What kind of foundation was placed on houses before the revolution? How our ancestors built houses in Rus' in ancient times... How to make a strip stone foundation
Building a house. Advice from a hundred years ago.
Let's look into a book from the early 20th century and look at recommendations for building a house. It would seem, well, what’s interesting in this bearded book, everything has changed in more than a hundred years: technology, tools, prices, building materials, etc. Yes, a lot has changed, but it was still an interesting read. Read and find out (if not a builder, builders probably all know this): that it is better to use winter-cut timber when building a house, since the logs in this case can last much longer than those that were cut down in the summer; that to determine the time of cutting down trees, you can use ordinary iodine; that it turns out that it doesn’t matter which end you bury a wooden pole in the ground and why it doesn’t matter... Read it, maybe you’ll learn something interesting for yourself.
As usual, we retyped the pre-revolutionary text in a modern civilian font, without correcting some words, for example, “lower crown”. We also did not edit the content, we left it as is with old prices, old brands of materials, etc. Also, as always, we remind you of some Russian measures of length that were in use before the revolution:
1 fathom = 2.1336 meters
1 arshin = 70.90 cm
1 ft = 30.48 cm
1 vershok = 44.45 mm
1 inch =25.40 mm
Square fathom = 4.552 m^(2)
Square arshin = 0.05058 m^(2)
CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS *).
*) Notes marked with a - * are written by engineer V. Chizhevsky.
BUILDING A HOUSE.
Whatever house you build, you first need to choose the appropriate location. You should choose places that are elevated, sandy and have a slope. It is better to avoid clayey, low-lying and swampy places. Having decided to build a house and having found a place for it, the future homeowner must draw up a house project. A house plan or project can be drawn up without the participation of an architect, taking into account all the requirements and needs of the family, but it is better, of course, to seek the assistance of an architect. Once the house plan is approved, the architect produces detailed plans, sections and elevations. After the project, the most important thing is the estimate. The estimate can be approximate and detailed. It has been calculated that building a stone house costs from 60 to 100 rubles. for 1 cubic fathom, a wooden house covered with iron - from 25 to 45 rubles, and roofed with planks or roofing felt - 20 - 30 rubles. for 1 cubic fathom.
Work can be carried out on an economic basis or by contract. The first is that the purchase of materials and the hiring of workers is carried out by the owner himself, the second is that the work is handed over to one or more contractors. The basis for estimates can be the actual cost of individual works or the “Target Regulations” and “Reference Prices” published by city governments. One year is enough to build a stone house. You should start in the spring or summer, so that by winter the building can be put under a roof, that is, it can be finished “roughly.” In the spring, interior and exterior decoration of the house, carpentry and plastering work begin.
Before starting work, you must obtain a building permit. For this purpose, an application for permission is submitted to the technical department of the city government. Drawings are attached when requesting. The drawings must be signed by the city architect. Upon receiving permission, the architect signs an undertaking to perform the work in accordance with laws and regulations. Then they report to the police station to begin work.
Foundation of a stone house.
First of all, let's get started. to planning the place, i.e. to clearing it and leveling it: remove the mounds, fill up the holes and - if the soil is too sloped - make an even slope. Once site planning is completed, the house is laid out. The main lines and corners of the house are marked on the ground. Actually, the house plan is transferred from the map to the ground in natural dimensions. It's done like this. The plan contains two lines, running, if possible, through the middle of the building. These features are located at right angles, forming a cross; They are called axes. The same axes are drawn at the construction site, approximately in the middle of the future building. The axes are marked with twine stretched tightly between the stakes. At the point where the cords intersect, a stake is driven into the ground. All measurements come from it. First, the main walls are measured, that is, the walls under which the foundation will be laid. The lines of the walls are marked with cords stretched between stakes driven into the corners. These lines are drawn doubly, indicating the thickness of the wall and at the same time the width of the foundation.
When the layout is completed, they begin to excavate the earth for laying the foundation.
Foundation depth.
Frost changes the volume of damp soils. In clayey soils and marl, the foundation is lowered below the freezing horizon. In the southern lips. In Russia, the freezing depth is up to 2 arshins, in the northern regions it is up to 3 arshins.
*Soils for the foundation.
Solid soils are considered reliable for foundations with a layer thickness of at least 1.5 fathoms. These soils include tuff, rock, pebbles and gravel. Friable soils (sand) for foundations are reliable only when laid deep; The sand layer should be no thinner than 2 fathoms. Compressible soils are not suitable for foundations. You cannot build foundations on peat, on embankments, on plant soil (chernozem), on marged, on gypsum, or on construction waste.
Foundation.
The foundation for the internal walls of the furnace can be laid on clay mortar.
Entrance hall foundation.
A solid foundation should be laid under the walls of the hallway in wooden buildings. If these walls are on “chairs”, then the cold air from the entryway will pass under the lower crown and cool the floors in the adjacent rooms.
Inspection of foundations.
To distinguish the correct laying of the foundation from the backfill, you need to pay attention to the location of the stones. If, when grinding the foundation, it turns out that some of the stones are located on edge, then this is backfill filled with mortar.
*Foundation made of sand and cement.
