We are building a house in the country on a budget. Country house (simple and inexpensive): what type and design to choose, construction, nuances. What to build the walls of a house from and using what technology

In fact, it doesn’t matter at all whether you are building a house yourself or want to entrust this matter to professional builders, it is important to know the sequence of actions that will lead to a clear plan.

Thanks to this, it is possible to develop a plan of action. Start collecting funds for each stage of construction and plan your time and construction work. When starting the construction of a room, know that this is a labor-intensive and lengthy process that must be taken with great responsibility, because any home is someone’s hearth and comfort.

This article will perfectly help you understand this issue and develop an action plan, thanks to which everything will become clear and fall into place.

It is very important to follow the order of the stages, because the reliability of the design depends on it. Before you start construction, ask yourself what exactly are we building - a small house, a large one, a cottage? That is, understand the dimensions, as well as the material of manufacture.

The house can be:

• Brick
• Wood
• Cement-block.

We lay the foundation at the first stage from scratch

From the very beginning, you need to choose the place where the future structure will be located. Next, you need to check at what level the ground water is; if it is higher than the standard level, then it is better to abandon construction in the lowland.

But building a house on hills is not the best option, because the building will be subject to strong winds and will lose reliability over time. A site on flat terrain is the best option.

The type of foundation will depend on the weight of the building, how many floors, what the ground water level is, and the type of soil.

If the house has several floors, and even uses heavy materials such as reinforced concrete blocks, bricks, then it is necessary to pour a solid foundation, for example, strip or slab. If you are building a house on stilts, you must also use such a foundation.

Be sure to read

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A shallow and columnar foundation is suitable for houses that have a panel or frame type, the height of which is up to one and a half floors. The choice of foundation plays a huge role when it comes to soil type.

So, on peat soils you can use the pile type, because it can withstand even a heavy structure, even in a place where the ground water level is high. The entire mass of the piles rests on the dense part of the soil, thanks to which the house stands securely.

We build walls, floor and roof

Many people wonder how to build a roof for a house. Only this is practically the very last stage after the floor and walls are installed.

Building the floor: this is done after the concrete dries. You need to start by laying out a horizontal beam that has a large diameter. The bars need to be connected to each other. Beams in the form of floor joists are also nailed across.

The main thing here is to carry out step-by-step actions. So, after laying the beams, you need to lay the floor, first the rough is laid, waterproofing is placed on top, and after that the floor board is laid.

Next, walls are built from the material you have chosen. If a house is built using beams, they are laid one on one; a panel structure requires the presence of a frame. Only after this the roof is put on. Usually a lattice of boards is built here, then waterproofing is placed on top, and only the laying out of the main material begins on top.

Living in your own home has many more advantages than even the most luxurious apartment. A private home is a place where you are free to do whatever you want. Here you will not be disturbed by noisy neighbors who want to do repairs early in the morning or late at night. Here you do not run the risk of being flooded or experiencing the inconvenience that apartment residents face. Many people are accustomed to believing that buying a plot of land, much less building a house on it, costs fabulous money. However, with the development of modern technologies in construction, the cheapest technology for building a house has become several times more accessible. Now we will look at the main question: where to start, and most importantly, what to build the cheapest house from?

Preparatory stage

The first point that needs to be determined initially is the functionality of the house. What is it for?

If this is a country cottage for seasonal living, then only materials are needed,

if this is a full-fledged home for permanent residence, then completely different.

To decide what kind of house will be, you should thoroughly study the climate and weather conditions of the region where construction is planned. After all, the choice of building materials directly depends on the temperature conditions throughout the year. For regular living, a house must be constantly heated during the cold season, which entails certain financial costs. Therefore, when choosing a material for a building, you should be guided by thermophysical properties: thermal conductivity and heat capacity, as well as shrinkage.

Each climatic region has its own temperature regime, wind speed and protection class based on the level of heat-protective properties. Therefore, when choosing a material and calculating the thickness of the walls, you need to be guided by two main parameters: the coefficient of thermal resistance and thermal conductivity.

For each region, its own specially calculated thermal resistance index of the CTS is used. In order to obtain clarity about the upcoming heating costs, it is necessary to calculate the CTC of the future design. To do this, the width (δ) of the wall is divided by the thermal conductivity coefficient (λ), which is indicated in the technical characteristics of the building material R = δ / λ. The calculated value of heat transfer resistance must correspond to the standard value.

As an example, consider the use of cellular concrete, which has a thermal conductivity coefficient of 0.12 W/m* ºС. Let's take a block 0.3 meters thick and calculate: R = 0.3/ 0.12 = 2.5 W/m2 * ºС. This figure is below the norm and is only suitable for construction in the southern regions of Russia. A block 0.4 meters wide gives a heat transfer resistance of 0.4/0.12 = 3.3 W/m2 * ºС, which is slightly higher than the standard value and can be used in the construction of buildings in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The calculation is relevant only when laying blocks on glue.

The wall thickness corresponding to the best generally accepted standards in terms of energy efficiency can be determined using the same formula, where it will be equal to the product of the heat transfer resistance value and the thermal conductivity coefficient δ = λ x R.

It follows from this that in order to obtain the standard value of resistance λ = 3.2, the thickness of a wall made of solid coniferous wood (pine, spruce) will be equal to 0.18 x 3.2 = 0.576 m, of brick 0.81 x 3.2 = 2.592 m, and from concrete 2.04 x 3.2 = 6.528 m. At the same time, mineral wool insulation with a thickness of 140-150 mm corresponds to the standard: 0.045 x 3.2 = 0.14 m.

Therefore, when choosing a material and determining the thickness of the structure, heat transfer resistance and thermal conductivity should be taken into account.

Coefficient of thermal conductivity,

specific heat

and the change in linear dimensions is different for each material.

In addition, when choosing materials for building an inexpensive house, you need to study the market for building materials typical for a given region. Delivery of materials, as a rule, takes up a significant share of their cost.

Now you need to decide on the size of your future home. For example, do you want to build a one-story house inexpensively or will the house have more floors? What will be the area of ​​the house in relation to the area of ​​your plot?
You can calculate the area of ​​your plot online.

Windows of standard sizes;

Practical layout without frills;

Simple roof;

Available building materials;

Flat small fireplace;

You should also take into account one important nuance: if you have a small plot of land, you can choose a simple project for a two-story house. This solution will be much cheaper than building a one-story large house.

The cost of a future home is determined by three components, on each of which you can save:

• the architectural layout is compact, maximum functionality and comfort and allows you to achieve 20% savings;
• a simple design solution should be rational and not contain any architectural excesses and will provide another 10% savings;
• modern materials make it possible to use the latest technologies in construction, allowing you to do the work yourself or with the involvement of a minimum amount of outside labor, which guarantees up to 40% savings in the final result.

The optimal solution for a family of 2-3 people is housing consisting of three rooms with a total area of ​​approximately 50 m2. A suitable option would be a 6x9 house, including: two bedrooms, a living room in the form of a studio with a kitchen, a combined bathroom and toilet and a small hallway.
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Layout: maximum functionality and comfort

The main principle of space planning is to extract maximum benefit from every square meter of space. In our case, this is the ratio of total and usable space. This house, consisting of three rooms with a total area of ​​54 m2, will fully satisfy your needs for modern housing. Moreover, the ratio of total and usable area (52 m2) is 96.3%.

