home · Other · How were the walls of the mud hut built? Muzanka frame dwelling for a hermit Modern mud huts

How were the walls of the mud hut built? Muzanka frame dwelling for a hermit Modern mud huts

In Priirpenye, as throughout Ukraine, there are still old houses and even so-called “hut houses” - these are either old wooden houses, or houses even with whitewashed clay walls and an earthen floor.

Thick walls, floor, stove in half the room, wooden beams, supporting the roof, old slate (or even thatched “strikha”), 56 “squares” - this description may be suitable for most of the “huts” that still remain in Ukraine and Priipenye.

In this form they are suitable only for museums, but not for life. Often such houses are passed down by inheritance with the intention of “preserving the heritage.” And what should the unfortunate heir do in this case? And you can’t live in those conditions, and you can’t keep your promise! An excellent solution for everyone would be a full update! And how to do this? Renovating an old house in just four steps!

How to convert an old hut into a modern comfortable home - just 4 steps!

1. Leave the walls. Make sure the walls look satisfactory. Clay retains heat in winter and cool in summer, so, if possible, it is better not to part with original walls. Another thing is the internal partitions and the oven. They usually take a lot functional space, so we advise you to demolish them, leaving only the “box” itself. Aim to spend 20 to 30 days on this. Although, given current gas prices, there may be no need to rush to disassemble the stove!

2. Replace the floor.“Mazankas” usually stand on an earthen floor, which is actually a mound of earth inside the house, thanks to which moisture does not enter the room, and the distance to the ceiling is reduced by 50 cm. We recommend digging a pit and filling it with concrete. This will allow you to create a heated floor in the house if desired. Along with the gasket of all necessary pipes, concreting and “settling” this work may take 2-3 months, of which 1.5-2 months will be spent just drying.

3. Walls can also create climate. Usually in villages, houses are “sewn up” with bricks on the outside and whitewashed, leaving uneven clay walls inside. We suggest doing the opposite. Agree, it is very important that the house has smooth walls. It’s more pleasing to the eye and to design smooth walls easier - you can paint, decorate with appliqués, wallpaper, changing the interior at least every season. Therefore, we recommend laying the brick with inside(1 brick, maybe even half a brick) - actually build brick walls inside a finished house. And between the adobe and the brick, lay out a mixture of sand and clay, as well as polystyrene foam. As a result, the width of the walls will be about 80 cm - serious protection from cold and heat. Brick walls should be plastered and painted. From the outside, only the corners of the house can be bricked, plastered and painted. It is better to line the walls with a frame of slats and tension plaster mesh. Next, we suggest making a layer from a mixture of clay, sand and hay, and laying a durable facing board with high heat and sound insulation properties. This treatment imitates a log house. You look at the house - a real wooden hut, and inside - smooth, brick, plastered walls. Prepare to spend 1 to 1.5 months on this stage.

4. Updated roof. If the roof structure is satisfactory condition, then it is better not to demolish it, but just replace the slate. Place it on the old rafters new board and cover with painted slate. Make a brick box above the ceiling and pour expanded clay into it to a height of 15 cm. We recommend lining the ceiling itself with boards, leaving the old beams. Then treat with stain, impregnation and varnish. All is ready! “Roofing” work will take from 3 to 6 weeks of your time. And if you line the attic with wide clapboard, you will also get a second floor!

At first glance, everything seems simple. But, in total, all work will take up to 6 months! However, a house in six months - is that really a period? It is also a house that keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer. In 40-degree heat, when the whole country turns on the air conditioners full power even at night, when you go to bed, you will take cover warm blankets. And this indescribable smell of freshly cut wood and forest is literally intoxicating, as soon as you cross the threshold of your hut without chicken legs. It's worth it!

Everyone who wants to leave civilization first of all thinks about where he will live, sleep, escape from bad weather, and people, as a rule, fearing that they will not be able to build a log house in a season and prepare for winter, since this can be problematic, choose as an option for living in a hastily made dugout or hut, but all this temporary housing is not entirely suitable for life, but rather like extreme survival, depending of course on how it is built - but still.

For example, you can consider a compromise option that can be built by people with modest physical capabilities and even women, since there are no heavy, unliftable logs and you don’t need to dig a hole for it, like for example for a dugout. This house is a frame with walls sewn from small diameter logs, and the roof, ceiling and floor are made in the same way.

After the place is marked, planned, and cleaned, according to pre-designated marks, you need to dig in the posts according to the markings. If the house is small, then four columns will be enough, but if more, then it is better to add another column to each wall for reinforcement. After the pillars have dug evenly into the ground, you can begin tying the longitudinal and transverse crossbars; on the floor and ceiling, logs under the logs should be passed more often, a step of about 60 cm, and the walls will be strengthened when you sew logs on them one by one, the logs need to be closer to each other, so that there are no large cracks left, you need to adjust them with an ax, cutting off the excess.

Next, when the entire frame and walls of the house, including the attic and roof, have been assembled, we begin to insulate the walls. Using wire or rope, we tie rods crosswise to the walls in several layers 20-30 cm thick, we need them as reinforcement so that the clay does not fall off the walls because the clay layer is very thick.

Then, using a prepared solution based on clay and sand or loam or the soil that is contained under the top fertile layer of the earth, we apply a protective insulating layer to the walls and then insulate the ceiling with a thick layer, about 15-20 cm. Before filling the ceiling with soil, you need lay something down for additional sealing, for example film or roofing felt, but if not, then you can use straw and grass. Afterwards, when the house is almost ready, all that remains is to fill in the rubble for additional insulation.

And so, after the main work, we are left with the most difficult thing to manufacture, this is the door and window. If there are no special tools or ready-made boards, then you can assemble the door jamb and the door using an axe, the work is of course painstaking, but you need to fit everything as tightly as possible so that the heat does not escape, and then cover the door with something - for example, fabric, or unnecessary clothing.

