Buildings in Finland

[tuulen]

Yes, polar bears can be huge. They are essentially white grizzlies. A woman with a broom would be food with a garnish.

In the American state of Alaska, way up north, there are polar bears, and in the west of the American mainland there are brown bears, and grizzly bears, too. Where I am, in New England, there also are the smaller black bears.

I burn wood, for heat, and for cooking. A couple of years ago I went out to my woodpile late one night, well after dark, and just as I got there I heard a big animal get up and run away, out from under an evergreen tree which was about ten meters away from where I was standing, indeed, I could almost feel the ground tremble. At the time I didn't know what sort of animal it was, as deer are common around here, too, but the next day I saw what clearly were bear tracks in the snow. Wow! That's as close as I have ever been to a bear, and that's an experience I will never forget.

[AldenG]

We have black bears in the Blue Ridge mountains.

In recent years there have been more attacks on people, including some fatalities. It's all the more striking because years ago, before the time of bears living today, people used to interact with the bears a lot in the Blue Ridge, feeding them by the road and such. Yet despite the new policies of minimizing contacts between bears and people, there are more injuries and fatalities now than then.

I don't know whether it's been determined to be a statistically significant change, nor how it may be related to an overall increase in the human population.

[tuulen]

Generally, black bears avoid humans, at least around here. However, I've travelled on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Skyline Drive, where there are many campsites nearby. Unfortunately, it seems that bears like campsites, too, and they're particularly talented at emptying trash cans, etc. That, of course, then brings the bears into close proximity with humans, and so I'd guess that's where the majority of bear encounters occur. Black bears may be the smallest of bears, but easily are big enough to be very dangerous, or worse.

[onkko]

Major problem is when humans arent warned that bears arent nice, you know what im talking about. Any big carnivore is threat even if it normally runs away. And they arent stupid, they learn. Bears have learned in last millenia that humans are threat, tell them theyre not then they eat you.
In finland we have this thing called "reilu meininki". If bear stays too close its shot, if bear attacks human its shot, if bear does anything else than flee and there werent puppies then its shot.

[Pursuivant]

Back to the "buildings in Finland" topic, I think I'll need to take with my camera next Saturday, but I spent a nice hangover weekend dozing off in a crawlspace under a mate's newbuild putting in some extra insulation. I had kneepads but my knees look like two plums... and my hair is full of insulation foam as well. So it was a classical "rossipohja" on pillars, then a couple of concrete spars and on top of that the house. and yeah, space to crawl allright... My mate wasn't that impressed of my "wow you can fit a load of corpses here" exclamation

[tuulen]

Back to the "buildings in Finland" topic, I think I'll need to take with my camera next Saturday, but I spent a nice hangover weekend dozing off in a crawlspace under a mate's newbuild putting in some extra insulation. I had kneepads but my knees look like two plums... and my hair is full of insulation foam as well. So it was a classical "rossipohja" on pillars, then a couple of concrete spars and on top of that the house. and yeah, space to crawl allright... My mate wasn't that impressed of my "wow you can fit a load of corpses here" exclamation

About *rossipohja*, I searched my dictionaries, and searched some online dictionaries, too, but I cannot find a definition for rossi in English. Pohja refers to the bottom of something, which in this case could be the bottom of a building, but rossi remains undefined, to me. However, by your description of the building, it appears that rossipohja could be an elevated building, on pillars, but, what do those pillars rest on? I have seen some modern construction where a concrete pad serves as the foundation of a house, on top of which are placed concrete pillars, and then the house is built on top of that. Is that what rossipohja refers to?

[Pursuivant]

traditional


modern

[tuulen]

traditional


modern

Aha! Yes, that kind of elevation is what I was thinking of, including the insulated floor of a house. Apparently that system works well, and costs far less to construct than a foundation which goes down below the frost line.

My mate wasn't that impressed of my "wow you can fit a load of corpses here" exclamation

It seems that the space between the ground and the floor is sometimes used for storage space, such as for firewood, etc., but I have also seen designs where a wall or a fence could be built around the pillars and surrounding the house, and that seems to make sense. For instance, not only could a human enter that space below the floor, and not only could that space be used for storage, but could you imagine finding a bear living under a house, during winter? Whoa!

