What is the cheapest way to build a house? What is cheaper - to build a house or buy a ready-made one

The costs of building a house of the same area can vary by two or more times.

You can reduce the construction budget if you invest your own labor, knowledge, energy, and talents into this matter.

An inexpensive house should not be:

Very small. Its size should suit your family's needs.
Inconvenient. It should suit your family's lifestyle.
Low quality. You can use cheaper, but high-quality traditional solutions. Typically, such decisions are easier to implement.

What can you save on?

1. You can save a lot by choosing house project, which should have economical planning solutions and structural elements Houses.

Architects offering ready-made projects are not interested in the cost of the house. Their task is to charm the developer with a beautiful facade and sell the project.

A beautiful picture acts like a drug - the developer decides at all costs build a large, complex and therefore very expensive house.

The project is not expensive house — cottage With gable roof on a shallow foundation with floors on the ground. Total area 123 m 2 . The house has no internal load-bearing walls. Attic floor absent - suspended ceiling attached to roof trusses roofs. The angle of inclination of the roof slopes is 20 degrees. In summer living space increases due to large, more than 20 m², a terrace completely covered and protected by walls, pos. 13.

An inexpensive house project is:

A rectangular house with gable roof;
a one-story house without expensive interfloor ceilings, stairs and numerous windows;
a house without a basement, because if there is one, costs will increase by at least 30%;
house on low and ;
house without unusual elements– bay windows, arched windows, tympanums, columns, balconies, pilasters, stairs, two-level rooms, winter gardens;
a roof with two, or at most five slopes (sometimes there are fifteen of these slopes!). Corners, valleys, hatches, skylights and a lot of tin elements - such a roof can cost 40% of construction costs;
external walls, the simplest to construct;
window standard size;
simple interior and exterior wall decoration;
traditional facade made of cement-lime plaster.

The simple form of the house is the epitome of ultra-modern architectural style Barn house. A distinctive feature of the style is its exquisite laconicism, which is achieved by the correct choice of proportions, as well as texture and color. exterior finishing harmonizing with the surrounding space.

Devote maximum time and energy to choosing an economical home design.

Read articles on choosing the main parameters of a house project:

2. At finishing works. Option “minimum”: walls with traditional plaster or plaster, laminate on the floor, simple plumbing in the bathroom.

3. On materials. You can entrust the selection, purchase and delivery of materials to the construction site to the construction contractor - you have less worries. But if you want to save money, then take on this work yourself.

You can buy materials from famous brands or purchase the same materials from local or lesser-known manufacturers. Moreover, they will not be inferior in quality to the first ones, but their price will be lower. To save money and not make a mistake in choosing, collect all available information about the manufacturer, prices on the construction market in your and neighboring cities, as well as reviews about the quality of the product.

However, remember the basic rule of the market - quality costs money.

Many sellers give seasonal discounts from prices during a period when demand for building materials falls. This usually happens from November to February. Keep an eye on prices and purchase expensive materials during this period.

What to build a house from, what material?

SNiP 02/23/2003 proposes to carry out, by making appropriate calculations, optimization of the building shell according to.

For different structures of house shells (walls, floors), the total cost of construction is calculated 1 m 2 wall or ceiling surfaces, rub/m 2. The heating costs of a house built using these different shell designs are then determined. For each design, a payback period is found - the period of time during which construction costs will be recouped.

IN different regions, depending on the cost of the fuel and building materials used, as well as the severity of the climate, different results are obtained for the payback period of a particular wall or ceiling structure.

If you do not have specific preferences on what to build a house from, then find out the results of such calculations from local designers. Choose the wall and ceiling design option with the shortest payback period for construction costs in your region.

Calculations and construction practice show that in places with a harsh climate and/or expensive fuel It is more profitable to invest in highly efficient insulation materials.

Advantageous in harsh climates or when heating with electricity build double-layer walls with a thin but durable, and therefore relatively cheap, load-bearing layer (, etc.) with a masonry thickness of 180-250 mm. and insulate them with a fairly thick layer effective insulation — 100-300 mm.

In areas with very harsh winters in a double-layer wall It may be advantageous to lay the load-bearing part from less durable but warmer blocks: aerated concrete, gas silicate, foam concrete or porous ceramics, density 600 - 1200 kg/m 3. This solution will reduce the thickness of the layer of highly efficient insulation, but due to lower strength wall material you will have to increase the thickness of the walls.