With the window, everything is exactly the same as with the door, we drive everything with a hatchet, you need to install at least double glass, but if there is none, then you can use film, but it needs to be put into three or four threads, with at least a centimeter distance between each other, to create several layers " air cushion" The tree for such a house can also be used freshly cut, without preliminary drying, since it is of small diameter and therefore will dry quickly, and it will not move, since you have already secured it, and it will not go anywhere. The diameter is not necessarily too thick; tree trunks with a diameter of 10-15 cm are suitable for logs.

It is better to tie and fasten the entire structure not with nails, but with wire, or you can use ropes. You can dig soil suitable for the solution for applying to the walls on site or right inside the house, at the same time the subfloor will be deeper, and then when laying the floor you will make a hatch and you will climb through it into the subfloor and store your supplies there.

You can even use it as a primer simple land, but clay-containing soil is better. Of course, such walls will constantly crack, and they will need to be greased every year, but it will be warm and dry. Such frame house, coated with a thick layer of clay, is suitable for the first time, while the main, more comfortable housing is being built, and then the mud hut can be used as a barn, warehouse, dig a cellar there, or simply be used as a warehouse.

With a log house, everything is much more complicated, you need logs two or three times thicker, and each log needs to be carefully processed and adjusted; doing it alone is a very difficult undertaking, no matter how you look at it, and you may not be able to finish it in a season if you don’t have construction experience. log houses and knowledge. As an option, of course, you can small house cutting down about 3/4 m is possible for one person, but it will be a bit cramped for long-term, long-term living, although this will probably happen.

Reinforcement of walls with wooden rods and poles

Reinforcement allows the thick layer of clay soil to stay firmly on the walls and not fall out. For reinforcement, the first layer of poles is nailed or tied to the walls with wire, and subsequent layers of poles are tied to the previous ones.

The thickness of the reinforcement layer depends on the expected thickness of the walls, and the thickness of the walls should be made depending on the climate of the region where the house will be built, it can be 10 cm. and 40cm. Also, to insulate such walls, instead of reinforcement and coating, you can use adobe blocks.

Adobe or soil blocks are made in molds, grass is added to the solution to strengthen the blocks for reinforcement, this makes the soil blocks stronger. The blocks are laid like brickwork, that is, the house is simply covered with blocks.

The roof frame must be quite strong to withstand the roof itself along with the roof and the snow load in winter time year, especially in those regions where it falls a large number of precipitation. You can cover the roof with both roofing felt and soft roof, and tin, or just straw, in general, whatever is available.


Production of soil blocks, clay, adobe

Adobe, or soil blocks, are made quite simply and quickly. Clay or clay-containing soil is mixed directly in the hole where the soil is located. It is more convenient to stir the soil by laying down a film or tarpaulin; you can stir it in a trough, basin, or sheet of tin.

Water is added to the clay, and everything is thoroughly mixed and pounded with feet, then straw, or hay, or grass is added to it, even twigs of bushes can be used, in general, anything that is suitable for reinforcing the block.

Then everything is thoroughly mixed again and placed in wooden molds, the solution is compacted and left to dry. When the clay dries and sets, the blocks can be removed from the molds and laid out for further drying.

It takes 10-15 days to dry, periodically turning the blocks over for uniform drying, that is, a couple of days on one side, a couple on the next, and so on until completely dry. When the blocks are dry, you can begin to lay walls from them. Blocks are laid with bandaging, that is, so that the vertical joints of the blocks do not coincide with each other between the rows, so that the upper block covers the junction of the lower blocks.

After masonry, the walls are plastered and whitewashed with whitewash (slaked lime), lime protects from moisture and precipitation, and gives an aesthetic appearance. Adobe blocks retain heat well, do not like humidity and dampness, because of this they lose their strength and collapse (crumple). Such a hut must be lubricated again every year, all cracks and places where plaster and clay have fallen out must be plastered. The walls are plastered with ordinary clay with the addition of sand.

Cost of wet cladding works for this moment one of the highest. It can be several times higher than the cost of the original building materials, plus they are quite dirty. No wonder that most of people starting renovations are seriously thinking about how realistic it is to do plastering work with their own hands. I will not assure you that it is easy and simple, but believe me, it is real. Next, we will talk about methods for arranging standard and decorative plaster, as well as how to make plaster with your own hands.

Important: in a professional environment similar works divided into dry and wet plaster. So the term dry implies frame cladding with plasterboard and other similar things. In this article we will talk exclusively about the wet method, that is, about applying a layer of one or another solution to a load-bearing wall.

A few words about whether it’s worth doing this

The average price in the vast expanses of our great power fluctuates around 250 - 300 rubles, for finishing 1 m² of wall with a layer of 10 mm. With a forty-millimeter layer it will increase to 550 - 600 rubles. A large order from 5000 m² will cost less, the savings will be about 50 rubles. on every meter. You still need to add about 150 rubles here. per material, we mean a layer of 10 mm/m².

More complex work are more expensive. So for the slopes they will ask for at least 400 rubles. for 1 linear meter. Ceiling prices start at 600 rubles, and a simple curved cladding will cost 800 rubles. for 1m². For complex surfaces, such as stucco molding, fluting, fireplace decoration, etc., there is no fixed tariff as such; here you will have to negotiate individually.

There is one subtlety here. Nowadays it is fashionable to make simple arches in the house, and just by the cost of this arch you can judge the professionalism of the master. A normal master will charge about the same amount for the arch as for the ceiling; the work is not difficult.

If they ask for a curved surface or even more, then in front of you are either hacks or top-class professionals. But, unfortunately, you can only distinguish them by the finished result.

Important: it should be noted that the indicated tariffs are average for cities of the Russian Federation. For Moscow and St. Petersburg, the price will be 3–5 times higher, the same applies to remote outbacks, where you will additionally have to pay for the master’s business trip.