But over time, you will want to increase its area. This structure is most suitable for transformation. It can be expanded in width and height.

Second option

Important! The construction of the second floor must be thought out in advance in order to lay the appropriate foundation.

Third option, first floor

Third option, second floor

Exterior view of the house, economy option

Exterior of the house after expansion

The key to savings: simplicity of design

Designs should also be approached as simply as possible, without additional frills. When building economically, there are a number of points that need to be taken into account:

• The selected house width of 6 m will allow you to install floor slabs without difficulty. The standard size will not require the construction of an additional load-bearing wall.
• Combining the dining room, kitchen and living room into a modern living room, according to European standards, will save on the absence of walls and doors.
• A sufficient width of the walls will be 30 cm, and heat resistance can be achieved due to the thickness of the layer of thermal insulation material when cladding the house. In this case, the width of the base is reduced to 25 cm.
• It is advisable to make the walls in the house from plasterboard; they do not require a foundation and are easy to install.
• The roof is made gable, without unnecessary frills - this is the most cost-effective design.

Building a cheap house with your own hands is the most economical option

Approximately half of the construction costs are fees for performing the work. When building a cheap house, it is more advisable to do the maximum amount of work with your own hands, without the involvement of hired workers.

Why do you need to purchase only modern material? Its installation technologies are designed for the average person, so construction will not require professional skills from you and will provide an opportunity to save money. One assistant can be recruited as labor. If you do not have free time to build a house with your own hands, hire a team of two people with appropriate qualifications, retaining control over the work.

Another option is to build according to standard designs. Here you do not need to participate in construction; it is enough to accept the finished house into operation, be sure to draw up an acceptance certificate for the work performed, specifying the developer’s warranty obligations.
This 6x9 house is a great version of a two story conversion.

Reviews and disputes: which cheap house is better?

To explain which cheap house is better, we suggest you read the comments we collected from various forums:

Alexander V.

I want to talk about building a cheap house. Moreover, I will touch upon not only the monetary side of the issue, but also the labor-intensive one. We buy modern materials, preferably from a construction hypermarket, where prices are much cheaper. We discard ideas about buildings made from scrap materials (clay, straw, wild stone) as untenable. In the 21st century, we can talk about clay walls and rubble foundations. We're talking about modern housing, not Grandpa Pumpkin's house. We won’t even consider the environmental friendliness of building materials. At the time of the developed world wide web, you can find the most conflicting opinions about any material.
We will not consider hired builders either. This multiplies the estimate by at least two times initially. We carry out the construction ourselves; anyone can do it. The question is the duration of the process.
And so the foundation. When building a house you cannot do without it. The most appropriate and cost-effective is a strip foundation on piles. The task is not difficult. Every 2m we drill piles, the length depends on the soil, and fill in the grillage.
Still, the cheapest construction will be a frame house insulated with mineral wool or expanded polystyrene. Building a house from brick or sides with cement mortar will increase the cost of the estimate, take a lot of time, and as a result we will get a cold structure that requires insulation.

Bogdan S.

I was going to build a 6x9 house. For two months now, I have been working on a personal project and drawing up a construction estimate. I read smart books, participate in forums on all topics of interest, and watch videos. Now I’ve read it and understand that I have everything as you said: a pile foundation, a frame house, a slate roof. Interior finishing: plasterboard, OSB boards and wallpaper. Of course, plus heating and lighting. One thing I can say is that I am not investing in 10 thousand conditional raccoons. A bit more.

Sergey Zh.

I developed a project for a 50 m2 house for a friend of mine. Nothing special, a budget option, but a home for year-round use. The foundation is solid. Wooden frame house insulated with mineral wool. There is a vapor barrier film on the outside, hardboard on the inside. The roof is slate. Quite a warm building, suitable for winter use. The appearance is not very good. Just covered with vapor barrier. You can subsequently cover it with siding. But the budget is the most modest. An acquaintance spent only 4 thousand USD. True, I built it myself, I didn’t even want to hear about any hired crew.

Looking at my house, I am increasingly convinced that it is unlikely that anything can be built cheaper than a frame house. I insulated the walls, rollers, and roof with 15 cm thick mineral wool. In addition, I built an attic floor. My roof is the simplest gable roof, covered with zerolin. The outside was finished with siding, and the inside was covered with OSB and wallpaper. It cost me the pleasure of $9500.

The frame is the cheapest and warmest, but this does not mean that it is free. Everything is relative. Some friends of mine built a house from sibit. They were happy until winter came. They were frozen through the winter, and now they are deciding how to insulate themselves and what it will cost.

Of course, the main costs are building materials, which we will talk about in more detail.

Modern building materials are the cheapest way to build a house

There is enormous competition in the modern building materials market. Therefore, having made a short walk around the main points of purchase, building materials such as a hypermarket, bazaar or warehouse, it will not be difficult to find the most reasonable price. But different materials differ significantly in price.

The author of the article does not pursue the goal of promoting this or that building material, since the site is not engaged in their sale. The main thing is that a person with a limited budget for construction can become the owner of a good and solid home.

Before reading the various house options, pay attention to Compared to other houses, it is cheap to build.

Cheap brick house?

1. Brick.

As many people know, brick is one of the most durable, but also the heaviest materials. Based on this, it has both advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

1. high strength and durability;
2. excellent sound insulation;
3. availability;
4. environmental friendliness.

Flaws:

1. large mass - a solid foundation will be required;
2. insufficient energy saving;
3. difficult to process;
4. long process of building a building.

Modern brick allows you to build a house of any size and design.

Cheap steel structure house

1. Durable steel structures.

Today it is one of the most durable and affordable building materials, which allows you to build reliable structures, houses, etc. in the shortest possible time.

Advantages:

1. affordable price;
2. quick and easy installation;
3. versatility - you can build any structure;
4. Using modern finishing materials you can create a unique exterior.

Flaws:

1. low strength;
2. poor thermal insulation and sound insulation without the presence of additional insulating materials.

Durable steel structures today are becoming increasingly popular in the construction of private houses.

Cheap wooden house - is it true?

1. Log or timber

A modern, stylish house made of logs looks amazing, and its high environmental friendliness, strength and thermal insulation make this building material stand out from others.

Advantages:

1. high strength;
2. environmental friendliness;
3. excellent sound insulation;
4. quick and easy installation;
5. high thermal insulation;
6. easy to process;
7. relatively light weight;
8. amazing appearance.

Flaws:

1. price;
2. the need for additional treatment against pests;
3. fire hazard without special impregnations;
4. low hydraulic stability.

A modern house made of logs or beams is stylish, practical and comfortable.

Favorite: cheap house made of foam concrete

1. Foam concrete is the most profitable material for building a house.

A lightweight building material that surpasses others in its characteristics.

Advantages:

1. quick and easy installation;
2. high load capacity and low weight;
3. high strength over time;
4. excellent sound and heat insulation;
5. light weight;
6. reasonable cost;
7. easy to process;
8. environmental friendliness.

