What did they use to make houses in the middle ages?

Answer 1

Many medieval buildings were made of stone. Dressed stone was used for churches, cathedrals, monasteries, castles, palaces, and manor houses. Field stone was used in some places for cottages.

In places where stone was unavailable, brick was used, even for castles.

Many buildings were made of timber construction with the open areas of the walls filled with wattle and daub. Wattle was woven sticks, and daub was a mixture of mud, straw, hair, fat, manure, and whatever else might be available that could make a long lasting material to cover the wattle. Sometimes the open areas were filled with stone and daub, and sometimes with brick.

In the north of Europe, log cabins were used.

In expensive buildings, floors were tile, dressed stone, or wood. In peasant cottages, floors were often dirt or stone.

Roofs were made of thatched straw or reeds, slate, tiles, split wood, or even thin slabs of stone.

Windows were glazed in expensive buildings. In inexpensive buildings, they were left unglazed, but might be closed with a shutter.

Chimneys were invented in the 12th century. Most heated buildings of the Middle Ages had a stone hearth or brazier in the middle of the largest room, and the smoke rose to a hole in the roof or high in a wall to escape. In an expensive house, the heated room was the great hall. In a peasant cottage, it was usually the only room.

Answer 2

The materials used for making houses varied according to place, time, and the social status of the person who it was built for.

One common material used for construction was wattle and daub. In this construction, a frame was built, often of timber, and the open areas of the walls were filled with woven twigs called wattle. This was then covered with a mixture of mud and other materials to seal it. Finally, in many houses the daub was covered with plaster.

Finer timber frame construction was similar except that the open areas were smaller and filled with stone, rubble, or brick, and cement made largely of mud.

Many houses were made of stone. Stone houses for poorer people were made of small field stones, with the gaps filled with mud. Dressed stone was used for wealthier people.

Some houses were log built, and very like the log cabins still built today.

In poorer houses, the floors were dirt or rough stone. In more expensive construction, the floors were often tile or dressed stone. Wood floors were used on upper levels.

The roofs were made of thatch, slate, stone slabs, tile, or wood shingles.

Heating was nearly always done by building a fire on a hearth in the middle of the main room. The hearth was usually made of stone, though in poorer cottages, it could have been an area of the dirt floor. Braziers were used in expensive houses, but the floor under them had to be flame proof. The smoke was vented out through an open hole in or right below the roof. Chimneys were invented in the 12th century, and were uncommon during the Middle Ages because they were expensive to build and maintain.

Windows in cottages were often just open holes with shutters that could be closed to keep the wind out, and possibly with coarse wooden screens or curtains to keep birds and bats out. Since the smoke of a fire had to be vented through an open hole, the wind was very often blowing through structures anyway. Glass windows were used in many expensive buildings.

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Answer 3

Houses for the lower classes were made with whatever materials were available cheaply and locally. Houses for the wealthy were almost always of stone and built with two or more storeys.

For peasants living in the southwest of England, rough stone was widely available and this was used for foundations and the lower part of the walls. Above this would be clay and dung mixed together to make a kind of concrete called cob; roofs would be of thatch or wooden shingles. Elsewhere oak beams were set into the ground (in beam slots) to form foundations; holes drilled in these beams allowed upright posts to be inserted and split oak logs formed A-shapes at the ends of the house. Roofs would again be of thatch or shingles. The spaces between the uprights were filled using wattle and daub.

Wood-framed houses would have to be renewed about every 25 or 30 years, often being enlarged in each renewal.

The best thatch came from marsh reeds, but in areas without reed beds ordinary straw was used. New straw could be added on top of old thatch, gradually increasing the thickness of the roof material.

In towns, wealthy people had houses of stone with an outside stair leading up to the first floor, which housed the main hall and appartments. The ground floor or undercroft was used for storage.

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Answer 4

The medieval architects generally used triangles because that's what merchants in Europe learned from Muslim merchants and, because triangles are easier to make than domes, triangles were introduced to European architecture

Answer 5

Medieval homes were made of stone, wood, mud, plaster, thatch.