In places where sand is cheap, it is profitable to make foundations from sand and cement (proportion 1: 18 and a thinner composition). Cost of 1 cubic. fathoms will be about 34 rubles. Rubble masonry with lime mortar costs about 46 rubles. cube fathom. A sand-concrete foundation is more reliable than a lime-based rubble foundation. In three days, the cement mortar becomes stone and does not settle. Limestone sometimes does not harden for several years in a wet pit.
Iron connections in the foundation.
If the base of the foundation consists of different soils, then iron strips are laid in several layers of cement concrete to distribute pressure evenly. The strips give the masonry the ability to resist tensile forces.
Chairs.
Warehouses, platforms, houses are sometimes placed on chairs. The best species for chairs are larch and oak, satisfactory are fir and pine. Ore pine, often layered (kandovaya), lasts much longer than mandovaya sparsely layered (freshwood). The lifespan of the chair also depends on the soil. In clay, wood lasts for a long time, but in chernozem and manure, the humus soon disappears. Most wood rots near the surface of the ground. The post holes should not be filled with black soil, humus, garbage and ash, or better yet, with clay.
Means for protecting chairs from rotting:
a) Resin. The approximate service life of tarred chairs: larch 15 - 20 years, oak 10 - 15 years, ore pine 8 - 15 years, fir 8 - 12 years, mand pine 5 - 8 years, spruce 4 - 6 years. b) Surface firing. At the surface of the earth, it is useful, in addition to firing, to resin to a width of 6 vershoks. The service life of charred chairs is slightly less than that of tarred chairs. The tree soon rots along the cracks. c) Impregnation with zinc chloride or creosote. Only pine is impregnated. Oak and larch do not accept impregnation. The service life of pine impregnated with zinc chloride is 8 - 16 years, with creosote 15 - 20 years, zinc chloride (and after drying with creosote) 25 - 35 years. d) Surface coating with carbolineum. Service life is 25 - 35 years. e) Chairs are buried with their butts up. Such a pillar lasts one and a half times longer than one buried with the top up.
A growing tree receives nutrition through wood vessels from below. Neither juice nor water can move back: the valves in the vessels prevent this; a tree with its top wrapped in soil does not draw moisture from the ground with its end. f) Lime soaking. The wood is soaked in lime mortar for a week or more. Lime seals pores and disinfects against putrefactive fungi and microbes. Air-weathered lime combines with carbonic acid and becomes insoluble. Pine chairs made from fresh wood, soaked in lime mortar for 2 months, last up to 40 years.
Determining the time of cutting trees.
The lifespan of a chair depends on the time of year. A tree cut in winter lasts almost 3 times longer than wood cut in summer. To determine the time of year when a tree was cut down, you can paint its surface with iodine tincture (a solution of iodine in alcohol). If the tree takes on a dark purple color, then it was cut down in winter (the starch in the wood cells is colored purple by iodine). The surface of a tree cut down in summer will turn iodine (yellow).
Wooden walls.
The bed of the crowns is made at least 2 1/2 inches. This practical requirement excludes the possibility of cutting walls from logs thinner than 3 inches in diameter. If 2 1/2-inch beds are maintained, the quality of log houses made of thin and thick wood in terms of thermal conductivity is leveled out.
It remains to clarify the economic question: which wood is cheaper to cut from?
Here is a table of the cost of log houses made of logs of different sizes.
Diameter of logs in vershok |
Number of logs in linear fathoms |
Cost of logs |
Cost of work |
Cost of tow and caulk |
Total cost of 1 square sazhen wall |
4 rub. 55 kopecks |
2 rub. 20 kopecks |
2 rub. 69 kopecks |
9 rub. 44 kopecks |
||
3 rub. 9 kopecks |
2 rub. 00 kop. |
1 rub. 66 kopecks |
7 rub. 56 kopecks |
||
4 rub. 73 kopecks |
1 rub. 80 kop. |
1 rub. 28 kopecks |
7 rub. 81 kop. |
||
7 rub. 48 kopecks |
1 rub. 80 kop. |
1 rub. 15 kopecks |
10 rub. 43 kopecks |
||
10 rub. 36 kopecks |
1 rub. 80 kop. |
0 rub. 95 kopecks |
13 rub. 11 kopecks |
From this table it can be seen that walls made of 4 and 5 inch logs are more economical than others. The crowns of the log house should be positioned so that the butts and tops alternate. The cost of a log house will decrease compared to the cost of log houses made from hewn logs under one bracket. The heterogeneity of the crowns is not visible under the cladding and plaster. In Poland, walls are cut from 1 1/2 inch boards.
* External wall protection with cladding, paneling and plaster.
Wooden houses are sometimes faced with 1/2 brick. This makes the house warmer and the log house more durable. The cladding is attached to the walls with nails in a checkerboard pattern at a distance of 1 - 1.5 arshins along the seam and after 4 - 5 rows in height. Nails (4-7") are driven in during laying so that the head of the nail is an inch from the outer surface. The cost of 1 square sazhen of cladding is about 5 rubles 40 kopecks. Sheathing painted with ocher in oil costs about 5 rubles. External plaster walls cost 2 rubles 20 kopecks. From these figures it is clear that the cheapest protection for wooden walls on the outside is plaster. Unfortunately, it requires frequent correction. For strength, it is useful to add a little cement to the lime mortar.