One square meter frame wall contains the maximum amount of highly effective insulation. This is probably the most profitable wall design in terms of return on construction costs.

Frame wall inexpensive home for harsh climates:

Between the frame posts there is a mineral wool insulation board with a density of at least 45 kg/m 3, thickness 100-200 mm.
Externally, insulation boards made of extruded polystyrene foam (EPS) or polystyrene foam or facade slabs from mineral wool with a density of at least 125 kg/m 3, thickness 40 - 100 mm.

However, a frame house has features that not all developers like.

It is profitable to build a house with frame walls and in areas with less severe winters. The outer layer of insulation on a frame wall in areas with a milder climate can be omitted.

In areas with mild winters houses made from lightweight, warm porous ceramics or without additional insulation and masonry thickness no more than 510 mm.

Wooden walls from timber or logs in most climatic zones of Russia do not provide modern requirements to heat conservation. Wooden walls of houses for year-round residence need additional insulation.

In the comments, please justify your choice: cheaper, warmer, more durable, etc.

Is it cheap and fast?

Private residential building on a budget price segment It may well be comfortable, warm, reliable. And if your hands grow as they should and there is a desire to use them correctly, then you will look respectable, see fig. However, building a house cheaply is not everything. There are already almost 7.5 billion people on Earth and everything is coming. Our “ball” is not rubber, so it would be simply naive to expect that property taxes and land rents will somehow decrease over time.

Therefore, the most cheap house not necessarily the one whose construction will cost less: when choosing material for the house (see below), design, etc., you must keep in mind further operating costs. Especially if the construction is carried out on credit, you need to start repaying it immediately. Those., great importance acquires a period from the start of construction until the house is ready for occupancy: while construction is underway, there will be no time for surveying additional income, but you have to pay for your previous housing and take out the next loan payment and put it in.

The conclusion is obvious: Having planned to build, first of all we figure out how long we will spend until the house is completely ready? This point can be significant even for a fairly experienced builder, if you need to decide whether to build it yourself or entrust some of the construction stages to a conscientious contractor with established production and well-equipped technical equipment. Savings from a reasonable distribution of cash and/or available funds according to the stages of home readiness (see below) for contract and manual work can significantly exceed all other possible items and will certainly make the choice of the main structural material of the house and its foundation - the foundation much easier.

What is a budget house?

We will consider a budget house to be a house whose construction until it is fully ready (see below), but without heating, cooking and plumbing fixtures, will cost 10,000 rubles. for 1 sq. m of total area or less. A house with 100 total square meters in this case will cost up to 1 million rubles. or ok. $18,000 at today's exchange rate (2019). In certain local conditions, it is possible to reduce the cost of construction to 5500-6000 rubles. per square; if you build completely with your own hands, slowly and only for your own; if you have inexpensive previous housing, then it is possible to meet the cost of 4,500 rubles. per square meter, but cheaper is already a fiction, no matter who promises anything. Good contractors for 3000 rubles. You can still find it for a square meter, but it’s turnkey, and it will take at least the same amount to bring the house to full readiness.

Note: The figures given, as well as those further in this article, are averages for the Russian Federation. Here it is appropriate to recall an old joke, which is now reinterpreted in its own way in almost all countries: a nobleman gorges himself on meat, a peasant only has enough for bread. On average, they eat a meat pie for two. So, finally, look at the prices at home - it is impossible to give a complete overview of them in one publication, and the market situation may change the next day after its publication. Here we primarily provide information on how to use technical and organizational measures to build a house cheaply and quickly without compromising its quality.

About the number of floors

The problem of taxes and land rent can be largely solved, firstly, by building a 2-story house, which will save on land payments. Some prejudice against upper floors in individual houses remains from Soviet times, when private construction of more than 1.5 floors was strictly prohibited. There is no point in building a budget 3-story building anymore: you'll have to pay too much for the staircase usable area, and strengthen the walls of the 1st floor, which will greatly complicate, lengthen and increase the cost of the work. And in a 2-story building, the staircase to the 2nd, sleeping floor can lead directly from the living room or hallway/hall.

