Zita DOBROVOLSKIENĖ, Gintautas SUBAČIUS

External beauty of the house or reasonable layout of interior?

Many citizens of Lithuania, planning to build his own house, consider this. As the energy resources become more expensive, expenditure on heating of the dwelling increases every year. Heating often requires almost half of the sum paid for taxes. Therefore, the owners of the flats and houses seek to decrease the consumption of the heat in all possible ways: they warm walls and roofs, renovate the houses, modernise the heating stations, install modern heating systems, abandon some of the premises during heating season and undertake other measures. Moreover, as the construction materials become more expensive, the wages increase, the prices of the constructions also increase rapidly. 

A decade ago total chaos reigned in the house construction sphere. When the limitations were abolished, uncontrolled process started. Now the surroundings are full of unreasonably planned gigantic houses. The constructions took place spontaneously; new settlements and communications were not planned. Let’s take Norwegian houses – light, simple, bright, ecologic. German houses – weight more, small, economic. American houses – spacious, decorated, large. What are Lithuanian houses like? Maybe wooden, maybe brick? Nevertheless, everybody acknowledges that it is better to build a small, but qualitative house, which would serve the man, not vice versa. 

A house in a month 

Currently in Lithuania wooden panel and carcass houses built in sections are produced by several manufacturers, but the difference between the current panel house manufacturers in Lithuania and the already started project is that all production processes, currently performed in the production of panel houses in Lithuania, are performed manually. That has influence upon the quality of the products, because inaccuracies are only found out when mounting the house. Due to that the mounting and installation time is prolonged, the heat resistance of the house becomes worse. The main activity of the company “Skydmedis” is production and construction of wooden panel – carcass houses as well as production of cut timber items. The company has been producing wooden – panel houses for more than ten years already. 

According to company production head Mindaugas Černiauskas, ecologic and economic panel – carcass houses are produced under individual projects or projects offered by the company. “The biggest part of the panel houses produced in the company are exported into Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Island and other countries. Two – three years ago such houses became popular in Lithuania as well. Currently constructions gained such speed, that if a person is willing to order it at our company; he is put into the so called queue. We can produce the house in a few days, while the construction works take up a month. The most important is for the client to have a mounted substructure of the house in the parcel of land”, - claimed M. Černiauskas. According to him, citizens of Panevėžys currently are not sleeping either - houses produced by “Skydmedis” have already been built in Molainiai Street, near the city centre. 

“Why do we stand out? A house produced and build by us is a valuable choice, since the main constructions are produced in our own factory in dry premises, therefore, the best qualities of the timber are preserved and the house maintains its parameters for many years”, - told specialist about the advantages of the panel house. Having inquired, what could be the price of the object, M. Černiauskas noted, that it also depends upon the wishes of the client. “One square meters costs from 1.5 to 2 thousand LTL”, - highlighted the specialist. 

One of the most modern factories in the Baltic States

Not long ago company from Panevėžys “Kriautė” opened one of the most modern factories of panel – carcass houses in the Baltic States and offered warm, economic and safe houses for private persons and companies. 

According to the Director of the company, Zenonas Jansonas, modern equipment was produced in Sweden, while the qualified specialists and usage of certified materials guarantee the quality of the products and quick production. 

After receiving the support from European Union structural funds, the company acquired automatic line, which increased the productivity of work 5 – 8 times. Having mounted the production line, working one shift it is possible to produce 1 – 1.3 of a house per day, the net cost of the produced house became a lot smaller. 

Z. Jansonas, just like his colleague N. Černiauskas, assured that there are enough orders now. 

Cheaper than a flat in the block of flats

Last March the company of R. Maženis received a patent for the invention “Thermo-insulating structure and the method of its composition” from the State Patent Bureau. Under this patent the company started to produce economic and ecologic houses, the wall resistance of which is higher than 12, while heating of 180 square meters per season requires only 2 – 3 cubic meters of wood. Houses produced by this company have no pipes, no radiators. According to the heat resistance the external 33 centimetre thick walls equal 124 centimetre thick log wall. 

According to the owner of the company R. Maženis, several years ago a goal was set to improve the quality of a residential dwelling and the construction process in various ways. The most attention was paid to decreasing fuel input, improving quality of life, decreasing construction expenditure and ecology. That allowed the company to start production and construction of the residential houses which have no analogies in Lithuania and maybe even in the whole world. 

