The technology of wooden-frame building construction

began to flourish in Canada after the World War II, when the country faced an influx of immigrants and needed a quick and cost-effective solution of the housing problem. Later it became known as the Canadian technology. The use of frame-panel technology has led to the discovery and development of new building materials that are best suited to its needs: oriented strand boards (OSB), moisture and vapor insulating film, heat insulation based on basalt and other mineral fibers, modern finishing, and roofing materials.
    Due to the small weight of the house, the foundation is usually in the form of a lightweight shallow monolithic plate. An average frame house with the area of 150 sq.m. usually weighs in at approximately 40 tons, including internal and external finishes and payloads.
    The walls have a layered structure. The framework consists of counters made of calibrated board softwood with the thickness of 40-50 mm and the width of 150 mm, which are installed in increments of 400 mm, and horizontal studs. The frame is then OSB boarded. Then vapor insulation film (membrane), which protects the structure from wind and moisture from the outside and simultaneously transmits a pair of moisture from the inside, is attached to the boarding. The facade is sided or finished with other modern construction materials.
    Inside the frame, heat insulation slabs are installed and sealed with vapor insulationg foil that keeps moisture vapors from entering the walls from the room because the increase in humidity of the heat-insulating layer by a mere 1 pct reduces its insulating properties by 30 pct. On top of the film, bracketing and dry wall (plasterboard) are applied. All engineering networks are installed inside the walls. This house is therefore easy to breathe in due to the air heating system with heat exchanger (water heating is not found in Canada). The house is completely heated using electricity in 20 - 30 minutes. The temperature can be adjusted, and the heating mode, programmed. This heating system is the most efficient and economical.
    The wooden frame technology construct includes frame girders: parallel girder type. These girders have a high carrying capacity, provide the ability to cover large spans without intermediate supports, and do not limit the planning concepts. Also, the construct includes a system of trusses that are designed to provide covering of spans of up to 30 meters without intermediate supports. Such trusses can be used during design and construction of industrial buildings (hangars, warehouses, shops etc).
    Roof ventilation is usually provided by two gaps: one being located between the roofing and the damp course, which removes atmospheric moisture; and the other, between the damp course and the heat insulation, which removes the moisture that comes from inside the premises.
    The use of expansion vapor insulation membranes in the roof structure allows for abandonment of the lower ventilation gap, which takes up about 50 pct of the space between the rafters; it is used instead for roof insulation. Only the use of such membranes will prevent condensation-caused roof leaks.

Construction of frame-panel houses. Frame-panel houses.

Conclusion: the advantage of application of modern technologies and corresponding modern wall, roof, heat- and vapor-insulation and damp-course materials in construction not only provides comfortable living conditions, but also a long life of buildings, a minimum cost of operating the house as well as significant savings in heat, which results in a manifold compensation of the costs of the materials used during construction of such houses.

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