Disadvantages:

1. the first few years after manufacture it has low strength;
2. the porous structure of foam concrete will require additional finishing work;
3. hot in summer.

Foam concrete is the cheapest way to build a house.

We looked at some of the most affordable building materials that can be used to build an inexpensive house. Today they are also widely used: twin blocks, monolith, ceramic stone, etc.

For example, the cost of a one-story frame house with two rooms, a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom will cost 600-700 thousand rubles. Thus, the cheapest frame houses can be built for relatively little money.

We also recommend:

Thoughts about a country or private house probably visit every person. For some, this remains a dream, while others take action. Building a house is a serious step that requires solving many issues both before the start of work and during construction. To cheaply build a house that meets all the requirements, it is necessary to study each stage of construction and identify opportunities for cost savings.

Comfortable living for little money – what’s the most important thing?

Site selection is one of the important stages. Its cost, comfort and much more depend on where the house will be located. For a city dweller, it is important that the place of residence is located in an environmentally friendly place, surrounded by green spaces. A big plus will be the presence of a reservoir. These conditions are important for health and aesthetic pleasure. Infrastructure and communications are important for a comfortable stay. The price of a house includes not only the costs of its construction, but also further maintenance during operation. This implies the importance of the availability of transport, the proximity of central communications to which you can connect.

The cost of construction is greatly influenced by the terrain and geographical conditions. If the area is uneven, you may have to invest additional money to level it. This also applies to flooded areas, which may require reclamation and drainage work. If groundwater is located close to the surface of the earth, you will have to either abandon the basement or do additional waterproofing. The relief also affects the laying of communications.

In order to spend as little money as possible on building a house, you need a dry and level area.

As for the actual construction of the house, its cost is influenced by the following factors:

• layout and size of the home;
• foundation (depth, material, type);
• material for floors, walls, roofs and other elements;
• Decoration Materials;
• installation of doors and windows;
• insulation;
• communication systems (water supply, sewerage, gas, heating, electrical network).

We begin construction by creating a project. It is at this stage that we calculate the preliminary estimate.

The influence of size and layout on the cost of a house

Choosing the optimal size and a good layout will allow you to build a house inexpensively. It is better to entrust the project to specialists in order to correctly calculate the loads and carry out a cost-effective layout. When developing a project, you should consider how many people will live in it. When designing, you should strive to ensure that the external dimensions of the house are close to square. Thus, with the same area, the perimeter of the walls will be minimal, which means the length of the walls and, accordingly, the foundation will be minimal. This will make it possible to save on building materials.

When choosing a layout, you need to choose a functional option that is convenient for living. Residential and utility rooms should be compactly located in the smallest possible area. The possibility of future redevelopment with minimal losses should also be taken into account. Therefore, internal walls should not be load-bearing or their number should be minimal.

The most economical option for number of storeys is to build a one-story house. You can build a one-story house with your own hands, without resorting to hired force. When constructing a multi-story building, you have to incur additional costs for interfloor ceilings, stairs, and a large number of windows. It is necessary to allocate space for stairs, which reduces the usable area. If you build an attic, you save money on building walls, but increase the cost of installing a roof.

To build a budget house with your own hands, it is better to choose a simple roof design, for example, a gable roof. To save material, the elevation angle should be made small, then less wood will be used for the roofing and its area will be reduced. When choosing a roof of complex design, you will have to spend money on valleys, corners, hatches, attic windows and various tin elements - such a roof will increase the cost of construction by 40%.

The cheapest roof coverings:

• ondulin;
• metal tiles:
• slate;
• soft roofing materials;
• corrugated sheeting

From natural materials you can use straw, reeds, wood. Any roof requires insulation, hydro- and vapor barriers.

How to save on a foundation and have a solid foundation

Up to 30% of the total cost is spent on the foundation. This depends on the depth of the foundation being laid and the materials used. On the one hand, I want to save on the foundation and make it lighter. But it is the foundation of the house and the future operation of the structure depends on it. If the foundation does not meet the load, then uneven shrinkage is possible, cracks may appear on the walls and ceilings, and all this threatens destruction.

If you are planning a basement, then you will not be able to save money on the base, since you will have to make a recessed strip version, which requires a lot of material. When choosing a foundation, you should take into account the characteristics of the soil, wall material, number of storeys, and the future weight of the building with communications and furniture. Cost-effective options include the following:

• shallow-recessed;
• not buried;
• pile;
• columnar;
• columnar grillage.

These types of foundations make it possible to save on materials and labor. If the soil is sandy, clayey or rocky, and there is no water when deepening a meter, then you can build a strip foundation with a depth of about 70-80 cm. If there is water, the depth should exceed a meter. When laying the base, you can save money by preparing the concrete solution yourself. To do this you will need gravel, crushed stone and sand and cement of the required grade. The solution can be mixed manually in a trough or on a metal sheet. Better quality concrete will be obtained by using a concrete mixer, which can be rented.

The width of the foundation is made according to the thickness of the walls. In order for it to last a long time, it should be reinforced and also waterproofed, which will prevent moisture from entering and extend its service life. For waterproofing, you can take the cheapest material - roofing felt. Before laying walls, you need to wait for the foundation to stand and gain strength. It should take at least a month.

What to choose for the walls - timber, logs or shell rock?

The choice of wall material is influenced by local conditions. In a wooded area there is cheap wood. If there are deposits of natural stone nearby, it is cheaper to build from it. This also applies to manufacturing plants - the closer they are, the cheaper the delivery, etc. When choosing wall material, consider the following factors:

• climatic conditions;
• price;
• ease of delivery;
• simplicity and speed of construction;
• need for additional equipment.

When choosing what is cheaper to build a house from, study the thermal insulation qualities of the material. For severe winters, good insulation may be required, which in turn will increase the cost of construction. In this case, sometimes it will be cheaper to buy a more expensive material with a high level of thermal insulation than to incur expenses for insulation. When choosing wooden walls, you need to decide on their design. They can be solid from timber or logs or framed with insulation inside. Building a cheap house with your own hands from timber or timber is quite difficult. To do this, you need to have knowledge and experience in laying logs. It makes sense to build a solid wooden house where wood is cheap.

A more economical option is a frame or frame-panel house. Such houses have become widespread in Canada and the USA. They are lightweight, so you can use inexpensive foundation options for them: pile, shallow or columnar.

Thanks to the insulation, which is placed in the internal space of the frame walls, houses are obtained with good thermal insulation, which makes it possible to save on heating costs. Frame buildings are erected very quickly. For the frame, boards or timber are used, followed by cladding. If the frame option is frightening due to its unreliability, you can build a house from artificial or natural stone materials. But you need to remember that thermal insulation of such a house is possible in three options:

1. 1. Make the walls thick enough, but this is not cheap.
2. 2. Insulate the walls with heat insulator.
3. 3. Use modern building materials with a porous structure: foam concrete, aerated concrete.

