Bath with your own hands. Part 2

Recommendation points

• Why aerated concrete
• The choice of building material
• Foundation revision
• Waterproofing
• Masonry
• Setting the corners
• Reinforcement
• Screed
• Installation of the heater
• Roof and slab
• Facade

You have already laid the foundation and are determined to build the bathhouse further, but do not know how? In this article, you will learn why it is profitable to use aerated concrete, at what stage you need to install a heater and how to make a roof correctly. And many more nuances associated with the manufacture of a steam room.

In the last part, we talked about what to think about before building a bath, how to successfully choose a place for it and, finally, build the foundation correctly.

The latter has already stood, and you can start building the walls. One of the most popular wall materials today is aerated concrete. We will take it for the manufacture of walls. We will not describe all the advantages of this wonderful material (it would take a whole article), we will dwell only on those features that are important in our case..

Why aerated concrete

1. Aerated concrete has a very small coefficient of thermal conductivity: for the 500th density? = 0.14 W / (m? K), whereas for linden, for example,? = 0.15 W / (m? K).

2. It is easy to work with aerated concrete. For a beginner builder who decided to build a bathhouse himself, it will be easier to use gas blocks than traditional brick.

3. Due to its ideal geometric shape, aerated concrete can (and should) be laid on thin-layer glue, which will not only save the cost of building materials at the output, but also minimize the total area of ​​cold bridges. (The thermal conductivity of masonry mortar or glue is several times greater than that of enclave wall material.)

The choice of building material

So where do you start? And you should start with the purchase of material. For work, we will take products of the YTONG trademark. You can, of course, try at your own peril and risk to buy cheaper material from domestic manufacturers, but this is unlikely to be a wise decision, since most often not everything is in order with the geometry of our products. And this unpleasant fact negates all the main advantages of aerated concrete over other building materials..

Since the bathhouse is not a residential area and does not require constant heating, it will be quite enough to take Econom-type blocks with a width of 300 mm for operation. For each square meter of the wall, they will need 0.29 m³. You also need to purchase an adhesive mixture for laying aerated concrete, preferably from the same manufacturer, at the rate of one and a half bags per cube, reinforcement with a diameter of 8 mm with moldings in 4 bath perimeters, as well as roofing material and bituminous mastic for waterproofing.

Foundation revision

Despite the fact that you made the foundation with your own hands, it will not be superfluous to double-check its evenness. A laser plane builder is ideal for this, but you can get by with the usual one and a half to two meters level. Do not forget, gas blocks are laid on thin-layer glue, where the seam thickness is maximum 3 mm. It is very difficult to align the foundation errors with such a seam. So if deviations from the level are found, then they must be eliminated even before laying the waterproofing layer..

At the same time, defects in small areas up to a centimeter deep are leveled with a simple masonry mortar manually. Whereas under large errors of 1 cm and above, light formwork is installed from OSB scraps (they are simply nailed to the side faces of the base with dowels), which is filled with mortar, making notches on the smooth surface of the base with a grinder for better adhesion.

Also, it will not be superfluous to re-measure the geometry of your foundation. Errors are sometimes found in the most unexpected places. And if the design dimensions of the basement do not coincide with the actual ones, then it would be good to find out about this even before the start of masonry work, and make the appropriate adjustments to the construction process.

Waterproofing

When the inspection of the foundation is completed and the defects have been eliminated, a waterproofing layer is applied. As a waterproofing agent, it will be rational to use ordinary roofing material, which is “planted” on the foundation with the help of bituminous mastic. Roofing material is connected only with an overlap, the size of the latter is not less than 15–20 cm. The entire waterproofing device protruding beyond the outer edge of the foundation must be carefully cut in order to clearly see the border of the tape and not complicate your work. Roofing material along the inner perimeter of the foundation is carefully folded down.

Masonry

Setting the corners

The laying of the gas block itself begins, of course, from the corners and only on the masonry cement-sand mortar, and not on the glue. In this case, the block should protrude 50 mm beyond the edge of the foundation along the entire outer perimeter. You can use an ordinary matchbox as a template..

It is good if you have a laser level, a piece on the farm, if you like to build with your own hands, it is simply irreplaceable. In this case, the construction of all corners in one plane will take 5-10 minutes, with the hydro level will have to tinker a little longer. Laying the first row is a responsible business, because the quality of the entire wall depends on the accuracy of its implementation. All work is carried out along the lacing stretched between the set corners along the outer upper edge of the corner blocks.