Secondly, you can also significantly reduce your property tax yourself on a completely legal basis by creating a sleeping mezzanine in the form of a Siberian attic. The diagram of the pediment of a frame residential building with a Siberian attic is given in Fig. on right. Not everyone likes houses with Siberian attics because of the faceted roof, but in fact they are economical and convenient, and in budget construction there is no time for exquisite architectural solutions. For budget frame house(see below) the Siberian attic is practically the only opportunity to increase its actual number of floors.

Note: for a house made of foam or gas blocks, there is another non-trivial opportunity to increase its living space without a significant increase in taxation and land rent, see below. This factor may be decisive in regions where 2 or more floors individual construction prohibited due to natural conditions, e.g. in seismically dangerous places or on permafrost.

Stages of home readiness

The stage (stage) of readiness of a residential building for occupancy means a completely completed cycle/complex construction work, after which the structure can wait for the next stage to begin for a certain or indefinitely long time. A technological break between stages is most often necessary for shrinkage of structures from the previous cycle, but sometimes (see below) is unacceptable or possible only in the warm, dry season. Works on next stage construction can be carried out either independently or under a contract from the same or another contractor, regardless of how the previous one was completed. The stages of bringing a budget residential building to completion are as follows:

Zero, or zero cycle– the foundation has been laid, has gained at least 75% strength and has given the calculated settlement. This is the most critical, complex and time-consuming stage, at which it most often turns out to be advisable to hire an experienced contracting team. Technical break before next. stage is necessary in any case.
Box - there are walls with openings for windows and doors, covered with a roof. Load-bearing partitions were also erected inside. Communications have been established, but are currently muted. A mandatory technical break is required only for heavy (brick, stone, concrete) buildings due to their own shrinkage. In budget construction, the box stage as such is most often not highlighted, and for a house made of SIP panels it is completely excluded.
Turnkey - the doors and windows are in place, the frame is stable. The house can winter up to several times. It is possible that the floors have also been laid, but the communications are not connected, there is no interior finishing or insulation. The favorite bait of overly cunning contractors is “cheapness,” so at this stage you need to especially carefully calculate how much it will cost you to eat while performing the remaining work, as well as their cost, and compare it with the price of bringing the house to full readiness by hired workers.
Complete - communications are connected, stationary household appliances are in place and ready for use. Interior finishing has been done, but exterior finishing and insulation may not be provided for by the terms of the contract (see below). The kitchen, bathroom and boiler/furnace room are fully equipped, you can cook, wash, start the boiler and heat. All that remains is to bring and arrange furniture, lay carpets, hang curtains, paintings, arrange trinkets, etc., so that you can live in the house without bothering you.

About contractors

A bona fide contractor, firstly, must be properly registered legally - as an individual entrepreneur, LLC, etc.; Accordingly, he must immediately, without a reminder, present to the customer a package of documents confirming state registration. No special licenses are required for ordinary construction work; professional certificates (“credentials”; now cards) of performing workers are sufficient.

Secondly, the customer must be offered a contract on paper. An offer (public standard) or individual, it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that the rights and obligations of the parties must be clearly stated there. Thirdly, the warranty period for this stage (stages) of work and the conditions for compliance with warranty obligations must also be indicated there.

Good contractors on a budget offer a 2-5 year guarantee. Less is not possible due to technical interruptions. In good conscience, it’s also impossible to do more, because... local operating conditions of the building may change for the worse. They can be taken into account (“incorporated” constructively) by using more expensive materials and technical solutions, but this will no longer be budget construction.

About extensions

In popular sources and prospectuses of contractors, you can come across recommendations in your mind, accompanied by preliminary (without reference to location) projects: they say, first we build a 6x9 house very cheaply, and then, as we accumulate funds, add more rooms to it (the original layout allows), until children and grandchildren will not be left with a huge mansion. This approach is fundamentally wrong.

Anyone more or less familiar with construction knows that adding a residential building to an existing one is a complex and not always feasible technical task. First, the old foundation has already completely settled, and the new one will give the calculated shrinkage only under the weight of the supported structure. That is, the extension cannot be immediately tightly attached to the main structure; you need to wait to see if cracks appear and seal them. In the common RuNet, it is difficult to find publicly available information about extensions to existing buildings; You can look for a small but sensible book by Dr. tech. sciences Ferenc Sägi “How to avoid mistakes when building an individual house.” There was a Russian translation, M., Stroyizdat, 1987. It’s funny - this little book then cost 90 kopecks. Soviet

Third, even if the house is made of rubber on a gimbal, it is unacceptable to allow it to sway and sway in time with the seasonal movements of the soil from year to year. Under a house built on a correctly chosen and laid foundation, a kind of virtual (invisible) warm “pit” is formed, in which it is never below zero; the blind area around the house expands it to the sides. An extension to a house can disrupt the established thermal balance of the load-bearing soil, which can lead to accidents in the main building. Therefore, conscientious contractors set one of the guarantee conditions - no extensions not agreed with them.

