Most moisture from screed?

Hello everyone,

yesterday we had an initial informative conversation with a solid house provider. Of course, we always ask where the respective provider sees HIS advantage compared to other construction methods. He couldn’t answer that precisely yesterday; he rather made an effort to present arguments against prefabricated houses in timber frame construction.

In any case, he also said that most of the moisture enters the house with the screed, so it doesn’t matter whether you build stone on stone (and thus expose yourself to weather risk) or erect the shell for a prefabricated house within a very short time. The screed has to be laid on site in any case and then dried.

You often read that an advantage of prefabricated houses is the dry construction method in the hall, but is that actually relativized again by the screed?

I am grateful for all answers and thoughts on this

Best regards,
Sandra

Hello Sandra,

Your conversation partner was partly right. Of course, a lot of moisture comes into the house with the screed, regardless of whether it is a solid house or a prefabricated house - but this moisture then only stays in the screed and nowhere else.

However, it is the case that a solidly built house can sometimes be exposed to wet weather for longer than a prefabricated house and, in addition, extra moisture comes into the house (into the walls) through the mortar.

On the other hand, it is of course also possible for a prefabricated house to become really wet if it is pouring down rain on the day of construction. In extreme cases, the insulation must even be replaced, and the walls must be opened again.

No one can make the decision for you whether to choose a prefabricated house or a solid house; most members here in the forum naturally represent their own house system...

We found it very interesting to look at the production of some prefabricated house providers before making a decision for a house construction company - you learn quite a bit about the wall structure and can see the differences between the providers.

Regards,

Dirk

Hello Dirk,

thank you for your answer (and also for the hello and the link to your interesting blog in the other introduction thread)!

Oh yes, it would be nice if someone could take this fundamental decision off our hands We ourselves see advantages and disadvantages in both construction methods, …

The gentleman said yesterday that the thin-bed mortar they use is more like an adhesive and therefore does not bring any significant additional moisture?! I have to read up on the subject, I am especially interested in how this adhesive is to be assessed from a building biology perspective.

Hello Sandra,

Oh yes, it would be nice if someone could take this fundamental decision away from us We ourselves see advantages and disadvantages in both construction methods.

Yes, that's exactly how it was for us too.

From the beginning, I was a passionate advocate of solid houses - my wife, as the daughter of a master carpenter, preferred the timber frame construction.

Before we researched for our own house, I only knew two prefabricated houses and this type of house was absolutely out of the question for me.

I quickly learned that there are "Ladas" and "Porsches" even among house manufacturers.

My decision was made quite quickly when I entered the first show house of our future contractual partner. The subtle wood scent appealed to me very much and in the house (which was already a few years old at the time) I couldn't detect any creaking, crunching or even a springy balcony - These were issues I had noticed in the prefabricated houses I knew before. Everything seemed very solid.

The gentleman said yesterday that the thin-bed mortar they use is more like a kind of glue and thus does not bring any significant additional moisture?! I have to read up on that, what I would especially be interested in is how this glue is assessed from a building biology point of view.

I can't say anything about that - but I would also thoroughly check that if I were you. It was extremely important to us to build with as few harmful substances as possible - both inside the house and in the thermal insulation. Therefore, we are not using Styrodur or Styrofoam insulation, but wood fiber board insulation.

Regards,

Dirk

We were one of the first to build in a new development area and can therefore quite well follow the construction progress of our neighbors. Opposite, a house was also built very quickly using solid construction. I believe they were finished within two weeks. But now the house stands and has to dry out.

Our house was erected in mid-October and was (almost) ready to move in by the end of January. Only the interior finishing work had to be done. In the factory, the house was completely prepared: drains were in the wall, the electrical wiring was laid... Such things still have to be done in the rough construction phase in solid construction.

Nevertheless, a prefabricated house is not necessarily finished faster. By the time the solid builder already starts laying the walls, we had to have planned and decided where the sockets and wall/ceiling outlets should go, what color the windows, doors, windowsills, etc. should have, because these are partially already installed in the individual components.

Solid construction is definitely cheaper, insulation is easier to achieve with the timber frame construction.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both construction methods.

One of the greatest advantages of timber frame construction, in my opinion, is that I only need one Spax screw to attach furniture to the wall. No drilling, no dowels, just screw in and done.

Maybe one more advantage from us as a "solid house builder" with individual trade contracts. During the construction phase, we still had the possibility to rearrange many small details, which is not so easy (if at all) possible with a prefabricated house. Examples are: electrical planning, relocating walls, dimensions of windows/skylights, redesigning a bathroom (relocating shower/toilet and washbasins), etc.

This flexibility is only available with solid construction.