Reinforcement

After laying the first row, you need to make a short pause for an hour and a half and let the solution in the seams grab a little. After that, make reinforcement.

If the gas blocks are fresh (and these are exactly what you can buy for the season), then the grooves in them for the fittings are easily made with a special chasing cutter, if not, then with a grinder. But in any case, it will be necessary to beat off the markings under these very recesses with a paint thread in advance. An eye gauge is a good thing, but it can fail. And according to the technology, the center of the groove should be located at a distance of 70 mm from the edge of the wall block, not closer. Then the recess is thoroughly cleaned of dust, abundantly moistened with water and filled with approximately 50% masonry mortar, after which the reinforcement is embedded in the latter. It is very good if it forms a closed welded contour along the entire perimeter, but just an overlapping connection is also allowed. After laying, the armopoyas is finally hidden with a cement-sand mortar.

Important: If the length of the wall span is more than 6 m, then every 4th row of gas blocks must be reinforced, if less, then only the first and last row, as well as the bases of window openings.

Subsequent rows are already laid according to the working draft on thin-layer glue. It is applied a verst using a comb-bucket. In this case, you should monitor the density of the adhesive mixture. The ridges of the grout formed by the tool should not bleed by themselves. Too liquid glue not only stains the walls and is inconvenient to use, but also does not give the required strength.

Important: Before starting work on each next row, the working edge of a mile must be cleaned of dust and remnants of the masonry mixture.

Screed

After the load-bearing walls have been laid, the screed can be poured inside the room. To do this, we remove the construction waste inside the foundation, level the soil, add it if necessary, or, on the contrary, undermine it. But so that 40 cm of free space remains before the waterproofing of the basement. It is advisable to pour out with sand. Next, carefully lay the waterproofing membrane. Its edges should rise above the level of the basement waterproofing. The strips of the film must be laid with an overlap of at least 10 cm and glued with a special tape or ordinary scotch tape.

Then, carefully, so as not to damage the waterproofing, expanded clay is poured. With the help of the laser plane builder, it is leveled at a distance of 12-15 cm from the foundation waterproofing.

After the formation of the expanded clay cushion, fill in the first rough screed. Its thickness should be at least 5 cm. It is possible to expose beacons under it without fanaticism, simply by installing metal square pipes on the “bloopers” or bricks. In order not to fall into the expanded clay pillow at the time of making the screed, you can use wooden shields or put OSB sheets under your feet. For work, a rather thick cement-sand mortar is prepared in proportions of 1: 4. After the rough screed dries so much that it will be possible to walk on it, beacons are installed under the final screed. In the dressing room, the floor should be perfectly flat, while in the steam room and shower, if there is one, the beacons should form a slope towards the drain. A slope of 1 cm per meter will be more than enough. The guides are installed from the corners of the room towards the ladder, while all the outer edges of the beacons (those from the walls) should be at the same level, and the inner edges (those near the drain) are slightly lower. And again the laser plane builder will help to set the beacons. Installed indoors, it provides a strictly horizontal laser plane, from which it is convenient to make the necessary measurements. Doing all this with a water level and a bunch of threads is extremely inconvenient..

After the lighthouses have dried, the screed itself is pulled together by the rule. Since for roughing a solution was used in proportions of 1: 4, then a cement-sand mixture 1: 3–3.5 can be made for finishing. Do not forget to leave a small area near the drain free of solution, a ladder will be installed there later.

Installation of the heater

After the screed has hardened, you need to think about the heater again. Is it brick or metal, whether it is entirely in the steam room or the firebox is located in the dressing room, but it must be installed right now, while the chimney is raised so far only slightly above the level of the future ceiling. If the chimney is brick, then to the place of the future overlap, the thickness of the brickwork increases to at least one and a half bricks, while after passing through the ceiling it decreases to its normal size.

Important: If the stove is made of bricks, then the use of hollow or silicate bricks is not allowed, not cement, but clay is used as a binder.

Roof and slab

Before proceeding with the manufacture of the roof, it should be recalled that its structure is calculated in advance and is already indicated in the project documentation. So you don’t need to invent anything new.