Garage in the house, or the role of layout

One of the ways to get an inexpensive house for the available living space is permanent residence– build a house on a common foundation with a garage. Perhaps this is only for houses made of non-combustible materials; regarding the budget ones - foam and gas blocks, otherwise the firefighters will not allow the project to be approved or the squatter construction to be legalized.

However, simply attaching a garage to the house, as on the left in the figure, does not make much sense; it will do almost nothing to save costs on the construction and further maintenance of the house. It is necessary to introduce a garage of standard size 4X7 m inside design diagram at home, taking into account the following:

there is no need to put a garage on a plinth, because then you will have to build an access ramp to it;
the ceiling height in the garage is permissible 2.5 and even 2.2 m, less is simply not possible;
It is highly desirable to have an entrance to the garage from the house, but then it is only permissible from the hallway/hall and should have a steam-tight fire-resistant door.

In this case, the garage floor slab will serve as the floor of a one and a half floor, less taxable, but quite spacious. For an example of this type of layout, see the right in Fig. The space utilization rate there is not so great, but there are a lot of amenities:

A one-and-a-half superstructure is not an extension; no special measures are required for its construction on an existing, established building, i.e. You can build on the garage later, as your family grows.
The staircase to the one and a half floor is low and fits into the existing hall without any difficulties.
Heating a garage can also be done without problems, and economically, because... it is slightly heated from the hall and kitchen.
In the lobby of the 1.5th floor, a pressure tank is perfectly located under the ceiling autonomous water supply; You can also move the dressing room there, increasing the area of the living room and bathroom.
Since the bedroom floor is heated to some extent, in turn, from the garage, it can be done with a French window even in a fairly harsh climate.
One wall of the basement is shared with the garage. Communications are, of course, in the basement. That is, a sewer riser can go from the bedroom to the basement, to which a washbasin, shower and even a jacuzzi are connected upstairs.
Access to the basement is also internal, through a hatch in the hall or from the garage.

Agree, a house for 4-5 people with a separate dressing room, a living room of more than 25 square meters and a French bedroom, which also has a hydromassage - this is really cool. And the total area on earth is much less than 180 square meters. m, from which increased taxation begins. Even if in your state the basic area norm is 150-160 square meters. m, the tax authorities will still have to register the house as budget.

Foundation and soil

When choosing the foundation of a house or checking the option proposed by a contractor, you need to take into account the geology and soil mechanics of the construction site. The soil mobility factors that most affect the cost of a house foundation are:

Load bearing capacity.
Degree of heaving (amount of frost heaving).
Standard freezing depth (NFD).
Maximum standing height groundwater.

Load-bearing capacity and heaving

Massive, low-cost development is possible on non-heaving and slightly heaving soil with a bearing capacity of up to 0.7 kg/sq.m. cm, but only based on the results of thorough preliminary surveys over the entire building area with a decent margin at the edges. Separate reliable home an experienced contractor can build on medium-heaving soil with a bearing capacity of 1.1-1.3 kg/sq. m. Self-construction can be done on soil up to medium heaving with a normal load-bearing capacity of 1.7 kg/sq. cm or higher. On heavily and excessively heaving soils, budget development is impossible with rare exceptions (see below).

Note: The bearing capacity of the soil directly at the building site can be determined on your own without complex instruments, but how is a separate article.

Oil and gas reserves and groundwater

Some potentially budget houses it is unacceptable to build on a shallow foundation (see below). The heel (sole) of the foundation must be buried below the NGP by at least 0.6 m on medium heaving soils and by at least 0.3 m on slightly heaving and non-heaving soils. The base of the foundation should not reach the groundwater level by 0.5 m or more. Typical limiting cases for budgetary development: dry sandy loam (slightly heaving), NGL 1.5 m, standing water 2.5 m; foundation depth 1.8-1.9 m. Or - moderately moistened podzol (medium heaving), NGP 1.2 m, standing water 3.5 m. Foundation depth from 1.8 m.