The first option turns out to be expensive, since, in addition to the fact that a lot of material is used for the walls, a reliable foundation is needed that will withstand the weight of the stone walls. Which option will be cheaper - made of porous material or stone walls with insulation - must be calculated taking into account the masonry and further external finishing. You can use shell rock for walls. This is a cheap natural material, with it the walls “breathe”. True, door and window openings need to be reinforced with metal corners.

Adobe is one of the cheapest options

One of the cheapest is an adobe house. For the walls, dried blocks consisting of clay and straw are used, which are formed in special shapes. The advantage of an adobe house is that you can make the blocks yourself from inexpensive materials. The speed of construction depends on the size of the blocks. If the element sizes are large, then few blocks will be used. Adobe blocks can be used as insulation in.

Communications – a comfort that can be cheap

Before the floor is installed, it is necessary to lay engineering systems. To build a house cheaply with your own hands, you need to correctly calculate and arrange communication systems:

• water supply;
• sewerage;
• heating.

To save money, it is better to install. The installation of a heated floor will allow you to save on heating costs in the future. To do this, plastic pipes are laid and filled with cement mortar. This way you can heat the whole house. If necessary, a main heating system can be installed. It is important to properly make the ventilation system so that the house is well ventilated to prevent the accumulation of moisture, which can cause the appearance of fungus and mold. Also, there should be no drafts in the house. If you insulate the walls and install the heating and ventilation system correctly, you can build a warm and cozy house.

When installing sewerage and water supply, you need to accurately calculate the amount of material, using the house plan, in order to lay the pipes with maximum benefit. When planning a home, rooms to which sewerage and water supply will need to be connected should be placed close to each other in order to save on pipes. It is better to use plastic pipes. They are easy to install and durable.

If there is a central water supply and sewerage system, this will significantly reduce the cost of installing a water and wastewater system. In their absence, it is necessary to install at least a small septic tank, which can be built from concrete rings or Eurocubes. The cheapest option for obtaining water is in an area with walls made of concrete rings. The second option is more expensive -. Its cost depends on the depth. The owner has the right to choose which water horizon to use. Electricity and gas supply must be done by specialists.

What decoration will make the house beautiful - several options

The cheapest way to finish a facade is siding or decorative plaster. You can cover your home with siding yourself; you do not need to have extensive experience in repair work. There are many color options, which allows you to choose the lamellas to your taste. If you buy high-quality material, then a house finished with siding will last a long time. Using textured plaster, you can choose almost any color of the facade. It is important that the color of the walls of the house is in harmony with the color of the roof. With the right combination of colors, you can ensure that even a small house with a simple shape will look beautiful and attract attention.

Interior finishing includes finishing of walls, ceilings and flooring. After installation of communications, a concrete floor screed should be completed. Choose flooring based on the purpose of the premises. In living rooms it is better to use linoleum or laminate. For rooms with high humidity and in the kitchen, take tiles. It is practical, easy to clean, resistant to moisture and mechanical damage. When installing a heated floor, it will not be so cold.

In order not to spend money on leveling the surface and hiding imperfections, a cheap option would be to install a stretch ceiling made of PVC or fabric. If you take a glossy finish, it will visually expand the space. Matte ceilings do not give reflections and have a deep color. Drywall allows you to create a ceiling of any configuration using halogen light bulbs. You can make a ceiling from plastic panels. A bleached or painted ceiling will be economically beneficial. If you follow the technology, you can make a perfectly smooth white ceiling yourself. To do this, you must first wash, level and prime, and then apply whitewash. A budget-friendly way to update would be to coat it with water-based paint.

To decorate the walls of wooden houses, it is better to use lining; it looks harmonious with wooden structures. When covering with plasterboard, you can save on leveling surfaces and increase sound insulation in living rooms. A cheap way to decorate is painting, but it requires careful preliminary preparation. The cheapest option is wallpapering.

There are more and more people wanting to settle outside the city or in a small town. In megacities it is stuffy, mentally and physically, from the inhaled air and extraneous noise. I would like, if not to move out completely, then to acquire a corner of outdoor recreation. As you know, we do not suffer from excess funds, so the problem arises: how to build a house inexpensively? In a private house you will have to put more effort into housekeeping and maintaining it will cost a little more than paying for utilities for a city apartment of equal size, but a healthy lifestyle is worth it. And if you start at least a small backyard garden with a greenhouse, then, without breaking a sweat, individual housing can be made generally profitable.

Is it cheap and fast?

A private residential building in the budget price segment may well be comfortable, warm, and reliable. And if your hands grow as they should and there is a desire to use them correctly, then you will look respectable, see fig. However, building a house cheaply is not everything. There are already almost 7.5 billion people on Earth and everything is coming. Our “ball” is not rubber, so it would be simply naive to expect that property taxes and land rents will somehow decrease over time.

Consequently, the cheapest house is not necessarily the one whose construction will cost less: when choosing the material for the house (see below), design, etc., you must keep in mind further operating costs. Especially if the construction is carried out on credit, you need to start repaying it immediately. That is, the period from the start of construction to the readiness of the house for occupancy is of great importance: while construction is going on, there will be no time to find additional income, but you have to pay for your previous housing and take out the next loan payment.

The conclusion is obvious: Having planned to build, first of all we figure out how long we will spend until the house is completely ready? This point can be significant even for a fairly experienced builder, if you need to decide whether to build it yourself or entrust some of the construction stages to a conscientious contractor with established production and well-equipped technical equipment. Savings from a reasonable distribution of cash and/or available funds according to the stages of home readiness (see below) for contract and manual work can significantly exceed all other possible items and will certainly make the choice of the main structural material of the house and its foundation - the foundation much easier.

What is a budget house?

We will consider a budget house to be a house whose construction until it is fully ready (see below), but without heating, cooking and plumbing fixtures, will cost 10,000 rubles. for 1 sq. m of total area or less. A house with 100 total square meters in this case will cost up to 1 million rubles. or ok. $18,000 at today's exchange rate (2019). In certain local conditions, it is possible to reduce the cost of construction to 5500-6000 rubles. per square; if you build completely with your own hands, slowly and only for your own; if you have inexpensive previous housing, then it is possible to meet the cost of 4,500 rubles. per square meter, but cheaper is already a fiction, no matter who promises anything. Good contractors for 3000 rubles. You can still find it for a square meter, but it’s turnkey, and it will take at least the same amount to bring the house to full readiness.

Note: The figures given, as well as those further in this article, are averages for the Russian Federation. Here it is appropriate to recall an old joke, which is now reinterpreted in its own way in almost all countries: a nobleman gorges himself on meat, a peasant only has enough for bread. On average, they eat a meat pie for two. So, finally, look at the prices at home - it is impossible to give a complete overview of them in one publication, and the market situation may change the next day after its publication. Here we primarily provide information on how to use technical and organizational measures to build a house cheaply and quickly without compromising its quality.

About the number of floors

The problem of taxes and land rent can be largely solved, firstly, by building a 2-story house, which will save on land payments. Some prejudice against upper floors in individual houses remains from Soviet times, when private construction of more than 1.5 floors was strictly prohibited. There is no point in building a budget 3-story building anymore: the staircase will have to give up too much usable space, and strengthen the walls of the 1st floor, which will greatly complicate, lengthen and increase the cost of the work. And in a 2-story building, the staircase to the 2nd, sleeping floor can lead directly from the living room or hallway/hall.

