Two tips for building a durable house

Posted on: 26 August 2017

There are a number of steps you can take to ensure that the house you are building will be durable enough to withstand the test of time. Read on to find out what these steps are:

Use treated pine for the frame

Most houses have frames made from wood. This material is favoured because it is relatively inexpensive, quite robust and very easy to work with. However, wood is far from indestructible and its structural integrity can be negatively affected if it is exposed to certain environmental conditions or pests.

Moisture, for example, can lead to wood developing a fungus called wet rot. Wet rot can weaken wood and cause it to become crumbly. Likewise, exposure to extreme temperature fluctuations can cause wood to swell and contract; this process can, in turn, result in warping. Finally, a termite infestation can erode wood and thus affect its ability to withstand heavy weight (this can be a very serious issue if the wood is being used to provide structural support in a house).

If you want to ensure that the wood used for your house frame does not succumb to these issues, it would be wise to ask your building contractor to use treated pine for this part of the construction process.

Treated pine, as the term itself implies, is pine which has been treated with a chemical preservative that makes it less susceptible to things like wet rot, warping, and termite-induced deterioration. The preservative is usually a combination of several substances, including an insecticide and a fungicide.

Cut down nearby trees before building the foundation

The presence of trees around a house can greatly enhance its appearance. However, if you fail to remove trees that are located close to where you intend to lay the building's foundation, you may end up dealing with serious structural issues a few years from now.

A mature tree usually has a very large root system. The primary function of this system to obtain water and nutrients from within the soil and deliver these substances to the rest of the tree.

If these roots happen to be situated next to your house's foundation, they may eventually grow underneath it as they seek out water and nutrients. 

In this situation, the roots will start to absorb moisture from the soil that lies beneath the concrete foundation. As the soil then dries out, it will contract and in doing so, will create a gap between the earth and the foundation.

This, in turn, will result in your home developing a subsidence problem; this is where the foundation starts to collapse downwards into the gap made by the contracting, dried out soil. The sinking of the foundation will then result in structural problems such as cracked walls and warped window frames.

Fortunately, you can avoid this issue quite easily, simply by making sure that any trees that are within four or five metres of your building site are removed before your contractor begins to construct the foundation of the house.


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