The modern frame-panel structure has undergone some changes. Now, basically, lining is stuffed onto the timber base, from the inside and outside. A layer of insulation is laid between it.

Advantages and disadvantages of prefabricated frame-panel houses

One of the main advantages of frame construction is fast construction. If the panels are made at the factory, and ready-made walls are brought to the site, then assembling a 5X6 house with an attic floor takes only 10-12 hours! Record short time.

This allows the summer resident not to rack his brains about where the team of workers will live during the construction of the house. One of the disadvantages of such factory-produced frame-panel structures is the thickness of the timber. It is a material with a cross section of 50x50 mm.

If you want to have a more global structure, so that the frame is from 100x100 to 200x200 mm thick, then you need to accommodate workers for the entire construction period. They build a house from such timber only on the site. Factories do not assemble such heavy structures. But the owner will have the opportunity to see exactly what they use to insulate the walls and how thick they are made. After all, it is impossible to look inside the already finished imported walls.

Price is lower, housewarming is faster

Price is what also attracts customers who want to build their own or buy a frame-panel house. Such buildings are much cheaper than brick ones. The difference in price with log houses is 15-20%. Low cost is another argument in favor of frame-panel housing construction.

After a timber or log house has been erected, finishing work cannot be carried out on it immediately. It is necessary that such structures survive for a year. Only then can you install windows, doors, insulate the inside of the room, and cover it with finishing materials.

You can move into a frame house immediately after its construction. It is already finished inside and outside, it has doors and windows. And he doesn’t need to stand there to dry. Therefore, for those who want to celebrate a housewarming party as soon as possible, it will be optimal.

Inexpensive foundation, insufficient heat capacity

Expensive foundations - strip or pile - are erected for brick, log, and timber buildings. The frame-panel, even on clay soil, stands well on a columnar one, consisting of blocks of 20x20x40 cm, which are placed in 2 rows - one on top. The main thing is to build it not in a lowland, but on an elevated point on the site.

One of the disadvantages is the low heat capacity of the walls. It will be cold in such a house in winter. But this problem can also be solved. Let the internal insulation be not 5, but 10-15 cm. The outside walls can be lined with siding. Then in such a building, provided that heating devices are used, it will not be cold in winter. Without additional insulation, it is comfortable to live in a frame-panel house from April to November.

Frame house - pros and cons

Frame house construction is the fastest growing building construction technology today, especially for private developers. This is due to the many advantages of lightweight, prefabricated houses, while the development of construction technologies for monolithic buildings has gradually exhausted itself. And the improvement of frame technologies continues today, attracting more and more fans.

1. Main features of frame housing construction

The technology of frame house construction has several fundamental differences from traditional methods of housing construction. Monolithic house construction involves the use of monolithic materials as structural elements - brick, stone, wooden beams, wall blocks. Their high strength determines the structural stability of the house and the protection of its internal space from external influences. However, any monolithic materials have high thermal conductivity. This is a significant factor when heating houses built in a traditional way - after all, such houses do not retain heat well and require increased consumption of heat resources with low efficiency of their use. Huge expenses have to be spent on additional insulation of building elements.

Frame houses combine two main functions in their design - durability and insulation of the house. The design of frame houses assumes the presence of insulation in the wall materials, and the durability of the building is ensured by the frame, and the insulation occupies up to 75% of the volume of the entire wall material. This is the main difference between frame houses and monolithic ones.

The second difference, arising from the first, is the lightness of such houses. This is also due to the predominance of light and loose insulation material in the structure.

2. Construction of a frame house

The frame design is quite strong and rigid due to the structure of the “skeleton” of the building. In fact, the frame is to the same extent capable of distributing primarily vertical loads as monolithic buildings. It basically includes the weight of the roof and roof of the building.

The frame is made of durable materials - metal corners or pipes, and - most often - wooden beams. The fracture strength of the timber from vertical loads has very high parameters.