Selection of plaster composition

I don’t see the point in writing about how to dilute and where to use the dry factory one; for this there are instructions in which everything is clearly and clearly stated. The only thing that some beginners stumble on is the process of dilution with water. Remember, the mixture must be added to the water, and not vice versa.

Imported mixtures like Knauf are certainly good, but they are too expensive. Our manufacturers, in particular such as “Starateli”, “Volma”, “Prestige S” and others, now produce goods that are in no way inferior to German ones, especially if we remember that most of the world’s brands are made here.

To be honest, the production homemade solutions is slowly becoming a thing of the past. In terms of quality, they remain far behind factory ones, and economic effect noticeable only with serious volumes.

But there are times when it makes sense to tinker. For example, plastering basements and utility rooms does not require High Quality and a mixture made with your own hands will be quite appropriate.

Clay mortar

Such solutions are more intended for finishing various types of stoves or fireplaces.

In some cases, they are finished with clay utility rooms, but there is an indispensable condition - in rooms with high humidity It is not advisable to use clay.

  • The basis is fatty clay dough, which must be rubbed through a 5x5 mm mesh. For greater strength, lime paste is most often added, with a total volume of about 30% of the clay mass. The filler here is pure quartz sand 0.5 - 1 part, again guided by the clay;
  • Some people prefer to use M200 cement instead of lime paste. Only 15% is needed here. This solution hardens faster, is less afraid of moisture and holds tighter. But at the finish you will get a dirty gray tint. In outbuildings this option will still work, but in the house it will need to be covered finishing putty or decorative plaster, which will be more expensive;

  • The instructions are traditional. Rubbed wet clay is laid out in a heap, a hole is made in the center, into which, in addition to sand and water, lime paste or cement is added. After thorough mixing, the solution can remain in this state for up to 2 days;
  • If the break in work is more than 1 hour, then the solution will need to be covered with a wet cloth so as not to ventilate;
  • After application, this solution dries in about 2–3 days;
  • The so-called adobe or mud hut plaster is made by hand with the addition of chopped straw. But as you understand, now this option may be interesting only from the point of view of a hobby and for fans of natural, natural, environmentally friendly compositions.

Mortar

Such solutions can remain in dry rooms for as long as desired. It's no secret that in ancient buildings There are surfaces that are already several hundred years old.

But in this case for different stages finishing, different compositions are prepared:

  • If you work on stone, then for spraying a lime-cement mortar is prepared in a ratio of 1:1:7, lime paste - 1 part, M200 cement, also 1 part and sifted sand - 7 parts;
  • For soil, cement is not needed, here comes 1 part lime mortar and 3.5 parts of sifted sand;
  • The covering is done in a proportion of one to two, lime-sand. Only in this case, the finest sand is taken, plus it is well washed and sifted.

The so-called factory, used for finishing wood, is prepared with the addition of gypsum. Lime paste with gypsum (or a type of gypsum - alabaster, which hardens faster) is mixed in a ratio of 3:1. But you need to stir and work quickly.

First, add 6 parts of water to 1 part of the dough and thoroughly knead until “liquid sour cream”. After which, without stopping kneading, plaster is gradually poured in. Once the plaster is poured, there is a maximum of 5 minutes left for kneading, plus 10 minutes to develop the composition.

Tip: Don't try to make lime dough yourself. Slaking lime is quite a responsible process and, without having the skill to do such work, there is no need to get involved. In this case, it is really better to buy than to try to do it yourself; it will cost less.

In my opinion, homemade plaster based on lime dough is one of best options. For large volumes, I usually calculate the approximate amount of material and order a dump truck of lime dough. This pile can be stored under film or a wet cloth for at least 2 weeks. For lime- cement mortar I add a couple of trowels of cement to one stretcher, it turns out fine.

Cement mortar

There are no special subtleties in preparing cement mortar; in fact, it is an ordinary masonry composition. Classically, the standard proportion is 1:3 (cement/sifted sand), but for walls with good adhesion, the proportion of cement can be reduced to 1:6. On the contrary, for smooth, high-strength surfaces, sometimes you have to make a solution of 1:2 or even 1:1.

Important: on smooth and dense concrete, polymer additives will need to be added to the water. The concrete itself is covered with a special primer. And in order to increase the fat content, about 20% (of the volume of cement) of lime paste is added to the plaster mortar.

Bringing the solution to readiness

Whatever solution you mix, it must have the optimal consistency for it to work properly. There are 3 states of the solution: skinny, normal and fat.

They are determined quite simply.

  • The trowel is vertically immersed and removed into the container;
  • If the solution has drained from it, exposing the metal completely or partially, then it is thin;
  • If the trowel is covered with a thin, uniform layer, this is a normal composition;
  • And when the solution sticks in clumps, it is a greasy composition.

The main binder is added to the lean solution, and sand is added to the fatty solution.

Plastering works

Plastering requires phased implementation works In this case, adherence to technology is especially important. Conventionally, the entire cycle can be divided into several stages.

This is surface preparation, priming and spraying, forming and grouting the rough layer and finishing. But any work begins with preparing the tool.

Briefly about the tool

The main tool here is considered to be a trowel, in other words, a trowel. Professionals use a round trowel with a pointed end. This is a multidisciplinary tool, but you need to know how to use it.

It will be more convenient for an amateur to work with a square trowel. From the required set, you will also need a pair of spatulas (medium and wide), a plaster falcon and a rule.

I think there is no need to explain the purpose of spatulas. The plaster falcon is a wide metal plate, which has a handle at the bottom center. In addition to the fact that it is convenient to cast from a falcon, it is also good for applying mortar and rubbing the finishing surface.

You will definitely need a grater and a grater. They differ in size from each other. The grater is smaller, one-handed, and the grater can reach 1.2 m in length.

The rule is a flat metal strip up to 2 meters long. This tool is indispensable when plastering along beacons. In addition, a construction mixer or a mixing attachment for a drill will be useful.