[Upphew]

Aha! Yes, that kind of elevation is what I was thinking of, including the insulated floor of a house. Apparently that system works well, and costs far less to construct than a foundation which goes down below the frost line.

My mate wasn't that impressed of my "wow you can fit a load of corpses here" exclamation

It seems that the space between the ground and the floor is sometimes used for storage space, such as for firewood, etc., but I have also seen designs where a wall or a fence could be built around the pillars and surrounding the house, and that seems to make sense. For instance, not only could a human enter that space below the floor, and not only could that space be used for storage, but could you imagine finding a bear living under a house, during winter? Whoa!

It is supposed to go below the frost line, but when using insulation the frost line is not so deep anymore. See the last picture: there is 100mm or 200mm of EPS for foundation insulation.

Not only critters or bears, but much more hazardous material might get there: water, in this case in form of snow.

[tuulen]

It is supposed to go below the frost line, but when using insulation the frost line is not so deep anymore. See the last picture: there is 100mm or 200mm of EPS for foundation insulation.

Not only critters or bears, but much more hazardous material might get there: water, in this case in form of snow.

Finland has such cold temperatures and such long winters that it is interesting to consider just how expensive structures such as buildings, especially houses, could be designed and built to survive year after year of freezing and thawing cycles. In addition, apparently Finland has many different kinds of ground conditions, including gravel, mud, clay, and rock ledge, etc., and so perhaps some designs could work well under certain circumstances, but not work well under other circumstances. Moreover, it seems likely that a foundation incorporating thermal insulation, to defy frost and frost heaving, could go beyond traditional building skills, and could be more a matter of civil engineering, where the type of insulation used could be matched to a specific foundation and to the specific ground conditions of a particular building site. In other words, because an expensive house depends on the integrity of its foundation, it appears that professional knowledge of building foundations could be appropriate, and worth the investment.

[Pursuivant]

Freezing requires water.

[DMC]

Freezing requires water.

So if there is no water in my freezer it won't freeze?

[Pursuivant]

Put two bottles into your freezer. One empty, one full of water. Observe the effect.

[Jukka Aho]

About *rossipohja*, I searched my dictionaries, and searched some online dictionaries, too, but I cannot find a definition for rossi in English.

It’s from the Swedish trossbotten. By the way it is described on the Swedish Wikipedia, trossbotten would actually appear to mean the wooden frame structure upon which the floor is built... but since this kind of design can’t just lie directly on the ground, I guess the existence of a crawlspace and a stone/brick foundation is usually implied. (I’m not quite sure what the word tross is supposed to mean, in this context. It might be a cognate of the English “truss”, but don’t take my word for it.)

it appears that rossipohja could be an elevated building, on pillars, but, what do those pillars rest on?

The foundation of a rossipohja building is traditionally made of stones (see here as well), or blocks of stone, cut in rectangular shape. The stone foundation skirts the perimeter of the floor, forming an empty crawlspace under the house.

The foundation/crawlspace needs ventilation holes to prevent moisture and radon buildup. Traditional stone foundation usually implements these as simple square holes. They’re sometimes called kissanluukku in casual speech, as cats are likely to use them to their advantage – e.g. when seeking shelter from rain or having kittens. People will often block these vents for the coldest months of winter, though, to reduce heat loss.
 

[tuulen]

Aha! Rossipohja comes from trossbotten, thank you, but apparently has not yet made it into Finnish dictionaries. And, yes, as a guess, *tross* could mean truss, especially as there is a distance between the upper surface of the floor and the bottom surface of the floor, between which could be reinforced by trusses, and filled with insulation.

The foundation/crawlspace needs ventilation holes to prevent moisture and radon buildup. Traditional stone foundation usually implements these as simple square holes. They’re sometimes called kissanluukku in casual speech, as cats are likely to use them to their advantage – e.g. when seeking shelter from rain or having kittens. People will often block these vents for the coldest months of winter, though, to reduce heat loss.

It has long been known that radon exists in New England, too, and it seems to be more of a problem in tightly sealed modern houses. Apparently radon comes out of the ground, and a ventilated foundation such as the rossipohja type should all but eliminate any concerns about it, but blocking the vents during the coldest months could be a bad idea.

Fresh air is important. For instance, there is no heat in the room that I sleep in, and if it is freezing outdoors then it is freezing in the room, too, but even in the middle of winter I keep the window open a little bit, just for air.