The weight of the roof and roofing, in particular, is distributed not over the entire monolithic wall, but into individual racks. This allows you to hold significant masses of snow, roofing, and also the rafter system.

Thus, a frame wall is a set of vertical frame posts connected to each other by upper and lower frames.

We see that, despite the relatively small number of racks, it can withstand significant vertical loads. This means that significantly less material is required for the structural strength of the walls than in traditional monolithic houses.

On the other hand, the frame has up to 75% cavities. Filling them with insulation is a major engineering development. Outside and inside, the insulation is held in place by sheathing sheet material.

The walls of a frame house are a layered structure called a “pie.” It contains insulation between the racks, in addition there are films of vapor barrier, waterproofing and wind protection.

Frame "pie"

3. Advantages of frame houses

The structural features of frame buildings determine significant advantages compared to traditional methods of building houses:
Saving materials. Consumption building material for a stable frame is significantly lower than in monolithic buildings. Namely, they determine the main expenses for construction.
Saving Money– the cost of insulation, which makes up most of the wall materials, is significantly lower than that of bricks, blocks, timber and logs.
Speed of construction – simplicity of the frame structure and minimization of labor-intensive processes ensures short construction times. You can put up a box at home from ready-made blocks in literally a day. Lightweight foundations also help speed up construction.
Use of lightweight foundations. The light weight of a frame house does not require laying monolithic foundations. Prefabricated foundations on screw piles are often used. Such a foundation does not require curing time and is installed in one or two days.
High quality insulation. The construction of frame walls like a thermos helps to conserve heat and reduce the cost of heating a house. With the same insulation of the house, the thickness of the walls is significantly lower than the thickness of, for example, a brick wall. Even if you make the brickwork thinner, it needs to be additionally insulated with a layer of thermal insulation.
No shrinkage of the house, since either metal or dried wood is used in the construction of the frame. This allows the house to be put into operation immediately after construction. Door and window openings are not deformed.
The great variability in building design is due to the ability to give the main frame a varied shape.
Lightweight interior and exterior decoration of houses - due to the evenness of the slabs used for cladding frame blocks.
Environmentally friendly - environmentally friendly materials are used in construction, such as wood or metal, as well as insulation.
Resistance to temperature fluctuations - the structure of the frame itself, made of dried wood or metal, distributes the loads resulting from tension-compression cycles of individual elements throughout the entire frame.
All-season construction. There is not a single stage of constructing a frame house that cannot be carried out in winter.
Seismic resistance. Despite the fact that the frame is a hinged structure, its elements are rigidly connected to each other by a system of jibs and crossbars. A light, plastic house can withstand soil vibrations more easily than a non-plastic monolithic one.
Ease of installation - it’s easy to build a house with your own hands if you strictly adhere to the project and have the necessary construction skills.
Easy to dismantle. To dismantle any parts of the house, it is enough to disassemble the structure, assembled from individual elements and connected with detachable fasteners
Easy installation of utility networks - it is due to the design of the walls and the sheet material of the cladding. It is enough to cut the sheathing slab to reach the frame cavity.
Increased wind resistance. It is due to the “pie” of the frame and the presence of a windproof film.
Sheathing density and absence of gaps in the structure.
A comfortable microclimate in the room is due to the fact that the main material for the frame and cladding is wood.

4. Disadvantages of frame houses.

Along with the fact that frame housing construction has a number of positive properties, their design features themselves predetermine some disadvantages:

Fire hazard. It is due to the fact that the frame house is based on wood. When ignited, it burns well, at the same time, insulation, especially such as basalt wool, does not belong to the class of combustible materials. To prevent increased fire hazard of wood, it is subjected to fire-resistant impregnation. Such impregnations prevent wood from igniting upon contact with an open flame.
Increased requirements for ventilation of houses. Since frame houses are made according to a thermos-type design, air exchange in them is difficult. This requires the creation of forced ventilation systems, and, consequently, additional expenses.
High exposure to dampness. This is due to the same thermos design of the building and insufficient ventilation. In addition, the climate in the house is significantly influenced by the vapor permeability of its elements. In this regard, it is necessary to take additional measures to avoid increased humidity in the house, and, as a result, the occurrence of fungus and mold.
Reduced sound insulation. If you do not take additional measures for thermal insulation, then you must admit that frame houses conduct sounds well. The noise level can be reduced by installing a thicker layer of insulation in the walls.
Instability to vibration. The articulation of the structure reacts quite sensitively to vibration associated, for example, with the impact of a nearby highway or railway.
Insufficient strength of walls from mechanical influences. However, materials such as a thick sheet of OSB, especially with impregnation, are not easy to destroy. And why would a thief rip open walls when he can, for example, break glass in a window - it is just as fragile as in a brick house.

Dampness is a companion of a frame house with poor ventilation

5. Conclusion

The listed advantages and disadvantages of frame housing construction determine the developer’s choice in favor of one or another method of building his own house. The main factor determining the choice of construction technology is still the price and speed of building a house. And in this regard, frame houses are noticeably ahead among other types of buildings.

A frame house is an excellent option for the construction of country houses and garages, which do not require special solidity and fundamentality. The price of the house is suitable for young families and retirees. In short, the popularity of frame housing construction is increasing every year.

The K-DOM company has been working in the housing construction market for several years. Construction of frame houses is one of the main directions of our activity. We independently build foundations on screw piles and produce frame frames as elements for the construction of building frames.

Our specialists will develop a turnkey project for a frame house of any complexity, and builders will carry out all the work - from laying the foundation to installing utilities.

Construction technologies are developing rapidly and offering more and more interesting solutions for people who want to build their own home. Frame houses are beginning to become very popular. Especially for people who want to save as much money and resources as possible in this difficult process.

Before talking about the advantages and disadvantages of a frame house, let's look at the technological structure of this structure. So, the main supporting structure is the frame, which is most often made of wooden boards. This material is environmentally friendly and easy to process.

A lower frame made of timber measuring 150*150 mm is laid on the strip foundation, the size of which depends on the load it accepts (area of the house, number of floors). For vertical racks, 150*50 mm boards are used, which are installed end-to-end on the timber and secured with a galvanized metal corner. The optimal width between the posts is approximately 60 cm. It also depends on the chosen insulation material, which is foam or stone wool slabs. Next, the upper harness is made from the same timber as for the lower one. The entire structure is sheathed with OSB sheets.

The roof consists of a rafter system and a roof. The choice of roof depends on the layout of the house and appearance. It can be flat or with a slope of one plane, gable, multi-slope. The gable form of construction is most often used due to its simplicity and convenience. It is quickly installed and easy to care for. Insulation is also laid between the rafters, lathing is made and covered with ondulin, slate, tiles and other roofing materials.

On the façade side, materials such as brick, siding, lining, and log house are used to decorate the walls. That is, a frame house from the outside may look like a brick or log house. Here everything is limited only by your imagination. Now let's move on to the pros and cons. Moreover, the advantages are much greater than the disadvantages.

Advantages of frame houses

This section will discuss the advantages of frame houses over other types of structures. Comparisons are made with houses made of brick, blocks and logs. So, the advantages:

Speed of construction. A frame house can be built in a few months. Especially if there are several people working in a team. This is a significant advantage over a brick house, the construction of which can take several seasons.
Low cost. The construction budget directly depends on the area and complexity of the design of the future home. If we take, for example, an ordinary one-story house with a gable roof, then it will belong to the economy class. The cost will be comparable to buying an apartment or even slightly lower. But if you are planning a multi-storey building with complex architecture and using expensive finishing materials, then you will have to shell out more money, since it will belong to the premium class. But in general, the cost of building a frame house will be significantly lower than using brick or aerated concrete blocks.
High level of sound insulation. There is an opinion that frame walls are echoing and do not absorb sound well. But if the wall fillers are selected correctly and technologically installed correctly, then the sound insulation will be at the highest level.
Low degree of thermal conductivity. If the construction of a frame house is planned in a region with low temperatures, then by increasing the thickness of the walls along with insulation, small heat losses can be achieved. Such walls retain heat very well, which allows you to significantly save on heating costs. And on hot days, the temperature inside the room is kept at a stable and comfortable level for humans.
Internal communications. Laying electrical wiring, ventilation ducts, and pipelines is not difficult and requires special tools. You will need the bare minimum: a drill or powerful screwdriver, a set of wood core drills and fasteners.
Environmental Safety. Since the structure is made of wood, it is completely safe for humans and other inhabitants of the home. Internal materials (insulation, OSB boards) are a product of natural processing and also do not pose a threat to health.
Simplicity of interior decoration. There is no need for plastering or leveling the walls, since they are sheathed with sheets of plasterboard. You just need to putty the joints between the sheets and the surface is ready for painting or wallpapering. This significantly reduces the finishing time and saves money.
Lightweight foundation. The weight of the entire house allows it to be erected on a foundation without going deep, since the load is very low compared to walls made of bricks or blocks. This allows you to quickly cast a strip foundation and begin assembling the walls.

Disadvantages of frame houses

Speaking about the disadvantages of a frame house, first of all I would like to note that most of them do not interfere with a comfortable life for a person. In addition, the main mythical drawback is the negative attitude towards them in Russia, since many mistakenly believe that these houses are suitable only for seasonal living. Let's look at what disadvantages such houses have.

Increased fire hazard. There is an opinion that a frame house is more susceptible to fire than a house made of brick and reinforced concrete structures. But this is fundamentally wrong. Special fire-retardant impregnation of the wooden frame can withstand fire. It is impossible to completely remove the ability to burn, but with the use of special means it is possible to increase the degree of resistance to the influence of fire on wood. Inside a brick house there are also elements made of wood and other flammable materials, which classifies it as an object of increased fire hazard. So this cannot be considered a minus, since a frame house is on equal terms with other types of structures. Moreover, it is much easier to eliminate the consequences of a fire at a frame house than to demolish and remove what is left of a brick house.
Low service life of the building. The average service life of a frame house is 25-30 years. Which is quite a long time. But this does not mean that after this time the structure will collapse. It is enough to inspect the condition of the floor, walls and roof and replace the insulation that has become unusable.

When building a frame house, it is important to use special wood impregnations that will protect it from moisture, fungus and premature aging.

Frame houses are gaining popularity in our country. The technology that came from Europe is partly familiar to Russians: its harbinger can be called prefabricated panel houses. The main advantage of frame houses is their cost; according to the portal domzastroika.ru, on average, 30% less is spent on the construction of such a structure than on building a house made of brick or concrete.

You will also be able to save money when operating your home—on heating. Its walls consist almost entirely of insulation, so it has excellent thermal insulation. This will also be a plus in the summer heat: the same layer of insulation will prevent heat from entering the house.

In addition, among the advantages of this technology, experts note the absence of wet processes during construction, as well as the ability to assemble a house at any time of the year, as long as the materials are dry. The site postroj-sam.ru notes that a frame house does not require a strong foundation, and this will greatly simplify the work and save time. In general, the construction of a frame house is faster than buildings made from traditional materials; less labor resources are also required.

However, some professionals are convinced that frame construction is not suitable for use in Russian conditions. But this point is quite controversial, because building from any material has not only advantages, but also disadvantages.

Construction of a frame house from compressed straw blocks. Photo: RIA Novosti / Kirill Kallinikov

What are the disadvantages of a frame house?

The site remoskop.ru notes that such a building has two significant disadvantages: rodents and sound conductivity of the walls. Indeed, the walls of a frame house will not be able to protect against the penetration of mice or rats. But there is a solution: experts propose to provide a columnar foundation and a higher base, as well as pre-treat the materials with a special bioprotective impregnation.

