Finishing a wooden house outside - look inside
Recently, the construction of wooden houses is experiencing its rebirth. Many owners prefer to build natural wood houses on their plots.
At the end of construction, the homeowner has a reasonable question: how to finish the wooden house from the outside?
It is worth noting that if this is an old wooden house, this issue is much more acute. We understand the desire of people to decorate their home outside and protect wooden structures from adverse weather events.
The content of the article
Basic finishes
I must say that in the desire to protect their home, many owners do wrong exterior finish, which not only does not bring the desired result, but rather harms the entire structure.
Today we will consider several options for exterior decoration.
The modern decoration of a village house on the outside involves many different ways, but we will consider only two:
- Brick finish
- Siding
These two methods were not chosen by chance, since they are the most common at present. It should be noted that many experts also mainly recommend these methods.
Consider the options on the example of a wooden log house from a chopped not rounded log.
Chopped log - all the benefits
The material itself is wonderful. A chopped log is good because sapwood is kept on it.
Our reference is sapwood: the top layer of wood, which contains a large percentage of resin. The presence of this component prevents decay and is an excellent protection against moisture.
Unlike chopped, this layer is absent on a rounded log. Course assembly houses made of logs simpler and more convenient, and the appearance is much more presentable.
But if you plan to finish the outside of the wooden house with other material, the use of chopped logs is preferable. But we dodged the topic, continue.
Brick Exterior
Outdoor wooden house decoration brick is usually made using a vapor barrier. In particular, glassine is very often used.
Our reference is glassine: a sturdy cardboard impregnated with bitumen. In modern construction, only skins and roofing felts replaced.
It should be noted that this method is not invented by the owners themselves, but it is proposed by some experts.
The main mistake is vapor barrier
The principle is clear, the use of a vapor barrier, including glassine, will give additional protection to the wooden structure from external moisture and condensate. Thus, it is planned to preserve the tree as long as possible and it is assumed that living in such a house will be more comfortable and pleasant.
This is a profound error.
We want to warn you against this type of finish. No, you can use a brick, but the use of vapor barrier between a brick and a wooden wall is fraught with serious consequences.
Moisture - from the side from which they did not expect
Here's the thing:
- The biggest mistake is that many people think that a wooden house gets wet outside. Of course, if it is slanting rain, the walls may get wet for a while, but they will quickly dry out.
- If the roof of your house is arranged in the right way, rain is not terrible for the walls.
- In fact, a wooden house is saturated with moisture from the inside. This mainly occurs in the cold season.
- Outside there is frosty dry weather, as a rule, in frost, the moisture content does not exceed 2 milligrams per 1 m3 of air.
- At this very time, inside the house, this figure is 22 - 26 milligrams per 1 m3. Furthermore, air humidity is 40 - 50%.
As you can see, this is the recommended parameter and usually in homes it is within these limits.
Accordingly, moisture tends to penetrate where it is less. She begins to nourish the walls and then tries to penetrate outward.
Brick + vapor barrier - an insurmountable barrier
But we know that we have brickwork outside, a vapor insulator is installed between it and a wooden wall. And the vapor barrier is just designed to keep moisture out of it.
As a result, all moisture remains in the walls, and the lack of air access through the vapor barrier favors the appearance of foci of rotting wood. It is necessary to add here a cold, brick wall on which condensation will begin to form.
Brick - Imaginary Benefits
As a result: such protection not only does not contribute to its intended purpose, but, on the contrary, exacerbates the situation and serves as a direct source of rotting and destruction of wooden structures. It is important to note that brick itself is not so dangerous for a wooden house.
The structure of the brick is vapor permeable. But in the case of the use of vapor barrier, it becomes an explosive mixture contributing to the destruction of a wooden structure.
Why do many people want to impose a brick on a wooden house? In addition to aesthetics, there is another incentive: fire safety.
Of course, it is commendable to protect your home from fire, but it is worth noting that mostly fires of wooden buildings do not occur through no fault from the outside, but from the inside. Here and incorrectly laid wiring, improper heating system, and sometimes just careless handling of fire.
In any case, the danger of rotting is much higher than the danger of fire.
Saydin - beautiful and comfortable
It was the turn to consider siding. Exterior decoration of a wooden house with siding is preferable to a brick one.
So:
- Siding is relatively cheap, easy to assemble, process and easy to care for.
- Decorating your home with this material, you will end up with a modern look, even if your home is more than a dozen years old.
- As for aesthetics, he is pretty good.
- On sale there is a large selection of different colors, shapes and shades. By combining them, you can give your home a truly unique, memorable look.
The main advantage is harmless to a wooden house
This we said about the appearance.
And the main advantage of siding is that it will not do any harm to the wooden structure. Of course, if the siding is simply mounted, on the outside, without vapor barrier and insulation.
So:
- This coating will cover the walls outside from adverse weather events, the same oblique rain.
- In addition, the wooden walls will be covered from direct exposure to ultraviolet sunlight.
- It is clear that by installing the siding coating on the wall of a wooden house, you will thereby create a certain air gap.
- The air will circulate there all the time, siding joints are not tight, due to this, the walls of the house will heat less during the hot season, which will lead to the formation of a pleasant microclimate inside the room even in the hottest hearth.
- Air circulation will also help to remove excess moisture from the room and walls of the house.