Surface preparation

This process is not particularly difficult; breaking is not building. As a rule, it is enough to moisten the wallpaper generously with water a couple of times and create a draft. In most cases, they fall off on their own. If this number does not work, buy a remover and use it.

Regular whitewash is removed in approximately the same way, although in the case of whitewash, it can be covered with paste; after the paste has dried, the cakes are removed with a spatula easily and quickly.

WITH oil paint more problems. Ideally, it is better to completely remove it. This can be done using construction hair dryer and a spatula, removers are also suitable, but they have a terrible smell.

I prefer not to fool myself and just make frequent cuts with a chisel or hatchet. If doubts creep in, you can add an additional fiberglass or metal reinforcing mesh on top.

Naturally, all large cracks and defects will need to be puttied. Small cracks should be widened with a knife or some kind of cutter, and then also sealed with a starting putty solution.

Important: a notch is made on smooth surfaces. Some sources say that there should be about 1000 notches per 1 m². I didn’t try to count the quantity, I’ll just say that the more blows you make, the better the plaster will take.

Before spraying and installing beacons, the surface will need to be well primed. The soil is selected depending on the type of base; now there are quite a few specialized compositions on the market.

Plastering on beacons

Beacons are flat planks that are mounted vertically on the wall. The principle is simple: after throwing the solution, the master takes the rule, applies it horizontally to the beacons and, moving upward, levels the surface. In this case, the beacons play the role of a kind of support rails. As you can see, the technology is accessible even to an amateur.

Most often, beacons are metal perforated profiles. Although, in addition to metal, such strips can be made of carbon fiber, these guides are lighter, plus they do not rust and do not require mandatory removal after leveling the surface.

But carbon fiber is an expensive material and the price of such products is much higher. Some craftsmen manage to make beacons from scraps of drywall, but I don’t advise you to do this, it requires skill.

The most common are beacons that provide thickness plaster mortar in 3 mm and 6 mm. A layer thinner than 3 mm is already putty. And if thicker is needed, then the planks are installed on “cakes” of mortar at the required distance from the wall.

As you understand, the most difficult thing in this process is the marking and installation of the beacons itself. With smooth and smooth walls it's simple. The beacons are attached here using small self-tapping screws. But when the wall is clearly curved or a layer of more than 6 mm is needed, you will have to tinker with leveling the planks.

Each master sets the bar differently. First you will need to clearly “beat off” the vertical. A plumb line, cord or fishing line and self-tapping screws will help us with this.

A self-tapping screw is driven into the upper corners of the wall, at a distance of 150 - 350 mm from the ceiling and the adjacent wall. Along the plumb line, the same self-tapping screw is driven at the bottom.

After that, 2 horizontal cords are pulled between the upper and lower screws. The distance between the cord and the wall must correspond to the thickness of the plaster layer.

Now we need to mark the intermediate verticals. To do this, I prefer to use self-tapping screws with a slotted slot for a flat-head screwdriver; it is convenient to pass the plumb line through it. The installation step of the beacons depends on the width of your rule. It is believed that the rule should be 200 mm beyond the beacons on both sides.

As you remember, we have cords stretched at the top and bottom. So the screws are screwed in so that the caps are level with this cord.

The plank may bend slightly during installation, therefore, being guided by a plumb line, it would not be superfluous to screw in 1 - 2 more self-tapping screws vertically. The heads of these self-tapping screws will become the standard for installing beacons. The beacons are attached next to the standard screws.

Now we need to mix a little gypsum mortar, make some kind of cakes out of it and stick them to the wall at intervals of about 250 mm along the lighthouse route. The plank is applied to the soft solution and slightly sunk into it to the depth we need.

After half an hour, the solution will set and work can begin. By the way, the screws that served as guides for us will need to be unscrewed so that they do not rust and spoil the plaster.

Tip: Self-tapping screw references work great. But as soon as the beacon is installed, it would be useful to additionally check the vertical and horizontal lines by placing a large building level along the entire length of the plank.

Plastering technique

The operating technology itself is approximately the same in all cases, and it doesn’t matter whether you work with beacons or without them. The lighthouse is just a good help, a support cell, with the help of which it is easier to level the solution.

If a plaster layer thicker than 10 mm is planned, then application is done in two approaches, not counting the coating of the base with primer.

First, the so-called spraying is performed. For this, a solution with the consistency of liquid sour cream is mixed. A small part of the composition is collected on a trowel and sharply thrown onto the wall. The brush movements here are similar to playing table tennis.

After this, the main layer is also poured, here the solution should resemble very thick sour cream. If you use beacons, then this layer is leveled using a rule, slowly moving along the beacons.

In the case when beacons are not used, the main rough layer is leveled with a trowel, falcon or wide spatula. Here we are already used to it. By the way, there can be several such layers, it all depends on the required thickness of the plaster.

In general, the instructions require that leveling be done from top to bottom, so there is less chance that the solution will float. But as far as I’ve seen, it’s always done the other way around, to be honest, it’s more convenient to move from bottom to top.

The tool is placed under acute angle to the surface and the solution is leveled like a small bulldozer. All excess is immediately removed and dumped into a plaster box.

But no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to get a perfectly smooth, clean surface at this stage. More grout awaits you ahead.

It is performed at a time when the solution has already begun to set, but is still wet. It is important not to make a mistake with the timing here. A wet layer is easy to damage, and a frozen monolith can be rubbed for a long time and to no avail.

Important: beacons (especially metal ones), if any, should be removed before rubbing while the mortar is wet, and the resulting rusts should be immediately filled with thick mortar and leveled with a wide spatula or square trowel.

They are usually grated either with a grater or a falcon. The tool must be lightly, without fanaticism, pressed against the plane and leveled through numerous circular movements. Here you need to step aside more often and look at the results of your work from an angle; up close you won’t notice small flaws.

