Durability and reliability country house depends on a number of interrelated factors. One of these factors is the right time for carrying out certain work - laying the foundation, erecting walls and roofs, finishing the facade or interior.
What season is the most favorable for starting construction? When is it not necessary to build a house and why? What construction schedule can be considered optimal?
The answers to these questions determine not only the final quality of construction, but also the amount of financial costs that it may require.
We purchase materials - when?
“Prepare a sleigh in summer and a cart in winter” - this folk wisdom perfectly reflects the principle that should be used when purchasing building and finishing materials for your future home. As you know, the peak of construction traditionally occurs in the spring and summer. It causes a seasonal increase in prices for building materials, which reach their maximum by summer.
Therefore, to buy bricks, roofing tiles or parquet board, as well as other materials for building and finishing a house in summer or spring are not worth using. You will waste significant financial resources just due to seasonal markups. It is better to devote this activity to the end of autumn or winter, when prices for building materials are minimal, and sellers offer very serious discounts on almost all products.
Laying the foundation
The first and very important stage in the construction of any country house. The strength of the structure, its operational durability and the level of comfort throughout the house depend on how professionally the foundation work is carried out.
Specialists of the TopDom company, who have more than a dozen country cottages built from scratch, advise:
- if the house design provides ground floor or basement, then you should not start foundation work during the spring flood and rise groundwater. Otherwise, in the future there may be very serious problems with the foundation of the house, its integrity and tightness;
- It is not advisable to fill the foundation in particularly hot weather or during the rainy season. Hardening too quickly can adversely affect the strength characteristics of the foundation, and precipitation can erode the unhardened surface, thereby disrupting its shape;
- finally, when pouring the foundation in late autumn, the first frosts can cause cracking of the structure and, as a result, its rapid destruction.
Thus, the most favorable periods for carrying out foundation work can be considered the end of spring, cool summer months and early autumn. At this time, the foundation will harden under optimal temperature conditions, which will ensure the reliability and durability of the structure.
We build walls
There is no clear answer to the question about the most favorable period for this type of work. It all depends on what kind of material you want to use to build your country house. The properties and characteristics of the selected material will play a major role in determining the success/failure periods for this stage of construction.
If you are planning to use stone, cellular concrete and other similar materials, then work on the construction of walls can begin only after the frost has completely stopped. Low temperatures can destroy the masonry mortar, thereby significantly reducing the strength of the walls of the building. Start laying brick, stone or concrete house best in the spring, completing this stage before the onset of the first frost.
The construction of wooden log houses has its own specifics, which are determined by the seasonal characteristics of the material itself. According to experienced builders, the ideal period for erecting log walls is winter. This is due to the properties that wood acquires during the cold season:
- low humidity;
- high resistance to warping, cracking and various types of deformation;
- absence of fungus, insect pests and, as a result, immunity to biological damage.
Construction in winter gives a whole range of important advantages and allows you to combine drying of logs and shrinkage of the log house. As a result of this combination, the quality of the log is higher, its shrinkage occurs evenly, and the risk of cracks and crevices is minimized.
We install the roof, lay communications
Installation rafter system, erection of the roof and closing of the external contour - all-season work. They can be produced at almost any time of the year. Of course individual species materials can dictate their temperature “conditions,” shifting the construction schedule in one direction or another.
For example, laying bitumen shingles requires exclusively positive temperatures; this type of work cannot be carried out in winter. If its installation occurs during the cold season, the roof can be temporarily covered with inexpensive material. And with the arrival of the warm season, complete the installation of the main roof by laying soft tiles.
Communications
A conversation about when not to build a house would be incomplete if we did not mention the structure utility networks and communications. Earthen and concrete work on laying sewerage should not be carried out in winter - installation of the system at low temperatures may subsequently adversely affect its tightness.
Gas communications cannot be installed until the house is completely settled, because violation of this rule can lead to damage to the gas pipeline and a serious accident.