Isolation of the lower crown from ground dampness.
To protect the lower crown from rotting, it must be isolated from dampness. To do this: a) Resin the lower crown. b) Wrap it in roofing felt or felt. c) Lay an insulating layer in the plinth masonry (roofing felt, giant felt, Hercules paper, roofing felt, a layer of insulating paint, a layer of asphalt, roofing iron in cement mortar). d) The base or two rows of masonry in it are made of material impermeable to water (brick, iron ore, granite, clinker).
Forest for the lower crown.
The best varieties of forest for the lower crown are the following: larch, oak, ore pine.
Tarring of log houses. In Poland and the Western region of Russia, it is customary to tar the outside of wooden houses. The tarred log houses stand there for several hundred years.
* Barn walls made of plates.
It is better to wrap the round side inside the building. The following advantages are achieved: a) The painting surface is reduced. b) The stronger wood resists weathering and the sapwood is placed in a dry location. c) Round parts have more cracks.
* Wooden walls of baths.
Bathhouse log houses should not be sheathed. The cladding retains dampness longer, which is why the walls are more likely to rot.
The wall boards are connected in a quarter or triangular groove (Figure 2). The boards must be wrapped in such a way that rainwater does not flow into the quarters or grooves.
Choosing the length of logs for log houses. It is more economical to cut walls, purlins and other work from 9 arshin logs, rather than from 12 -13 arshin logs. A linear fathom of short logs is cheaper than long logs.
A quarter should be removed only from the underside of the board, and the edge should be beveled on top. This type of board lining is cheaper; In addition, when the boards dry out, no cracks form. The quarters are directed downward to prevent water from flowing behind the sheathing (Figure 3).
Vertical cladding protects the wall from rain worse than horizontal cladding. The edges of the vertical cladding boards need to be reinforced, as is done in plank roofs. The boards should be nailed at intervals with the seams overlapping by 3/4 - 1" (Figure 4).
Cladding and plastering; when they can be done.
Wooden houses should not be sheathed or plastered before a year after construction. You need to let the walls dry and settle. After a year, it is necessary to break through the caulk again; this unavoidable work should be included in the estimate.
To protect the lower crown from rain, you need to pass the drain board further than the sheathing. Often, due to carelessness of carpenters, the drain is arranged in such a way that water from the cladding (especially vertical) flows over the lower belt and falls under the lower crown (Figure 5).
*Caulking walls.
When re-piercing the caulking, you need to pay attention to the caulking at corners, at intersecting walls and at jambs. In these places, the settlement of the walls is prevented by the ends of the perpendicular walls, which is why the caulk does not compress and is weaker than in other places.
If the gap above the jambs is small, or tightly caulked, or wedges are forgotten in it, then the caulk in the piers of the jambs is weak, since the weight of the wall is transferred to the jambs, and not to the piers of the frame.
The base freezes over the shortest distance at the bottom crown.
A wall made of wild stone should be 2 1/4 arshins in central Russia; so that the cold does not get underground; It is recommended to concrete the ends of the joists to the width of an arshin to the top bed. The inner side of the lower crown must be filed with a vertical plane. When the foundation is partially lifted from the depths, there will be no through gaps under the lower crown. It is useful to lay construction felt on the inner edge of the base AB (Figure 6).
Cutting walls with the remainder.
Cutting walls with residue is outdated. It requires extra material at the corners, is inconvenient for sheathing, and the protruding parts soon rot and fall off. The corners of wooden walls must be protected from rain. The ends absorb water strongly, causing them to rot.
The top and bottom of the frame crowns are closed to each other, so these parts dry less than the side parts. As the sides dry out, the crowns develop horizontal cracks. They reduce the thickness of walls that resist freezing. Insects nest in the cracks on the inside, and rainwater gets in from the outside. You can protect the frame from horizontal cracks, i.e. cracks on the outside and inside. In the logs, before removing the bark, a triangular groove is cut for the lower bed. An ax is made in the groove, and the bark is removed from the top of the crown. When the log dries, it develops vertical cracks. These logs are hewn and a log house is cut from them. Only vertical cracks appear in the log house. They form an air gap, which reduces the thermal conductivity of the walls. The caulk blocks access to the vertical cracks of the crowns (Figure 7, 8).
Stone walls.
Settlement of the walls occurs from two reasons: from compression of the soil under the load of the walls and from a decrease in the volume of the walls as the masonry dries. When attaching a new wall to an old one, you should not connect them with a groove. The weight of new walls increases as the masonry is erected, and therefore the new wall continuously shrinks until construction is completed. Walls connected by a fine, both old and new, can crack. When adding a new wall, you can leave a gap. It can be laid after the rough construction is completed.
This rule should be observed when erecting walls on a common foundation, but different in height, for example: the walls of a vestibule, a corridor connecting two buildings, the walls of a porch when erected simultaneously with the building. It is safer to connect high new walls of two or more floors to old ones with dry tongue and groove, so as not to interfere with natural settlement (Figure 9).
