand and cement are mixed in a ratio of or 4:3:1. Then water is gradually added to the mixture and stirred. It is better to knead concrete in a concrete mixer, thus a more homogeneous mass is obtained. Even better if you use factory concrete. If work is carried out in cold weather, then it is better to heat the water. The concrete is poured in layers. After pouring the first layer and the last layer, it is compacted. In order not to form seams, along which heat will leave in the future, do not take long breaks in pouring. Concrete hardens and gains strength within 28 days.

Conclusion

A house made of timber, like a log house, is relatively light, so the foundation for it is not as powerful as for a brick one. You can use a pile, columnar, strip foundation. The choice of the type of foundation depends on the soil, area and number of storeys of the future house, as well as on whether a basement or basement is planned in it.

Despite the fact that the weight of the construction of a house made of timber is much less than that of a similar house made of bricks, this is not a reason not to carefully calculate the foundation for a house made of timber. It is frivolous to neglect the issues of arranging the foundation of such a building.

Existing Options

The foundation for a log house can be built by any of the currently known types. However, the most popular options are:

• The strip foundation is the most common type for wooden houses in recent times. This option is a guarantee of an appropriate level of stability of the structure frame in most soil conditions;

• Columnar is a very economical option. During its construction, a reduction in building materials and the amount of work themselves is achieved. Accordingly, the price of building a foundation of this type is lower than that of the others;

• The pile foundation is a reinforced variation of the columnar type. The characteristic features of this option are more powerful types of "pillars" and a much greater depth of their laying in the ground.

Stages of erection of the tape base

Properly calculated dimensions of the foundation for a house made of timber provide a high margin of safety for the future building. And this determines the safety of its further use.

Marking the site for the foundation

At the initial stage of the construction of a strip foundation for, it will be necessary to mark the construction site, based on the size of the base.

Note! It is necessary to outline the boundaries of the future structure with particular accuracy, since there will be no opportunity to correct errors after the foundation has been erected.

• The fishing line needs to be fixed on the reinforcement;
• Using a level, you should choose a straight line under the foundation zero;
• Installation of cast-off is carried out at a distance of 1 - 1.5 m from the facade of the building;
• First you need to remove the vegetative layer of soil and level the site;

Note! The width of the foundation for a house made of timber is calculated based on the construction of the walls of the building, but not less than the width of the wall, which is increased by 10 cm.

• After marking the perimeter, reinforcement should be driven into the ground;
• Next, you need to check the corners of the foundation and pull the fishing line;
• Then it is worth marking the internal boundaries and partitions of the foundation, keeping in mind its width. The width of the strip foundation for a house made of timber usually ranges from 30-40 cm.

Pit preparation

The standard depth of pouring the foundation of a wooden house is 0.4 m, and the thickness of the sand cushion corresponds to 10-15 cm.

As a result, you should get a pit with a depth of:

• at its lowest point in the region of 0.55 m;
• and at the top - 0.7 m from the surface of the earth.

The bottom level must be leveled according to the level of the horizon.

If we multiply the total length of the pit by the arithmetic mean of the depth, we get the cubic capacity of earthworks. This will also include the value obtained by multiplying the height of the sand cushion by its thickness.

sand cushion

In order to reduce the load on the foundation under the log house during seasonal heaving of the soil, a sand cushion is used. Its upper part will need to be well tamped, leveled with a level.

Advice! By multiplying the length of the trench by its width and the thickness of the pillow, you can understand how much sand is required. However, it is not worthwhile to calculate this parameter end-to-end; during construction work, sand is always useful.

We build formwork

Formwork is a removable or permanent structure that will give the concrete its shape:

• With the help of self-tapping screws, the end parts of the shields are assembled. This technology makes it possible to prevent loose fitting of structural elements, and the penetration of the solution into the gaps between them;
• After the shields are assembled, they need to be strengthened with struts;

• It is also important to fix the roofing material on the inner walls of the formwork with your own hands. This is done so that the liquid part of the concrete solution is not absorbed into the boards, and the outer walls of the foundation remain even.

Reinforcement

Reinforcement is intended to strengthen the strip foundation. However, only one with a cross section of more than 12 mm is suitable. Due to its presence, its service life is significantly increased.