Regarding internal finishing works, then they can be carried out at any time of the year, provided that positive temperatures are established inside the building.
An example of a project from the architectural bureau TopDom
We know when and how to build houses!
One of the main advantages of frame housing construction is the speed of construction of frame houses. Frame technology practically does not contain wet processes, which depend on the seasonality of construction and make up a significant part of the time when building houses using classical technology.
The construction time of a frame house, like the construction of any other house, is divided into stages. Most of the stages are carried out sequentially, their summation is the construction period of the building. Reducing each stage in time reduces construction time, as well as parallel implementation of some of them, but with unconditional adherence to construction technology. Compliance with technology is the basis of high quality construction.
In frame house construction, both options are used to reduce construction time and the house construction technology is not violated. This is the peculiarity and advantage of frame technology.
Stages of building a frame house
- Geological and geodetic surveys on the house construction site.
- House design.
- Preparing the site for construction.
- Placing an order and manufacturing frame house structures.
- Making the foundation of a house.
- Installation of house structures and construction under the roof.
- Formation of the external contour of the house - facade, windows and doors.
- Construction of interior partitions and walls.
- Formation of the engineering infrastructure of the house.
- Finishing works – internal and external.
- Connecting and checking the functionality of engineering networks and communications.
- Renting a house.
When individual project For a turnkey Canadian house, all the indicated stages are present during the construction process. When choosing a ready-made standard project, the design time is significantly reduced and only includes the time to link the project to the conditions of the site.
Duration of stages of construction of a frame house
Among the designated construction stages there are stages that are not related to the technology of constructing a frame house. They can be classified as general construction stages inherent in all types of houses. These include the first three points. The duration of these stages depends on the complexity of the object.
As an example, let’s take the construction of an inexpensive frame house according to a standard project with an area of 150 square meters. m. in the company RNR. Below we give an approximate schedule for the construction of a house (the timing may be influenced by factors independent of the company, for example, the customer does not approve the project for a long time).
The construction period of the house was 4 months.
The foundation is installed on screw piles. This is a modern, fast method of arranging foundations, which is no less reliable than monolithic, lower in cost and can be installed at any time of the year.
The construction of a house frame with a roof allows work to be carried out in any bad weather, winter and summer.
The shortest stage is to check the functionality of utility networks and troubleshoot them.
The schedule shows which stages are being executed in parallel - this is the main reserve for shortening the construction cycle. It is the frame with the roof that allows many works to be carried out in parallel, without disturbing the construction technology. In the case of installing a frame-panel house, the construction period of the house is even shorter than with Canadian technology.
A considerable reserve for reducing construction time is provided by the high standards of manufacturing frame house structures in industrial production.
From standard and standard elements, the frame, roof of the house, doors and windows are quickly and accurately assembled and installed.
This reserve for reducing construction time can be realized subject to the professional training of installers for assembling houses. The high quality of work of installers and knowledge of frame house construction technology allow us to build houses faster.
Sometimes the construction period of a house becomes the main criterion for the customer. The solution to this issue in frame housing construction is determined by its price. To speed up construction, the company can use special equipment and increase the number of workers on site. Such a prefabricated house will cost a little more, but will fully preserve the quality of the structure and the comfort of living in it.
First stage. Preparatory stage in the case of building a house is no less important than the construction itself. It is necessary to prepare a house project, taking into account technical aspects. For example, will it be a standard house, or will some amendments be necessary, or will it be a completely individual architectural solution. Depending on this, planning takes from several hours to a week.
Second phase. Installation of the foundation. As mentioned earlier, the foundation cannot be laid in cold weather. Therefore, when planning construction, it is important to choose the right start time for laying. The actual length of the work directly depends on the type of foundation - its length, the need for construction equipment for installation, and the amount of concrete. For example columnar foundation Installs the fastest, while tile takes longer. The hardening time of the concrete is also taken into account.