What if there is a fire?

The question of what would be cheaper to build a house in a given location must be decided taking into account fire danger. Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst is a universal principle, and the harmfulness (or compliance) of firefighters here ranks fifth to seventh after their own safety. Relatively possible harm from fire, the properties of materials for budget construction are divided as follows. way:

Fire safety (this is not the opposite of fire hazard) - how difficult this material set fire and whether it is capable of burning outside the source of ignition. In fact, is it possible to extinguish a timely detected fire using improvised means without significant damage to the structure of the building.
Fire resistance - how long a material can resist fire without losing mechanical properties before the structure collapses and/or without emitting toxic gases. In fact, how much time do you have, if extinguishing on your own is impossible, to evacuate and remove property.
Fire resistance - how much, after being in a fire for at least 20 minutes, the material restores its properties. In fact, suddenly the frame of the house is completely burnt out, is it possible to refurbish it as housing?

Materials

Now it's time to choose material for a budget home price category. Houses made of brick, corrugated timber and chamber-dried logs are, unfortunately, excluded from the budget category. They have a lot of advantages and relatively few disadvantages, but it will be possible to move into a brick house no earlier than the 3rd year from the beginning of zero: a year for the shrinkage of the expensive buried foundation, a year to shrink the box, and only then can it be delivered turnkey, plus time for interior decoration. Moreover, at current energy prices brick house expensive external insulation is required.

Note: houses made of wood concrete (fibre-reinforced concrete), reeds, straw blocks, etc. are not considered, because their reliability has not yet been confirmed by time and there is no established construction industry for their construction.

Chambered corrugated timber and logs, impregnated with harmless antiseptics and fire retardants, are expensive in themselves and require solid carpentry experience to build a residential building. The houses from them are considered prestigious; as a result, the cost of work is high. Also, prefabricated panel houses do not fit into the budget category: they are erected very quickly, but their construction requires qualified personnel and a high degree of mechanization of work. Given these circumstances, the choice is wide available materials quite limited. To compare the cost completely finished house per unit (100%) you can take a frame house made of non-glued laminated timber and conventional air-dried boards. The result looks like this. way:

Country wooden frame house made only from boards – 0.6-0.8
House on a thin-walled steel frame - 0.85-0.9.
Residential wooden frame house made of timber and boards – 1.00.
Timber house from ordinary timber air drying – 1.4-1.8.
House made of SIP panels – 1.9-2.00.
House made of foam or gas blocks - 2.00-2.15.

Frames and timber

The general advantages of and are low sensitivity to ground movements, they “play” with it. Therefore, it is possible to build such houses on a non-buried columnar foundation, the simplest and cheapest. It is also possible to build a residential frame/timber budget house on highly heaving, weak soil by laying a TISE pile-strip foundation under it. A 2-story frame house cannot be built without a detailed design, but in budget construction this problem is solved by the Siberian attic, see above.

A log house is good because in regions with fairly mild winters it does not require additional insulation: a 200 mm thick beam is equivalent to brickwork at 600 mm. Internal lining In both log and frame houses, plywood or non-combustible materials are possible: chipboard, OSB. External cladding made of OSB (oriented strand board, OSB, Oriented Strand Board) will give the house additional rigidity in the wind and resistance to weather conditions. The plaster inside is dry here and there, with plasterboard (gypsum plasterboard) on shingles (15-20) x 40 mm; It is impossible to sheathe gypsum boards without sheathing even on completely flat walls.

The design of a timber frame house is well known (on the left in the figure). Without impregnation with biocides and fire retardants (which can be done independently), all the fire-fighting qualities of such houses are low, and fire resistance is generally zero; they burn completely. Fire safety and fire resistance can be increased to acceptable (10-15 minutes for evacuation) if the insulation is made with ecowool (cellulose insulation). It will cost approx. 25% more expensive than mineral wool, but when heated, ecowool releases a lot of water vapor that retards fire. In addition, ecowool prevents wood from rotting: it contains an antiseptic - borax. Ecowool that gets wet does not fall off and retains 75% of its insulating qualities, while when it dries, it completely restores them. Insulation with ecowool is possible manually without experience; no fasteners or sheathing are required. Hydro- and vapor barriers for ecowool need inexpensive, simplified ones. Estimated service life of solid wood frame or timber house with and without mineral wool insulation external cladding is 25-40 years depending on the quality of wood and local conditions; the same with ecowool insulation - up to 70 years or more.

