I built a bathhouse with my own hands: finally fulfilled my dream

  • Dec 10, 2020

When Nina and I bought a summer cottage, we immediately took into account that a cozy bathhouse would soon appear there. Contrary to stereotypes, my wife also loves bath procedures in our family) I also treat the steam room very anxiously, and I am always ready to try myself in the role of an adventure builder. I have no experience in building baths, so the Internet turned out to be the main advisor throughout the whole process.

To choose a place for the future site, I had to go around the site more than once and argue with my wife to my heart's content. In the end, we decided on the northeast corner, which looked towards the forest. After laying out the location, I began to look for good suppliers of consumables. For the interior sheathing we ordered aspen boards, and for the interior - pine boards. Aspen has its own shortcomings, but I'm ready to get used to them.

On a warm July Friday, consumables were brought up to the dacha, and we got down to business. They pulled the threads, set the planes and marked the trenches. The foundation was planned to be small and shallow, so I dealt with it before dark. By Saturday morning, the formwork was ready (all rubbish was used for it). The concrete had to be mixed by hand - a good old shovel in the bathtub. There was no time for a break, since the tape is filled in one run.

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For the reinforcement, we took ordinary steel wire, the deposits of which were found at the site. While I was driving a mixture of sand, gravel and cement, it started to rain. But the bad weather did not stop us, on the contrary - it provoked us. The rain came in handy - less water could be poured into the mixture. The reward for our inhuman efforts was an evenly flooded foundation by the end of the weekend.

The hardened foundation was covered with bitumen and roofing material was laid in two layers. When the foundation got its complete neat look, I switched to installing the planks. Jute was used as insulation, which was easily attached with a stapler. I made the nails from wooden mop handles. Nina, meanwhile, smeared some areas of the boards with impregnation and made measurements of the future steam room.

For a couple of weekends, I finished fiddling with the boards. I would have done it faster, but the lack of experience and work alone affected. After the walls were erected, it was time to install the roof. The laying was carried out in this order: first I made the rafters on the ground, then lifted them up and tacked them to the walls. When all the details were in place, I fixed the structure completely.

The crate was started from the bottom edge, from which it was systematically moved up. I dragged the boards in advance, put them to the edge of the roof and took them one by one. Exhibited them all at once - taking into account the step of sweat, metal tiles. Nina every now and then intended to climb onto the roof, I drove her away with varying degrees of success. When it was finished with the crate, he covered the bath with roofing material (stopgap measure). He grabbed the sheets with a stapler.

As a result, it took one and a half times longer than planned. But it was worth it. The walls were finished and covered with a roof. I ran the electricity in the bath underground in a pipe and I want to say that putting wires in a pipe is still a holiday))

The only thing left to do was to hang the doors, sheathe them with clapboard, build shelves and put the oven. The floor was laid with gaps so that the water would drain faster and prevent the wood from rotting.