Ceilings in log houses: installation of ceilings, design options, use of natural wood

Home / Design solutions / Ceiling design / What to make a ceiling from in a log house

The arrangement of ceilings in wooden buildings is slightly different from the same procedure in standard panel or brick houses. Here everything will be both simpler and more complicated. For example, it is very easy to assemble a lining ceiling in a log house or wooden house, but with plasterboard structures the situation is a little more complicated. We’ll talk about the most popular options for decorating floors in such buildings further.

Features of floors in such houses

Interfloor structures in a wooden house are a complex of several components, each of which is needed to perform certain tasks. The load-bearing beams will be the basis, the decorative coating gives the surface a beautiful appearance, the insulating layer works to preserve heat in the house, and the intermediate layers of steam and waterproofing are responsible for preserving the insulation and insulating the entire structure from moisture penetration.

Based on this scheme, most of the decorative coverings are attached directly to the load-bearing parts of the floor, and only tension structures are attached to the walls. This partly makes the task easier when renovating, but there is another factor that needs to be taken into account - the shrinkage of the house. It is this that will in many cases become the determining factor when choosing what the ceiling in a wooden frame will be like.

Installation of ceilings in a log house

Wooden houses have high thermal insulation qualities. The tree can withstand the harsh northern climate.

Scheme of the installation of a hemmed wooden ceiling

An important feature of a wooden house is its ability to self-ventilate, which largely determines the choice of finishing materials. They should not interfere with this process.

Otherwise, rotting and destruction of the wood is possible, even with the use of artificial ventilation. It is not recommended, for example, to make cladding from fiberboard or plastic. This applies to both walls and ceilings. How to make your home warm and cozy?

When building a wooden house, due attention should be paid to insulation and arrangement of the ceiling. It's no secret that warm air rises, and if the ceiling in a log house is poorly made and has microcracks, then heat will escape from the premises into the attic space. This threatens not only with a decrease in temperature in the house, but also with the accumulation of condensation on the lower surface of the roof, which can lead to both damage to the roofing material itself and to rotting of the wooden elements of the rafter system.

Since about 30% of the heat leaves the house through the ceiling, it needs insulation. Mineral insulation is placed in the plane of the floor beams between the rough ceiling below and the attic floor above.

Insulation requirements:

Insulation for a wooden ceiling should be light, non-flammable and non-toxic.

Non-flammability. For wooden houses, fire safety class “A” material is selected.
Non-toxic. The emission of even microscopic toxic dust is not allowed.

The thickness of the material is selected individually. All cracks must be sealed before installation. If the house has several floors, then it makes sense to insulate the interfloor floors with mineral wool. Insulation will help not only save heat, but also reduce noise levels. Mineral wool has the ability to dampen high-frequency sounds. The thicker it is, the larger the range of frequencies captured. For better sound insulation, a layer of special noise-absorbing material, for example, basalt wool, is rolled out on top of it. Heavy bulk materials, such as sand, have good soundproofing qualities.

A vapor barrier film is placed under the insulation. It prevents the passage of warm, moist air currents rising from the house to the attic, and thereby protects the insulation from getting wet. On top of the insulation you need to make a waterproofing protection. When laying the film, it is important not to mix up its sides, otherwise it will lose its protective properties. The film is laid in an overlap of 10 cm and secured with tape.

The rough ceiling is laid on skull blocks, which are nailed to the sides of the floor beams. The boards for the rough ceiling are cut to a size slightly smaller than the beam span and laid closely on the tiled blocks. All wooden parts must be treated with an antiseptic. This will help prevent them from being damaged by fungal microorganisms and pests.

Design options

Taking into account the different features of such buildings and the operating conditions of the coatings, the following design methods and materials are most often used:

Drywall. Despite the fact that the compositions assembled from it cannot be rigidly connected to the walls, there is a frame option that allows you to finish the floors even in a newly built log house - this is the so-called “floating” structure, not connected to the walls.
Tension covering. Perhaps the most successful choice for such buildings. The elastic fabric is not susceptible to deformation and withstands various operating conditions. It is important to choose the right type of fabric used to make the coating.
Various panels. These can be metal parts, MDF panels, and the most inexpensive plastic strips. The latter will become one of the most economical ways to decorate country houses, which is not used all year round.
Tree. Also a very good choice for a wooden structure. There is no more environmentally friendly material and it best matches the style of the building itself. In addition, finishing can be very inexpensive if you choose affordable lining or create a composition from treated boards.

Other finishing methods can also be used, but for various reasons they will be inferior to those mentioned above, either in cost or in their characteristics.

Making a ceiling surface in a steam room from a log: all about the types of structures

There are several types of ceilings. The construction of some structures requires considerable expense and effort, while others, simpler to implement, are budget-friendly ways to build a bathhouse.