Inexpensive country house frame structure dimensions approx. up to 4x6 m it is possible to build from just boards with your own hands without experience, just like air drying lumber. But if the total area of the house exceeds approx. 25 sq. m and/or the number of openings in it is more than 3-4, it must be built by an experienced carpenter. In this case, the frame of the house is needed with the main load-bearing elements made of timber from 150x150 mm.

First, it is impossible to place window and door openings in a house, any size of which exceeds 6 m, at random. Computer programs are of little help here: you need to enter initial data into them and choose a calculation method based on your own experience. There is no computer construction program that would “do everything itself” yet.

Secondly, a residential frame/timber house must have at least two load-bearing partitions. Their location can be taken from a standard project, but a beginner is unlikely to be able to correctly connect the partitions to the external walls; especially if the house is made of timber.

In a log house built without experience, the problem of caulking may arise. Only a very experienced specialist can reject timber that is highly susceptible to warping when purchasing. If a seasonal country house splits, the problem is not great; the cracks can simply be plugged. In a large residential building with cracked walls, it will be possible to survive 1-2 winters, spending a lot on heating, and then it will quickly fall into disrepair due to weakening of the structure.

Houses on a thin-walled steel frame (on the right in the figure) may be somewhat cheaper than solid wood ones, but this is an apparent cheapness. The main thing is that the fire resistance of houses on a thin-walled steel frame is zero: in a fire, the frame instantly (in less than 3 minutes) loses strength, and the house collapses. In addition, it is very difficult to take into account the fatigue of elements of a complex thin-walled structure, and cases of sudden collapse of such houses for no apparent reason are not isolated in the world. In general, the service life of 100-120 years declared by manufacturers is not maintained, therefore, in a number of countries, only non-residential small architectural forms are allowed to be built on a steel frame.

SIP

A structural insulated panel (SIP, Structural Insulated Panel) is a cake made from slabs of plywood or OSB with extruded polystyrene foam (EPS) or polyurethane foam between them. SIPs made from OSB and polyurethane foam are suitable for residential construction; SIPs filled with EPS fill emit huge amounts of toxic gases in a fire. The main advantages of SIP houses are, firstly, the speed and ease of construction, see video:

Video: example of building a house from SIP

The time it takes to bring a SIP house to move-in readiness is further reduced by the fact that they can be built on a shallow foundation such as a Swedish or Finnish slab. These foundations are cheap, their “ripening” period is within the warm season, so a slab foundation for a house made of SIP can be ordered/laid with a reserve for future extensions or for a large veranda, see fig. on right. The exterior decoration of a house made of SIP can be anything and it will look more than decent, see there.

Equally important is that SIPs themselves are an excellent heat insulator and a house made from them does not require additional insulation. The disadvantages of SIP houses include the need for a ventilation system, because the walls don't breathe. IN Russian conditions It is significant that houses made of SIP are unsuitable for stove heating, the filler of the panels heats up and gradually emits toxic substances. Manufacturers also claim that the service life of SIPs is short, 40-70 years. Finally, the SIP box cannot be left over the winter; the house must be built at least turnkey during the warm season.

Foam blocks and gas blocks

You can very inexpensively, doing construction on weekends, put it together with glue from spring to late summer, without being a mason at all; She will be able to overwinter once under a roof and wrapped in film. There is no need for a technical break to shrink the box.

The main enemies of a foam/gas block house are, firstly, moisture. There are plenty of pores for condensation in its walls, and it is difficult and time-consuming to dry a damp house made of foam/gas blocks. Therefore in in this case complete (and expensive) vapor barrier is required both outside and inside (there are household fumes and from breathing) and good external thermal insulation, “not letting” the dew point into the walls. As a consequence, the statement that a house made of foam/gas blocks breathes is, to put it mildly, just talk. Who lived in such a house is unlikely to argue.

In fact, the only way to 100% prevent dampness in a house made of foam/gas blocks in any conditions is a ventilated façade. Which works great, but is by no means relevant to budget construction. Comfortable and even luxury houses from foam/gas blocks can and are being built, but in warm regions and not in the budget segment.

