Banya from sleepers own hands

Sauna is an excellent addition to any country house. The construction of a bath takes a lot of time, effort and resources. Traditionally, baths are built from a log house, nevertheless the cost of this material does not please thrifty owners at all. In search of alternative building materials, some found a way out in the construction of a bath of sleepers. How can a durable, reliable and, most importantly, cheap bath of sleepers with their own hands be built?

Positive and negative properties of baths from sleepers

First of all, it is necessary to understand what is a sleeper. Sleepers are inexpensive lumber, which is treated with creosote - a special anti-corrosion compound that protects the wood. Creosote is a rather poisonous antiseptic, prolonging the service life of sleepers and preventing the inevitable damage of the material by mold, fungi and parasites. Sleepers are used for laying a railway. Quite often they are decommissioned for various reasons, ranging from small manufacturing defects to the expiry of the expiration date. Often from such decommissioned sleepers are built country houses, and even more so the baths.

What are the main advantages of a bath from old sleepers:

• Very low price of sawn timber, as it is sold at a residual value.
• Quite simple and convenient installation.
• Compressed installation time.

Of course, unlike other buildings, the sauna has a rather specific function. The temperature inside it is very high, which causes Creosote to emit an unpleasant odor. It's hard to be in such a steam room. This is the main disadvantage of the bath of old sleepers. Nevertheless, many summer residents use sleepers for the construction of such structures, despite the inconvenience and discomfort.

The process of construction of the bath

Let's consider step by step the whole process of construction from old sleepers of a bath in the suburban area. The quality of the future structure depends on the choice of material.

Choosing the right sleepers for the bath

Looking at the pile with sleepers, you will surely feel that they are all the same. There will be a reasonable question, what is there to choose? Meanwhile, knowing a few nuances will allow you to choose the best quality building material. You have two options: to purchase new or decommissioned sleepers. Old products cost much cheaper, and if their age exceeds 10 - 13 years, then you will not find a smell, since during this time creosol is weathered.

Then you need to decide on the size of the bath. If you want to build a small bathhouse in which there will be only a therma and a sink, then you will have about 100 sleepers. Exact calculation can be made based on the squared rooms. Before the final decision, each tie should be taped with a hammer. The sound of blows must be deaf. This indicates the good quality of the material, the walls of which can stand for another 20 years. Otherwise, you can slip the rotten sleepers, which have long lay on the ground under the rails.

Finally, you need to weigh all the factors again. After all, the existing smell can not be eliminated by any, even the best quality insulation of walls and ceiling. The main question to yourself is whether you need such sacrifices?

Foundation of the foundation

If you still decided to start building a sauna from railway sleepers, the first thing you need to start with is choosing the site and laying the foundation. As for the location on the site, it should be sufficiently dry and convenient for erecting a structure such as a bath. In addition, the future bath should be at some distance from the house, and sparks from the burning furnace should not create a fire hazard situation.

The type of foundation must be chosen depending on what is on the site of the ground, how deep the groundwater is, and also on your financial capabilities. Most often for a bath make a columnar foundation, but the tape will be much more effective, and will last longer. Dig for the foundation of a deep trench is not worth it, 60 cm is enough. It is necessary to make a vertical and horizontal waterproofing of the foundation. Installation of the formwork and pouring is carried out according to generally accepted rules and does not have any features.

The only point is that you need to provide a hole in the foundation for the drain pipe outlet in a convenient place. To do this, in the formwork before pouring concrete, you need to insert a piece of pipe slightly larger diameter, the length of the width of the future foundation. After pouring and removing the formwork, you will have a convenient hole. Do it at the lowest part of the concrete base.

After the concrete has completely solidified the upper plane of the foundation also needs to be covered with waterproofing. In addition, inside the perimeter of the basement is to remove the soil, tamper the bottom of the pit, then mount the outflow pipeline through the prepared hole in the drain pit, which you need to excavate nearby. The walls of this hole can be strengthened with old tires. Then make a waterproofing of roofing material and insulation. To do this, first pour a sand cushion, rammed it and cover it with a layer of expanded clay. Over it is poured a concrete screed with reinforcement. The drain pipe must come out on the surface of the screed. This "pie" will avoid too much warming up the floor in the winter.