What you and I have done is quite enough for fat people. textured wallpaper, but for painting you will also need to apply a thin layer of coating up to 2 mm. Whether the covering will be gypsum, cement or polymer-based, depends on the operating conditions.

The covering is evenly applied with a narrow spatula onto the blade of a wide spatula, after which it is leveled over the entire surface. As in the previous case, it will have to be rubbed, but to achieve a glossy surface, use a grater covered with felt or felt. But the most beautiful surface is obtained with the help of decorative types of plaster. We will dwell on them in more detail later.

As for the technology for creating external and internal corners, to arrange external corners, first a board is nailed on one side and the adjacent plane is plastered.

After which the board is moved to the other side, pressed with bevels and similar actions are performed, the principle is shown in the diagram. Internal corner is removed using 2 graters knocked down at the desired angle.

Important: do not try to grout and treat the entire wall at once; you simply may not have enough time to grout, and after the solution has set, rubbing is useless. The most reasonable solution would be to work in sectors, so you can intelligently distribute your forces and gradually learn what volume is the limit for you in one go.

Wood plaster

Another important point This is plastering of wooden surfaces. Wood is a specific material and if you simply apply a layer of mortar on it, it will not last long due to temperature and humidity deformations. Therefore, a reinforcing mesh will be needed here.

Of course, you can fill the finished metal mesh chain-link or staple a similar fiberglass mesh. But there has been a proven method for filling so-called shingles for decades. The idea is that thin wooden planks, and the solution is already thrown onto them.

Such planks can now be bought on any market, they cost a penny. It's easy to stuff them. First by wooden surface Small notches are made with a hatchet, the frequency here is low. After which the tree needs to be primed, people used a five percent solution of copper sulfate for these purposes, but no one forbids buying a modern composition for wood with an antiseptic effect.

The planks themselves must be wetted before fastening so that they do not crack when hammering nails into them. Then everything is simple, the shingles are stuffed crosswise at an angle of 45º relative to the floor, the cell size is 40 mm.

The nails are driven into the intersection, through two planks to the third. A deformation gap of about 5 mm is left between the shingles and adjacent surfaces.

Important: wooden shingles are good, first of all, because their expansion coefficient is the same as that of the base. As a result, when there is a difference in temperature and humidity, unlike metal or fiberglass mesh, there is no imbalance between the wooden base and the reinforcing frame.

Available types of decorative plaster

No matter how strange it may sound, decorative plaster is often an excellent solution for an amateur. With its help, you can easily hide minor defects or pass off inaccuracies as the artistic intention of the author.

Of course, painting on plaster with your own hands is only available to a person who has the talent of a painter, but besides this, there are several other more affordable options.

Polyethylene will help you

An abstract pattern on plaster with your own hands can be applied quite easily using an ordinary piece of polyethylene.

True, you will still have to spend money on liquid acrylic putty; it is sold in buckets and is immediately ready for use.

  • The wall is plastered as for painting, that is, it must be perfectly flat. Otherwise, all serious defects will immediately appear. You will need to coat the base first. latex primer. After which the adjacent walls, ceiling and floor around the perimeter are covered with masking tape;
  • Although the instructions indicate that acrylic putty ready to work immediately, it would be a good idea to mix it with a mixer immediately before application;
  • The technology here is the same as when arranging the cover. The putty is applied with a medium or narrow spatula onto the blade of a wide spatula and, using circular movements, is evenly distributed over a plane with a thickness of about 2 mm. In this case, it is advisable to cover the entire wall at once;
  • When the wall is ready, on it, preferably without air bubbles, crumpled polyethylene is applied, and in this position is left to dry. The drying process takes about 16 hours. After 3 - 4 hours, the masking tape will need to be removed so that it does not dry;
  • After 16 hours the film is carefully removed, and the wall is left for a day to dry completely.

Important: no matter what kind of plaster you use, and no matter how you apply it, under no circumstances use extreme, accelerated types of drying. Various types of air heaters and heat guns may cause cracking of the layer. Any solution must dry naturally.

  • The final touch is to scrape the surface with a wide spatula or square trowel. You will just need to scrape off the excess particles. Don’t be afraid, acrylic is quite a strong composition, and when the mixture hardens, it is impossible to damage it with a light scraper of a spatula;
  • If desired, the mixture can be tinted before application. or apply a light tone after drying;
  • There is one more point. You cannot decorate 2 adjacent walls at the same time. In standard rectangular room 2 opposite walls are decorated in one go. And only when they are dry, you can proceed to the remaining two.

Using stamps

This method of plastering allows you to apply a rather elegant and highly artistic ornament. As a rule, textured rollers with a finished pattern are used for this. Although, if desired, it is quite easy to make a stamp for plaster with your own hands.

The principle itself is similar to the method described above with polyethylene. The wall surface must also be pre-leveled. After which a layer is applied to it finishing plaster. The thickness of this layer is selected according to the depth of the texture on the roller, but often it is the same traditional 2 mm.

Drawing with a plot is more difficult; here you need to have a steady hand and control every movement. It is better for a beginning artist to use stamps with abstract patterns. By the way, they are the easiest to make with your own hands.

So an ordinary rubber roller, randomly wrapped with a tourniquet, thick fishing line or ordinary rope, on the wall gives the texture of wood fibers. The texture of the mesh with large or small cells also looks quite original. In general, try it, there is no limit to perfection.

Combing

I find the so-called combing to be the easiest to do. In this method, you just need to apply decorative plaster with a spatula and “comb” the surface with a brush with stiff synthetic bristles in different directions.

Do-it-yourself antique plaster is not much more difficult. Damp plaster will need to be “combed” with a metal float or a stiff brush. After this, the surface is trimmed with a simple hair brush and again lightly smoothed with a “comb”. At the end, the wall is embroidered with natural stone laying.