R. Maženis says that now it is possible to build and install warm and convenient house cheaper than to buy a flat. The construction of one square meter of the house built by the company with complete finishing costs 2800 LTL, while one square meter in the block of flats costs already 4500 LTL. Moreover, the surroundings are managed, the territory is smoothed and as R. Maženis jokes, a person who has a built house only needs to sow the lawn and to plant a tree.  

Use membranes

R. Maženis company produces and constructs carcass houses built in sections, but they are completely different from wooden carcass houses, produced by Panevėžys companies “Kiautė” or “Skydmedis”. According to him, they do not use cotton at all to avoid composition of fungi. The owner of the company claims that the floor, walls, partitions and overlays of the house are produced from glued timber under the same conditions with the premises. Wooden carcass is plated with OSB-3 plate from both of the sides, metallised polypropylene membranes are made for heat and sound insulation.’ A membrane of 24 film layers is used for external walls. Materials selected by the client are used for internal and external finishing of the house. Three-layer glass packets are used for the windows. 

Small fuel input

Recuperative ventilation is installed in the built houses; therefore, the air is always fresh. The conditioning system is connected to the fireplace capsule. The above mentioned system allows rejecting furnace and other central heating equipment. The house can be heated using electricity, gas, hard fuel and even in case of cold winter and long heating season, 3 cubic meters of wood are enough to heat quite a big house. Furthermore, when the energy needs are small, it is purposeful to install small power wind or sun generator for the house to become fully autonomous. Moreover, building the house not only electricity, but also fire-safety and security signal networks are installed; spacious garage for two cars is built. 

Constructions become cheaper

R. Maženis highlights: producing glued constructions, timber is used very economically. Having launched production of briquettes from wood cuttings, there is almost no waste. Since the whole weight of the house does not exceed 50 tons, light construction drilled substructure is enough. That allows decreasing the consumption of traditional construction materials and metals to minimum. Moreover, since constructions are produced within premises, the dependence upon weather conditions and seasons is decreased to minimum. The construction of such houses is quicker, the pollution of the construction site is decreased, this allows decreasing construction expenditure by up to 20 percent. Moreover, the imported materials and changes in their prices have less and less influence upon construction. 

There are enough orders

R. Maženis said that there are enough orders for the production and construction of the houses. According to him, the company has received seventeen orders to build such houses in Utena, 20 or even more in Kaunas and Šiauliai. In Panevėžys the constructions of three such houses were started, two more are at the finishing stage. „We do everything to the end, - explained R. Maženis. - The owner only has to bring the lamps, furniture and curtains, but for additional payment we can do even that“. The owner of the company told that the construction of the carcass of the house takes only three days, roofing takes two weeks, and at least a month is needed for finishing. The materials chosen for finishing of the house have almost no influence upon the price of the house. 

Comfort harmonised with the space

Now the company is finishing a house in Panevėžys, Braklainiai Street. From the exterior it does not look big, but inside it is very spacious, wonderfully planned. From the glass porch you enter spacious hall, joining both storeys, with wooden stairs, leading up. At one end of the house there is a room with mounted fireplace, the area of this room exceed 30 square meters, going down the hall you enter a kitchen of 15 square meters. Next to it there is a room of similar size. On the other side of the hall there is a sanitary room of 6 square meters with all the necessary equipment. Next to the entrance into the garage, there is one more room, which R. Maženis ironically calls „room for the mother-in-law“. After inquiring, why does it have a window, the businessman answers: „For a good mother-in-law“. On the second floor there are two bedrooms, 22 square meters each, and a fully installed bathroom of 12 square meters. According to R. Maženis, if the client requests, the bathroom can be made smaller and in part of it a wardrobe can be installed. One of the bedrooms has an entrance into a terrace of 32 square meters, mounted above the garage.

Hygiene and tests

Materials used for the construction of the house comply with all the health hygiene requirements and are not only economic, but also ecologic. Metallised polypropylene film used for the membranes is allowed even in food industry. According to R. Maženis, modern house, made automatic to maximum allows significantly decreasing expenditure on heating, ventilation, conditioning and not to “burn” the family budget for no reason. The businessman joked that keeping in mind current winters, it is enough to through a few newspapers into the fireplace and you can live warmly. Therefore, having evaluated the expenditure, quality of life and ecology, the notion of buying off is created. Having inquired about the durability of the house, R. Maženis stated that the membrane used in the construction of the house, was tested in the Institute of Physics. After 500 hours in aggressive environment of the reactor, no alterations in the membrane were observed.