*Dampness in the walls, its effect on thermal conductivity.
Damp walls are more thermally conductive than dry walls. Drying the walls saves on fuel.
Sand-lime brick.
Sand-lime brick is produced in factories of normal size from a mixture of sand and lime. Its cost is 8 - 15 rubles. for a thousand pieces. Newly produced ones are damaged by water, and those left in storage become covered with an insoluble crust. Sand-lime brick is more thermally conductive than red brick.
Rubble masonry.
Walls made of rubble stone should not be erected with a width of 0.30 fathoms using lime mortar. The width of the stone is about 0.15 fathoms, and therefore it is difficult to bandage the middle of such a wall. Lime in rubble masonry does not harden for a very long time, and therefore its bond cannot be counted on. It is not uncommon for such walls to fall apart.
*Masonry of brick walls.
Laying brick walls under a bay has some advantages over laying under a shovel. There is no reason to reject her. Its advantages: a) Cheaper. b) Less thermally conductive. c) Easy supervision of work. d) It turns out without voids. e) Does not require wetting of the brick. f) Equally durable with shovel masonry.
Broken seams.
The joints should not protrude from the plane of the wall. Protruding debris retains water, which is why they quickly collapse.
*Basement.
If the walls of the basement form a basement or an unheated room, then care should be taken to ensure that the walls do not freeze. The freezing causes the floors to freeze and rot. For an unheated room, the walls need to be made 2-3 times thicker than for a heated one. The thickness of the walls of an unheated basement should be equal to the depth of soil freezing. To install a frost-proof base, it can be laid from 2 walls with filling in the middle.
Wall thickness.
The smallest thickness of external brick walls for central Russia is 2 1/2 bricks, granite - 2 1/4 arshins.
The location of piece stones in the wall.
In stone walls, you should avoid laying whole pieces running the full thickness of the wall. This makes the walls freeze more. Seams reduce thermal conductivity.
In the Baltic provinces, walls made of lime slabs are lined on the inside with 1/2 brick with an air gap. This cladding reduces the thermal conductivity of the walls (Figure 10).
Masonry seams.
Masons add clay to lime mortar to create joints. The admixture makes work easier, but reduces strength, and therefore should not be allowed.
To be continued.................
Traditionally, the building is installed on a concrete foundation. It prevents moisture from penetrating into the house, rotting and destruction of the lower floor of the building and its walls. In addition, the foundation serves as a kind of shock absorber, stabilizing seasonal soil fluctuations. Recently, a new method of constructing the foundation of a house has been increasingly used. It is absolutely different from traditional types of foundations, but successfully replaces them.
Foundation for a house using the Semykin method
A completely new method of constructing a foundation for a house is the Semykin foundation. Car tires are used as the material on which the bars of the lower dressing are laid. This is the cheapest and most accessible type of material that can serve as a support for a home. Since it is possible to build a house without a foundation in its traditional design, let’s find out how to do it. Before laying the timber, the tires are filled 3/4 with sand. Periodically, sand is spilled and compacted again. This foundation is an excellent shock absorber that protects the building from seasonal soil heaving. It is important that the use of tires does not violate the environmental friendliness of the house. According to reviews, buildings on tires are incredibly stable; there are no distortions in walls, windows, or doorways. It’s easy to build such a foundation for a house. Anyone can handle this. This type of foundation is often used in the construction of bathhouses and utility blocks. Its low cost and simplicity of design have recently attracted increasing attention from developers.
House on the boulders
Previously, log houses were often installed on large stones, which were placed in the corners of the future building. Stones were also provided along the long walls of the house. They had to make a seal around the perimeter. It was built from boards and covered with ash or soil. Ventilation openings, the so-called “vents,” were installed in the rubble. The houses stood for centuries, the lower crowns did not rot and remained strong for many years.
Houses on the ground
Our ancestors knew how to build a house foundation. In the old days, buildings were installed directly on the ground. But we did some work beforehand. The top layer of soil containing the weed seeds was removed. The entire area that was supposed to be under the house was compacted and a layer of clay was laid on it, which was also compacted. This created a waterproofing layer. The log house was installed directly on it.
Soil block construction
Soil building blocks were widely used in earlier times. There is currently a revival of this construction method. The method of making a block is simple: soil was placed in a mold and compacted in it. The block was then removed and allowed to dry. The house was erected directly from the ground, laying its foundation from the same soil blocks.
Prospects and tasks for its further development
In ancient times of human history, the first primitive wooden dwellings and defensive structures were erected directly on the surface of the ground. With the beginning of the use of stone as a building material, the lower part of the structure began to be buried below the surface of the soil in order to protect it from being soaked by precipitation and to prevent the associated softening of the soil and the occurrence of possible distortions, settlements and damage to the structure. This is how shallow foundations arose, built on a natural foundation. If the bearing layer of soil lay at a considerable depth, the foundations were erected using the simplest sink wells made of masonry. When constructing bridges across rivers, where soil erosion at the supports is possible, foundations made of wooden piles buried in the bottom of the riverbed were used.
Thus, until the 19th century. structures were erected on natural foundations, pile foundations and sinkholes.