Third stage. Actually, the construction of the house itself. Here it is also necessary to take into account what time of year the house is being built. For example in the case wooden houses construction is carried out in the spring and summer. When ordering a frame house in construction company, the “box” is delivered disassembled, with all ready-made elements already present, including windows and doors. It is thanks to this that the construction of frame houses is one of the fastest.
Fourth stage. Interior decoration of the house. During construction, all necessary communications are carried out, windows and doors are installed, and rough cladding of walls and floors is done. After this, the house needs to be “filled” with fine finishing - this is where your imagination comes into force. But again, depending on the complexity of the finishing and materials, the construction period may be significantly delayed.
Construction time
The time during which a building structure must be built is called construction time. It consists of periods of time for performing individual construction work. It is necessary to take into account that various individual works may coincide with each other in time. At the same time they talk about intersections. So, for example, you can already begin installing the floor formwork above the basement when only part of the basement walls have been erected. Also, reinforcement can be carried out even before the completion of formwork. The process over time can be calculated and represented graphically.
Determination of construction time
Construction time depends on the construction work being carried out. To calculate it, the construction structure is divided into construction sections and construction segments. In this case, the required time and production time are called, and the intersections of work are also determined. To do this, in the LIST OF WORK, items are divided into steps for manufacturing or construction and the time requirement for these works is determined. It contains data on CONSTRUCTION WORK (volumes) and COSTS (time spent per unit of volume). This gives the required number of hours of work. Based on the number of hours of work per day and the number of available workers, the time required to construct a given structure or carry out a given work is determined.
Construction time is obtained when the individual terms of construction or production of certain works are added together and the corresponding intersections are subtracted from them. Given the duration of construction specified in the contract, it can be achieved by extending daily working hours or by attracting more
workers.
Construction time representation
BEAM PLAN is used most often. This depiction of the construction process is called a beam plan because individual periods of construction time in a time sequence are represented in the form of beams of a certain length. With this graphical representation, periods of time in days or weeks are depicted by horizontal beams, and segments of building construction by construction work are located vertically one below the other.
If work periods for one floor are combined, for example, concreting and laying the walls of the lower floor and formwork work, reinforcement work and concreting the massive floor above the lower floor, then all of them together take a construction time of 14 working days. If individual partial work processes are combined into one beam, then the length of the beam represents the construction time of the lower floor. If all construction sections are presented in one beam plan, then the entire construction process can be traced from it.
For a NETWORK PLAN, each individual work segment must be defined and brought into temporal relationship with other work segments, for example, by using the earliest possible and latest possible start and finish of work on the work segment. Using the relative position of those construction segments that determine the completion date of construction, a “critical path” can be represented. The network diagram is drawn up using a computer, and each individual segment can be called up from the general plan, for example, stone work on the second upper floor. Computer technology allows for quick adjustments to the construction process in the event of various unforeseen disturbances, for example those caused by unfavorable weather conditions.
Time is money, and no one argues with this. The faster the house is built, the less money will be spent both on renting housing for the owners, and on maintaining hired workers, and on gasoline to travel and check the quality of work. In the age of high speeds, no one is ready to wait for years for the opportunity to move into their home, and the market offers a large number of options for prefabricated houses. So let's figure out how long it takes low-rise construction Nowadays.
What affects the construction period
For some, it takes three years or even more to build a home, while for others it takes only one season. They say that the time it takes to build a house depends on its size and on whether the owner has all the necessary money, and we agree with this. Saving is not easy, and taking out a loan is scary, especially when there is a threat of being fired from your job, so they build a house based on the funds available. This construction option is the longest and most expensive, because, in addition to stopping the work itself, the unfinished house must be preserved, for example, during the winter or rainy season, which requires additional costs. But let’s leave these subtleties aside for now and try to figure out how long it takes to build a house, assuming that there are no financial problems.
