Residential Construction Techniques

/by

When it comes to building a house, the menu of available building methods ranges from well-known and widely used, such as for example stick-built homes made of lumber, to strategies steadily gathering popularity like light-gauge steel-framing, to age-old practices like earthen-block building and masonry which are used in specialty tasks.

How do you pick the material and building technique that most readily useful fits your needs? Let’s first get to know the fundamentals behind the most common building practices.

Construction methods – what’s available?

Heavy framing includes building methods like post-and-beam construction, also called wood framing, where big, heavy wood beams are utilized in place of dimensional lumber (wood slice to standard proportions such as 2×4, 2×6, etc.), and hefty metal framing which are observed in skyscrapers along with other large commercial buildings. Light framing is typically done using dimensional lumber or light-gauge steel, with all the building’s structural skeleton of lumber or steel elements assembled piece by piece.

Other building practices including masonry (building with individual rocks or bricks held collectively by mortar), reinforced or unreinforced concrete (a product made from an assortment of gravel, sand, cement and liquid), rammed-earth obstructs (foundations made from compressed planet), and Structural insulated panels (SIPs) (sandwich panels with engineered timber on two edges and insulation between) may be used separately or in conjunction with frames to construct domiciles, but the majority of these methods are employed in combination with a-frame in america and Canada.

Platform/Stick Framing with Wood

By far the most common option to build property in Canada and the United States is utilizing “platform” or “stick” framing, also known as “stick-built”. System framing makes use of individual pieces of dimensional lumber (more individualized on location toward specific necessary dimensions) which are assembled piece by piece to form the framework of a property. With this building method the platform or foundation is made very first, followed by the wall space regarding the first degree of the house (made up of straight bits of lumber), and then an extra platform for the second-story floor with all the walls regarding the second-story anchored into the 2nd platform. The whole framed framework usually sits on a concrete basis, which will be put in place before building commences. The wood frame is made totally on location, piece by piece.

System framing needs studs (vertical 2x4s), becoming put every 12, 16, or 24 inches to create up the walls. Evenly-placed men make certain that wall space built to work as architectural supports can keep the extra weight they need to carry, but do put limits on elements such as the quantity and size of house windows in a house, therefore the period of available covers in the framework.

Following the framework was finished, wiring, insulation and paneling are positioned positioned, followed closely by the completing external and interior elements.

Typically, platform framed timber homes are built utilizing all load-bearing wall space, along with rafters offering help for a pitched roof. Building codes were founded which purely control all aspects of system framed wood domiciles, making domiciles with different architectural elements (big spans, cantilevers, screen walls) difficult for this construction.

Engineered Wood Items (EWPs)

Designed Wood items (EWPs), materials made by binding particles, materials or veneers of wood together with adhesives, tend to be found in framed residence building. Many commonly known and used EWPs include plywood and focused strand board (OSB); frequently these lumber panels are connected to the men of a framed wall surface to offer extra structural support and the areas for wall space. EWPs can also come in the form of engineered posts and beams that are stronger than beams cut from timber, and are used for specialty projects.

Another kind of EWPs are architectural insulated panels (SIPs) – panels made from an internal level of insulating foam core sandwiched between two sheets of EWPs, typically OSBs. SIP panels could be used to protect a home’s framing, but could also be used instead of a-frame, making up the complete architectural support of a house. Their particular power and size can offer advantages over standard platform framing for several forms of house design.