The second enemy of a foam/gas block house is the natural wear and tear of concrete. Let's say it chips only 0.01 mm per year. In this case, it will take 300-400 years before the reinforcement in the concrete monolith is exposed, which can be ignored in the calculations of conventional buildings. But the partitions between the pores of foam/gas blocks are about 1 mm, and their safety margin of 100% will be exhausted in 20-25 years, because destruction comes from 2 sides. Therefore, the estimated service life of a house made of foam blocks or gas blocks of up to 60-100 years is clearly exaggerated. Confirmation of this is the massive (and unsuccessful) sale of aerated concrete villas in Spain, not even by cost minus depreciation, but by how much they will take. When we were building, we forgot about the microwear of the blocks, and now what to do with all this?

Summing up

So, taking into account all the accompanying circumstances, we have few options for truly budget-friendly construction:

The main one is an all-wood frame house, insulated with ecowool.

IN Lately Fewer and fewer people want to live in a cramped and stuffy city, preferring to move to their own country house. It would seem, what problems? You just need to sell your apartment and buy real estate outside the city. But this property, alas, costs several times more than the largest apartment.

Don’t despair, there is a way out - to build a house on your own. If you look at it, there is nothing complicated in building a house; the main thing is to draw up an action plan and strictly follow it.

The problem of cheap housing is becoming more and more urgent. Many scientists have worked on it, and some have achieved some success. Among them, it is worth noting Berok Khoshnevis, a professor from the United States who developed a 3D printer. This device can build a house in a day with total area at 300 m². Agree, not even the most experienced team is able to invest in such a time frame.

But a 3D printer (in fact, as well as its operation) is very expensive, and not everyone can afford it. Therefore, during construction, it is more advisable to use a less expensive way to save money - use cheap building materials.

Cheap house with your own hands: where to start?

Let’s immediately make a reservation that unauthorized construction must be legalized and you need to register it as property. To do this as quickly as possible, follow all government standards. First of all, draw up a competent plan of the site and the future house (it is better to entrust this matter to a qualified architect). In this regard, they are distributed engineering Communication, the method of pouring the foundation and building materials are selected. Having a plan in hand, you can easily bring your inexpensive home project to life.

In addition, during preparatory work, determine the order of construction. It will look something like this:

pouring the foundation;
construction of a “box” of a house;
carrying out all necessary communications;
laying the floor;
roof construction (preferably in autumn or spring).

By following simple technology, you can easily build a cozy, inexpensive home.

Stage one: foundation of the house

Step 1. First of all, decide what type of foundation is suitable for the soil in your area. Dig a meter-long hole; if the soil is sandy, clayey or rocky, and there is no water at the bottom, then you can safely build a strip foundation approximately 70-80 cm deep. But if there is still water, then the depth of the base should exceed 1 m.

Step 2: Then remove upper layer ground and mark the perimeter. Based on the markings, dig a trench of the required depth and fill the bottom with a sand cushion.

Step 3. Build formwork using boards or plywood. Then mix the foundation mortar using cement, crushed stone and coarse sand. In this case, the thicker the solution, the stronger base(ideally, the consistency should be like thick sour cream). Make the width of the foundation 20 cm larger than the width of the walls. Be sure to reinforce it with metal reinforcement.

Step 4. Install a waterproofing layer - this will prevent the formation of cracks on the foundation and, therefore, increase its service life. Use roofing felt for this, laying it in two layers at ground level. After this, build the base to the required height.

Step 5. After the insulating layer, lay the foundation with concrete blocks or bricks. Make ventilation holes in two walls opposite each other to prevent increased humidity in the floor. Then give the structure a little time to dry and lay waterproofing (here you can use any available material).

Note! The final drying and shrinkage of the foundation will occur only a few months after construction, so do not rush to build the walls.

Stage two: walls

There are two ways to build walls.

A more reliable and, accordingly, more expensive method is to build reinforced columns in the corners of the future house. Collect the reinforcement rods into a “bundle”, install them in the corners and fill them with concrete. In this case, you first need to build wooden formwork and only then start pouring.
If you cannot use the first method for one reason or another, then when building walls, simply strengthen them with reinforcement.

For walls, use one of the following materials:

foam concrete;
brick;
shell rock;
adobe;
clay and glass bottles.