Insulation - another imaginary advantage
It is necessary to say a few words about the insulation. Many are interested in the question: is it worth it to use insulation when the exterior decoration of a wooden house is performed?
I would like to say the following: we would not recommend you using a heater for the exterior decoration of a wooden house, and that's why.
As a rule, houses made of chopped logs are themselves quite warm. In addition, they are small or medium in size.
Available heating systems are enough for heating. Huge log houses are rare.
Purely from an economic point of view, the effect of warming a house from chopped logs is not entirely justified. Most likely, all costs will pay off over several decades.
Environmental imbalance
Sometimes they try to insulate such houses using mineral wool. There are many names, manufacturers too, but mineral wool is mineral wool.
So:
- Mineral wool releases phenols during operation.
- At the end of this process, it begins to decay into microparticles.
- The particles are so small that they can penetrate into the wooden structure through various micro-holes.
- At the same time, a large number of these particles will also be present around the living room.
- Inhaling these particles, to put it mildly, is not entirely useful. Thus, all thoughts about the use of environmentally friendly wooden housing are nullified.
Warming a wooden house - the method of laying logs is important
Wooden exterior decoration of buildings involves the implementation of finishing work in certain places of the building. Let's talk about it.
It happens that houses made of logs are not folded into a “round” or “into a cup”, but into a “paw”.
Our reference is a “folded-in” house: with this method, the connection of logs is done in such a way that the ends of the log are displayed about 500 mm beyond the boundaries of the junction or corner of the building. At the same time, the dimensions of the room are reduced by the size taken out of the border of the corners.
This method is visible in the figure; you probably have seen it more than once or seen in films.
This method in the round or in the "cup" is considered the most stable, but not the most economical in terms of the use of wood.
Nowadays, saving requires that many prefer the method of laying logs in the “paw”.
Our reference is a “folded” house: this method is distinguished primarily by the fact that the logs do not stick out in the corners of the house. In other words, the entire log is used.
With this method, wood savings are significant. The “paw” connection is carried out in a simple and complex way.
In a simple method, plug-in spikes are used in the connection. With a complex method, the spikes are performed on the log itself.
Such work is within the power of a very competent specialist.
The figure shows this method. You can familiarize yourself with it.
But where does the method of laying logs come with, and the question: how to finish a wooden house from the outside?
Board as a heater - ancestor's lesson
Take your time, the connection is the most direct. After all, we mentioned the decoration of a wooden house made in certain places of the building. Have you probably met log houses whose corners are outside, decorated in the way shown in the figure below?
See how the corners of this house are trimmed? They are made in the form of a carved column harmoniously blended into the whole design. Do you think this is just for beauty, or rather for beauty only?
But look at the house in the next picture.
The shutters are carved, the craftsmen wanted to decorate the building, but they did not touch the corners. It seems that improvised columns could be built there, but no, they did not.
The thing is that this house is “in a cup”, and the previous one is “in a paw”. As an example at home, in the next picture.
The house is "in the paw" and "column" is present, although not so carved. Of course, the masters wanted to cover the not-so-beautiful mix with this type of finish, but not everyone knows that this is not the only thing.This element of decoration directly affects the thermal insulation of the house.
The fact is that the angle folded “in the paw” will freeze much stronger than the angle folded “in the cup.” It will be useful for our readers to know that the thermal conductivity of wood along and across the fibers is significantly different from each other.
The difference in thermal conductivity is almost 6 times. In other words, heat across the fibers is lost six times less than along.
Therefore, the masters of the past acted very competently. They simply nailed a rather thick board to the end of the log.
Since the fibers in this case were across, the thermal insulation of the end of the log was provided. Of course, the board also served as an element of hiding the unpresentable seam “in the paw”, and carving on the board only complemented the delicacy.
Such a move made it possible to significantly save on wood and at the same time solve the problems of thermal insulation and design.
Learning from experience - doing it in a new way
If your house is built in a similar way, and you are going to sheathe it with siding, stuffing boards on corners is not quite the right decision. Firstly, it will not be in harmony with the overall design, and secondly, it will not be very convenient to mount siding on the corners.
Our instruction in this case is as follows: use modern insulation materials at the corners. There is no need to insulate the walls as a whole, there is no need for this and these are just extra expenses.
Insulate with your own hands only the joints at the corners. Further, the insulation will be covered by siding and everything will fall into place.
We examined two main options wooden house facade finishes. We did not begin to disassemble the installation process itself, but tried to look deep into, to consider, so to speak, questions of expediency and practicality.
Only wood can be better than wood
At the end I want to say one more thing. If your home is made of quality material, do not rush to perform various finishes on top of it.
Everything is of course at your discretion, but the prose of life is that they trim the outside of the house built of logs mainly in those cases when they want to hide the bad material of the walls.
Even new wooden houses sometimes sell finished outside siding or other material. Again, in most cases, this is the seller’s desire to hide the true state of the walls.
If your house is made of solid wood, cover it with any antiseptic, protective coating. Wood is material for all time and the latest surge in its popularity is further proof of this.
First things first
Our resource has a lot of descriptions, videos and photos of various types of finishes. Here you can find out in sufficient detail about how and what to decorate your house or apartment, as well as understand many of the constructional details and choose the method most suitable for you.
Good luck
