It is simply impossible to imagine a summer cottage without at least a small building for household purposes. To build such a barn with your own hands, as befits a real owner, is quite simple. It is only necessary to have the necessary supply of materials (in most cases, wood boards are used) and some skill. You may also need help from a friend. And sometimes (if the shed is large) it will be necessary to call a crane.
As a rule, on the acquired site, a temporary building first grows, which can later become a stable for animals. It is necessary to build a barn in the shortest possible time, while not spending significant funds on its construction. Sometimes, if such a need arises, several such buildings are built on the site that have different purposes.
What does the barn serve for?
Ancillary buildings can serve as a pantry for garden equipment. For this purpose, they, perhaps, are built most often. Often people tend to build a barn for chickens and breeding pets. Also , outbuildings often serve as a place for storing solid fuel and are used as workshops.
It is very important to determine what function the barn will perform before starting work. To build correctly, as well as choose a location, without this it will be very problematic. If it is not good enough to think through all the nuances and features, it is possible that in the near future it will be necessary to completely dismantle the building and build it in a new way.
What material to build a barn in the country?
Again, the choice in favor of a building material will largely depend on what the barn is intended for, as well as weather conditions for a particular climate zone. Just like ordinary private residential buildings, you can build a barn in the country from a timber, from a brick, from aerated concrete blocks, put together from boards, use corrugated board. Due to the relative cheapness and practicality, the most common material is wood.
Appearance, service life, internal temperature will depend on the material used in construction. In the event that after the construction of a residential building on the site there are quite a lot of building materials, they can be put into the barn. How to build it is a personal matter for everyone. In this case, most often the barn becomes a logical continuation of the house and does not separate from it (that is, it is attached closely). This strategy saves a lot of money.
Choosing a place to build a building
How to build a barn correctly and in the right place? The location of the building is dictated by its purpose. A convenient approach to the barn should be provided at any time of the year and in any weather. It is not necessary, but highly desirable to choose a plot with stony soil unsuitable for cultivating crops.
How to build a barn on a site with a significant slope? In this case, it is recommended to choose the highest possible construction site. Indeed, in the winter, the building will become mired in snowdrifts, and during the off-season it will sink in puddles. In addition, the construction of a house in the lowland will require additional costs for the construction of a high foundation and its waterproofing.
Often the barn is knocked out of the boards that are at hand. Such a structure, of course, will not be outwardly particularly attractive. Therefore, the owners seek to hide it behind a residential building so that it is not visible to passers-by from the street.
In order to mask from prying eyes, you can build a barn, like a bathroom, in the back of the garden, under the cover of shrubs. It is advisable that the firewood be kept as close as possible to the apartment building. Therefore, they also try to move the firewood shed as close as possible, and often even attach it to the living room.
If the barn is planned to be used as a repair shop, then it should be removed from it as much as possible. Otherwise, the operation of equipment or a sledgehammer will disturb the peace of the residents of the country house. Experts advise building the workshop buildings so that their windows face east and south, and there are no massive trees nearby. So it will be the most efficient use of natural light.
Thus, it is completely uncomplicated to build a barn in the country with your own hands. It is important only to immediately determine the place where to place it, as well as its functional purpose.
Foam Block Shed
The foam block is a rather expensive material, but it also serves for a long time. Its advantage over other building materials is the simplicity of working with it.
In general, the construction of such a barn is reduced to the following steps:
- Foundation site preparation. At this stage, weed is cut down, the territory is freed from garbage. The topsoil (up to half a meter) is cut off.
- Foundation pouring. This technological operation is not recommended to be carried out in the period of rains and the increased moisture. It should be sunny and warm outside. But at the same time, the solution must not be allowed to dry out. Therefore, on hot summer days, it is necessary to regularly pour water over the foundation before starting the construction of walls.
- The foundation is covered with a waterproofing material, which is recommended to use roofing material.
- A cement mixture is being prepared: cement and sand are mixed in a ratio of 1: 4;
- Foam blocks are being laid. First, the corners are laid out. Blocks are placed exactly, for which you need to use the level. Door and window openings are formed.
- A roof is being erected. The foam block is a very strong and reliable module. Therefore, the roof can be any, even of very heavy materials;
- Installation of windows and doors.
- Exterior and interior decoration.
This type of barn is quite difficult to build on your own. Professional builders will do this work an order of magnitude more efficiently and quickly.
Types of foundations for sheds and their construction
Wooden piles or concrete poles are the most optimal option for a shed with a wooden frame at the base. Such a foundation is simple enough to build. Both the barn and other buildings stand perfectly on stilts and are not subject to the damaging effects of moist soil.
Externally, such a foundation is made up of pillars, built in the transverse and longitudinal directions with a certain hard-set step, which can take on different values from one and a half to two and a half meters. The specific value depends on the dimensions of the barn, on the cross-section of the lag, as well as on the features of the internal layout. The thicker the logs, the higher their bearing capacity, the greater the distance is allowed between the supports of the foundation.
