Roof, the top layer of a house, protects it from being exposed to the weather, and directs rainfall water away – hence its usually at least partly sloped shape. The main components of a roof are the attic and the roof deck. The main structure is usually wooden or ferroconcrete. This type of construction allows various ways of using the attic space – of late, the attics get often reconstructed into regular living spaces. Based on its shape, we distinguish between flat, gable, mansard, pent, pyramidal, saw-tooth, shell, suspended and spire roofs.
The most common roofing material is fired tile. Simple natural materials – thatches for instance – were used in the past, but the durability and practicality was lacking in comparison with today’s materials. The most common types of roof tiles are the so-called bobrovka (plane tile), falcovka, brněnka, prejz (the hollow tile) etc. Another option is to cover the roof with asphalt, slate, tin, eternit etc.
An important parameter to consider when choosing a particular roof type is the weight and permeability of the roofing material. The standard concrete roof tile has excellent permeability, but is very heavy; tin on the other hand is light, but is lacking in permeability.
Nejznámější druhy tašek jsou: bobrovka, falcovka, brněnka, jirčanka, prejz aj. Další možností střešní krytiny je asfalt, břidlice, plech, eternit aj.
The customer’s own taste also comes into play: concrete roof tiles are dyed with iron oxides and not all colours are available; artificial materials on the other hand are covered with plastic foils in different colours that protect the roofing material from the weather.
Apart from the overall architerctural design, a facade is what most contributes to the appearance of a building. It gives evidence of the time when it was built, the then technologies and aesthetics, but also uncovers a lot about the personality of the owner of the building. It completes the look and feel of the structure, provides thermal insulation and protects the structure from the weather. To protect against the weather has been its main function since time immemorial, though the materials used keep changing. For instance lime paint, widely used in the past, is not suitable for today’s polluted urban environment.
When choosing the right type of facade, one should consider the costs, the durability, the needed maintenance, the material’s insulating properties and moisture resistance, and – last but not least – whether it’s suitable for the given building. A quality facade must be designed in tune with the climatic conditions and the requirements of the user of the house. The difference in the facade’s surface temperature can reach up to 40 °C within 24 hours, and even 60-80 °C on the southern sides of the facade, which calls for external renderings that provide very good physical properties. The lifespan of a facase is in the range of 20 – 50 years depending on the materials used, the priming coat and the weather conditions.
Today, there is a wide range of different ready-mixed plasters available, catering for all the different types of walls and intended uses – from plasters to be processed manually or mechanically, through one-coat plasters and plasters applied in several coatings, to renovating and decorative plasters, and many more.
The colour itself isn’t the most important variable when choosing a facade. The following basic colour paints for facades are available, each with different properties: dispersive acrylate, silicate and silicon-modified acrylate.
Thermal insulation systems represent another type of facades. Either air-permeable insulation or the so-called ETICS (External Thermal Insulation Composite System) is used for the outer insulation of a building.
A family house is a type of construction designed to meet the requirements of family housing, with the majority of floor space designed as living space. A family house can have up to three separate appartments, a maximum of two floors above ground and one underground, and an attic.
The piece of land for the family house to be built on must be suitable, especially with regards to its location, shape, size and the foundation conditions, allowing an efficient and economical construction. The house must be connected to the public water works, sewerage and electrics, whilst making sure their capacity is sufficient. If need be, a house can be connected to other energy networks. The exact type of connection is determined based on the requirements of the respective authorities.
The building owner is required to prove either the ownership of the land, or another type of legal relation that entitles him or her to build on it. The legal document to establish this right would be an up-to-date extract from the land registry, usually no older than two months. Another type of legal relation refers to a contract of lease, one of the "forward" types of contract, or a right of user. Also required is a zoning and planning decision and a building permit.
The basic types of family houses include:
The term wooden structure refers to houses made primarily of wood – which includes a much wider range of buildings besides the traditional log cabins. Wooden houses owe their current popularity to the affordability as well as their environmental-friendliness and the ease and speed of construction.
Thanks to its unique features, wood has been used as a construction material since time immemorial. Its main advantage with regards to environmental-friendliness is the energy savings thanks to the ease of processing; in turn, it also helps reduce the mining of non-renewable resources, decreases damage to the landscape and the environment, reduces excess spoil and freight and, in turn, the NOx, SO2 and CO2 emissions.
Another great advantage of wooden constructions is the possibility to pre-make the wooden parts in order to speed up the construction on site. A wooden family house is usually constructed within three months; a construction using pre-made parts can be completed in a single month.
Wooden houses can be constructed all year round.
The so-called modern types of wooden structures include baluster, skeletal and panel constructions. The panel construction jacketed with plywood or the OSB (waferboard) panels is the most widespread type on the Czech market. The thermal insulation is usually provided by styrofoam or mineral fibres. The durability of the material is 150 – 200 years. A fire-resistance of up to 90 minutes has been proven during testing.
Wood is also unique in the many possible ways it can be used within a construction: it can serve as the bearing construction, the wall and ceiling covering, the floor itself, the staircase, furniture, etc. It is also easy to process and is suited to be used alongside modern technologies. These features, its warmth and the natural feel, as well as the fact that wood is a green, energy-efficient and renewable recource, and that new wooden materials are being developed, make it without exaggeration the construction material for the 21st century.
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