Finishing the facade with wood: choose the right material

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

Facade decoration with natural wood panels

Exterior finish of the facade with a tree gives the country house a warm, cozy comfort. Wooden facades enliven and decorate houses.
And the facade is the face of the house. They also judge about its internal arrangement, therefore, high requirements are imposed on the appearance of the facade, its decoration, practicality.
One of the most common facade materials is wood. This material is increasingly used for outdoor decoration of country houses.

Advantages of wooden facade cladding

Benefits:

• elegance and respectability;
• variety of design solutions;
• hides defects of external walls;
• additional protection of load-bearing walls from adverse weather conditions;

There are such types of wooden cladding of the exterior walls of the house:

• block house;
• siding;
• wooden panels;
• shingles;

Consider the characteristics of various types of wooden cladding materials, their installation and methods of protection from adverse weather conditions.

Finishing material Block House

So:

• Block House - one of the most common materials for the decoration of facades. Its outer side looks like a rounded log, and the side that adjoins the wall is flat.
• This type of decoration allows you to give the house a natural look of a wooden log house.
• On the sides there are groove-spike joints that make it easy to assemble individual elements into a monolithic wall.
• This finishing method allows you to mount a layer of insulation under the finish and additionally protect the load-bearing walls.

Finishing the facade of the house with wood. Block house

• If individual elements are damaged, they are easily replaced with new ones.
• The Block House is made of wood, in which the humidity does not exceed 15% and which is additionally protected by impregnation. As a result, such material does not undergo rotting and deformation.
• The use of wooden elements for the design of windows and doors will give a unique look to your home. Different styles of wooden carvings can easily be combined with other finishing materials - brick, decorative plaster or plastic.

Wood siding

Wood trim facade. Installation of wood siding

• Wooden siding is a molded product of various cross-sectional profiles.

The word “linear” comes from the phrase linear meter, that is, from the unit of measurement. In this case, we mean a long wooden product of a certain profile.

• Wooden siding is made from different types of wood.

There are two types of siding:

• the first type - the molded profile is spliced ​​from individual fragments that are interconnected using a toothed spike;
• the second type is a profile that is made of a whole board;

The concept of siding came to us from America. It denoted the cladding of the walls of the house with overlapping boards.
This is obtained when the boards are fixed horizontally. The bottom edge of the top board rests on the top edge of the bottom board. This is clearly visible in the photograph above.

Installation

Mounting such a cladding is very simple:

• On a concrete or brick wall, it is necessary to fix vertically with a self-tapping screw a crate from a board at least 20 mm thick, 10 cm wide at a distance of 50-60 cm from each other.
• We begin installation from the lowest strip.
• Fasten the upper edge of the siding with screws.
• We close the heads of the screws with the next strip and so on to the very top.
• A crate is not needed on a wooden wall. You can mount the siding directly to the wall.
• Between the wall and siding, it is necessary to lay a moisture-resistant OSB plate.

Thus, the supporting wall of the house is well protected from snow and rain.
Distinctive feature facade siding is that it is not necessary to specifically arrange ventilation ducts. It is well ventilated and not subject to decay.

Exterior walls with wood paneling

Finishing the exterior walls of the house with wooden panels became possible much later than siding or shingles. The facade, decorated with wooden panels, has a modern look and is well ventilated, which prevents its decay.
Wooden panels are made from various species of trees:

• pine - has a solid and dense structure, it is good to glue it, but it is bad to stain;
• spruce - has a light and soft structure, glues well, but is poorly processed, easily rots;
• alder - light and soft structure, dries out medium, is well processed, but easily rots;
• aspen - dries out medium, soft, is well processed, but easily rots;
• Oak - high-value wood, strong, does not warp, does not decay, is perfectly processed;
• beech - the qualities are good, but lower than that of oak, it is good to process, but it easily rots;
• ash - the texture is easy to confuse with oak, but it is much lighter than oak and easily decays;

Facade panels are available in various types:

• The panels drawn from the rails are in great demand among buyers. The thickness of such a panel ranges from 8 to 12 mm. The width of the panel is from 120 to 300 mm, the length is from 2400 to 3700 mm.
• Very popular for facade decoration sheet panels. They are appreciated for their simple installation and ease of subsequent care. Sheets are available up to 6 mm thick. Width - 1220 mm, length - 2440 mm.
• Combined panels are also available, consisting of several layers of different wood species. So on a blank of low-value wood under high pressure and temperature glued veneer from valuable wood species.
  To protect against moisture and various mechanical damage, the top layer is coated with waterproof varnish or wax.

Wooden panels are used for facing both external and internal walls.

Profile of wood panel with spike-groove connection

For external walls, remember one obligatory rule: when connecting panels of a spike-groove type, the panel must be secured with the spike up and the groove down. In this case, neither water nor dirt will enter the groove.

So:

• Be sure to install the crate, even on wooden walls. The distance between the bars of the crate depends on the thickness of the panel and ranges from 50 to 100 cm.
• We begin the installation of panels from above.
• We set the first board level horizontally, in which case the following rows will look even and beautiful.
• The panels themselves are attached to the crate with the help of clamps.

Kleimer for fastening wood panels

Kleimers are attached to the crate using self-tapping screws or nails. After installation, they are not visible.

Mount the wood panel with the spike up

The use of claymers for fastening the panels allows them to expand freely when the temperature changes. For better ventilation of the cladding, it is necessary to leave gaps of 1-2 cm above and below.
After finishing the installation of the cladding, you should not forget to cover it with glazing compositions. Glazing compositions are translucent paints that have protective properties and do not hide the wood texture.

Facing the facade with wooden shingles

A cladding of its walls can give a spectacular look to the facade of your house.
Shingles are a guarantee of protecting the walls of a house from adverse weather conditions. Extension of the service life of load-bearing walls.
And, in the end, this is the individuality and attractiveness of the building. It is necessary to entrust the finishing of the facade with shingles to specialists who already have experience with such material.

Exterior walls with wooden shingles

If you want unique facade decorationthen you should turn to the use of red Canadian cedar.

Facade trim with shingles made of red Canadian cedar

Advantages of Canadian Cedar:

• its extraordinary beauty;
• high strength;
• lack of deformation when temperature and humidity change;
• excellent heat and sound insulation properties;
• antiseptic properties - immunity to damage by fungus, mold and various pests;
• the structure of the Canadian shingles has a pleasant color, which can vary from reddish brown to amber yellow;
• Canadian shingles have a delicate aroma that does not fade even with time.

How to protect a wooden facade

Currently, there are two main methods of protecting the facade and preserving the natural beauty of wooden finishes:

• Azure coating is a coating that reliably protects the wooden finish of the facade from rain, snow and other adverse weather conditions. It does not violate the texture of the tree.
  It gives it different color shades. And besides, azure is an excellent protective material. The protective properties of azure are preserved for up to 6 years. Then it is necessary to repeat the protective treatment.
• Another way is to coat the wood finish with clearcoat. The use of varnish to protect wood emphasizes the texture of wood and ennobles it.
  The varnish is perfectly applied to wood and will reliably protect the facade from adverse weather conditions.

On our site you can find a lot of useful information on various materials and their proper application.