Russian invention is the source of various innovations and inventions. We find use for seemingly unnecessary things and objects that have served their purpose. For example, old car tires, the rubber of which is worn out and not suitable for use.
Car cameras have long been an item of garden decoration, and now they are used as a material for load-bearing construction. Used tires are used to construct foundations for light frame houses, bathhouses, gazebos, utility rooms and garage buildings.
What are the advantages of using car wheels, and how to build a foundation from tires with your own hands?
- Pouring concrete
- Base for gazebo
Pros of the foundation
Wheel tire foundations have a number of unexpected advantages:
- Tubes from cars are waste material, which ensures the low cost of the finished foundation.
- Rubber of automobile inner tubes provides water protection of the internal filler from the side and outside. Its rough surface reduces the buoyant force of the soil and the possibility of squeezing foundation pillars out of the soil in winter. This is one of the problems with light frame buildings built on a columnar base.
- Tires are used to construct an ideal foundation on flooded and moving soils. The resulting design has high levels of reliability, strength, and durability. The use of automobile inner tubes in the construction allows the construction of one-story frame houses on such difficult soils as coastal and swampy soils.
- The tire foundation has a simple technology and is easy to make with your own hands. It is accessible to people without great construction skills, without the use of complex equipment or expensive tools.
- The use of used car tires in construction solves the issue of their disposal. Traditionally, they are burned in special furnaces, releasing harmful substances into the atmosphere. The use of cameras in construction makes it possible to reduce the amount of burned rubber, which meets the requirements for the environmental friendliness of the construction process.
For a small building.
The foundation on car tires is accessible to a wide segment of the population - at a price and ease of construction. At the same time, it is reliable and can be used in conditions where conventional concrete or strip foundations are not capable of working for a long time. This is confirmed by reviews of the foundation on tires - both from construction specialists and individual developers.
Cons of the foundation
There is only one drawback to foundations on tires. When heated in the sun, tires emit synthetic substances that form a characteristic odor. This makes it necessary to protect the rubber surface from direct sunlight - with special heat-resistant paint, profiled or galvanized metal sheet.
Such measures are necessary in regions with hot climates. In northern territories, where the sun is not scorching, there is no need to cover tires from ultraviolet rays.
On a note
Reviews from experts about tire foundations say that they are suitable for constructing lightweight foundations for lightweight frame houses. They are not suitable for capital construction when load-bearing walls are built from stone, brick or concrete.
Experts also say that from old car inner tubes it is possible to construct foundations for any light low-rise buildings. You can build a foundation from tires for a barn, bathhouse, one- or two-story residential frame house, as well as for a garage, utility room, outdoor shower and free-standing outdoor toilet.
Errors and recommendations
The most common errors and recommendations for eliminating them:
- The tires around the perimeter of the bathhouse should not be left open. When directly exposed to sunlight, tires may emit an unpleasant odor due to toxic emissions. Also, rubber products are destroyed under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.
- Exposed rubber products are painted or fenced with corrugated sheets, metal, asbestos sheets or other material.
- Tire filling does not need to be thoroughly compacted. It is enough to spill the sand mixture with any filler with water.
- To ensure that the slopes retain their damping properties, the tires are not filled with cement or concrete mortar.
Slab or columnar
The foundation on car tires was called the Semykin foundation - after the name of the inventor of this innovation. The know-how of the invention is that the waste material is used as permanent formwork. It is filled with filler - crushed stone, sand, concrete. The result is waterproof supports for the walls of the building.
Bottom frame made of timber.
By arranging the chambers in different ways, you can get a foundation of different shapes. You can assemble a slab, strip or column base for a house from tires.
Columnar
In columnar structures, cameras are installed on top of each other, collecting pillars from them at the corners of the building and along the outer walls. The center of the pillar is often reinforced with metal reinforcement.
Slab
The chambers are placed next to each other in several rows, forming the area of the base plate. In this case, the side surface of the resulting slab can be left open, in the form of protruding car tires. Or cover it with concrete, forming an even rectangular foundation slab.
Tire slab.
Tape
The cameras are laid in a row along the outer walls of the future house. Depending on the soil conditions and the height requirements of the foundation, tires can be laid in one or two vertical rows.
You can see how to build a slab, strip and column foundation from tires with your own hands - in the video. And also how to build a foundation for a bathhouse from tires.
Preparation for construction
Before you start construction, you need to prepare:
- They create a bathhouse project, including drawing up a plan for the foundation of the future structure.
- At the construction site, the fertile layer of soil is removed. Usually its thickness does not exceed 100 - 300 mm.
