Smoke to taste

Bath - perhaps the main part of a country house. At least, its presence is largely justifies the purchase or construction of the suburban real estate. The point, of course, not only in washing facilities. Bath has a strong therapeutic effect and in addition, has independent value as an element of Russian culture.

In other words, the cost of creating a bath - it's an investment in the eternal values. However, even in eternity must invest wisely. The more so because modern materials and technology allows to vary the sizes, styles and designs are almost limitless.
Famous Finnish journalist Santeri Pakkonen trying to figure out who first invented the sauna - Finnish or Russian, conducted serious investigations. In search of the roots of bath he drove from the Baltic Sea to the Altai and personally tried the steam in a large quantity of different baths, including such exotic as Evenki bath-hut and an underground sauna, carved entirely in the Kuzbass coal seam. Answer to his question, he never received, but reached the correct conclusion: a good bath is that to fulfill its responsibilities.
That's out of it and should proceed, planning to build soap-steam room facilities on the site. Who and how often will it go? How many people should take bath in one go? Where they will relax, cool down, drink tea and other beverages? How should be submitted to the bath to clean water and removed dirty? All these and other questions need to think very seriously. Unfortunately, very often the owners of houses (especially affected the dream of "smart living") erected megalithic structures with pool, fireplace, sofas and the like, and then wonder why they can not bath properly warmed up.
Cchitaetsya that the minimum effective area of ​​bath rooms will be determined by 1 square. m soap, 0.75 square meters. m doubles and 2 square meters. m dressing room on the person. However, experienced bathers believe that this proportion should be changed to increase the area of ​​the pair - at least when it comes to the Russian bath with a wet steam and natural ventilation.
The maximum dimensions of space, of course, limited only by imagination and material possibilities of the owner.


However, it is worth remembering that the kilogram of dry wood burning produces less of one kilowatt of energy. And because the air is bad conductor of heat, the more room, the more difficult it is to warm up. That is a big steam room you can heat the oven-hot, but in a far corner will be cold.
Most modest and the budget and floor space are embedded in a house or adjoined to it a bath. Place for it should be selected bearing in mind the two components Baths: high temperature (and possibly heat) and high humidity. Built and attached sauna must have good waterproofing regarding residential and business premises, the artificial ventilation of steam and soap. Moreover, this ventilation should be autonomous, so that moisture has been received into the house. There should also be the inevitable appearance of condensation on the walls of the bath, facing the street.
According to the Finnish tradition based on elementary logic, built-in baths possess in the basement, or basement, often with a separate exit to the street. On the part of the materials are not particularly clear up - as a heat insulator used basalt wool, and serves as a foil gidroizolyatorom (in any case no synthetic materials). Interior finish in the steam room is traditionally a wooden (about types of wood in a moment), and in the soap compartment - in general, indifferent from what. In such "nedobanyah" soap successfully replace and shower.
Of course, this bath - it's free standing bath. And to understand what it should be necessary to go a little further back into history. Generally, traditional sauna and Finnish, and Russian, should drown in the black. That is, without a stove in her chimney. Heat from the melted furnace, as the smoke goes directly into the steam room. The smoke then let through the door and window Volokovaya, soot and grime from the walls with a broom and swept washed with steam.
Remains of the combustion air, gave a distinctive flavor, and, importantly, aseptic properties. But let praise or criticism of the advantages of bath-house in a black accounting experts. It is important to note that this bath requires special skills of the owner. This also applies to protopki - wood (birch or aspen only) should be prepared and stacked so that they could only inflame and then not constantly monitor combustion processes - and the ability to ventilate the room, not letting the heat, and art to determine the moment of "maturation" bath. "Black" sauna designs can only be a log house, or do not provide adequate ventilation steam rooms. Incidentally, this bath - the real, which go just soared, and not to wash. Therefore, there is no separate soap.
Normal bath "with a pipe in operation much easier. Because she is the most common. Designs, sizes and varieties here a great many, but three main elements - a waiting room, soap and steam room - are almost always present.
For "white" baths, as well as for "black", an ideal design is a log cabin. It not only creates additional color and special bannuyu atmosphere, but also provides natural ventilation. Logs for log home should not be too large - is optimal diameter of 20-25 cm is preferred that they were from the middle of the barrel.
Hewn logs or cylindered? A matter of taste and budget.
On the one hand, working with rounded cutters do not require great skill, it is easier to achieve good thermal insulation of walls, frame looks neat. And indeed, virtually all of the proposed finished baths are made of cylindering.
On the other hand, the bath - not a house, keep the temperature in her need for a brief period, and then let ventilated. Easy roughness gives the bath a special flavor, the charm of the live line. " In the end, this is the place where meetings take place "without ties", where allowed to violate the rules and have fun, so that the excessive severity of form, too, to anything.