Be sure to make at least a sketch of the future building on a piece of paper. In general, it is desirable, of course, to draw a full-fledged project. For obvious reasons, the idea of the owner of the site is not always always implemented on paper. As a result, mistakes are made during installation and repeated alterations.
The use of this type of foundation allows you to build a barn cheaply and quickly. As an alternative to wood, when arranging a column foundation, it is also allowed to use bricks, prefabricated reinforced concrete structures, as well as metal or plastic rigid pipes. Moreover, if pipes will be used, then after installation, all cavities are poured with a cement solution.
The outlines of the future foundation are always set by a rope tied to hammered pegs.
Pillars or a metal pipe are buried at least half a meter in depth. Chemical treatment and resin coating will delay decay by a decade. Thus, these simple measures can significantly extend the life of the building.
Foundation strapping
In order to carry out the binding, you will need a massive wooden beam with side sizes of 100 by 100 millimeters. In the event that the number of supports is limited to nine columns spaced a considerable distance, it is necessary to use beams with a section of 150 by 150 millimeters. The floor is laid on the logs (boards with a thickness of at least 40 millimeters).
Laying such a foundation is simple and can be done with your own hands. Building a barn, like a foundation, is also easy. It is important not to depart from generally accepted rules.
It is important to impregnate each element of wood with a special solution. Such processing will not allow the wood to rot, and will also make it resistant to ignition in contact with an open fire.
Foundation posts must be insulated. For this purpose, they are wrapped with sheets of roofing material or covered with a layer of hot resin (tar).
When cutting lags along the length at the ends, grooves and protrusions are cut out respectively, which engage and are fastened with construction nails or pins with a diameter of 20 millimeters. To install the latter, you will need to drill through holes.
How to install a floorboard
This operation is carried out simply. The boards are simply screwed to the lags. It is necessary to ensure a tight fit of the boards to one another.
In the case when it is planned to store large loads in the room, it makes sense to think about arranging a concrete floor. In this case, empty space from the surface of the floor to the ground must be covered with sand or soil, and then pour concrete screed.
Special impregnations for concrete are on sale. It is recommended to use such a tool to extend the life of the screed and prevent its destruction due to absorption of moisture.
Installation of vertical supports
As can be seen from the photo, it is impossible to build a barn without installing vertical load-bearing supports. For them, it is recommended to take bars up to three meters in length. Before fixing the rack, it must be put in its intended place and re-check everything again. In the lower end at the intersection of the diagonals, a blind hole with a diameter of 20 millimeters is drilled. The beam is brought into an upright position and is mounted on the dowel (the landing must be tight). After that, the rack and logs are securely fastened together using self-tapping screws and metal corners. And be sure to screw the corners and metal plates around the entire perimeter of the cross-section of the rack.
The racks fixed from below are rather unstable and, if a gust of wind blows, they can fall, tearing self-tapping screws at the base with the root. To prevent this from happening, you need to fasten all the racks with rails.
Top racks
For the upper harness, it is allowed to use bars of a smaller cross section than those used from below. By analogy with the lower trim, grooves and protrusions for engagement are cut out. Then everything is clear - with the help of a ladder or a crane (if the bar is massive and heavy) we lift the element up and fasten it to the posts with self-tapping screws.
By choosing this technology, you can cheaply build a barn with your own hands. Be that as it may, the final decision rests with the owner of the site.
Roof installation
For the roof of the barn, you can use a wooden rectangular beam with sides in the cross section of 25x15 millimeters. Boards must be attached to the rafters. For this purpose, as a rule, construction nails are used. Boards are stacked from each other at a distance of 15 centimeters. The extreme rafters are supported in the middle by bars mounted on the upper harness.
It remains only to insulate the roof (if necessary) and carry out roofing. Preference should be given to light materials - corrugated board or metal tile.
Roofing is carried out in the following order: the lathing is covered with waterproofing material. Sheets of roofing material are laid from left to right with a certain overlap. As fasteners, self-tapping screws are used.
The easiest way to build a shed. The roof of such a building is a plane with a slight slope away from the site (so that water does not flood the garden).
Recommendations of experienced builders and summer residents
A tree shed is erected in the shortest possible time - literally several days. But the construction of a building made of stone can drag on indefinitely. But all the possible troubles and inconveniences will more than pay off with reliable service and a long service life of such a building.
Recently, people increasingly prefer fussing with the construction of sheds with their own hands to purchase ready-made standard designs. Such sheds are brought by the seller to the summer cottage and collected in a matter of hours. They can be both plastic and wooden or metal. However, such a design, except as a pantry inventory, will no longer fit for anything.
It is best to insulate the walls of the barn with foam. Mineral wool is also allowed. Drywall is necessarily impregnated with antiseptic agents. In addition to drywall, finishing can be done with facade plastic, siding or wood boards. In principle, any material available is suitable for the barn.
It is advisable to approach the matter with all responsibility and seriousness. If you plan to operate the building for many years, you should conduct construction work in accordance with generally established rules and regulations, GOST. Amateur activity is permissible, but within reasonable limits. As for the animal shed, you can build it in haste, without worrying about the appearance and architectural ensemble.