New types and designs of foundations began to appear in the 19th century. In 1841, the French engineer Triget proposed a caisson method for constructing mine shafts in water-saturated soils. In 1856, Russian engineers first used this method to build foundations for the supports of a bridge across the river. Neman in Kovno. Subsequently, this method was significantly improved and caisson foundations were widely used in the construction of large bridges. In 1836, the English engineer Mitchell proposed metal screw piles instead of driven wooden piles. However, this type was not widely used at that time. In 1897, engineer Hennebique proposed solid-section drives, which are now widely used both in our country and abroad. In 1899, the Russian engineer Strauss developed a method for producing concrete cast-in-place piles, which, with various improvements, is now widely used in construction practice.
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, when it was necessary to restore a large number of destroyed bridges in a short time, instead of caisson foundations, they began to use foundations made of steel tubular piles filled with . Subsequently, to reduce the consumption of steel pipes in acute shortage, they began to be replaced with reinforced concrete piles and shells. Reinforced concrete shells have become especially widespread in our country since 1958, when the necessary equipment was created and the technology for constructing a new type of foundation was developed. Over the past decades, many bridges, overpasses and mooring structures have been built using shells with a diameter of up to 5 m.
In parallel with this, domestic bridge builders use foundations made of drilled piles with a diameter of up to 1.7 m and with a widened heel with a diameter of up to 3.5 m. Dozens of large bridges have been built with such foundations.
For a long time, foundation engineering technology has developed based on the use of practical experience alone. New structures were built by analogy with the most successful previously implemented structures. Only from the second half of the 19th century. foundation engineering is receiving a scientific base, in the development of which domestic scientists V. M. Karlovich, V. I. Kurdyumov, P. A. Minaev and others played a significant role.
Particularly great successes in the field of foundation construction were achieved in our country after the Great October Socialist Revolution. Thanks to the works of a whole galaxy of talented scientists and engineers, among whom it should be noted professors N. P. Puzyrevsky, N. M. Gersevanov, V. A. Florin, V. K. Dmokhovsky, B. D. Vasilyev, E. L. Khlebnikov, N. Ya. Denisov, A. A. Luga, N. A. Tsytovich, Soviet foundation engineering took one of the leading places in the world.
Further technical progress in foundation engineering, as in all other branches of construction, is inextricably linked with the need for rapid development and improvement of the construction industry.
Solving the problem of industrialization of construction and the associated tasks of maximizing labor productivity, reducing costs and reducing work time is possible only with the widespread introduction of new progressive designs and methods of work that ensure more efficient use of materials, the use of prefabricated reinforced concrete and comprehensive mechanization of technological processes. In the field of foundation construction, these tasks are complemented by the need to improve working conditions and, in this regard, minimize the use of the labor-intensive and expensive caisson method of work, which is harmful to the health of workers. These requirements are best met by the currently widely used deep foundations made of piles of various types and precast reinforced concrete shells.
A generalization and analysis of the experience of building bridges and other structures in recent years shows that, despite the successes achieved in the use of foundations made of piles, shells and pillars, there are still significant reserves for further increasing their economic efficiency.
The priority tasks in the field of foundation engineering include:
1) improvement of methods and standards for foundation calculations in order to increase the degree of use of the strength properties of soils and foundation materials;
2) development of structures of foundations and load-bearing elements with the maximum use of their load-bearing capacity in terms of material strength;
3) development of high-performance methods for manufacturing and immersing load-bearing elements of foundations into the ground; 4) creation of highly efficient technological equipment and mechanisms for the construction of foundations.
The main tool of labor in Rus' for the ancient architect was an ax. Saws became known around the end of the 10th century and were used only in carpentry for interior work. The fact is that the saw tears the wood fibers during operation, leaving them open to water. The ax, crushing the fibers, seems to seal the ends of the logs. No wonder they still say: “cut down a hut.” And, well known to us now, they tried not to use nails. After all, around a nail, the wood begins to rot faster. As a last resort, wooden crutches were used, which modern carpenters call “dowels.”
Foundation and fastening of a wooden structure
Both in ancient Rus' and in modern Russia, the basis of a wooden house or bathhouse has always been and is a log house. A log house is logs fastened (“tied”) together into a quadrangle. Each row of logs in a log house, fastened together, was (and is) called a “crown.” The first row of logs that rests on the foundation is called the “uterine crown”. The uterine crown was often placed on stone shafts - a kind of foundation, which was called “ryazh”; such a foundation did not allow the house to come into contact with the ground, i.e. The log house lasted longer and did not rot.
Log houses differed from each other in the type of fastening. For outbuildings, a log house was used “cut” (rarely laid). The logs here were not stacked tightly, but in pairs on top of each other, and often were not fastened at all.
When the logs were fastened “into a paw”, their ends did not extend beyond the walls to the outside, the corners of the log house were even. This method of cutting corners has been preserved by carpenters to this day. But it is usually used if the house will be sheathed with something on the outside (lining, siding, blockhouse, etc.) and the corners are tightly insulated, because this method of cutting corners has a slight drawback - they retain heat less than corners “ into the bowl."