Low noise insulation of the building is due to the fact that the mass of the structure is small. It will not be possible to completely block out sound from the street, especially if there is a road or railways. But choosing a thicker layer of insulation will help reduce noise, advises remoskop.ru.

Also, a typical problem with frame houses is their fragility. Depending on the regularity of repairs and the quality of care, they can last from 30 to 70 years, but remoskop.ru experts note that the frame can last 100 or even 150 years. But it should still be borne in mind that frame construction is not intended for a family to live in a house for generations. A frame house is inferior in strength to brick and concrete structures, and moreover, it gradually loses it, as it becomes loose from the wind. But at the same time, the structure is designed to withstand a magnitude 7 earthquake, notes the website remoskop.ru.

The next important point that those who are thinking about building a frame house should pay attention to is its fire hazard. To protect yourself from fire, the site postroj-sam.ru advises treating all wooden elements with a special impregnation before use, and choosing only non-combustible materials for the filler. When conducting electricity, the wires should be placed in a special corrugation, and the places where heating devices will be located, such as a boiler or stove, should be finished with fireproof materials.

The portal domzastroika.ru also lists susceptibility to rot as one of the disadvantages of frame houses. Indeed, in frame houses dampness can form and mold can appear behind the baseboards and wallpaper. But experts advise periodically treating with an antiseptic, and at the construction stage it is good to think through the ventilation system.

Also at the construction stage, the accuracy of manufacturing and joining of frame parts is of great importance. Therefore, for beginners in construction matters, this can also become a kind of disadvantage. Experts recommend that those who already have some experience take on the construction of frame houses. The same applies to construction companies; postroj-sam.ru advises contacting only those companies that specialize exclusively in frame construction.

Well, the last disadvantage of frame houses, which owners do not immediately pay attention to, is the ability to drive a nail into the wall only in the place where there is timber. Therefore, when planning the interior, you should calculate in detail where you can hang pictures, sconces and shelves.

Frame houses on this moment very popular due to the high speed of construction, excellent reliability of structures and often relatively low costs of materials.

If desired, such a structure can be created alone, having the appropriate skills. Of course, all these advantages make many enthusiasts lean towards this particular construction option. However, you should not forget that frame houses also have certain disadvantages that are not recommended to be ignored. In this article we will look at the main ones.

Key Features

At the design stage, it is worth considering that a frame house has a much more complex construction scheme than a brick one.

Therefore, when assembling it, it is critical to observe all the nuances of the technology. The frame layout is calculated based on an understanding of the load, calculation of elasticity and other technical properties of the material used, therefore, for stability and durability, extreme precision in the connection of each part is required. When constructing, for example, a brick building, everything is somewhat simpler, since the masonry has a more primitive structure. The technology for assembling a wooden dwelling is even clearer in this regard.

Since the variety of materials used plays a significant role in a frame house, a lot will depend on their quality.

When constructing such a building, you should pay special attention to all joints, to avoid the risk of walls blowing in or fillings sagging

The difficulty also lies in the perfect fit of all parts of the cladding; this procedure can be quite labor-intensive, especially when using small panel elements

With the right approach, such a house is truly energy-saving, but achieving this in practice is not so easy: you need experience and a rational selection of consumables

Typical disadvantages of frame houses

Many practicing builders believe that frame houses are not very well suited to Russian realities. In domestic construction, these technologies are not so widespread, which means that serious experience and knowledge have not been accumulated that could make this phenomenon common. Not many people decide to assemble such a creation on their own; in case of unforeseen situations, the help of an experienced specialist will have to be sought longer than in a similar situation with other types of houses.