The cheapest of them is foam concrete, but it will not allow the walls to “breathe”. Shell rock is more expensive, but it is what experts recommend when building inexpensive houses. In this case, window and door openings will need strengthening, so equip them with metal corners.

The already finished “box” needs to be insulated. Use glass wool and brick for this. Lay the brick on the outside of the “box” so that there is a small gap between it and the shell rock. Fill this gap with glass wool - such material will not only insulate the house, but also protect it from the penetration of insects and rodents.

Note! Not all partitions can use drywall or brick. There should always be in the central part of the house load-bearing walls, built taking into account the underlying communications (that is, with places left for them).

For load-bearing partitions, use metal profiles - install them, cover them with plasterboard and plaster them.

Stage three: communications

Any house, even the cheapest one, needs water supply, heating and other communications. In this case, all communications must be carried out in advance by agreeing with specialists - this will guarantee the safety and correctness of installation.

Heating

Use a gas boiler as a heat generator. This will significantly reduce heating costs, especially in winter time. And in view of the fact that the cold is coming mainly from the ground, give preference to a “warm floor” - make it from plastic pipes and fill it concrete screed. This way you will heat the entire house, but if this does not seem enough, then install the main heating system.

Another heating option is alternative, based on the use of solar and wind energy. Built with your own hands solar battery, you will not freeze in your home even in winter.

Water supply, sewer system

Lay both communications before finishing and pouring the floor. Decide in advance on the location of the rooms and household appliances in need of drainage, and lay the pipes in accordance with the plan.

If central sewerage and water supply are not available, you should think about building a small septic tank, for example, from Eurocubes or concrete rings, as well as about water supply. You can build a well or drill a well as a source of water. However, the second option will hit your pocket hard.

Stage four: floor

Upon completion of installation of communications, fill the floor with concrete screed. Then cover with any suitable material– linoleum, tiles, laminate, etc. However, it is recommended to use tiles as the most practical and damage-resistant material. It is easy to clean, and when using “warm floors” it will never be cold. Moreover, you can choose the cheapest tiles and cover them with cozy paths.

Stage five: roof and ceiling

At this stage of work, build a concrete belt around the walls to secure the beams. Then, after laying the beams, fill the bottom with boards. During construction two-story house It is better to use concrete slabs for flooring.

For the roof, first assemble the facing grid - this is necessary in any case, regardless of what you choose roofing material. The lattices can differ only in the different spacing of the beams. It is recommended to use one of the following materials (due to financial considerations):

ondulin;
metal tiles;
corrugated sheeting;
slate.

Eco-friendly materials include wood, straw, and reeds.

Whatever material you choose, the roof must be insulated. Use glass wool for this - this is the most affordable and easiest to install material.

Completion of construction. Interior arrangement

Roof construction is final stage construction of a house. Next, you can begin interior decoration. There are a lot of technologies and ways interior design, almost all existing design projects can be implemented with your own hands at low cost.

In a word, everything depends only on the richness of your imagination. An excellent option could be stretch ceiling– having a relatively low cost, they will visually expand the free space with their glossy finish. They perfectly reflect light, creating an extraordinary effect.

Arches and openings also look good in the interior (they can be easily mounted from plasterboard and metal profiles, or use wood and clay). Cover the walls with textured wallpaper (painted wallpaper, as they are also called), which you can make yourself. Various plasters are quite cheap. Decorating a house with wood looks great.

If you approach the matter competently and with soul, then building and arranging your own family nest will not cost much. The main thing is to clearly know what you can save on and what it is better not to do.

What you can't save on

Don't skimp on technical supervision. Read at least a thousand articles on construction, but without experience you will still not be able to control the quality and understand the essence of construction work. Engage an engineer or an experienced builder - in general, someone you trust.
Don't skimp on communications. Heating, water supply, access to the yard, etc. are necessary elements comfortable life. Don't neglect any of the systems!
Do not skimp on the project - it must be drawn up by a specialist, taking into account the climatic conditions of your area. Be sure to tie the project to specific construction conditions. Thus, it often happens that the developer did not want to pay the designers for tying the foundation, having listened to the advice of the contractor (who the more expensive, the better), as a result of which the foundation was created with too large a margin of safety. Binding will minimize the cost of building the foundation of the house.

We also note that construction and design should be carried out different people with different opinions and interests. This will allow you to accept correct solution and avoid unnecessary expenses.

Video - How to build a house inexpensively

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