One thing is certain - the wood, whether cylindering or conventional timber, should be conifers. This is due to the healing properties of conifers, more precisely, the emission of volatile oils.
In the old days people suffering from lung disease, even prescribed to live in houses made of pine. Pine has a more subtle and delicate flavor than the spruce and larch, but inferior to them in the density and longevity. Excessive gummosity for bath log home is bad - because the heat melts the resin and flows. Not only is it possible to get dirty - came down, called a bath, the resin in its pure form, decomposing at high temperature, can be harmful. Of course, when her much. Therefore, the pair preferred finish from hardwood: linden, aspen, tree Abashev. They have low thermal conductivity and do not burn the body when touched, are resistant to sudden changes in temperature and humidity.
Chopped design, whether or bath home requires careful when installing on a foundation and waterproofing. Lower crowns always come into disrepair in the first place, and in the bath more quickly than in a residential house. Between the foundation and logs okladnogo crown have to be a reliable water-resistant (and resistant to winter cold) layer.
Compromise - a bath from a bar - a cheaper material. Timber framed log cabin allows (and sometimes require) a variety of additional finishing. Primarily for insulation and for aesthetics. That for a bath, probably, is not always good ... Although, since I do not log, then do not log!
Budget version of freestanding baths has been and remains panelboard design. Of course, the true advocates of the bath business in these words, grabbed her, tempered steam room heart. But the fact remains: it is better to have a bath billboards than none.
Framed or panel, the building is not so beautiful, less durable, and health benefits from them is less than tselnoderevyannaya. But they are lighter, easier to erect, does not require special skills and, most importantly, much cheaper. In this case, the main task of steam - heat retention - panel designs can perform no worse than all the others. Moreover, as thermal insulation, you can use the old method of filling the interior of wooden shavings. This method is environmentally friendly, although demand from the owner of a regular bath bank filling of fresh sawdust and control so as to not hit the wall rot.
If, however, completely simplify the problem, frame-board room bath constructed using conventional materials for this method: vapor barrier, mineral wool, waterproofing (normal asphalt) from the outside, the outer sheathing. Even a bath can be attractive - to sheathe its siding or block-house. Inside, of course, use battens or other "wood" material.
On the materials is necessary to stop. For all types of baths will be true generally: how can less than synthetics. No glued casings, foam and other things. No varnish or paint. Now for the interior can be selected Thermo - a material specially designed for saunas. Heat-treated boards less absorb moisture, do not rot, and almost no box. Well, they are beautiful.
With the metal parts need to be careful - because they will have to serve in high humidity conditions. Therefore, for brass hinges preferably iron. In general, the use of binary metal should be minimized because it is strongly heated and can burn the body. Door handles, railings, railing regiments, the gang and tubs - all of it is better to make wood. Even the door of the dressing room, ideally, should be collected on a wooden dowel, and not on the screws to prevent them from loosening.
The most important door in the classic bath two: between cold and warm side, ie the vestibule and soap, and between the soap and steam room. For the first important it is insulated, so it makes a massive and tightly closed. For the second more important is the speed and convenience of closing, because the steam room to go very fast. Recently in vogue glass doors. They are really good: stylish, with a low thermal conductivity, which expands the space. However, it must be borne in mind that the glass doors are available in standard sizes for sale, and they are made, given the large gap above the threshold (because of the Finnish-Scandinavian pattern of air circulation in the steam room). Classical Russian scheme involves, on the contrary, high nut.
Ventilating device is hotly debated among experts. Simply speaking, the Scandinavian sauna with its dry very hot steam inflow and outflow of air are needed constantly. This happens due to natural and forced ventilation. In the Russian pair change in the air is cyclically - simply put, steam aerate after each call. To do this, simply open the door. A ventilation hole, and if do, then tightly closed.
Particular attention should be paid to the wiring. All wires must be installed in the mounting sleeves, as low as possible and away from the inner side walls. Modern fiber-optic technology allows to manage and even without wiring harness inside the moist areas. Light source - halogen lamp - in this case can be placed even on the street, and give light inside the glass or polymer fiber.
Heart of baths, of course, the stove. Ideally, firewood. Although topplivom may be coal, gas and even oil. Stoves invented almost more than a bath designs. Just heater, furnace with a closed chamber, with tanks, boilers, and even combined with a fireplace. The fundamental question - whether the furnace stoked sauna inside or outside - for example, from a waiting room or soap. The first option is simpler in design, compact and provides a unique smell of smoke. Second - it is more convenient to use, cleanliness and allows oven heat a little as needed.
Choosing the type of furnace, you should remember that it "eats" a lot of space, creates a significant burden on the floor and, most importantly, a fire hazard. Heat transfer from the walls of the furnace must be considerably lower than the side stones. Adjacent to the stove wall sections are usually laid brick.
The second most common varieties of bath furnace - electric heater, usually associated with a Finnish sauna. Electric stove is compact, easy to use, allows you to program heating. But it requires a high power capacity (in terms of gardening, or village, as a rule, large deficits) and at the same time, of course, inferior to the "authenticity" wood-fired oven.
Finally, the common perception unit steam room facilities at the baths and saunas, in general, is false. Indeed, in the Finnish sauna dry steam applied to high temperature and in the Russian bath temperature is lower and humidity higher. But, in fact, steam bath and sauna - this is the same: the Finns in the same way amenable to the water on the rocks, and many fans of the Russian bath steamed "dry".Seven important rules

    * Before you undertake a project, you must imagine the whole process of preparations for the bath, washing and proper follow-up. This will help to understand the logic design: how and where to open the door, where hang clothes, etc., etc. Since many can not imagine, how can bathe without okatyvaniya cold water, diving into the pool, or fulling the snow, it is worth remembering and this.
    * Bath is almost always involves the collection of companies - friends, acquaintances and neighbors. Therefore, bathers will always be more than family members.
    * Though it is believed that the bath - this is something special "in practice, it often performs other functions. Perhaps advance constructively combine a bath, say, a wooden shed or workshop?
    * Doors and windows in the baths be arranged taking into account the shrinkage of the building, which, especially in the log house can be quite significant. Windows should not do more - most likely they will still sweat even with the most careful sealing.
    * The best wood for the bath - well dried birch. This means with a specific humidity of not more than 15%. This state of the wood reaches about two years drying properly stacked woodpile. About where to store them, too, should think in advance. As of yet another important repository - brooms and herbs for brewing.
    * When planning the location of baths in the area should take into account wind direction and proximity of neighboring buildings (and flammable objects). Especially when it comes to bath in black.
    * You should carefully consider a system of sewage disposal. Contaminated soap, bath sinks are especially prone to clogging and hardening in the cold.