Some opinions about frame houses are based on the philistine view and myths, others - on experience and knowledge. We want to dispel myths and place emphasis on objective problems. So, the basic disadvantages:

Such houses are often criticized for their fragility. Undoubtedly, such a building, unlike its brick or wooden counterpart, will probably not stand unchanged for more than a hundred years. However, it is believed that everything depends on the operating mode and climatic conditions: if major repairs are carried out every 25-30 years, the service life, if all circumstances are successful, can be unlimited. During the repair process, you will have to remove the casing, update the insulation and film.
The thin wood frame burns really well. That is why the fire hazard of frame houses causes a lot of negativity in their direction. Countering this risk is to use the correct non-combustible insulation. Additionally, you can treat the frame with special anti-irritation compounds
Wooden structures are also susceptible to rotting; the manifestation of this effect will primarily depend on humidity. A properly selected antiseptic will help reduce the negative impact
Compared to conventional houses made of brick or concrete, a frame structure has fairly low noise insulation. In rural areas, this can often be ignored, when there are almost no loud sounds around, although you should not forget about the wind and similar factors. The proximity of roads or rails a priori makes it necessary to use good noise-absorbing materials
Not all frame houses can be considered environmentally friendly. When assembling the sheathing, materials are used that contain synthetic substances that are not very beneficial to human health in the long term: this applies to plasterboard or oriented strand board. The significance of this point is a controversial issue, since any home today is treated with a huge number of impregnations, antiseptics and fire retardants, which also cannot but have some effect on humans
The walls of a frame house may well contain hordes of pests. There are no problems with termites in Russian realities - this is the lot of the USA and Canada. However, for domestic owners of such homes there is another threat - mice. Most often they appear in houses with cheap filling, for example, polystyrene foam. Ecowool is the best option at the moment, a simple solution that produces an environment where rodents, by definition, do not grow

Problems and solutions

Among other things, there are a number of less obvious difficulties that are also worth focusing the attention of an attentive builder and engineer.

Materials

When setting the task of creating a frame house yourself, you will probably encounter an unexpected, but quite obvious difficulty. Materials for such buildings are not so widespread, there is no competition in the market for their sale, therefore, not all stores sell them, often at far from reasonable prices.

This concerns, first of all, export materials whose real value is much lower than the price at which they are sold here. The price tag for OPS for roofing or tongue-and-groove plywood is many times too high. The solution to this issue is to search for suppliers, visit websites and constantly monitor the situation. Pay attention to the season: in April, almost all consumables will be significantly cheaper than at the end of summer.

Monitoring compliance with technology

If the construction is carried out by a less than conscientious contractor, he may well hide low-quality or damaged material under a layer of cladding. In the case of most other houses, for example, timber or stone, this is much more difficult, since they consist almost entirely of the same material.

In the case of a frame house, the owner can find out about defects during construction in a month or a year, throughout this period he suffers, not understanding what the problem is.

Ventilation

Ventilation is required for the frame; note that for houses made of timber or logs this is not a prerequisite. Here it is necessary for durability: insulation and finishing must be constantly protected from steam. Design and installation are quite expensive, but you can turn to Western technology: combine ventilation with a system that combines the functionality of heating and air conditioning.

Wiring

Russian specifics require a specific PUE standard for houses. According to the standards, wires must run in metal pipes with junction boxes and socket boxes. The approach is really strange; all over the world they use safe wires laid in cuts directly along the frame. Using the second technology, working is much easier and faster, so residents of Russia will have to work a little harder during construction than a builder in any other country.

Western buildings of this type are assembled from calibrated boards, which are available in all types and, as they say, for every taste. It cannot be compared with a classic edged board, since attaching drywall to the latter is much more difficult. As soon as, and this will happen sooner or later, it will be officially possible to create frame houses using Canadian technology, a significant part of their disadvantages will be crossed off the list.

Qualification of performers

Professional teams specializing in frame houses are extremely rare. Construction technologies of this type in Russia are not so well developed: ordinary people are characterized by conservatism: not trusting frames is a common thing.

This can be understood, since such work must be absolutely error-free; accordingly, strict demands are made on the qualifications of performers. Often a detailed design and engineering research is required, so behind the cost-effectiveness of a frame house in terms of materials there can be a lot of costs for the intellectual component. Since you are planning to build a frame house, do not try to skimp on the quality of the contractors’ work.