Bark beetle

The texture of bark beetles appeared about 20 years ago. This decor looks good both on the facade and in the interior. The name speaks for itself here; a pattern is displayed on the surface that resembles wood eaten away by a bark beetle.

Setting up a “bark beetle” is a little more difficult than “combing” travertine, but it’s quite possible with your own hands. On the main base layer The plaster needs to be applied with a thin but strong ball of putty. After which the decorative plaster “Bark Beetle” itself is applied.

You will have to buy the mixture. The principle here is simple: mineral granules are added to the total mass. The thickness of the finishing layer of decorative plaster will depend on the diameter of these granules.

After spreading the solution, it is pressed at an angle with a spatula or trowel and guided in the desired direction. The granules leave grooves that resemble marks from a bark beetle.

Good old fur coat

One cannot help but recall such a popular and simple decorative plaster as a fur coat. Nowadays it is less common, but 20–30 years ago at least a third of all houses in the private sector were finished this way.

For its production, liquid cement-lime or cement-sand mortar. If desired, dye is added to it, you can add mica particles, in this case the house will simply shine in the sun.

Now there are machines for putting on fur coats, but if the work is one-time, there is no point in spending money on a machine, in this case it is worth turning to the experience of your ancestors. You will need a brush or a regular broom and a simple stick. The solution is scooped up with a broom or brush and the tool hits a stick near the wall, so that splashes of the solution fly onto the wall, that’s actually the whole technology.

When using a brush, the texture will be fine; with a broom, the surface will be more expressive. There is a small nuance here. One layer of spray is not enough; for a normal result there should be several of them, but the surface must be finished in one go; you cannot throw it after the first spray. Therefore, it is better to work by sector.

Conclusion

This article is about traditional hatah middle zone, a little about the technologies of their construction, about why they are in poor condition today. We continue the series of articles “Good DIY house" In the future, articles such as “Traditional Frames” will be published, in which we will talk about English oak, German half-timbered frames, and Japanese frames. We think, in general terms, in the article “World experience of folk construction using clay,” we will talk about how they built in the world where adobe is known and how it was used.

A little history

Let's look at the period of the last 50-60 years. The Great War ended in 1945 Patriotic War. People were returning to normal life.
There were no villages as such; houses were destroyed and burned. It was necessary to quickly solve the housing problem. They built quickly and from what was underfoot and in sight.
There were several options for houses and technologies inherited from parents: adobe block hut, adobe-cast ( adobe) And hut(there are actually many types of huts). Let me remind you that we are considering the steppe and forest-steppe, where clay is abundant, and scaffolding not much or not at all.
If a hut was built on the site of an old one that had burned down, then the removed clay was sorted into suitable and unsuitable (one that contained a lot of wood chips or that was baked from the fire was considered unsuitable).

Adobe-block hut

First method - adobe blocks. Why the blocks and how did this happen? There are two approaches here. First: old unusable adobe hut with strong walls, for one reason or another, they were sawn into transportable blocks. They sawed with a string saw made of barbed wire with handles. After the material was prepared, laying began with clay mortar.
The second option was to make new blocks. In the immediate post-war period, it was not very popular, since this method presupposed the presence of a place where one could survive a season or two. During the first construction season, the family worked on making blocks. It was necessary to extract clay (to do this, dig a well and a cellar, or extract it from a quarry located near the village). It is worth noting that clay has better properties if it is frozen (perhaps it was stored on the site for the winter). Then the clay was mixed with straw or hay (sometimes wood chips), but more often with chaff (waste from milking grain) and the blocks were formed. They dried, then they were stored for the winter. The blocks were stacked and protected from the rain.
On the territory of Ukraine, until the collapse of the USSR, rural factories producing adobe. Now there are only a few such factories, their products continue to be in demand among villagers.
This technology is characterized by convenient and fast construction; it was very easy to work at heights without serious scaffolding. Walls were quickly erected using clay mortar blocks. But often the villagers forgot to bandage the seams or made the walls too thin, which is why such houses easily fell apart into “cubes” over time. But at the same time, the walls could turn into a monolith, which is very difficult to disassemble or destroy. Perhaps there was a technology for quick masonry, when the blocks dried for a week (set) and went into the walls. (The authors’ assumption)

Adobe-cast (adobe) hut

Another method of construction was adobe. To this day, such huts are highly valued. Their walls are durable and require minimal maintenance. Clay casting technology requires Strong arms, legs and hardy hooves. The clay was soaked and kneaded next to the future house. They dug one or several holes in which there was a clay-sand mixture. Kneading could be carried out with the help of horses, oxen (but the animal is not bad and always strives to get away), using a wheel from a cart or tractor, or a specially made one. Again, using the help of the legs of relatives and friends (Toloka) was common.
It must be said that, in fact, there is a nuanced division between adobe and adobe. How do they differ? Claystone is a technology for laying plastic clay into formwork that already contains straw. Claybite- this is a mixture of clay and straw with less water, also placed in formwork. In both cases, the mixture is thoroughly compacted.
Hut was erected on the principle of climbing formwork. This process was quite difficult and lengthy. It was necessary to prepare the mixture, install the formwork, lay the mixture with layer-by-layer compaction, wait for the structural strength to gain, after which the formwork was removed, the scaffolding was installed, and everything happened again. The pouring height at a time is 300-400mm. Up to 20 people, or even more, could work on one house at the same time.
It is difficult to say how quickly the house was built. Construction is both convenient and problematic. It was difficult to serve the mixture to a height higher than human height. With this technology, it was necessary to follow a number of rules for arranging dressings. Let us repeat, houses using this technology are very durable and least susceptible to the influence of time (if everything is done wisely).