The instruction says that the reinforcement should be placed at a distance of 3-5 cm from each edge of the foundation:

• To each of the lower rods, using a knitting wire, jumpers are fixed at a distance of 40 cm;
• Further, vertical rods are attached to the corners of the resulting cells;
• Both the upper and middle rows of horizontal rods are processed in the same way.

Pouring concrete

It is required to independently prepare a concrete solution:

Advice! The brand of cement is chosen based on weather conditions and the characteristics of the construction site.

1. To do this, take three parts of sand, three parts of crushed stone and one part of cement;

In our area, it so happened historically that for a long time it has been the main building material for the construction of residential buildings. And the point is not only that the country is rich in forests - just in the climatic conditions characteristic of most of the territory of Russia, it was wood that was the optimal material for building the warmest houses. Add here the ease of processing, accessibility - and everything will fall into place.

Today, wooden construction, one might say, is experiencing a rebirth, and this is largely due to the emergence of new technologies for processing natural wood. In particular, we are talking about profiled timber - a material that greatly simplifies the quick and high-quality construction of walls.

The popularity of this construction technology is growing, since with the relative lightness of the material itself, the simplicity and speed of installation work, the buildings are extremely durable and comfortable for living. But there is still no escape from the problems of the "zero cycle" - the construction of a foundation for a wooden house must be approached with the same measure of responsibility as for heavier walls.

Therefore, the topic of today's publication will be the question: what foundation to choose for a house from a bar.

What are the principles for choosing the foundation for the house

The choice of the type of foundation for the house depends not only on what material it is planned to build the building from, but also on a number of other parameters that must be taken into account when starting a construction site.

In order for any foundation to turn out to be reliable and durable in the end, its calculation is necessarily based on the characteristics of the soil at the construction site. In particular, the type of soil, the depth of its freezing, the presence and location of groundwater are of decisive importance.

• Soil types

If the matter is approached according to all the rules, then in order to determine the types of soil on the construction site, it is necessary to carry out engineering and geological exploration - by drilling wells and taking soil samples at different depths.

The lack of complete information on the "ground situation" or an estimate "by eye" may well lead to errors in the choice of foundation. Well, this, in turn, is fraught with instability of the foundation, the appearance of deformations of both the foundation itself and the building built on it.

Let's take a closer look at the features of the most common soil types.

