This timber frame cabin - compact house, with a built-up area of just over 50 m2, is designed as an office/residential building where the owners can live, relax, work and receive visitors to their business. A four-pitched roof with large overhangs best protects the walls of the wooden building and the wooden terrace surrounding the building.
At the back door, a dressing room/windbreaker and a small bathroom with a shower. Through a functional kitchen, we reach the living room, which has a breakfast table, a TV lounge and a staircase to the attic. Under the stairs firewood for the fireplace. The living room has wide glass doors to the covered terrace, which will serve as an extension of the living room and shelter even in windy weather thanks to the low gutter line.
The attic gets additional space thanks to the roof dormers, which open up a view of the landscape from a higher view point. Next to the stairs, there is a work table and a large lounge area, which can also be used as an additional sleeping place. On the other side of the stairs is a large master bedroom.
Timber frame construction
The wooden structure is to be assembled on strip foundation. Separate pile foundations for load-bearing terrace posts. Ground screws for terrace construction. The base of the first floor floor - insulated reinforced concrete slab on the ground. The strip foundation could also be replaced here with an insulated slab foundation.
The structural load of the building is supported by the main posts, base plate and main beams placed along the perimeter. Here I wanted to show these load-bearing elements, similar to log buildings, in the exterior, achieving the charm of a historic building, while also gaining the technical advantages of a timber frame structure. The terrace structure is partially supported by fastening it to the outer surface of the strip foundation.
On the second floor level, the building is enclosed by the top plate. Common/insulation posts are securely attached to this top plate with an overlap. The ceiling beams and main beams create an console, forming a support for the bottom plate of the roof structure. This design achieves a more extensive roof overhang. Additionally, for the terrace sheeting, square boards are used and bordered by an edge beam to conceal the ends of the boards from view.
The roof structure relies on 90x190mm rafters, positioned with a notch on the bottom plate. At the junction of the outer wall posts and the rafters, additional support is provided, forming triangles that ensure the three-dimensional stability of the framework. The main rafters are linked to the tie beam and secured together with a milled plywood insert at the top. A wind board is present at the gutter level. A trim between the rafters is directly on the bottom plate. Common rafters are supported in a similar manner to the main rafters, except at the ridge level where they are suspended from the ridge purlin.
Here is the load-bearing wooden structure, with base sheeting. The building is supposed to be insulated with cellulose thermal insulation by blowing it under pressure into the gap between the inner and outer wall sheetings. The foundations are insulated on the inner surface of the strip foundations. Above the rafters is a board sheeting with a diffusion membrane, which also serves as a eaves finish.
Cross-section of the building before the installation of thermal insulation. Here I would like to draw attention to the connection of the outer wall posts and rafters, which form a continuous insulation cavity, ensuring the highest possible density of insulation installation, and accordingly also the quality.
Thermal insulation at the second floor level fills the space between the outer wall posts and the roof bottom plate, creating a seemingly redundant overuse of insulation material. However, when calculating the cost of thermal insulation against the creation of an additional sheeting layer in this place, a decision was made to spend a little more on the insulation material.
Here a wooden construction kit is assembled with a rainproof diffusion membrane on the roof.
To connect the rafters and posts of the roof dormer, I use steel strips 5x60x800 mm, on both sides of the connection, sinking them into the both parts so that they do not interfere with the fastening of the sheeting.