Ceiling types:

Hemmed. Its base is wooden beams. They are used to make the ceiling. Other structural elements are attached to this base, both from the outside and from the inside. To cover the inside of the beams, use a tongue-and-groove or edged board. Layers are laid between the beams and the sheathing. First, a vapor barrier is made, then there is a layer of insulation, and then waterproofing. At the last stage, an edged board is laid on the outside of the base.
Grazing. This type is similar to the previous one, but fewer layers are used, so it can be called an economical ceiling option. It consists of boards joined together, which should rest only on the load-bearing wall. The outside of the structure is covered with clay, then a vapor barrier layer is made and insulation is laid.
Panel. This type is the most difficult to execute, because assembled from panel elements, which must be constructed separately, each one. The finished version of the panel is similar to a pallet with various layers and interlayers. The structure is incredibly heavy, so all layers are not laid into the ceiling at once. The outer part of this “pie” is covered with boards. The ceiling surface is supported by bars laid between the beams. On the attic side, the structure is sheathed with boards, and the walls on which the panel rests are covered with a layer of tow.

All these methods of installing a ceiling in a bathhouse differ in technology and load-bearing capacity.

Drywall

If you decide to make a ceiling from this material in a log house made of logs or beams, you should first study the diagram of a decorative design suitable for them. It differs from the standard one in the absence of a rigid connection between the frame and the walls. The frame parts are attached to the floors using standard or vibration suspensions, but nothing needs to be attached to the walls. There remains a small gap of one to two centimeters between the edge of the covering and the plane of the walls, allowing the covering to move slightly if the house changes its geometry due to shrinkage.

Calculation of the cross-section of wooden beams

The photo shows a drawing of the assembled interfloor floor.

When constructing most private houses, developers make the ceiling of the second floor from timber. This is a relatively inexpensive, but at the same time quite reliable material, which has been used for similar purposes for several centuries. The only necessary condition is the correct calculation of the cross-section of such crossbars installed in the span as joists.

To more accurately determine the cross-section of the timber for the ceiling, special formulas are used, which, among other things, take into account the resistance of the wood used and its moisture content. These parameters are defined in SNiP II-25-80, which any developer or private craftsman must be familiar with.

There you can also find the necessary formulas and tables with the help of which the parameters of beams for specific interfloor structures are determined.

When calculating wooden floors, it is also necessary to take into account the width of the span, the distance between the beams, and the shape of their section. When calculating each cross member to be laid, it must be remembered that the amount of its deflection under load should not exceed 1/250 of the span length.

Since it is quite difficult for a technically untrained person to correctly calculate the lag parameters using formulas and tables, you can use special calculators to independently select beams. It is enough to enter several basic values into such a program, and as a result, you can select the correct sizes of load-bearing joists.

Calculation of beam cross-section

The photo shows a table for selecting a beam section.

As an example, using one of these calculators, we will try to calculate which beam to use to cover 5 meters.

To enter data we need to know:

the material from which the crossbar is made (only coniferous trees are recommended);
span length;
beam width;
beam height;
type of material (log or timber).

In order to make correct calculations, we substitute the span width equal to 5 m to the entered values, and set the beam type to timber. We will select the height and width experimentally in the parameters “dimensions of timber for floor beams”. You should definitely take into account values such as load per kg/m and the pitch between the crossbars.

For interfloor structures, the load value should not be less than 300 kg/m, since it is necessary to take into account not only the weight of furniture and people, but also the weight of the materials themselves from which the floor is made. This includes floor beams, rough and finished floors and, of course, insulation and sound insulation.

Advice. For non-residential attic structures, a load value of 200 kg/m will be quite sufficient.

Possible options

Photos of beams of different sections.

At almost all bases that sell lumber, floor timber is sold mainly in several sizes. As a rule, these are beams from 100x100 mm, to 100x250 mm, and from 150x150 mm to 150x250 mm. In order not to waste unnecessary time and money searching for logs with non-standard sizes, the price of which can be significantly higher than standard ones, we substitute into the program those parameters that are commercially available.

To do this, you must first find out from the lumber database what sizes they sell. Thus, we find that for interfloor structures the minimum size of timber should be approximately 100x250 mm, and for attic structures 100x200 mm will be sufficient, with a step between them equal to 60 cm.

If you do not trust software calculators and want to independently calculate the size of the timber for the floor, then you will have to use the formulas and tables given in the relevant technical documentation. Or you can use the general rule, which states that the height of each joist should be equal to 1/24 of the length of the opening, and its width should be equal to 5/7 of the height of the crossbar.

Stretch ceiling

This option is best suited for use in wooden houses, since the canvas is elastic and is not afraid of any deformation of the building itself. However, here you need to pay a little attention to the choice of canvas. Film ceilings cannot be installed in a log house that does not have a constant temperature regime. In other words, if the house is not heated in winter, then only textile fabric that can withstand negative temperatures can be stretched in it.

Installation of logs to log walls

Question:

Hello. It is necessary to make a floor in the finished log house, but when assembling the house there was no provision for a ledge for the logs. As a result, the lags themselves have nothing to rely on.

I read that you can cut a groove in a log, but if the groove should be 10 cm deep, then how can you then put a log in this groove? The thickness of the log is 21 cm, so do you need to cut it to half the log? Are there any other options? Is it possible to use perforated profiles for attaching joists and how reliable will this design be (how much load can be placed in kg on such a floor)?

