Construction of a wooden house: which timber to choose

Recommendation points

• One-piece non-profiled
• One-piece profiled
• Glued profiled timber
• LVL bar

A warm and safe home is the dream of many people. A house built of wood is not only warm and reliable, but also environmentally friendly. Modern construction technologies offer various options for the construction of wooden houses. Perhaps the best is to build a house from a bar.

The timber minimizes the unpredictability of the behavior of the tree during operation, and therefore is the optimal building material. The construction of log houses is completed within one season and the durability of these houses is at least 50 years. There are 4 types of timber used in the production of wooden houses: solid non-profiled, solid profiled, glued profiled and the so-called LVL (from the English LVL – Laminated Veneer Lumber).

Which one is better to use to get a house that is optimal in terms of price / quality ratio? Consider the pros and cons of each.

One-piece non-profiled

The beam is made from a solid log, from which a round edge is cut on four sides. For the construction of residential buildings, as a rule, naturally dried timber 150×150 mm is used.

Pros:

• low cost;
• availability on any sawmill, that is, by choosing the nearest one, the issue of delivery of building material is easily resolved.

Minuses:

• warpage, shrinkage and cracking are the disadvantages of naturally dried wood;
• wood defects – internal rot, flying knots, foci of damage by insect pests, fungus, manifested after the completion of construction;
• the need for additional finishing – does not undergo finishing, therefore it needs additional finishing;
• the need for reinforced insulation of the seams – does not have strict transverse dimensions and evenness of the saw cut, as a result – large gaps between the crowns;
• low manufacturability – initially not suitable for the construction of walls, so you have to make additional reinforcement of the load-bearing walls and corners of the house, and this is extra labor and time.

The price of a solid non-profiled timber of natural moisture is about 9500 rubles. per cubic meter Plus the cost of finishing, compulsory processing with fire retardant compounds and additional work.

Output:not the best material for building a house, but if you have workers, patience, accuracy and attention to detail during construction, you can build a house from it, and for reasonable money.

One-piece profiled

The beam is also made from a solid log, only at the same time it is driven through special equipment, where ideal geometric dimensions are given to it, a special lock profile is selected and, naturally, planed to give an aesthetic appearance.

Pros:

• low probability of warpage – the technology of industrial drying of wood makes it possible to achieve 10–15% moisture content in the final material with practically no deformation consequences;
• does not need additional processing and finishing of the walls;
• high accuracy of connections (no gaps);
• manufacturability – profiles-locks greatly facilitate the construction process.

Minuses:

• all possible defects of wood, which were mentioned above;
• the need for additional time for shrinkage – after all, the existing probability of shrinkage and warping of solid beams requires time for the finished walls to shrink.

The price for one-piece profiled timber of chamber drying is on average 12,000 rubles. per cubic meter More expensive than unfiltered, but the final result is much higher in quality.

Output:after treatment with fire-retardant protection, subject to construction technology, perhaps the best choice in terms of price / quality ratio, however, one must be prepared to deal with possible “surprises” of solid timber.

Glued profiled timber

As the name implies, this type of timber is also calibrated and equipped with a lock profile. However, it is made not from a solid log, but from separate blocks. They are glued together under pressure with a special glue.

Pros:

• all the advantages of a profiled bar;
• resistance to warpage – due to the combination of various types of wood when collecting blocks for one log, further deformation, cracking is absolutely excluded and shrinkage of finished beams is practically excluded;
• no need for additional time for shrinkage – a house built of laminated veneer lumber does not shrink and is suitable for habitation almost immediately after completion of construction.

Minuses:

• high price;
• low environmental friendliness compared to a solid bar – a foreign material is glue;
• the natural circulation of moisture inside the timber is somewhat disturbed, due to the use of glue, moisture is not able to circulate between the layers, because of this, a slight disturbance of the microclimate inside the house is possible.

The price of glued beams is on average 25,000 rubles. per cube – twice as expensive as a solid one. However, it should be noted that the cost of a project of wooden houses made of glued beams is no different from similar projects of houses made of solid timber, and in the costs of the construction itself, the cost of walls is about half of the entire construction budget. Consequently, the final house will not rise in price by much. In addition, when the construction time is reduced, and when using glued beams, as mentioned above, it is minimal, the cost of work also decreases.

Output:if there is an opportunity to spend money on this expensive option of a bar, then for the quick construction of a turnkey wooden house this is the best option, otherwise, it is probably better to still stay on a solid profiled bar.

LVL bar

The manufacturing technology of LVL timber resembles the technology of glued laminated timber, only it is glued not from blocks, but from 3 mm veneer. Plywood is produced in almost the same way, only, unlike it, the wood of adjacent layers in the LVL bar is parallel to each other relative to the fibers. This allows you to process this type of timber in the same way as solid or glued timber. When gluing, the density of various layers is selected in such a way that the denser layers are on the outside, and the softer ones are on the inside..

Pros:

• all the advantages of profiled glued beams, only raised to the rank of absolute;
• increased strength and elasticity, as well as unlimited length makes it possible to manufacture spans of any size;
• increased moisture, fire and biological resistance.

Minuses:

• highest price;
• lowest environmental friendliness.

The price for LVL timber is about 35,000 rubles / m³. This price makes it unprofitable when building walls of houses from a bar, but since it makes it possible to increase spans without using support pillars and beams, in combination with other types of timber it significantly expands the possibilities when choosing a project.

Output:an irrational material for the construction of walls, but quite suitable for auxiliary structures.

All conclusions are clearly shown in the final table:

Name	Availability	Technolo- genius	Warmly- insulation	Fire-, moisture-, bio-resistance	Strength	Construction time	Ecolo- genius	Risk of wood defects	Output
One-piece non-profiled	ex.	bottom.	bottom.	bottom.	bottom.	bottom.	ex.	bottom.	Satisfactory material
One-piece profiled	chorus.	ex.	chorus.	chorus.	satisfying.	ex.	ex.	Wednesday.	Very good stuff
Glued profiled	satisfying.	ex.	ex.	chorus.	chorus.	ex.	chorus.	ex.	If not for the price, it would be an ideal material
LVL bar	bad.	ex.	ex.	ex.	ex.	not used.	bottom.	ex.	Very expensive to build. Excellent for strength members

Thus, it is always up to the person who will live in it to decide what the house will be like. Materials for construction must be selected based on their requests and available funds. From the analysis, it can be concluded that the most preferable for building a house from a bar are solid profiled and glued profiled beams, however, there will also be a place for other types.