Corners “into the bowl” (in the modern way) or “into the oblo” in the old fashioned way were considered the warmest and most reliable. With this method of fastening the walls, the logs extended beyond the wall and had a cross-shaped shape, if you look at the frame from above. The strange name "oblo" comes from the word "obolon" ("oblon"), meaning the outer layers of a tree (cf. "to envelop, envelop, shell"). Back at the beginning of the 20th century. they said: “cut the hut into Obolon” if they wanted to emphasize that inside the hut the logs of the walls were not crowded together. However, more often the outside of the logs remained round, while inside the huts they were hewn to a plane - “scraped into lass” (a smooth strip was called las). Now the term “burst” refers more to the ends of the logs protruding outward from the wall, which remain round, with a chip.
The rows of logs themselves (crowns) were connected to each other using internal spikes. Moss was laid between the crowns in the log house and after the final assembly of the log house, the cracks were caulked with flax tow. Attics were often filled with the same moss to preserve heat in winter. I will write about red moss - inter-crown insulation - later, in another article.
In plan, the log houses were made in the form of a quadrangle (“chetverik”), or in the form of an octagon (“octagon”). From several adjacent quadrangles, huts were mainly made, and octagons were used for the construction of wooden churches (after all, an octagon allows you to increase the area of the room almost six times without changing the length of the logs). Often, by placing quadrangles and octets on top of each other, the ancient Russian architect built the pyramidal structure of a church or rich mansions.
A simple covered rectangular wooden frame without any extensions was called a “cage”. "Cage by cage, lead by story", - they said in the old days, trying to emphasize the reliability of the log house in comparison with the open canopy - povet. Usually the log house was placed on the “basement” - the lower auxiliary floor, which was used for storing supplies and household equipment. And the upper crowns of the log house expanded upward, forming a cornice - a “fall”. This interesting word, coming from the verb “to fall,” was often used in Rus'. So, for example, “povalusha” was the name given to the upper, cold common bedrooms in a house or mansion, where the whole family went to sleep (to lie down) in the summer from a heated hut.
The doors in the cage were made lower, and the windows were placed higher, retaining more heat in the hut. Both the house and the temple were built in the same way - both were the house (of man and of god). Therefore, the simplest and most ancient form of a wooden temple, like a house, was the “kletskaya”. This is how churches and chapels were built. These are two or three log buildings connected to each other from west to east. There were three log cabins in the church (the refectory, the temple and the altar), and two in the chapel (the refectory and the temple). A modest dome was placed over a simple gable roof.
Small chapels were erected in large numbers in remote villages, at crossroads, above large stone crosses, above springs. There is no priest in the chapel; no altar was made here. And the services were performed by the peasants themselves, who baptized and performed funeral services themselves. Such unpretentious services, held like the first Christians with the singing of short prayers at the first, third, sixth and ninth hours after sunrise, were called “hours” in Rus'. This is where the building itself got its name. Both the state and the church looked upon such chapels with disdain. That’s why the builders here could give free rein to their imagination. That is why these modest chapels amaze the modern city dweller today with their extreme simplicity, sophistication and special atmosphere of Russian solitude.
Roof
In ancient times, the roof over the log house was built without nails - “male”.
To complete this, the two end walls were made from shrinking stumps of logs, which were called “males.” Long longitudinal poles were placed on them in steps - “dolniki”, “lay down” (cf. “lay down, lie down”). Sometimes, however, the ends of the legs cut into the walls were also called males. One way or another, the entire roof got its name from them.
Thin tree trunks, cut down from one of the branches of the root, were cut into the beds from top to bottom. Such trunks with roots were called “chickens” (apparently due to the resemblance of the left root to a chicken paw). These upward-pointing root branches supported a hollowed-out log—the “stream.” It collected water flowing from the roof. And already on top of the hens and beds they laid wide roof boards, resting their lower edges on the hollowed-out groove of the stream. The upper joint of the boards - the “ridge” (as it is called to this day) - was especially carefully blocked from rain. A thick “ridge ridge” was laid under it, and on top the joint of the boards, like a cap, was covered with a log hollowed out from below - a “shell” or “skull”. However, more often this log was called “ohlupnem” - something that covers.
What was used to cover the roofs of wooden huts in Rus'! Then the straw was tied into sheaves (bundles) and laid along the slope of the roof, pressing with poles; Then they split aspen logs onto planks (shingles) and covered the hut with them, like scales, in several layers. And in ancient times they even covered it with turf, turning it upside down and laying it under birch bark.
The most expensive covering was considered “tes” (boards). The word “tes” itself well reflects the process of its manufacture. A smooth, knot-free log was split lengthwise in several places and wedges were driven into the cracks. The log split in this way was split lengthwise several more times. The unevenness of the resulting wide boards was trimmed with a special ax with a very wide blade.
The roof was usually covered in two layers - “undercut” and “red”. The bottom layer of planks on the roof was also called the under-skalnik, since it was often covered with “rock” (birch bark, which was chipped from birch trees) for tightness. Sometimes they installed a kinked roof. Then the lower, flatter part was called “police” (from the old word "gender"- half).
