Tambour in a private house

Recommendation points

• What problems does the vestibule solve?
• Foundation, porch and walls
• Selection of the degree of glazing
• Roof and façade connection
• Do you need insulation and heating
• Installation of an entrance and internal door

The presence of an entrance gateway not only helps to reduce heat loss, but also contributes to a better organization of the life of residents. Our review will explain to readers the need to build a vestibule and tell you what this extension should be in order to perform its functions correctly..

What problems does the vestibule solve?

It is impossible to briefly list all the variety of architectural solutions that modern developers are adopting. The shape of the house, the height of the basement, the appearance of the facade and the appearance of the entrance group are very diverse, but most of the opinions agree on one thing – there is always a place for a vestibule.

The most obvious pretext for building an entrance lock is to shield the indoor climate from the street. In the presence of a vestibule, living quarters will always be separated from bad weather by at least one door, respectively, heat losses due to air exchange will be limited to the volume of the entrance room. Equally important, the gateway completely eliminates the appearance of drafts that cause serious discomfort to residents who are in the immediate vicinity of the entrance.

There are also more practical points. The category of people who move into a private house, while observing the “apartment” way of life, is extremely small. There is almost always a housekeeping on the personal plot, therefore, there are household clothes and shoes. And there is no place for snow, dirt and foreign odors in the house, it is better to remove such things before entering the inhabited area, for which the vestibule is best suited.

Actually, the presence of a vestibule in a private house is not strictly necessary, the absence of an entrance gateway can be compensated for by the layout of the hallway and an additional dressing room. Nevertheless, for greater objectivity, we list the secondary advantages that the vestibule provides:

• cool area for storing vegetables and other food;
• a place where you can leave a baby carriage, bicycle or sled, wash the dog’s paws after a walk;
• protecting the porch or stairs from ice;
• protection of the metal entrance door from freezing.

Foundation, porch and walls

We note right away that the vestibules can be classified as warm and cold, while the presence of heating does not play a role in this classification. We are talking about the location of the vestibule relative to the building plan: it can be located inside the thermal circuit of the house, or partially or completely outside it. The first case is quite trivial from the point of view of construction, because today even amateurs can divide internal rooms with partitions. Therefore, in the future we will focus on the construction of an attached vestibule..

Attaching the vestibule to the building is not an easy task, the reason for this is the uneven settlement of the soil, which has already settled down under the house, and will still settle within a few centimeters under the vestibule. Therefore, the foundation for the vestibule must necessarily be closed or at least connected with a lintel of a smaller cross-section, as well as an XPS expansion joint separated from the base of the house. In the general case, for the construction of a vestibule, a shallow strip foundation (MZLF) with an insulated blind area is recommended, the distance from the edge of which to the support edge of the foundation is obviously greater than the freezing depth in a particular region. Under the tape, it is imperative to arrange a bedding of sand and gravel, compacted in layers.

It is desirable that the blind area on the side of the entrance door has a towering section about 100-120 cm wide and about 80 cm deep. In height, the porch should be at least 100 cm below the tape, it is recommended to fill this part monolithically with the foundation, having previously connected the reinforcement of both parts between themselves. Walls can be erected 10-14 days after the end of the concrete work. The material of the walls can be absolutely anything – from cinder block to a wooden frame and sandwich panels. However, it is recommended to start building the walls with a small parapet about 40 cm high, made with warm masonry material, for example, aerated concrete block. Like the foundation, the walls of the extension must have a damper seam at the points of contact with the house. Mechanical connection of frame walls with capital enclosing structures is allowed.

Selection of the degree of glazing

For an attached vestibule, glazing of the order of 20–25% of the wall area is highly desirable, but this is not always advisable. The benefits of glazing will be obvious only with sufficient quality insolation, for example, if the vestibule is located on the south side of the house, in the southeast or southwest corners.

The degree of glazing is not limited only if heating is not planned in the vestibule. Glazing systems based on aluminum and PVC are extremely popular nowadays. In the summer, the glazed vestibule will be like a steam room, where it is unbearably hot, in winter, the high thermal conductivity of the glass walls will not allow you to keep warm.

On the other hand, the complete absence of windows in the vestibule is also undesirable. Even a minimum of natural light will make the use of the extension much more convenient. One narrow window about a meter high with one swing-out sash will be enough. Naturally, the window should be placed on the most illuminated side of the vestibule.

An example of a vestibule made entirely of translucent materials. It protects from bad weather and looks very impressive, but it is not able to keep warm.

Roof and façade connection

Regardless of the configuration of the roof, it is recommended to display the walls in a common plane so that the ends form an almost finished Mauerlat. It is enough to fix on the walls along a massive beam of the order of 100X150 mm, after which you can proceed with the installation of the rafter system, the type of which determines the shape of the vestibule roof.

The simplest and cheapest option would be a pitched roof based on several sloped trusses. It is advisable that the slope from the roof of the vestibule is not directed towards the front door, while the release of the crate will make it possible to form a sufficiently wide soffit that can replace the canopy over the porch. The main benefit of this design is the easiest way to mate the roofing to the facade wall. It is enough to make a cut on the stone with a disc and insert the bead of the Z-shaped bar into it, sealing the junction with silicone sealant.

A slightly more complex type of roof will be a half-hip or gable with a small pediment. In this case, the abutment to the wall of the house will be formed by two inclined segments. These abutments, as in the case of a pitched roof, are made with Z-shaped strips, which overlap the full width in the ridge area, overlapping each other. Under the overlap of the strips adjacent to the wall, you should generously blow out silicone or bitumen sealant, and then press the connection with hardware. An additional difficulty in the construction of such a roof manifests itself when installing the ridge: in order to mask the overlap of the abutment slats, it may be necessary to make a special cutting element – a ridge plug with an external lapel.

Do you need insulation and heating

The main function of the vestibule is to form a protective zone in which the air is stationary, which reduces the outflow of heat from the front door. Thus, a small extension well protects the door from freezing, although the temperature inside it is only a few degrees higher than the outside temperature. However, the vestibule can also be used for more practical purposes..

A typical example is when it is necessary to dress a child: if you do this in a heated room, then at least one person will be dressed in warmth and will definitely overheat. Many of these actions are easier to carry out in a cool vestibule, which, even with minimal insulation, will not let go of the heat that penetrates from the house along with the heated air through an open door.

It is not difficult to insulate the vestibule: for frame walls, the insulation is provided in the cells between the racks, the stone extension can be safely insulated from the inside with materials with a reflective surface. At the same time, there should be no main heating in the vestibule: the removal of even several sections of the radiator will significantly cool the coolant.

In general, the ideal option is to organize a cold and warm zone along the floor in the vestibule. The latter is a small piece of heating cable laid in the floor in one of the inner corners. In this place, you can keep outdoor shoes, which, due to heating, will dry well overnight. And the opposite corner forms a cold zone for cooling cooked food and storing vegetables..

Installation of an entrance and internal door

It remains to deal with the last nuance – how to correctly place the inner and outer doors. It all depends on whether any valuable property will be stored in the vestibule. If yes, then the outer door must be strong steel, that is, the fence of access to the house occurs at the entrance to the vestibule itself. In this case, the front door is not subject to freezing and frost formation, but the inner one must be insulated..

If there is nothing of value in the vestibule, then the main door can be placed inside, making access to the extension practically unlimited or with the installation of the simplest English lock. Please note that a distance of 2–2.5 steps must be maintained between two doors so that in cold weather they are guaranteed not to be simultaneously open. Ideally, both doors should open into the vestibule.