Secondly, you can also significantly reduce your property tax yourself on a completely legal basis by creating a sleeping mezzanine in the form of a Siberian attic. The diagram of the pediment of a frame residential building with a Siberian attic is given in Fig. on right. Not everyone likes houses with Siberian attics because of the faceted roof, but in fact they are economical and convenient, and in budget construction there is no time for exquisite architectural solutions. For a budget frame house (see below), the Siberian attic is practically the only opportunity to increase its actual number of storeys.

Note: for a house made of foam or gas blocks, there is another non-trivial opportunity to increase its living space without a significant increase in taxation and land rent, see below. This factor may be decisive in regions where 2 or more storey individual construction is prohibited due to natural conditions, for example. in seismically dangerous places or on permafrost.

Stages of home readiness

The stage (stage) of readiness of a residential building for occupancy means a completely completed cycle/complex of construction work, after which the building can wait for the start of the next stage for some definite or indefinitely long time. A technological break between stages is most often necessary for shrinkage of structures from the previous cycle, but sometimes (see below) is unacceptable or possible only in the warm, dry season. Work at the next stage of construction can be carried out either independently or under contract from the same or another contractor, regardless of how the previous one was completed. The stages of bringing a budget residential building to completion are as follows:

• Zero, or zero cycle - the foundation has been laid, has gained at least 75% strength and has given the calculated settlement. This is the most critical, complex and time-consuming stage, at which it most often turns out to be advisable to hire an experienced contracting team. Technical break before next. stage is necessary in any case.
• Box - there are walls with openings for windows and doors, covered with a roof. Load-bearing partitions were also erected inside. Communications have been established, but are currently muted. A mandatory technical break is required only for heavy (brick, stone, concrete) buildings due to their own shrinkage. In budget construction, the box stage as such is most often not highlighted, and for a house made of SIP panels it is completely excluded.
• Turnkey - the doors and windows are in place, the frame is stable. The house can winter up to several times. It is possible that the floors have also been laid, but the communications are not connected, there is no interior finishing or insulation. The favorite bait of overly cunning contractors is “cheapness,” so at this stage you need to especially carefully calculate how much it will cost you to eat while performing the remaining work, as well as their cost, and compare it with the price of bringing the house to full readiness by hired workers.
• Complete - communications are connected, stationary household appliances are in place and ready for use. Interior finishing has been done, but exterior finishing and insulation may not be provided for by the terms of the contract (see below). The kitchen, bathroom and boiler/furnace room are fully equipped, you can cook, wash, start the boiler and heat. All that remains is to bring and arrange furniture, lay carpets, hang curtains, paintings, arrange trinkets, etc., so that you can live in the house without bothering you.

About contractors

A bona fide contractor, firstly, must be properly registered legally - as an individual entrepreneur, LLC, etc.; Accordingly, he must immediately, without a reminder, present to the customer a package of documents confirming state registration. No special licenses are required for ordinary construction work; professional certificates (“credentials”; now cards) of performing workers are sufficient.

Secondly, the customer must be offered a contract on paper. An offer (public standard) or individual, it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that the rights and obligations of the parties must be clearly stated there. Thirdly, the warranty period for this stage (stages) of work and the conditions for compliance with warranty obligations must also be indicated there.

Good contractors on a budget offer a 2-5 year guarantee. Less is not possible due to technical interruptions. In good conscience, it’s also impossible to do more, because... local operating conditions of the building may change for the worse. They can be taken into account (“incorporated” constructively) by using more expensive materials and technical solutions, but this will no longer be budget construction.

About extensions

In popular sources and prospectuses of contractors, you can come across recommendations in your mind, accompanied by preliminary (without reference to location) projects: they say, first we build a 6x9 house very cheaply, and then, as we accumulate funds, add more rooms to it (the original layout allows), until children and grandchildren will not be left with a huge mansion. This approach is fundamentally wrong.

Anyone more or less familiar with construction knows that adding a residential building to an existing one is a complex and not always feasible technical task. First, the old foundation has already completely settled, and the new one will give the calculated shrinkage only under the weight of the supporting structure. That is, the extension cannot be immediately tightly attached to the main structure; you need to wait to see if cracks appear and seal them. In the common RuNet, it is difficult to find publicly available information about extensions to existing buildings; You can look for a small but sensible book by Dr. tech. sciences Ferenc Sägi “How to avoid mistakes when building an individual house.” There was a Russian translation, M., Stroyizdat, 1987. It’s funny - this little book then cost 90 kopecks. Soviet

Third, even if the house is made of rubber on a gimbal, it is unacceptable to allow it to sway and sway in time with the seasonal movements of the soil from year to year. Under a house built on a correctly chosen and laid foundation, a kind of virtual (invisible) warm “pit” is formed, in which it is never below zero; the blind area around the house expands it to the sides. An extension to a house can disrupt the established thermal balance of the load-bearing soil, which can lead to accidents in the main building. Therefore, conscientious contractors set one of the guarantee conditions - no extensions not agreed with them.

Garage in the house, or the role of layout

One of the ways to get an inexpensive house for permanent residence relative to available living space is to build a house on a common foundation with a garage. Perhaps this is only for houses made of non-combustible materials; regarding the budget ones - foam and gas blocks, otherwise the firefighters will not allow the project to be approved or the squatter construction to be legalized.

However, simply attaching a garage to the house, as on the left in the figure, does not make much sense; it will do almost nothing to save costs on the construction and further maintenance of the house. It is necessary to introduce a garage of a standard size of 4X7 m inside into the structural scheme of the house, taking into account the following:

1. there is no need to put a garage on a plinth, because then you will have to build an access ramp to it;
2. the ceiling height in the garage is permissible 2.5 and even 2.2 m, less is simply not possible;
3. It is highly desirable to have an entrance to the garage from the house, but then it is only permissible from the hallway/hall and should have a steam-tight fire-resistant door.

In this case, the garage floor slab will serve as the floor of a one and a half floor, less taxable, but quite spacious. For an example of this type of layout, see the right in Fig. The space utilization rate there is not so great, but there are a lot of amenities:

• A one-and-a-half superstructure is not an extension; no special measures are required for its construction on an existing, established building, i.e. You can build on the garage later, as your family grows.
• The staircase to the one and a half floor is low and fits into the existing hall without any difficulties.
• Heating a garage can also be done without problems, and economically, because... it is slightly heated from the hall and kitchen.
• In the lobby of the 1.5th floor, a pressure tank of an autonomous water supply is perfectly located under the ceiling; You can also move the dressing room there, increasing the area of ​​the living room and bathroom.
• Since the bedroom floor is heated to some extent, in turn, from the garage, it can be done with a French window even in a fairly harsh climate.
• One wall of the basement is shared with the garage. Communications are, of course, in the basement. That is, a sewer riser can go from the bedroom to the basement, to which a washbasin, shower and even a jacuzzi are connected upstairs.
• Access to the basement is also internal, through a hatch in the hall or from the garage.