The entire pediment of the hut was importantly called “chelo” and was richly decorated with magical protective carvings. The outer ends of the under-roof slabs were covered from rain with long boards - “rails”. And the upper joint of the piers was covered with a patterned hanging board - a “towel”.
The roof is the most important part of a wooden building. "There would be a roof over your head"- people still say. That is why, over time, its “top” became a symbol of any temple, house and even economic structure.
“Riding” in ancient times was the name for any completion. These tops, depending on the wealth of the building, could be very diverse. The simplest was the “cage” top - a simple gable roof on a cage. Temples were usually decorated with a “tent” top in the form of a high octagonal pyramid. The “cubic top”, reminiscent of a massive tetrahedral onion, was intricate. The towers were decorated with such a top. The “barrel” was quite difficult to work with - a gable roof with smooth curvilinear outlines, ending with a sharp ridge. But they also made a “crossed barrel” - two intersecting simple barrels. Tent churches, cube-shaped, tiered, multi-domed - all this is named after the completion of the temple, after its top.
However, most of all they loved the tent. When the scribal books indicated that the church "wooden on top", then this meant that it was tented.
Even after Nikon’s ban on tents in 1656, as demonic and paganism in architecture, they still continued to be built in the Northern Territory. And only in the four corners at the base of the tent small barrels with domes appeared. This technique was called a tent on a cross-barrel.
Particularly difficult times came for the wooden tent in the middle of the 19th century, when the government and the governing Synod set about eradicating schismatics. Northern “schismatic” architecture then also fell into disgrace. And yet, despite all the persecution, the “four-octagon-tent” shape remains typical for the ancient Russian wooden church. There are also octagons “from the ground” (from the ground) without a quadrangle, especially in bell towers. But these are already variations of the main type.
The traditions of wooden house construction have survived to this day. On their suburban plots, townspeople are happy to build wooden houses and bathhouses with the help of craftsmen from the outback, from the provinces. In turn, in the outback, people also continue to live in wooden houses, because there is no better home than a solid, reliable, environmentally friendly house made of wood. Do you want to build yourself a house from logs or timber? Contact us - or call: 8-903-899-98-51 (Beeline); 8-930-385-49-16 (Megafon).
You probably want to know how houses were built in the places where you and I live?
You can’t answer this question right away. The Soviet country is great. You have to travel many days and nights by train from one end to the other.
You look out the window and are surprised: the views change every now and then.
Here are Russian villages with nice wooden huts. The houses along the streets are in neat rows. These are places rich in forests, and houses here are still built from wood. And if you go around Ukraine, everything around you will turn white, as if it were winter and not gentle summer. Ukrainian mud huts, built of clay and carefully whitewashed with lime or chalk, flash by.
But now our train is rushing among the Caucasus mountains, past the villages of Dagestan, and it seems that you are not approaching these places, but low but solid houses made of gray stone are running towards you from the mountains. And above them, on the slopes, the vineyards are green.
Sometimes it is difficult to find a saklya among the gardens.
Saklya, as the mountaineer’s dwelling is still called today, is molded right next to the rocks, like a swallow’s nest. The roof of one such house is often located next to the courtyard of another - the one that stands higher. Its back wall is a rock. The owner just added three others from the same stone and covered the roof with thin stone tiles, and the housing turned out to be reliable. The winds will not blow through such walls. The fire will not take them.
And if you could look into the hut, then everywhere - on the walls, on the floor - you would see beautiful carpets woven by the mistress and her daughters. Mountain women are great masters at weaving carpets. Carpets decorate the walls and lie on the floor.
But now you are already on another train, which is heading to Uzbekistan. And in front of you are long yellow clay houses with flat roofs and the same clay fences - duvals. This is where it is cool on a hot day and you can take a good break from the heat. In winter, in the middle of the room there is a sandal - a large brazier with coals. It burns day and night. Uzbeks sleep wrapped in large quilts, with their legs stretched out towards the fire. During the day, these blankets lie neatly folded in a high pile; The better an Uzbek lives, the more blankets he has.
We are returning to Russia.
Russian hut!
The hut is warm in the harsh winter, dry in the rainiest autumn. Between the logs from which the hut is made, builders usually lay moss or tow. The roof is now covered with iron, but previously it was covered with a thick layer of straw, boards or reeds coated with clay. And on the sheds and forges they laid pieces of earth cut out in the field along with grass. The rain will fall, and the roof will turn green: grass grows on it.
Previously, there was no pipe on the roof at all. Smoke from the stove slowly spread across the top and came out into the street through a hole in the ceiling. This was called drowning in black. Everything in the hut was smoked and black.
And the windows were usually placed very low. This is so that the peasant or his wife can observe what is happening in the yard, see if a hen with chickens wanders into the garden, or if a pig is spoiling the plantings.
Sometimes the owner did not build such a house himself, but bought it ready-made.
It turns out that four centuries ago in Moscow, at the market where various forest products were traded, it was possible to buy a small house even with an extension - a pantry for storing food.
There was a separate log house: four walls put together - log to log - a beautiful carved porch, doors and one or two window frames.
The buyer and the seller will bargain, both will slap each other’s hands, as custom required, and begin to pack the house for the road.
The one who built the hut and then delivered it to its destination.
