Building a building is a costly business; independent design of a bath can help significantly reduce costs. Having some skills, you can develop a drawing yourself. What does it mean and what are the norms for building a bathhouse in a summer cottage?
Seat selection
Before starting any work on the site, you should determine the location of the future bath. In this case, you should consider how much space you need to devote for the construction. You also need to consider all possible adjacent buildings - summer kitchen, garage, lounge, bathroom.
Most often, the bathhouse is a freestanding building near the house. In some cases, it makes sense to connect the buildings with a terrace. When designing a bath, the topography of the site should also be taken into account. If it has an uneven surface, then it is recommended to have a sauna on a raised platform. If there is a pond near the site, the bathhouse should be removed from it by at least 15 m.
When choosing a place for construction on a site, you should first of all be guided by your own interests and convenience. So, for example, most often the baths are located near the apartment building so that in the cold season there was no need to dress warmly to reach the steam room.
Building dimensions
The calculation of the size of the future building is determined from the maximum number of people that it can accommodate. On average, 5-6 people visit baths and saunas at the same time. For such a number of vacationers, the optimal bath size is 6.0x4.0 m. At the same time, the building accommodates a steam room, a relaxation room, a shower room and a bathroom.
When designing a bath, personal preferences of the owner of the site are taken into account. Sometimes lounges are added, which can play the role of a guest house, as well as additional equipment for the main rooms. Their sizes should coincide with the desired amount of furniture, and also have a sufficient amount of free space for a comfortable stay of guests.
On average, one person in a steam room needs 1 square meter. m of space and, accordingly, 1.5-2 square meters. m in the rest room. The height of the shelves in the steam room should be comfortable even for people with high stature. On average, if the height of the shelves from the floor is 0.9 m, then the ceiling height should be at least 2.1 m. Too high ceilings should not be done either, as it will take more time and fuel to heat the entire building.
When designing Russian baths, the dimensions of the shelves in the steam room are laid, which are stationary and are attached to the wall. The optimal size is 0.5 m in width, while the length is determined by the size of the pair.
Dressing room (or vestibule)
First of all, the person entering the bath gets into the dressing room. It is a small room, which is designed for changing clothes, storing things, stocking firewood for the stove.
If the space of the room allows, the dressing room can accommodate furniture - a table, chairs or benches, cabinets for storing things. The room also has windows. They should be located at least 1 m above the floor and have double glazing. The front door is provided for standard - 1.8x0.8 m, with a mechanism for opening to the outside. If the bath involves winter use, attention should be paid to the insulation of the door.
Steam room
When designing baths and saunas, special attention is always paid to the steam room, since this room is the key in the building. It should have good waterproofing to protect the walls of the building from damage under the influence of moisture and high temperatures.
The main equipment of the steam room is undoubtedly the oven. The ideal option is to build a brick oven, but it has large dimensions and may not fit into a small bathhouse for 2-3 people.
A metal furnace is also a common option due to the affordable cost of acquisition and installation. At the same time, it is necessary to protect it from people with a thin low wall made of brick in order to avoid possible burns from accidental touches. In order for such a stove to effectively heat the entire building of the bathhouse, it should be positioned so that the firebox is in the relaxation room and the heater is in the steam room.
Windows are not provided in the steam room; it is recommended to install a ventilation duct for air circulation. If you still want to have a window in the steam room, you should use the following recommendations:
- the window should have double glazing;
- optimal sizes are 0.3x0.3 m;
- There is a window under the ceiling of the room.
If you make a window opening on the west side, you can get more natural light. The door to the steam room should not be too high, it has parameters of 1.5x0.8 m and a high threshold.
Shower room
Design and construction of baths always provides for a shower room, even if the space for construction is limited. It is used to rinse before or after visiting the bath, also in the hot season it can serve as a summer shower.
The shower room is equipped with a boiler for heating water, or a central water supply is supplied to the building. In this case, it is important to determine how the water will be discharged - the central sewage system or the arrangement of a septic tank (cesspool).
Norms when designing a bath assume the following parameters for equipping a shower:
- the room, which is designed for 3 people, must have parameters of not less than 1.8x1.8 square meters. m;
- when equipping showers, the space should be calculated at 0.9 m each;
- if a window is required, it should be located at a height of at least 1.5 m from the floor and have a double glazed window;
- The door to the shower room is standard - 1.8x0.8 m.
If the space of the site allows for the construction of the bath, a pool or a font is arranged in the shower.
Bathroom Design
Without a toilet, it is impossible to imagine almost any structure that has the functions of a sauna or a living room. To equip a minimum bathroom for placing one toilet, 1.2 x 0.8 square meters are required. m. In the presence of additional plumbing or furniture, the area, respectively, increases. Most often, the bathroom equipment consists of a toilet bowl, sink, mirror, laundry basket and a washing machine.
The foundation of the bath
When designing baths, houses should be located at a distance of at least 10 m, so smoke from the chimney will not blow into the living quarters. In addition, much attention should be paid to the foundation. There are several varieties:
- The screw foundation is the fastest in construction, as well as relatively inexpensive. In addition, the design allows for installation work at any time of the year on any kind of soil.
- Tape foundations are often used for the construction of buildings with two or more floors. It is a moat filled with reinforced concrete, which is located around the perimeter of the structure. Construction can take several weeks, given the complete curing of the concrete mortar.
- Column foundation is an economical solution for small one-story saunas. It is a column of asbestos-cement pipes that are installed in the ground and poured with concrete mortar. Requires minor earthworks.
The choice of the type of foundation depends on the size of the structure, as well as the variety of soil and the personal wishes of the owner of the site.
Foundation for the furnace
When designing a bath, a brick or metal stove may be provided. In the first case, heating equipment requires the construction of a separate base. Moreover, its depth should be not less than the depth of the main foundation.
In appearance of the finished base, the foundation for the furnace looks like a pedestal. At the same time, it should be located slightly higher than the floor covering. Since the construction of a brick kiln involves a large weight load, as well as heating, the foundation for the kiln is erected using a large amount of crushed stone of different fractions, which is poured with a cement-sand mixture.
Room ventilation system
Ventilation of the building can be carried out by opening the windows that are provided in each room of the bath, or a ventilation system is designed.
In this case, supply and exhaust channels are developed that have the same diameters. If the construction is planned from a log house, then you can cope with the problem of ventilation of the premises by simply leaving the lower crowns fastening free so that air can circulate through the cracks.
The choice of material for construction
In the recommendations for the design of baths from professional builders, you can find the following popular building materials for the construction of a steam room:
- Log saunas. Such types of wood are suitable for construction - debarked, scribbled, rounded, planed log, carriage. They have differences in the degree of processing, but are equally used for the construction of steam rooms.
- Glued beam saunas have a relatively affordable construction cost, as well as the ability to design a bath with a complex design.
- Brick buildings have gained popularity due to their durability, but such structures cannot be called cheap. When choosing a brick as a building material, special attention should be paid to ventilation.
- Baths of gas silicate blocks can be installed even on problematic soils, since they do not require a reinforced foundation. At the same time, the building material is light in weight and large in size. In addition, it is easily machined to change shape.
Calculations on the number of necessary building materials can be performed in computer programs for designing baths or manually, while all the nuances of the future building that affect the dimensions should be taken into account.