From my parents I got a large and half-empty suburban area. I knew that sooner or later I would want to refine it. The budget was limited, so my choice fell on a frame bath. It is good for health and pleasant for the soul. I made the layout of the baths simple, but rational - so that everything was in its place:
- steam room: with the ability to lie in full growth in two directions;
- shower room: directly shower + bench for "emergency" rest;
- restroom: with space for a table;
- tambour: before going outside for dressing and undressing.
The layout taken as a basis was practically unchanged during the construction process. Adjustments were made on little things - slightly tweaked the dimensions of the rooms and the total area of the building. I tried my best to minimize the number of scraps when setting up the frame.
To lay the foundation, I took screw piles (diameter 108 mm, length 2.5 meters, heads 20 * 20 cm). I didn't want to work alone at all, besides, my friends volunteered to help, so they acted collectively. In my plan, the whole December was allocated to the pile-screw foundation.
After the New Year, it was time to switch to the power frame. Small problems appeared on the 4th corner pile - it twisted a meter and rested against a stone. But we solved this matter easily, pushing it 15 centimeters.
The frame was assembled surprisingly easily, although neither I nor my team could boast of experience in frame arts. The base was laid (before that it had been coated with bituminous waterproofing), and roofing material was laid under the base.
Installed additional frame racks from a board 150 * 50 (with a distance between jays of 60 cm). The structure was pulled together with jibs from boards of the same dimensions - by cutting into the frame from the top to the bottom corner.
I note that all the work on the strapping and construction of the frame was carried out with hand tools. At that time, one could only dream of electricity on the site. Our main assistants were a hand saw with a hardened tooth, a hammer, an ax, a carpentry triangle and a chisel. This modest set of "crazy hands" was enough to cope with the wooden frame of the future bathhouse.
The climate of the Leningrad region did not even think to help us, constantly pouring rain on our construction site. To prevent the frame from leading, it was necessary to save it with the help of polyethylene. Some boards even had to be pulled together with a corner and self-tapping screws. A hefty opening of 180 * 100 cm was made under the window, and 200 * 90 cm under the door.
For the sewerage I bought a 110th pipe, taps and a tee (for a shower and a washbasin). The pipe was fixed with punched tape to the logs and strapping - the slope turned out towards the drainage ditch. He fixed the vertical passage with clamps and closed the whole thing with a lid. I did not need a full-fledged septic tank, since there was no toilet and associated sewerage in my bath project.
By the summer, the work was completed and on my site there was a ready-made frame bathhouse that attracted the eyes of the neighbors. What can we hide, he conducted “sightseeing tours” around the steam room and even arranged a couple of social receptions with light steam. According to my conservative estimates, half of the village spent a season in the bathhouse. You should have seen the faces of seasoned bath attendants with experience when I said that this miracle of architectural thought was built with a budget of 70,000 rubles.
My only grief was the oven. It heats up for a long time, and when it does heats up, it pricks red-hot. The grate burned out in six months. In this regard, the question for connoisseurs is: what kind of stove would you recommend for mild Petersburg winters?