It is customary to start the manufacture of the roof with the installation of the Mauerlat. Our small bathhouse is not a very heavy structure, so as the latter it will be possible to take a timber not recommended by all guides, but an edged board 300×50 mm, which is laid along the entire perimeter of the building. From the side of the pediment, a board of 200×50 mm is used. A ten centimeter gap is necessary in order to hide the transition between the wall and the pediment. Thus, the roof load will be evenly distributed over the entire area of ​​the load-bearing walls. It would be nice to firmly attach the Mauerlat to the armored belt in advance to grab the protruding pins by welding, but with the proposed roof design this will not be necessary and the boards can simply be anchored directly to the aerated concrete.

The next step will be the distribution and rigid installation of the beams to the Mauerlat. As the latter, you can use a bar with a section of 100×150 mm, laid on the edge with a step of 900 mm. The extreme beams lie with their entire plane on the Mauerlat in such a way that the pediment rafters can still lean on it. Further, most often right on the ground, pediment rafter trusses are assembled from a 140×70 mm bar. They are mounted first, for reliability, not only screwing them to the beams, but also strengthening them with additional braces. In this case, the beam must be inside the building and not interfere with the subsequent sheathing of the pediment.

The correctness of the installed extreme rafter trusses is checked with diagonally stretched lacing. Future roof slopes should form flat planes.

The thread is pulled between the upper points of the rafters, as well as between their lower ends. Focusing on these beacons, they expose the entire rafter system. In the process of its installation, roof trusses are temporarily fixed to each other from the inside by trimming boards.

Now that the rafters are installed, it’s time to tackle the overlap. After the roof is ready, it will be inconvenient to perform any work in a low and cramped attic space..

Important: When doing work, do not rush. More often than not, think about whether you have chosen the order of their implementation correctly. Will your actions make it difficult to perform other construction operations? This approach to work will save not only your time, but also finances..

First of all, in order to provide a base for laying insulation, the ceiling is lined with an unedged board. Moreover, it is in the double room that this board must necessarily be non-coniferous. In the course of work, a passage pipe and fire protection are mounted on a metal chimney.

After that, foil insulation is laid right through the beams, which in this case serves as a vapor barrier. It is safer and cheaper to use it than to buy foil mineral wool. ISOVER or any other mineral insulation is laid on top of the foil insulation. From above, all this is covered with a hydro-barrier and clogged with an edged board. And only after that the chimney is raised to the required height.

Now it’s time to return to our roof again. After the overlap is made, nothing prevents you from covering the rafter system with waterproofing and making a counter-lattice, and then covering it all with corrugated board. We examined the process of roof manufacturing in more detail in the article “How to independently replace a slate roof with corrugated board”, so we will not repeat ourselves. It should only be noted that since the bathhouse is not a residential area and is heated irregularly, it is not worth going broke for insulating the roof itself.

Everyone chooses the material for the gables himself. You can lay them out of the same foam concrete, or you can make them from wood or even PVC panels. The main thing is not to forget to organize ventilation. The attic of the steam room should be well ventilated.

Facade

Do not forget that it is not recommended to leave the aerated concrete facade open..

Before using the walls, it is necessary to prime the walls with “Ceresit” CT 17 and plaster with CT 24 (at least with a layer of 5–7 mm). If this is not done, then, despite all efforts, the walls will be blown through, and the appearance of such a facade after each rain will be at least “non-commodity”.

Important: What will be the subsequent exterior decoration of the room, everyone chooses to his taste, but it needs to be done only after installing the door and window blocks.

The plastered facade can be covered with decorative plaster or vinyl siding.

When deciding to plaster the facade, pay attention to the following points:

1. Follow technology. That is, a base layer of CT 85 glue must be applied to a wall plastered with Cerezit 24 using a 5×5 mm facade mesh. Then the surface is treated with a CT 16 primer and only then the “bark beetle” is applied.
2. Do not tint the paint yourself, do it only in the studio, otherwise, if necessary, you will never find the shade you need..
3. If aerated concrete walls were laid with a thickness of one block, they must be plastered. No matter how carefully you fill the masonry joints before, there will still be drafts in such masonry.
4. Do not neglect the base coat, do not apply the “bark beetle” directly to the plaster. Only adherence to the technology recommended by the manufacturer guarantees you a strong, crack-free facade..

In the next part, we will tell you how to choose the right woodwork for the bath, how to make sun beds yourself and talk about such a necessary element of any steam room as a hood.