- The bathhouse foundation plan is transferred to the construction site, marking it with pegs and pulling the cord along the axes of the walls.
- After this, they begin excavation work and installation of car tires.
- A grillage is arranged followed by the construction of a bathhouse.
Construction Features
The choice of filler for the hollow chamber space determines the strength and shock-absorbing properties of the tire base. More rigid structures are obtained by filling the space inside automobile inner tubes with crushed stone. A foundation with high shock-absorbing properties and lower strength characteristics - when filling the chambers from the inside with wet sand.
On a note
Moistening the sand when filling the chambers allows for high-quality compaction, which is necessary for the reliability of the future foundation of the house.
Pouring concrete
Another option for using car tires for the foundation of a frame house is to fill them with concrete from the inside. This technology is used in the construction of both columnar and slab foundations. In this case, for a columnar structure, metal reinforcement is placed inside the assembled column of tires for strengthening.
If it is not the columns that are being built, but a slab, then concrete is used to fill not only the space inside the tires laid in several rows on the ground, but also the space between them. Thus, a solid concrete slab is obtained, the edge of which is protected with a metal channel or corner. It limits the mechanical impact on the corner of the resulting slab and protects it from destruction.
Now let's talk about how to make a foundation from tires with your own hands. In what sequence, from what materials and how to perform the work in order to obtain a solid foundation for further construction.
For what structures can a tire base be used?
The foundation from old tires can be used in the construction of small structures. Unfortunately, for massive and block buildings, only a traditional house foundation can be used, since such structures are quite heavy.
An excellent option for using tire foundations is for the construction of bathhouses and garages. In no case is it recommended to try to save money on the construction of full-fledged houses and try to put them on a base made of tires. In this case, the entire structure may subsequently begin to tilt and collapse, which will cause a considerable number of problems and financial costs.
Construction stages
Despite its simplicity, a tire foundation has a construction technology that must be followed in order to obtain a strong and reliable load-bearing structure. How to properly make a foundation from tires?
Base installation process.
- Tires under the foundation slab or foundation tape must have the same thickness. The diameters may be different, but for ease of work and even laying of the rows, it is easier for their diameters to also be the same.
- Tires for a columnar foundation should be the same in diameter, plus or minus a couple of centimeters. Their thickness may differ, but it must be taken into account that the total height of all pillars should be the same. This requirement is easier to comply with if the tires are the same in all sizes - both in diameter and thickness.
- The inner cavity of tires must be filled with filler very carefully. No voids are allowed; they will cause movement of the filler inside the chambers and the finished base. To compact the filler in the chambers, spatulas, boards, and plastering tools are used. For better compaction, sand and soil are spilled with water and compacted. When pouring concrete, a plastic mixture with good fluidity is used.
A clear example of constructing a foundation from tires is in the video at the bottom of the page.
Base for gazebo
Since an outdoor gazebo is the simplest building structure, it is worth first testing the tire foundation technology on the construction of a foundation for a garden gazebo. After arranging it with your own hands, you will understand the features of working with tires. With more demanding construction, for example, when laying a foundation from tires for a bathhouse or a residential building, you will already be a professional in tire construction.
Exterior finishing option.
It is better to build a foundation for a gazebo made of tires in the form of a strip. At the same time, the protruding sides of the rubber inner tubes can be a stylish addition. Or they may eventually be covered by climbing ivy.
When building a gazebo on the shore of a reservoir, it is worth making a base of two or more vertical layers of inner tubes - to protect against possible flooding.
Ancillary buildings
Another type of building for which car tires would be an ideal material is household premises. The foundation for a tire shed will cost a minimum of costs, which corresponds to the low price of the outbuilding itself.
A tire toilet foundation will not only hold up the walls, but will also hermetically enclose the space around the pit. The foundation for a cabin made of tires can be made of several vertical rows and formed from the outside of the steps.
Bath base
The sauna foundation operates under conditions of temperature changes and high humidity. In winter, when using the steam room, it becomes damp. When frozen, it may become covered with cracks. Therefore, for the construction of a bathhouse, it is important to ensure waterproofing of the floor and foundation.
When using rubber inner tubes for absolute waterproofing, it is necessary to protect the tire cavity from water draining into them from above. To do this, their upper ends are covered with rubberized material, on top of which a subfloor is laid and a finishing floor is laid.
This is what they do when building a foundation for a bathhouse using tires with their own hands. If you have a lifting winch, you can cover the foundation tires with a concrete slab, thus distributing the floor load across all chambers and protecting their ends from water from the steam room.