Mazanka

Mazanka. There is so much talk about this technology, but few people have thought about what it is. Often, when they want to make an attack on Ukrainian traditional housing, they mention exactly “ mud hut». Mazanka- this is the warmest hut of all the huts that are built from clay. It is the fastest in construction, but no less labor-intensive. In Europe, huts have been known since before the Middle Ages. This technology is used by the British, known as English oak frame filled with clay and straw, by the Germans and French, known as half-timbering, even in Italy and Spain, outbuildings are made using this technology. But about the Middle and Far East, about buildings in Africa, India, China, the author modestly keeps silent, because mud huts are still being built there today. So, hut- this is a wooden frame, usually made of white acacia (in Ukraine), filled with clay.
If in adobe And adobe blocks the foundation was more of an accident, then stones or burnt tree trunks could be placed under the main supports, or they could simply dig in supports. The cross members of the frame were branches of felled acacia; it must be said that they fit into slotted holes in the racks; the frame was without nails. When a large tree was cut down, one trunk with a diameter of 300-400 mm was split into 2 or 4 parts and used as supports at angles. If younger trees were used, then trunks from 100 to 200 mm were used for supports. Then branches were woven into the crossbars to create a kind of “basket.” After all these simple operations, the frame was smeared. A clay-straw mixture was used, the amount of straw ranged from 10 to 70% by weight. It is possible that there were cases when the frame could first be covered, and then the walls were finished, which makes the construction process more convenient, but requires more skilled work on the frame. The advantage of adobe is that it dries much faster than ordinary adobe; it uses less adobe, which makes construction easier. In more northern versions, a log house was made from logs with a diameter of 150-200 mm, and then coated with kaolin clay. This method simultaneously solved the problem of caulking the seams and imparted a traditional white color.

Supplements

In this article, we will not consider in detail the technologies for adding organic binders, stabilizers, and hardeners. Let’s dispel a little the myth about using dung, or rather horse manure. Horse manure used as crushed fiber for “ironing” walls at the final stages of finishing. To reinforce the clay mixture in the southern regions, the descendants of nomads could use manure instead of straw, since it is still more profitable to give hay and straw to livestock first. And grains were not grown much in these regions. IN adobe mixtures they could add whey, blood, dung - to improve the properties of adobe. They not only increased the strength of adobe, but also increased its moisture resistance and durability.

Error Analysis

We allow ourselves to note that after the war, the Soviet government actively spread unspoken propaganda that the village is hard work, the horror of modern Soviet man, and the city is a bright future and wonderful prospects. This subconscious “zombification” led to an outflow of the smartest and most skilled people to the cities to work in factories. And those who remained were driven to collective farms.
The younger generation in the village needed housing. Therefore, construction from pasture materials was still relevant. We used all the same principles. Only more and more often did we think about the foundations. So how was it made? Basically, as necessary, on a quick fix without thinking about the consequences, without wasting time on quality (there were many reasons for this, not just carelessness). Often such a laid foundation could stand from a year to twenty before they began to build anything on it. To this day you can see the foundations laid back in the 80s; they are both the pride of the owners and the collapse of their hopes, overgrown with bushes and trees. Why was the foundation not given importance, even though it was clear from past experience that it was necessary? Firstly, few people knew what the technology and design of the simplest foundation and the principle of its operation should be, so the technology was developed using the method of popular experience and on the advice of neighbors and godfathers (in every village there was a specialist builder who supervised all construction projects, his traditional invited, but given time he was involved in the construction of cowsheds and other collective farm buildings). Secondly, high-quality building materials were not always available. Thirdly, very little time was allocated for the foundation, since it was necessary to run the farm.
It is worth saying that the older generations had an advantage, the sites for houses were more or less carefully selected, and the young people were already building where their parents would give birth. Here we come to problems and errors.

The first mistake and the key to problems with the house is that this is a place for construction with all its characteristics (for more details, see the article “Selecting a site” and “ Good house with your own hands"). It was rarely chosen specifically and according to traditions that were known to our ancestors. This may lead to a problem such as capillary suction of moisture from wet soils. Those houses that were built without a foundation on such soils ceased to exist. Others were luckier. A foundation made of rubble, slag, pile stumps (waste reinforced concrete products) and other available materials solved many problems. In addition, it has already become possible to get a couple of packs of bricks. But there are very few examples when brick was used to lay a plinth. As a rule, they covered the base and the wall (where horizontal waterproofing was not carried out). But this is in regions close to brick factories. The problem of the basement getting wet caused a lot of trouble for the residents of such houses. It was previously resolved with annual repairs. But our man is lazy. It was decided to cut down the base of the house and make a concrete plinth. This decision was disastrous primarily for block adobe and clay huts, while the huts have survived to this day (but in very poor condition). Most likely they survived, because the supports were filled with concrete and did not allow them to move apart. Then the concrete base was coated with bitumen. In order to avoid having to whitewash the walls and repair them every year, they came up with cement-sand tiles and used them to cover the facades. The tiles were nailed with 100-150mm nails onto 300-400mm walls. Thereby significantly worsening the thermal resistance of the wall. And cyclic freezing of sections of the wall did not have the most positive effect on the structure of the walls as a whole.
Over time, the walls began to slide off the plinths, the plinths began to turn inside out, and water began to flow in. Tiles peeling off near plinths. Over time, rodents trampled their way into the voids that appeared. They do not sharpen the clay itself, but the cracks formed between the frame and the clay interested them very much, they widened them and made nests in them. Over time, many walls in houses (especially non-residential ones or those where there is no owner's relationship) have turned into a kind of Swiss cheese. Also, cracks were formed due to the use of raw wood. Over the course of 10-20 years, the trunk dried out completely, and a cavity the size of a finger, or even two, formed between the adobe and the support. It’s worse when they used dead wood, usually affected by shashel. For 20 years, only dust remained from a full-fledged trunk.
If you look closely at the monuments of folk architecture exhibited in museums under open air, then you can see how large the roof overhang was made by our great-grandfathers. The overhang of the huts built in the 20th century. rarely more than 300mm. Hence the streams of water running along the walls, the need frequent repairs and whitewashing.
So far we have only touched the walls. How were the floors made? The technology was simple. The main beam, the slab, ran along the longitudinal axis of the house. The svolok was considered the abode of the brownie. Purlins rested on this beam, onto which clay was thrown. Where boards were used as purlins, the ceiling now looks like a bubble hanging into the room (partly because the board lay flat). Where unsanded round timber was used, repairs were required because the ceiling had long fallen off along with the bark. Also, the load was taken by eye, because deformations of the ceiling (partly again due to raw wood) were a constant phenomenon. The attic has always been used for drying and storage. Because of this, sometimes a weak overlap in some places could give uneven shrinkage, which could cause waves to appear.
In general, quite often thieves entered not through a window or door, but through a broken hole in the ceiling. But this is in those regions where the entrance to the attic was from the yard, and not from the house.
Wings of a house in the 20th century. asbestos fiber, bitumen, steel slates, less often tiles. In the west and north there are shingles and boards. In other matters, traditional straw and reeds were also used (each region had its own traditional roofs, but for the most part it was thatch). Even today it is possible, by picking many slate roofs, find straw or shingles underneath. I think one could say that the thermal resistance of a house covered with slate is several times less, and therefore in the summer the ceiling dries out and cracks, and in the winter the house cools down faster.
But the problem with reed and thatch roofing, in addition to the fire hazard, is that it needs constant care, and only then will it last a long time.