Agree, a house for 4-5 people with a separate dressing room, a living room of more than 25 square meters and a French bedroom, which also has a hydromassage - this is really cool. And the total area on earth is much less than 180 square meters. m, from which increased taxation begins. Even if in your state the basic area norm is 150-160 square meters. m, the tax authorities will still have to register the house as budget.

Foundation and soil

When choosing the foundation of a house or checking the option proposed by a contractor, you need to take into account the geology and soil mechanics of the construction site. The soil mobility factors that most affect the cost of a house foundation are:

1. Load bearing capacity.
2. Degree of heaving (amount of frost heaving).
3. Standard freezing depth (NFD).
4. The highest height of groundwater.

Load-bearing capacity and heaving

Massive, low-cost development is possible on non-heaving and slightly heaving soil with a bearing capacity of up to 0.7 kg/sq.m. cm, but only based on the results of thorough preliminary surveys over the entire building area with a decent margin at the edges. An experienced contractor can build a separate reliable house on medium-heaving soil with a bearing capacity of 1.1-1.3 kg/sq. m. Self-construction can be done on soil up to medium heaving with a normal load-bearing capacity of 1.7 kg/sq. cm or higher. On heavily and excessively heaving soils, budget development is impossible with rare exceptions (see below).

Note: The bearing capacity of the soil directly at the building site can be determined on your own without complex instruments, but how is a separate article.

Oil and gas reserves and groundwater

Some potentially budget houses cannot be built on a shallow foundation (see below). The heel (sole) of the foundation must be buried below the NGP by at least 0.6 m on medium heaving soils and by at least 0.3 m on slightly heaving and non-heaving soils. The base of the foundation should not reach the groundwater level by 0.5 m or more. Typical limiting cases for budgetary development: dry sandy loam (slightly heaving), NGL 1.5 m, standing water 2.5 m; foundation depth 1.8-1.9 m. Or - moderately moistened podzol (medium heaving), NGP 1.2 m, standing water 3.5 m. Foundation depth from 1.8 m.

What if there is a fire?

The question of what would be cheaper to build a house in a given location must be decided taking into account the fire danger. Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst is a universal principle, and the harmfulness (or compliance) of firefighters here ranks fifth to seventh after their own safety. Regarding possible damage from fire, the properties of materials for budget construction are divided as follows. way:

• Fire safety (this is not the opposite of fire hazard) - how difficult it is to set fire to a given material and whether it can burn outside the source of fire. In fact, is it possible to extinguish a timely detected fire using improvised means without significant damage to the structure of the building.
• Fire resistance - how long a material can resist fire without losing mechanical properties to the point of collapse of the structure and/or without emitting toxic gases. In fact, how much time do you have, if extinguishing on your own is impossible, to evacuate and remove property.
• Fire resistance - how much, after being in a fire for at least 20 minutes, the material restores its properties. In fact, suddenly the frame of the house is completely burnt out, is it possible to refurbish it as housing?

Materials

Now it's time to choose material for a home in the budget price category. Houses made of brick, corrugated timber and chamber-dried logs are, unfortunately, excluded from the budget category. They have a lot of advantages and relatively few disadvantages, but you can move into a brick house no earlier than the 3rd year from the beginning of zero: a year to settle the expensive buried foundation, a year to shrink the frame, and only then can it be delivered turnkey, plus time for the interior finishing. In addition, at current energy prices, a brick house requires expensive external insulation.

Note: houses made of wood concrete (fibre-reinforced concrete), reeds, straw blocks, etc. are not considered, because their reliability has not yet been confirmed by time and there is no established construction industry for their construction.

Chambered corrugated timber and logs, impregnated with harmless antiseptics and fire retardants, are expensive in themselves and require solid carpentry experience to build a residential building. The houses from them are considered prestigious; as a result, the cost of work is high. Also, prefabricated panel houses do not fit into the budget category: they are erected very quickly, but their construction requires qualified personnel and a high degree of mechanization of work. Given these circumstances, the choice of widely available materials is quite limited. To compare the cost of a fully finished house per unit (100%), you can take a frame house made of non-laminated veneer lumber and conventional air-dried boards. The result looks like this. way:

• Country wooden frame house made only from boards – 0.6-0.8
• House on a thin-walled steel frame - 0.85-0.9.
• Residential wooden frame house made of timber and boards – 1.00.
• A log house made from ordinary air-dried timber is 1.4-1.8.
• House made of SIP panels – 1.9-2.00.
• House made of foam or gas blocks - 2.00-2.15.

Frames and timber

The general advantages of and are low sensitivity to ground movements, they “play” with it. Therefore, it is possible to build such houses on a shallow columnar foundation, which is the simplest and cheapest. It is also possible to build a residential frame/timber budget house on highly heaving, weak soil by laying a TISE pile-strip foundation under it. A 2-story frame house cannot be built without a detailed design, but in budget construction this problem is solved by the Siberian attic, see above.

A log house is good because in regions with fairly mild winters it does not require additional insulation: a 200 mm thick timber is equivalent to 600 mm brickwork. Internal cladding in both log and frame houses can be made of plywood or non-combustible materials: chipboard, OSB. Exterior sheathing made of OSB (oriented strand board, OSB, Oriented Strand Board) will give the house additional rigidity in the wind and resistance to weather conditions. The plaster inside is dry here and there, with plasterboard (gypsum plasterboard) on shingles (15-20) x 40 mm; It is impossible to sheathe gypsum boards without sheathing even on completely flat walls.

The design of a timber frame house is well known (on the left in the figure). Without impregnation with biocides and fire retardants (which can be done independently), all the fire-fighting qualities of such houses are low, and fire resistance is generally zero; they burn completely. Fire safety and fire resistance can be increased to acceptable (10-15 minutes for evacuation) if the insulation is made with ecowool (cellulose insulation). It will cost approx. 25% more expensive than mineral wool, but when heated, ecowool releases a lot of water vapor that retards fire. In addition, ecowool prevents wood from rotting: it contains an antiseptic - borax. Ecowool that gets wet does not fall off and retains 75% of its insulating qualities, while when it dries, it completely restores them. Insulation with ecowool is possible manually without experience; no fasteners or sheathing are required. Hydro- and vapor barriers for ecowool need inexpensive, simplified ones. The estimated service life of an all-wood frame or timber house with mineral wool insulation and without external cladding is 25-40 years, depending on the quality of the wood and local conditions; the same with ecowool insulation - up to 70 years or more.

Inexpensive dacha house with frame construction measuring approx. up to 4x6 m it is possible to build from just boards with your own hands without experience, just like air drying lumber. But if the total area of ​​the house exceeds approx. 25 sq. m and/or the number of openings in it is more than 3-4, it must be built by an experienced carpenter. In this case, the frame of the house is needed with the main load-bearing elements made of timber from 150x150 mm.

First, it is impossible to place window and door openings in a house, any size of which exceeds 6 m, at random. Computer programs are of little help here: you need to enter initial data into them and choose a calculation method based on your own experience. There is no computer construction program that would “do everything itself” yet.

Secondly, a residential frame/timber house must have at least two load-bearing partitions. Their location can be taken from a standard project, but a beginner is unlikely to be able to correctly connect the partitions to the external walls; especially if the house is made of timber.