Assembling the walls of the baths from sleepers

It is not harder to assemble a bath of sleepers than to make it from a regular timber. The first crown must be put on the foundation. In this case, it is desirable to put thin racks between sleepers and a layer of waterproofing. This will remove the wood from direct contact with the foundation and extend its life. Tying of sleepers on walls and corners is carried out by means of a stud joint. The first crown to fasten on anchors to concrete is not necessary. You can simply fill the foam with all the gaps between the two surfaces. However, it is better to do this after laying the whole frame. Otherwise, the foam can raise the sleepers, violating the geometry of the laying. When installing the first crown, special attention should be paid to the correctness of the corners. This will help the building level and rope, which measures the length of the diagonals, the resulting rectangle. They must be equal.

After the first crown has taken its place, it is worth to put a heater of moss, a tow or better jute tape on it. The second crown is laid on the first and is fastened with it wooden nagels. To do this, drill holes are drilled through holes in the sleepers, into which dense wooden pins are driven by a large sledgehammer from the trimming of a bar or the same sleeper. In one row, the sleepers are fastened to a spike. For this, with an accuracy of up to a millimeter, one chooses half of the sleepers to be joined. If you make a mistake in the markup, the surface will not be smooth and the next row will not be put correctly. Thus all the rows fit to the very top. In the locations of doors and windows, you can immediately leave openings, so as not to cut them at the end, tearing out the tow, which will be wound on the chain chainsaw.

When laying walls from sleepers, special attention should be paid to the smoothness of the internal surface. Outside, the bath is not difficult to finish with siding or other similar material, but the internal walls are much more difficult to align.

Than you can trim the sauna outside

If you did not leave even openings under doors and windows at once, then you will have to cut them already after laying all the crowns. To do this, make a markup, given that for doors you will need to install jambs, the width of which can reach 10 - 15 cm. Accordingly, these dimensions need to be added to the width and height of the openings. If you want to buy a ready-made door, then do this before cutting openings. This approach will greatly facilitate the process of markup. Door with jambs enough to substitute for the wall in the right place and circle around the contour. Then this rectangle should be cut with a chain saw, trying not to tear out the patella from under the crowns. Similarly come with window openings.

Although the sleepers are covered with creosol, it is still better to treat them with an antiseptic liquid. Do not damage the fireproof solution. Impregnation of wood reduces the risk of fire several times. Surface of sleepers after such treatment is covered with stain, linseed oil or varnish. This not only prevents swelling of the wood from moisture, but also gives a more attractive appearance to the outer walls. However, the facade can be finished additionally with siding, block by house or lining.

The floor, floors and the roof of the sleepers bath are mounted exactly the same as those of more traditional materials, therefore, this process does not make sense in this article. It is only necessary to remember that the walls after some shrinkage of the sleepers require additional caulking. This will significantly insulate the bath.

sleepers. Nuances of interior finish

Traditionally, any bath inside is trimmed with deciduous wood species. Most often it is linden, maple or aspen. Coniferous wood is not used for these purposes, since it releases sticky resin, which is also very hot in the steam room. When finishing with conventional boards, you need to monitor the flatness of the rails and the fasteners. It must be completely hidden, since a nail or a screw can be injured by the body or burned. Among other things, any metal in the bath starts to rust, so you need to hide it as much as possible.

To avoid unnecessary problems with fasteners and fitting of individual components, it is best to use the lining as a finishing material. Its slats have fixing grooves and joints, and it is attached to the frame with minimal use of metal parts. The lining is made from wooden blocks with a step of 50 cm. Such decoration will take a lot of useful space, so in a small bath it is better to do without it. Mount the lining from the corners opposite the doors.

So, if you want to build a sauna at a dacha cheaply, quickly and independently, then you can use ordinary railway sleepers for walls. Just remember that they emit an unpleasant and harmful to the body odor, which you might not like.