So, work on the mistakes

1. House made of adobe needs good strip foundation(a base that can even be a clay pillow). Not overly powerful, just well made. You can use both traditional rubble masonry and embankments in trenches, and modern reinforced concrete tapes.
2.Adobe must be protected from capillary suction of moisture by a base and a steep blind area (can also be made of gravel with water drainage).
3. The walls must have a thickness of at least 500, and preferably 800 mm, or have a special design (a combination of different adobes in saturation vegetable fillers). Upon completion of the walls, it is necessary to tie the walls with any type of belts (wooden or monolithic, but do not overdo it with weight). The walls themselves must be bandaged in their design, even a monolith.
4. The attic must be insulated. Warm attic- a guarantee of warmth in the home.
5. The roof overhang to the floor height must be at least 600-800mm. Proper collection and drainage of water must be organized.
6. The house needs care and attention. Adobe house Only then will it serve as well as possible if you take care of it and look after it.

It is these conclusions that will help make your home durable and reliable. I would like to add that you can meet clay walls standing without a roof for more than 10 years. They still support the structural load. Ordinary red brick needs to be removed after the third winter, although this is not particularly difficult - it crumbles.
Those huts that we see today have stood for more than 20-80 years without any owner's attention to them. Despite all the mistakes made and their modest, dilapidated appearance, they stand and perform their function remarkably well. Not a single house can boast that “it was built just right” and stood for so long, well, except for large-panel ones.

Conclusion

We do not encourage living in old model housing that does not meet modern requirements comfort and lifestyle. We try to pay attention to technology and mistakes made, in order to use the centuries-tested experience of our ancestors to build modern, comfortable, affordable housing. If you take into account and avoid all the listed mistakes, you can get a high-quality, warm, environmentally friendly, humane, durable house that you won’t be ashamed to leave to your great-great-grandchildren.

Until the 50s of the last century in the northern and northwestern parts of Ukraine, as well as in some steppe regions in southern Russia, houses were traditionally built, which were popularly called and continue to be called mud huts(from the word smear - plaster clay mortar).

A little technology for making smeared walls

Now there are people who want to build ecological homes with their own hands. Therefore, enthusiasts are reviving such old-fashioned technologies, guided by the principle - “everything is new, it’s well forgotten old.”

Let's look at some features of the old technology for making smeared walls.

The walls of the mud huts, like the walls of a half-timbered house, consist of wooden frame. The gap between the posts and crossbars, which used to be called cages, was filled in the following way: they installed wooden stakes and poles, braided them with brushwood, straw or reeds, and then coated them with clay.

Depending on the type of cell sealing, smeared walls can be divided into:

  • wooden;
  • wattle;
  • straw;
  • reed.

Wooden huts consist of frames (crossbars) and racks, the spaces between which are filled with thin logs (knurling), wooden plates or blocks. The surface of such a wall was first filled with wooden shingles from thin poles, and then coated with clay mortar.

Wicker mud hut. With this design, the cells of the supporting frame are filled with vertical wooden stakes and horizontal poles (the pitch of stakes and poles relative to each other was taken depending on their thickness, approximately 17...25 cm). After installation, these elements were braided with brushwood and plastered with clay mortar.

Straw hut differs from wattle only in that instead of brushwood, strands of long and straight rye straw were used. The pitch of the stakes from each other was about 17...18 cm.

Reed mud hut. When constructing walls in this way, bundles of winter reeds, previously cleared of husks, were attached with wire to poles installed in cages. The beams were nailed to the upper and lower horizontal elements of the half-timbered frame (trimming).

The walls were coated as follows. Surfaces of external and interior walls were previously cleaned and moistened with a wet brush, and the first layer of solution was thrown onto it, which was then left to dry. Next, subsequent layers were added until it was possible to smooth and level all the depressions on the surface of the walls.

When performing plastering work, before performing the subsequent plaster layer, pieces of crushed brick were stuffed into the fresh and still soft coating as much as possible.

After plastering and final drying of the entire plaster marking, the walls were whitewashed with lime, chalk or white clay.

The walls of cold auxiliary buildings were erected in a similar way. The ends of horizontal poles wrapped in straw, pre-impregnated with a liquid clay solution, were installed in the vertical side grooves of the racks. Adjacent rows of poles were fastened to each other with knitting needles, punching through the straw, or the rows of poles were intertwined with thin wire.

The surface of such walls was leveled by throwing a plaster mixture of clay, lime and sand.

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts about mud houses...