In a log house built without experience, the problem of caulking may arise. Only a very experienced specialist can reject timber that is highly susceptible to warping when purchasing. If a seasonal country house splits, the problem is not great; the cracks can simply be plugged. In a large residential building with cracked walls, it will be possible to survive 1-2 winters, spending a lot on heating, and then it will quickly fall into disrepair due to weakening of the structure.

Houses on a thin-walled steel frame (on the right in the figure) may be somewhat cheaper than solid wood ones, but this is an apparent cheapness. The main thing is that the fire resistance of houses on a thin-walled steel frame is zero: in a fire, the frame instantly (in less than 3 minutes) loses strength, and the house collapses. In addition, it is very difficult to take into account the fatigue of elements of a complex thin-walled structure, and cases of sudden collapse of such houses for no apparent reason are not isolated in the world. In general, the service life of 100-120 years declared by manufacturers is not maintained, therefore, in a number of countries, only non-residential small architectural forms are allowed to be built on a steel frame.

SIP

A structural insulated panel (SIP, Structural Insulated Panel) is a cake made from slabs of plywood or OSB with extruded polystyrene foam (EPS) or polyurethane foam between them. SIPs made from OSB and polyurethane foam are suitable for residential construction; SIPs filled with EPS fill emit huge amounts of toxic gases in a fire. The main advantages of SIP houses are, firstly, the speed and ease of construction, see video:

Video: example of building a house from SIP

The time it takes to bring a SIP house to move-in readiness is further reduced by the fact that they can be built on a shallow foundation such as a Swedish or Finnish slab. These foundations are cheap, their “ripening” period is within the warm season, so a slab foundation for a house made of SIP can be ordered/laid with a reserve for future extensions or for a large veranda, see fig. on right. The exterior decoration of a house made of SIP can be anything and it will look more than decent, see there.

Equally important is that SIPs themselves are an excellent heat insulator and a house made from them does not require additional insulation. The disadvantages of SIP houses include the need for a ventilation system, because the walls don't breathe. In Russian conditions, it is significant that houses made of SIP are unsuitable for stove heating; the filler of the panels heats up and gradually emits toxic substances. Manufacturers also claim that the service life of SIPs is short, 40-70 years. Finally, the SIP box cannot be left over the winter; the house must be built at least turnkey during the warm season.

Foam blocks and gas blocks

You can very inexpensively, doing construction on weekends, put it together with glue from spring to late summer, without being a mason at all; She will be able to overwinter once under a roof and wrapped in film. There is no need for a technical break to shrink the box.

The main enemies of a foam/gas block house are, firstly, moisture. There are plenty of pores for condensation in its walls, and it is difficult and time-consuming to dry a damp house made of foam/gas blocks. Therefore, in this case, complete (and expensive) vapor barrier is needed both outside and inside (there are household fumes and from breathing) and good external thermal insulation that “prevents” the dew point from entering the walls. As a consequence, the statement that a house made of foam/gas blocks breathes is, to put it mildly, just talk. Who lived in such a house is unlikely to argue.

In fact, the only way to 100% prevent dampness in a house made of foam/gas blocks in any conditions is a ventilated façade. Which works great, but is by no means relevant to budget construction. Comfortable and even luxury houses from foam/gas blocks can and are being built, but in warm regions and not in the budget segment.

The second enemy of a foam/gas block house is the natural wear and tear of concrete. Let's say it chips only 0.01 mm per year. In this case, it will take 300-400 years before the reinforcement in the concrete monolith is exposed, which can be ignored in the calculations of conventional buildings. But the partitions between the pores of foam/gas blocks are about 1 mm, and their safety margin of 100% will be exhausted in 20-25 years, because destruction comes from 2 sides. Therefore, the estimated service life of a house made of foam blocks or gas blocks of up to 60-100 years is clearly exaggerated. Confirmation of this is the massive (and unsuccessful) sale of aerated concrete villas in Spain, not even by cost minus depreciation, but by how much they will take. When we were building, we forgot about the microwear of the blocks, and now what to do with all this?

Summing up

So, taking into account all the accompanying circumstances, we have few options for truly budget-friendly construction:

• The main one is an all-wood frame house, insulated with ecowool.

Building a new home is always a big expense. Few people can afford to build without paying attention to estimates. Most often you have to save money to fit into the budget. However, the savings should be reasonable, because the owner and his family will live in the new place. The building should be warm, dry, comfortable, and pleasant to look at. How to achieve this without overpayments? First of all, save on a team of workers. If the developer has the necessary skills, then everything or almost everything can be done yourself. You can also choose inexpensive materials, available technologies, and a standard design. How to build a house with your own hands cheaper? What is worth saving on, and where is it better not to risk it?

Savings start with choosing a project. The more complex the architectural forms, the more expensive the construction costs. It is irrational to try to reduce costs at the expense of workers, technical supervision or quality of materials by initially choosing an expensive project.

It is better to clearly determine the required living space, without depriving the family, but also without allowing yourself extra square meters, and choose a simple roof shape. This will allow you to create a cozy home that fully meets the needs of the family, but without architectural “excesses” - a multi-pitched roof, bay windows, columns, arches.

It makes sense to consider options for building a one- or two-story structure with a residential attic.

A residential attic is much more profitable than a separate floor. The construction of the floor will require more materials - for walls, insulation, finishing

If you choose lightweight building materials and suitable technologies for building walls, you can save on the foundation. A less powerful structure will be needed, plus the formwork can be made from substandard boards or used fiberboard boards.

The only thing you don't want to cut costs on is cement. You need to buy it of high quality, otherwise the strength of the structure will be in question. The depth of the trench under the foundation must also correspond to the calculated weight of the building in order to avoid severe settlement, which can lead to cracks in the walls.

What is most often used during construction:

• brick;
• beam;
• gas block

When constructing houses and cottages, frame technology is increasingly being used. This is a promising method that allows you to build quickly and at minimal cost.

To find out what will cost the least for construction, you will have to calculate estimates for each of the options, because... the cost of the material itself is not always an indicator of benefit. For example, choosing multi-purpose resources can help reduce costs. The cost of a two-in-one hydro- and vapor barrier will ultimately be cheaper than purchasing two different types of insulation.

When making calculations, one should proceed from the fact that the finished building must be comfortable for living and comply with heat conservation and safety standards.

The advantages of a frame structure are lower time and labor costs for the construction of a building. The design is lightweight, does not create an increased load on the foundation and does not require its reinforcement

A dwelling using this technology can be built within a period of several weeks to several months, depending on whether the owner builds it himself or hires a team. Finished buildings are durable and resistant to deformation. The estimated service life is approximately 75 years.

Load-bearing structures are convenient for subsequent cladding with finishing materials, because all elements are unified. This significantly expands: siding, cassette panels, and a block house can be mounted on the walls. Sheathing increases the strength of the entire structure without significantly increasing its weight.

Video about the design

There are two main technologies, each of which has its own characteristics.