Alexander, Novosibirsk.

Answer:

Hello, Alexander from Novosibirsk!

Another difficult question. However, in most cases they don’t ask me simple questions. It is clear that I answer all of them to the best of my competence.

The correct classic version of inserting floor joists usually consists of the following steps. In the second crown (Not the first! Since it is the main one and should not be disturbed), partial inserts are made, less often through. Into which the ends of the logs are inserted. In addition, foundation supports are installed under the logs along their length to prevent deflections. The number of them (supports) depends on the length of the lag. And they are placed at distances of approximately one and a half to two meters, depending on several factors. The main goal is to prevent sagging and so that the floors do not move around later. We had one construction company, which was headed by a man weighing a hundredweight. So, before handing over the house to the customer, he came to the site and started jumping on the floor. If the floors sagged, he was forced to redo the structure by increasing the supports, reducing the pitch of the joists, and increasing the thickness of the floor. Right up to dismantling what was done.

If a mistake was made at the start of construction, then attempts are made to eliminate what was done incorrectly. But this is associated with various assumptions, coordination and other methods that cannot always be considered sufficient.

Logs are valued as whole ones, and not as parts joined together. But it is not possible to insert a solid log into the nests of the same logs with sawing nests in them to the middle; it will simply be impossible to insert it into them.

And you have to resort to various tricks. For example, make a lag of two parts and, at the junction, mount a support column underneath it with a depth, as a rule, to the depth of soil freezing in the region. With reinforcement of the joint with various overlays on the side surfaces of the joist. The overlays are made from thick edged boards or metal strips and are about a meter or so in length. So that later there is no sagging of the floor.

Sometimes they use a rare option when they make a through cut in opposite walls (in the second crown of the log house) and insert a log in such a way and of such a length that then its ends should be flush with the outer surfaces of the logs. The operation requires quite accurately measuring the cross-sectional dimensions of the through nests and the ends of the joists themselves.

The option of fastening joists and walls with perforated corners is used, but extremely rarely. Since it is believed, and it is true, that all the loads that the floor will experience will be transmitted through fasteners. These can be self-tapping screws, wood grouse, or even just nails or staples. And this is far from a classic option. And over time, deformation and weakening of the fasteners are possible.

But in any case, it is still necessary to install additional supports for the logs according to the above option.

So look for yourself and choose something from what has been said.

Good luck!

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We work with a guarantee! Wide range of construction services.
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Semenych (author of materials)

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Panels

Best suited for summer cottages. There is no need for luxurious finishing and often the price of the material comes first. That is why plastic panels are great as one of the most inexpensive design options. If you choose another material - MDF or metal, the finish will be more beautiful and, accordingly, will cost more, but this design can also be used in ordinary residential buildings - it looks very decent.

What should be the height of the ceiling surface in a timber bathhouse?

Before the main work, at the planning stage, the ceiling height is selected. This parameter is important because... it determines how comfortable a person will feel in the steam room, and how much time will be spent warming up the room. In addition, the faster the required temperature is reached in a timber bath, the less fuel is consumed.

There are several factors to consider when choosing flow height.

Namely:

The hottest place is near the ceiling. The greater the height of the room, the higher the shelves need to be placed.
Too low ceilings are also not a good option. It is difficult to breathe in a steam room with a height of 1.5 meters or less. However, if only one person visits the bathhouse at a time, he will not feel any discomfort.
It is necessary to choose the optimal height based on the maximum number of swimmers. Some take the height of the tallest person in the family as a basis.

The optimal ceiling height is 2 to 2.3 meters. But this does not mean that all bathhouse premises should have exactly this parameter. The steam room is the main room, wellness procedures take place here, so it is in it that you need to plan this optimal ceiling height. Other rooms in the bathhouse may be higher or lower, it all depends on how and why they will be used.

Tree

The easiest to install and very beautiful material, completely consistent with the rest of the interior, made of wood. Such a ceiling would be an ideal solution in a log house. The cost of finishing can vary from not too high to very high values if expensive wood species are used. However, this is a universal solution - for dachas you can use inexpensive lining, and in a reputable cottage the finishing made of oak or other valuable types of wood will look great.

Assembly Recommendations

Treating logs with antiseptic impregnations
When installing a subfloor in a house, it is very important to choose only high-quality strapping timber. During the operation of the coating, it will be the one that will experience the heaviest load. And if the quality of the wood or fastening is mediocre, the base can easily become deformed. In the process of assembling timber strapping, experts pay attention to the following points:

Dimensions of timber for installing logs

The timber must be precisely calibrated and sized;
To eliminate the possibility of wood rotting, the timber must be treated with an antiseptic;
When assembling the frame in a frame house, it is advisable to give preference to logs made of coniferous wood (they are less hygroscopic);
The timber frame must be laid clearly horizontally, otherwise some of the parts of the structure will experience a large load during operation;
You can fasten the strapping logs to the support posts using clamps, metal brackets, anchors and U-shaped galvanized profiles.