Ground appearance	Characteristic features of the soil
	Clay soil is not the best option for laying the foundation, as it is particularly sensitive to external natural influences. So, at low temperatures, freezing, it swells, drying out in hot weather - shrinks, during seasonal rains - noticeably swells. These processes are explained by the structure of the soil, which consists of small scaly particles, between which a large number of capillaries form. Through these channels, moisture easily penetrates into the clay and also easily evaporates at high temperatures. When wet, the consistency of the clay becomes viscous. The moisture in the clay at low temperatures freezes, which increases the volume of the soil, provoking the heaving process. In turn, clay soil is subdivided into slightly swelling, medium swelling and strongly swelling, so the bearing capacity of this soil mainly depends on the degree of its moisture. Clay in the dry state is able to withstand fairly large loads, while in the wet state its bearing capacity is rapidly decreasing. If the site for the house has a predominance of clay soil, then any type of foundation and for any house will need to be laid below the depth of its freezing.
	Loamy soil is often not separated from clay, although it differs from it by a somewhat greater bearing capacity, the value of which is between clay and sand. Loams are called soils containing 10 ÷ 30% clay, if it is less, then the soil is referred to as sandy loam.
	Sandy soils are those that contain about 50% sand. They are non-plastic and loose. Sand layers do not retain moisture, therefore they practically do not freeze, which means that the heaving process is almost completely excluded. Moistened sand lends itself well to compaction, therefore, being in compacted layers, it is able to withstand very high loads. If there is such soil on the site, you can choose any foundation for installation under a cobbled house, including the most economical options: shallow tape or columnar. Sandy soil is subdivided according to moisture into low-moisture, moist and saturated with water, as well as according to the size of the fractions - it is dusty, fine, medium, coarse and gravelly sand. The larger and cleaner the sandy component of such soil, the less impurities it contains, the greater the load it can withstand.
	Sandy soils, consisting of sand and clay, as well as other inclusions, absorb moisture well, liquefy easily, and in this state are called "quicksands". This type of soil has a low bearing capacity and is not very well suited for arranging a foundation. Therefore, if this soil turned out to be on the site for building a house, you will have to take measures to strengthen the foundation, choosing combined schemes - for example, a combination of tape with bored piles.
	Rocky soil is metamorphic, volcanic and sedimentary rocks, compacted into a continuous or fractured massif. This type of soil is a reliable foundation for any foundation, since the rocks do not sag, swell or erode. moreover, the rocky soil is so strong that it is possible to build foundations on it without deepening them.
	Coarse-clastic soil, unlike rocky soil, is stones of different sizes that are not interconnected into a single structure and consist of gravel veins and fragments of sedimentary and crystalline rocks. Coarse clastic soils are subdivided, depending on the parameters of the prevailing elements, into block or boulder, gravel or pebble, as well as into various subtypes. Coarse clastic soils are also divided according to the moisture coefficient - these are low-moisture, wet and highly saturated with water. If this type of soil turned out to be at the construction site, then it is recommended to deepen the foundation by no more than 500 mm.
	Peatlands are soils that include a large amount of organic deposits. According to the concentration of organic matter contained in them, it is divided into slightly peaty, medium peat, strongly peat, as well as, in fact, peat, consisting of more than half of plant deposits. This soil is characterized by uneven compaction and strong moisture, therefore it is not suitable for the construction of most foundations. If you have to build a house on a site with such soil, then only the foundation of screw piles is suitable, which are screwed through the layers of peat to soil layers with normal bearing capacity.
	Cartilaginous soil is a mixture consisting of clay, sand with a large number of inclusions of fine gravel and pebbles. Such soil is resistant to moisture and is able to withstand heavy loads, which suggests that any type of foundation for a house made of timber can be installed on it.

Each of the soils has its own indicators of specific load resistance - these indicators are taken as the initial ones when calculating the foundations, and tables with values ​​\u200b\u200bare easy to find on the Internet if necessary.

• Presence of closely spaced groundwater

In addition to the characteristics of the soil itself, ground and surface waters have a strong influence on the strength of the foundation.

Surface water includes atmospheric precipitation, moisture formed during the melting of snow, and also included in the composition of silty and swampy soils. Groundwater, on the other hand, can be located at different depths, between different layers of soil, and have the most direct impact on its bearing capacity.

In the case when groundwater lies deep and does not rise close to the surface, they do not pose a danger to the foundation. If the aquifers are close to the surface of the earth, then it is better to choose a pile-screw foundation, the screw tips of the piles of which are screwed into the bearing layers of the soil below the location of the perch.

The depth of the location of groundwater is revealed in the course of engineering and geological studies of the site. You can generally present the picture on your own if there are wells or water-bearing wells located in neighboring areas.

The close location of groundwater often makes the foundation installed on such a site unreliable. The earth oversaturated with moisture sharply increases in volume when it freezes, it swells, which leads to an unpredictable redistribution of loads. The result of this can be deformation or even destruction of an incorrectly chosen foundation, which, of course, will affect the integrity of the entire building.

Foundation types

The foundation is the basis of any structure, which can have a different design and be made of different materials. Therefore, a few words should be said about the criteria by which the foundations are subdivided.

So, in modern construction, foundations are divided according to the following parameters.

• By design:

Strip foundation

The tape version of the foundation is perfect as the basis for a house made of timber, especially in cases where it is planned to equip a basement or basement under the building.

Bar prices

With the correct calculation of all parameters and compliance with the construction technology, the strip foundation has a large number of advantages, which include:

• The durability of the base, its reliability and strength.
• Unlike a slab foundation, a strip foundation has a less massive structure, which allows it to be built on its own, with the involvement of a small number of assistants. This factor significantly reduces the cost of building a house.
• The possibility of arranging a full basement.
• The strip foundation is universal and suitable for building houses from any materials - the difference will be only in the width of the strip and the depth of its laying. So, for a house made of timber, due to its relatively small mass, a shallow strip foundation is perfect, of course, if the construction site has soil suitable for its characteristics. In such a combination of favorable initial conditions, the construction of the foundation will cost many times cheaper.

The disadvantages of the tape base include the high cost and a large amount of excavation at deep, below the level of soil freezing, laying. Other negative characteristics of this type of foundation, perhaps, can not be remembered.

The creation of a strip foundation is also carried out in several stages:

• Necessary calculations are carried out without fail.
• Marking is carried out at the construction site, according to the developed project.
• According to the marked lines of the load-bearing external walls and capital internal partitions, taking into account the characteristics of the soil and the thickness of the formwork, trenches are dug for arranging a concrete belt.
• Further, the bottom of the trenches is compacted, and sand is covered with a thorough tamping. On top of the sand, crushed stone of the middle fraction is backfilled, and, as far as possible, it is also carefully compacted.
• The next step is to lay a waterproofing material, which should cover not only the bottom of the trench, but also its walls, leaving a margin for entering the formwork walls.

• The formwork is mounted, while the waterproofing material must be inside the trench. After the formwork is built, a waterproofing film is spread on its walls.
• Further, a reinforcing cage is mounted (knitted with a wire) from the reinforcement.
• In the finished formwork, preferably in one step, a concrete solution is poured. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that no air pockets remain inside the poured concrete. Concrete is evenly distributed and leveled at a given height of the future foundation tape.
• The strip foundation must grab well and gain strength - for this, redistributed measures are taken to care for freshly poured concrete. After about a month, you can proceed to further construction operations.

Secrets of building a strip foundation

The stages listed above are only "milestones" of very large-scale work. With all the necessary details, from preliminary calculations to practical methods - get acquainted in a special publication of our portal.

Foundation TISE

This is a combined version of the foundation, which includes pillars and a reinforced concrete belt. The design is suitable for a house built from different materials - it is timber, logs, foam blocks, bricks and more, on most types of soil, including those with poor bearing characteristics.

TISE foundation elements perfectly complement each other and make the foundation strong and reliable, which ensures a long service life of buildings.

This type of foundation, as well as pile options, is perfect for installation in areas with some differences in surface level, since with the help of installed pillars it is possible to bring the concrete grillage belt into one horizontal plane.

The construction of such a foundation includes the following stages of work:

• The first, of course, is the preparation of a foundation project based on objective data from engineering and geological studies of the soil, the location of groundwater and the depth of soil freezing.
• Further, in accordance with the project, the marking of the construction site is carried out.

• The next step at the marked points with the help of a special TISE drill is drilling wells for installing pipes.
• After that, also along the perimeter of the future structure, a trench is prepared or formwork is mounted under the tape part of the foundation (under the grillage connecting the future piles).
• In wells, before installing pipes, the bottom is covered with a sand cushion, which is spilled with water and compacted, a layer of crushed stone is poured on top of it, and then a concrete solution is poured.
• Asbestos-concrete pipes are installed in the solution at the bottom of the well. Their diameter is usually 200÷250 mm.
• Reinforcing cages are inserted inside the pipes, which should protrude above the top of the pipes to the height of the tape part of the foundation.
• The next step is to pour concrete mortar into the pipes.
• Further, the formwork for the concrete strip is finally mounted, then its own reinforcing cage is installed in it, which is linked to the protruding frames of their piles. The final pouring of the foundation with concrete.
• When arranging such a foundation on uneven terrain, in some places the piles can rise above the ground surface. In this case, it will be necessary to make a reliable bottom in the formwork for a concrete belt belt.

This combined type of foundation is suitable even for areas with clay soil saturated with water, which is a great advantage for such a design. However, if you have to install this foundation on clay soils, then you should not deepen its tape part too much, otherwise the piles may be pushed out when the soil freezes.

Although the construction of this foundation is much more complicated than the pile and tape options, it has a lot of supporters, since in some cases it is the only possible structure for a particular building at a particular construction site.

A summary on the topic of our article is an excellent solution for a house made of timber, if construction is supposed to be carried out on difficult ground, but you do not want to give up all the advantages of a strip foundation.

Column Foundation

Another commonly used base that is suitable for building a house from a bar on it is a columnar foundation.

Prices for sand and gravel

This type of foundation is constructed from bricks, concrete blocks or asbestos-cement pipes filled with concrete mortar. Another option for creating pillars is to install formwork, which is poured with concrete. Sometimes combined supports are installed, that is, the lower part of the column is made of concrete, and the above-ground part is laid out of brick or concrete blocks.

Again, before choosing this type of foundation, you need to pay attention to the characteristics of the soil on the site - on unstable soils, the use of such a foundation is out of the question.

Brick support posts are more suitable for light buildings, such as summer cottages, sheds, gazebos, etc. For residential buildings, it is recommended to choose more reliable support options that are buried below the freezing level of the soil.

A foundation consisting of asbestos-cement buried pipes filled with concrete, or the so-called bored piles, is more suitable for a residential building.

Making them yourself is quite easy, since the design is simple.

• According to the markings applied to the construction site, according to the developed project, wells are drilled below the freezing depth of the soil.
• Then, a sheet of roofing material rolled into a cylinder is installed over the entire depth of the well, and then straightened along its walls. This material will form a kind of formwork for pouring concrete.
• Further, a frame is knitted from 3 ÷ 4 reinforcement bars and wire, which is installed in the well.
• After that, a concrete solution is poured into the roofing material formwork.

If asbestos-cement pipes are used as formwork, then the foundation will be more reliable. In this case, the work is carried out in the same way as during the installation of the lower part of the TISE foundation.

After the readiness of such supports, they are tied with a strapping of timber - and then you can build walls.

Column foundation - one of the most economical in the construction

A good solution in terms of cost and construction speed, but, alas, it is significantly limited by the state of the soil on the site. If it is decided to choose this particular type of foundation for building a house from a bar, then it is recommended to refer to the article of our portal for more information.

Pile foundations

Piles for this type of foundation are divided into screw and driven. Installation of both one and the other option is carried out mainly with the help of specialized equipment. Screw piles can also be screwed in by hand, but this will require a lot of effort and the involvement of several strong assistants.

The pile foundation is installed according to the design drawing under the entire structure or only under the load-bearing walls of the building.

Driven piles are made of metal pipes or are a reinforced concrete structure with a pointed end.

Such foundations on powerful driven piles are usually installed under large construction projects, and they are almost never used for block or log houses. – it is simply unprofitable.

But pile-screw foundations can be called universal, as they are suitable for most types of soil and for not too massive buildings made of various materials. To such buildings, on a full basis, houses made of timber can also be attributed.

Screw piles are installed quickly enough, and at the same time, large-scale earthworks and removal of the selected soil will not have to be carried out at the construction site. In general, in terms of the speed of erecting a foundation for further construction, no other foundation can be compared with such a foundation - often this is generally a matter of one day!

By the way, it is the pile-screw foundation that causes the greatest amount of disagreement and even heated debate in our time. Apparently, the reason for such "debates" still lies in the fact that often the construction of such a foundation is carried out "by eye", without calculations, using handicraft supports or in violation of technological rules. Naturally, in a year or two, the shortcomings inherent in such a foundation may appear “in all its glory”.

But on the other hand, the practice of construction can “boast” of a huge number of examples when buildings on pile-screw foundations have been successfully operated for many decades, and there is no reason to believe that they will not stand still for as long, if not more.

Who is right in the dispute about the advantages and disadvantages of the pile-screw foundation?

It is necessary to judge by the results - such a foundation can reliably serve for a very long time, but if it is correctly calculated and built in accordance with all the rules. More about, about the features of their design (with the application of calculation calculators) - in a special article of our portal.

In conclusion of the publication, a logical conclusion suggests itself - any foundation can be chosen for a house from a bar, since, from the point of view of bearing capacity, almost any foundation scheme can cope with such a load. It all depends on the condition of the soil on the site, on the planned estimate for construction, on the features of the building project itself.

Some useful tips for choosing a foundation can be gleaned from the video below:

Video: useful tips on choosing the right foundation for a country house