Frame-panel. How to build a house cheaper? Collected with my own hands. Of course, this will require skills and equipment. Thanks to this type of construction, this is possible, although you will need to invest a lot of time and additional money in the purchase of insulation and other things. The frame is made of wood and covered with sandwich panels. Each part has to be installed separately, which affects the timing and complexity of construction.

Frame-panel. This option is expensive, but reliable and requires much less labor. The structure is assembled from ready-made panels, which are manufactured at the factory to special order. The panels are supplied already insulated and completely ready for assembly. If we compare the prices of panel and panel buildings, the former are more expensive. However, the final cost may turn out to be the same if workers are invited to assemble frame-panel housing, because you have to pay for all types of work separately - assembly, cladding, thermal insulation, finishing.

The assembled wooden frame already looks like a finished house. It only requires cladding and finishing. Steam and waterproofing materials are installed into the walls of the structure at the factory, which helps to increase the service life of the building

Undeniable advantages of the technology:

• Economical. Light weight is an obvious opportunity to save on the foundation, and short terms - on paying workers. It is believed that houses built using frame technology are the cheapest, but the efficiency largely depends on the area of ​​construction, the selected components, finishing, etc. Calculations by experienced engineers show that this is beneficial if the length of the building does not exceed 20 m and the number of storeys is 3. Often the design decides everything.
• High energy saving ratio. The structures warm up quickly and efficiently. The walls are made of materials with low thermal conductivity, so the structure retains heat well. The wall thickness can be 15-20 cm. Additional benefits include reduced heating costs compared to a conventional building of the same area.
• No shrinkage. The walls of the structure are strong, resistant to deformation, highly rigid, and the house itself does not shrink. This also has a positive effect on construction time: finishing work can begin immediately after the completion of the main work. The cladding does not require additional processing, which reduces finishing costs.

Disadvantages or things to consider:

• To assemble such a structure you need special knowledge and tools. The qualifications of the builders are of fundamental importance, so not every developer can do it himself, and the team will have to be carefully selected.
• Wooden frames require additional treatment with compounds for biological and fire protection.

When choosing a project, special attention should be paid to ventilation. Artificial materials provide excellent thermal insulation, but from the point of view of environmental safety they leave much to be desired. If the home is small, then theoretically you can get by with natural ventilation, but ideally, a normal air exchange system should be calculated and installed for it.

When installing frame structures, “wet” technologies are not used. This feature is a big plus, because... allows you to work at any time of the year

Tightness is one of the main advantages of a frame house, because serves as a guarantee of good thermal insulation. But it also has a downside - a violation of air exchange. To prevent human waste products, dust and other factors from worsening the microclimate in the building or reducing the amount of oxygen in the air, it is necessary to design a high-quality ventilation system

What to make it from:

• Tree. Despite all kinds of processing, wood is exposed to moisture and microorganisms. On average, such a frame lasts up to 60 years and is inferior to metal analogues in strength, lightness, and resistance to destructive environmental factors.
• Metal. A lightweight thermal profile is used for manufacturing. Its advantages are excellent fire resistance, light weight, and corrosion resistance. Metal parts are not susceptible to attacks by fungi and mold. All this can increase the service life of structures to 100 years.

What would be cheaper to build from? When drawing up estimates, a wooden frame will have a clear advantage. However, if you “look into the future” and take into account the higher performance properties of the thermal profile, then its service life fully pays for the costs.

The foundation can be chosen tile, columnar or strip depending on the type of soil. You can save on an easy-to-install roof - gable or mansard. The choice is up to the developer.

Material on the construction of a veranda at a frame-type dacha may also be useful:

1 sq. m of metal frame weighs 30-50 kg, with casing - about 200 kg. The low specific gravity of the finished house allows it to be built on unstable soils. The profile is also used in the reconstruction of buildings with heavily worn load-bearing structures

Option #2 – brick construction

Brick is one of the most popular. Houses made from it can hardly be called cheap. The walls have to be made thick, plus they require additional insulation, which leads to an even greater increase in the cost of structures. The weight of the finished structure is large, so the foundation needs to be truly strong. It is done to the entire depth of soil freezing.

It's difficult to save money on it. The disadvantages include long, labor-intensive construction. However, the durability of the structures, their fire safety and practicality largely pay for the costs.

If you look at the prices for the construction of a high-quality building on the websites of specialized companies, you get the impression that the cost is low. However, even the price of turnkey construction does not include the finishing touches: installation of flooring, interior doors, plumbing fixtures, etc.

If you do all this yourself, then only the costs of purchasing materials should be added to the cost. If you need to hire workers, then also pay for their labor. Construction is profitable only if the owner of the site initially selected the project correctly and can carry out most of the work independently.

Video: about bricks for buildings

Option #3 – aerated concrete blocks

Aerated concrete block is a worthy competitor to traditional brick. Building a box is significantly more profitable than erecting it. The wall thickness can be reduced by 1/3 without losing its thermal insulation properties. The material itself is noticeably lighter, which allows for savings at the expense of the foundation. An additional “bonus” for the home owner is good sound insulation.

A dwelling made of aerated concrete blocks “breathes”; air exchange in it is not impaired, because through pores. However, for the same reason, blocks are considered not the best option in terms of waterproofing. If construction is carried out in violation of technology, the finished structure may also be blown out. You need to pay attention to the finishing.

As for the construction time, an aerated concrete structure can be erected 2-3 times faster than a brick one; it practically does not shrink. Special adhesives are used to connect the blocks. In this case, it is undesirable to use ordinary cement mortar, because... it produces thick seams, which can cause the formation of “cold bridges”.

One of the disadvantages of aerated concrete blocks is their relatively low frost resistance, so you will have to take care of high-quality finishing. The materials you can use are plaster, siding, stone

Option #4 – economical timber buildings

For the developer, timber is more profitable than anything else. If we compare timber and brick walls in terms of heat-saving properties, it turns out that a structure made of spruce 220 mm thick and a brick 600 mm thick will be equally warm. Usually for construction they take 200 mm timber, use 100 mm thick insulation and apply a layer of plaster from 20 mm.

Advantages of timber:

• efficiency;
• fast construction (built in a few weeks);
• simple technology;
• environmental Safety;
• excellent thermal insulation;
• comfortable microclimate;
• ease of construction.

If you are choosing what is cheaper to build a house from, then timber is a win-win option. This is profitable, and the technology is simple, and almost any site owner can master it if he already has construction skills.

When building houses from timber, you need to carefully design heating and energy supply systems. The buildings are considered a fire hazard. Wood is also afraid of moisture, so it requires protection from dampness and fungus.

Compare prices per square meter

How and what is the cheapest way to build can be seen in the estimate figures. If the calculations are based on average indicators (soil freezing depth - 1.5 m, groundwater - 2.5 m, sandy loam soil), then we can determine the cost of construction of 1 square meter. Depending on the components, the numbers will be as follows:

• frame structure – 875 rubles;
• brick – 2330 rubles;
• aerated concrete – 2000 rubles;
• timber - 1900 rubles.

Review of popular materials - video

Obviously, a frame house will cost the developer the least. When finally deciding on a choice, you need to take into account all the features of the project, the soil, and the site itself. The calculations do not include payment for the services of the construction team. Hired labor is an additional (and considerable!) expense item.