It turned out to be a long convoy.
The buyer rode pompously ahead on the first sleigh, and behind him they carried the log house, the porch, the window, the doors - in general, the entire disassembled house in which he would live.
Russian people were excellent builders back in the old days.
Sometimes even entire cities were built unusually quickly in ancient Rus'.
In 1551, it was urgent to build a Russian fortress near the besieged Tatar fortress of Kazan and a city on the Sviyaga River.
The builders prepared log houses, fortress walls and towers a thousand miles from Sviyaga, near the city of Uglich. And then they dismantled these log houses, numbered each log so as not to confuse them, and hammered them together into rafts. So, in rafts, the future city approached the shore, where it was to be placed.
The Sviyazhsk fortress was built in just four weeks. It was a large city for those times with a fortress wall, spacious huts for soldiers and residents, and even a city clock installed on the main square.
At that time, of course, they built not only simple peasant huts, heated in black, but also spacious chambers for boyars and nobles, magnificent palaces for Russian tsars.
Thus, in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow, a wooden palace was erected, which was admired by all foreign guests visiting Russia. It had two hundred and seventy large and small rooms. He was so beautiful that he was called “the wonder of the world.” And one king lived in this palace with his family and servants.
Russia, although a forested region, has long been famous for its masters of “stone cunning,” as masons were called at that time.
“White stone Moscow” is the name often given to the Soviet capital now. Many buildings of this great city, which has existed for eight centuries, are built of beautiful white stone - limestone. There is still a lot of it in the Moscow region.
Builders have long begun to use artificial stone - bricks - for their buildings.
The masons built many wonderful brick houses that still exist today. The palaces that belonged to the king's relatives and the mansions of the rich: factory owners, manufacturers, and merchants were particularly luxurious. And for those who were poorer, gloomy apartment buildings were built. They were so called because they brought income to their owner. Residents were required to pay rent to the landlord. He had the right to evict them from the apartment at any moment. In a visible place, under the house lamp, where the street name and house number are still written, one could read the name of the homeowner, well, let’s say, “A. I. Lobov" or "G-S. Permyakov".
Over the years, the palaces rose higher and higher, the houses of the rich became more and more beautiful. And the builders of these palaces themselves lived in dark and cramped village huts in winter, and in summer - in basements and closets in distant city outskirts.
At that time they did not yet know how to build in winter. Summer was approaching, and peasants who knew the construction trade left the villages for the cities: diggers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, painters. They usually walked. Sometimes hundreds and even thousands of miles passed. The father took his son with him, the grandfather his grandson; little by little they were accustomed to the construction trade.
In old Russia there were entire villages of masons, carpenters, and painters. These masters were wonderful, but they didn’t know how to write, they put crosses instead of signatures. They were hired by the same peasants, only rich ones - contractors. At that time, contractors were also called “persuaders.”
Clever and cunning persuaders were busy finding jobs for diggers, masons, and carpenters, so that they could take more money for themselves and give less to those who worked.
The contractors became even richer, and the builders walked around in bast shoes and could not get out of poverty.
In large cities, “builder exchanges” were held. Somewhere on the station square or not far from the bazaar, teams of carpenters, masons, plasterers, and painters stood for hours waiting for work.
They could be immediately recognized either by a hatchet neatly wrapped in canvas, or by a trowel - a mandatory accessory for a plasterer, or by a brush on a long pole.
Night will find people at the stock exchange, they will lie down to sleep right there on the stones, placing bags of belongings under their heads.
In the morning, a “persuader” will come up to contract people for work and start shouting: “Ten carpenters, fifteen painters, five plasterers!”
People get up, stand up, scratching themselves from sleep. Then a short haggling about the price begins.
The price of labor at that time was low.
Summer quickly flies by at the construction site of a factory or house, and in late autumn, through mud and slush, the builders walk home to the village in the same order on foot.
There were few literate people among them, letters from home were rare. A man goes home and does not know what is there: whether the old men and women have collected the harvest, whether the cattle have survived, whether they will be able to improve the economy, which has fallen into disrepair, with the pennies they earn.
And in the spring, need again drove people to the city. And they went there with pain in their hearts, yearning for their family left in the village, perhaps without bread.
At that time there was a builder and a worker and a peasant. They called him a “seasonal worker” because he worked only one season a year.
This continued until October 1917, when workers and peasants took power in our country.
Now builders are building beautiful, comfortable homes no longer for the rich, but for working people like themselves.
Thousands of masons, carpenters, plasterers, and painters moved to cities forever and became construction workers. They have been building for a long time not only in summer, but also in winter. They now have more than enough work. The people themselves became the builders' customers. And they are building thousands of spacious and bright residential buildings, schools, clubs, and hospitals for him.
Here, in the Land of the Soviets, palaces are also being built, but not for the kings, of course, but for the people. The magnificent stations of the Moscow and Leningrad metro are called underground palaces. Not only young men and women of the Soviet Union, but also young people from other countries live and study in the Palace of Science on the Lenin Hills. Palaces of culture - clubs for the people - decorate many of our cities. And schoolchildren in Leningrad were given one of the old royal palaces. This is now the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers.