What is a wood houses and price in Barcelona?
In this post we explain the basic notions of wood houses architecture and construction.
May you don’t know us yet, let us introduce ourselves.
We are the firm of Architecture ERA architects in Barcelona and we recommend to do wood houses.
Why WOOD?
Wood is a natural material with great structural stability, high mechanical strength, natural warmth and quick assembly that make it an excellent construction material.
It also has low thermal conductivity, controls acoustic reverberations and keeps condensation at minimum levels.
In addition, wood is healthy since it regulates the amount of humidity favoring the respiratory tract of the inhabitants of wooden houses.
Construction systems with wood
Wooden pillars and beams
Lightweight framework: light substructures of wood lysers (perfect for small and medium buildings)
SIP panels (structural isolated panel): lightweight sandwich panels: wood-insulator-wood
Canadian: based on solid wood logs (perfect in extreme winter climates)
CLT panels (cross laminated timber): panels of massive slats of large dimensions glued in two layers to counter-direction (without doubt the most robust, innovative and perfected) (perfect for tall buildings)
Fire resistance
All wood as all construction materials in a work endorsed by an architect meet the requirements of the CTE.
In the case of wood too. The woods must be protected against a risk 2-3 according to European Standard EN335.
Steel and concrete structures can collapse quickly when they reach 500ºC.
The wood behaves in a more logical way carbonizing on the surface to protect the structural core. By regulation, these structures are machined to 0.7mm per minute of evacuation.
Acoustics and thermal insulation
Wood is a high density, porous and solid material that works by mass.
On the one hand, these properties prevent reverberations in internal spaces. Reverberation is the rebound of noise in walls and flat roofs. Have you been to a restaurant without being able to listen to the conversation of the person next to you because of the noise of the chicken coop? Surely the walls and ceilings were smooth (glass or ceramic) and the noise bounced.
On the other hand, the same properties make it a material with very low thermal conductivity.
Thermal Conductivity describes the transport of energy (in the form of heat) through a body in mass.
Better let’s give an example: a house with concrete walls and aluminum windows will transmit better the temperature from the outside towards the interior.
While a house with wooden walls will put more resistance to that transmission of cold.
In short, if you touch a surface of wood and aluminum, the second will always transmit better the outdoor climate: being very cold in winter and burning in summer.
For the more geek-Sheldons, you can add the Definition of Thermal Conductivity.
Maintenance
You must choose wood with logic. If your house will be in the Pyrenees, the most consistent thing is to apply KM0 facades that have grown in the same context.
The wine-growers of the Pyrenees tend to be reluctant to recommend applications on the facade of Larch woods and Siberian woods.
On the other hand, the durability of the wood will increase considerably if in the industrial process a natural treatment has been applied (borax salt, diluted 1/9 by immersion in hot water)
Another key factor is the installer that we choose. Not that there are many qualified companies with concrete experience of installing wood outdoors. Choosing the cheapest one is not usually synonymous with long-term guarantees.
The wood will always require periodic maintenance and once the work is finished, we must periodically apply (every 2 years) a water treatment or varnish to water that will guarantee the durability of the wood.
You can reduce this maintenance if you choose a grey Douglas-fir wood.
You can also assume that wood oxidizes and ages by acquiring different textures.
Controlled exploitation
If you are concerned about the exploitation of forests, you can ask if the woods come from controlled forestry.
Forestry includes the cultivation, care and exploitation of forests. If the wood you buy comes from cultivated forests, there is an exhaustive control of growth, felling and renewal of the trees to guarantee their continuity.
You can also ask the origin of the species.
If you are looking for a kind of KM0, you should know that in the Pyrenees you can find red pine, black and white spruce.
Other more commercialized import species are usually Douglas Fir.
If you want to know if anyone really knows about wood, ask him when the tree has been cut.
A good cultivator knows that trees are cut only in the waning moon of autumn and winter.
This is because the sage contracts and thus the drying is faster and uniform avoiding that the blade arches.
In conclusion, wood is an excellent material for the construction of a house.
Not only is it light, robust and solid but it also creates friendlier environments with less condensation, less humidity and less thermal conductivity.
This means that when breathing in a less humid environment, the feeling of comfort is greater.
In our firm of Architecture ERA architects we recommend making houses in wood.
You may check out our online house editor CasaAPP to see prices and types of passive wood houses in Barcelona. Or download house editor APP in Google Play (only for Android tablets for now, sorry!).
(the WEB editor takes 3 minutes to load. You may not be able to load if you don’t have a powerful computer: so sorry, we are working to improve the APP)
Hope this is helpful!
Best of luck on this adventure.
See you on the next post,
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