Video description
An example of the implementation of a frame house project of 120 m2 in 3 months, see the video:
It should be borne in mind that this largely depends on the construction technology or building material. For example, the time to build a house from timber will be less than building from brick or blocks, but longer than when choosing SIP panels for construction. It is the technologies and materials that impose their limitations on the time of shrinkage or final drying, on the choice of the best time for construction, on the type of foundation and on how much money is needed to build a house. Let's look at some of the most popular technologies.
Selected technology
How long does it take to build a house, depending on the construction technology and building materials used:
| Construction technology or construction material |
Construction time | Shrinkage time | Shrinkage | Type foundation |
Is it possible build in winter? |
Price |
| Glued laminated timber | 2-3 months | No | 1-2% | easy | Yes | high |
| Double beam | 1-2 months | 1 month | 1-2% | easy | Yes | average |
| Profiled timber |
1-2 months | 6 months | 3,5-10% | easy | Yes | below average |
| Handmade log felling |
3-4 months | 6 months | 10-12% | easy | Yes | Very high |
| Rounded log |
2-3 weeks | 6 months | 6-12% | easy | Yes | average |
| SIP panels | 1 Week | No | No | lightweight | Yes | small |
| Frame houses | 1-3 months | No | 1-2% | lightweight | Yes | small |
| LSTK | 24 weeks | No | No | lightweight | Yes | average |
| Modular houses | 2-4 days | No | No | lightweight | Yes | average |
| Arbolit | 2-3 months | No | No | lightweight | No | average |
| Reinforced concrete blocks |
1 Week | No | No | heavy | Yes | average |
| Brick | 4-5 months | 3-10 days | No | heavy | No | high |
| Aerated concrete blocks | 2-3 months | No | No | heavy | No | average |
Foundation
Explanations about foundation types:
- easy– shallow-depth strip (a concrete strip buried thirty centimeters into the ground, running along the perimeter of the building and under its load-bearing walls);
- lightweight– columnar, pile (made in the form of pillars or piles driven into the ground, united on top by an iron or concrete frame) or shallow-buried strip;
- heavy– deeply buried foundation (a foundation that is laid at a depth below the level of soil freezing in winter).
Original "chalet" type building
Note that if, for example, brick house a heavy foundation is required, while a frame one requires a lightweight one; this does not mean that the owner does not have the right to choose a light or even a heavy foundation for a frame structure - it all depends on his desire. But when arranging a heavy foundation, you should remember that it gains 100% strength only on the 28th day, and this is at a temperature of about 200 ° C and a relative humidity of 90–100%.
Individual elements of the house
It takes about a month to erect a roof, another month to install windows and install communications, and 4–5 months to finish the inside and outside of the house. The overall work time can be reduced if several things are done at the same time, for example, building a roof and installing communications. Some wall construction technologies, such as the use of rounded logs or laminated veneer lumber, require neither interior nor exterior finishing, and this also saves time.
House with original facade
What else can affect the construction time of a house?
However, it is worth keeping in mind that the table indicates how much it will take to build a house under ideal conditions, but life can make its own adjustments to the building construction process, and the most common of them:
- Delays in approval of projects for buildings, gas, and electricity.
- Delay in supplies of building materials - this happens especially often during peak construction season; a rise in the price of building materials - this can increase costs and, if the budget was drawn up back to back, stop the construction process altogether.
- Insufficient efficiency of the performers' work - then the end of one process may overlap with the beginning of the next: for example, one team has not yet completed the walls, and another has already arrived to install the roof.
- Late delivery of special equipment, such as an excavator or truck crane.
How to speed up the construction process
And finally, I would like to say that What you can do to speed up the construction process:
- think over and calculate the work schedule and budget in advance;
- approve all necessary communications projects;
- use standard project– the house is built faster according to the proven scheme;
- choose technologies that do not require long-term shrinkage;
- enter into an agreement with a well-established construction company in the market.
Video description
Another educational video:
Conclusion
Of course, construction is a complex process, and it is almost impossible to foresee everything, however, if you thoroughly prepare for the construction of a country house, then the house can be built in a minimum amount of time.