Khulo: a warm house in the mountains, water, roads and seasonal building

Khulo is a small town in the upper part of the Adjaristsqali gorge, the seat of Khulo Municipality, about 85 kilometres from Batumi. This is the highest and snowiest part of the gorge: the municipality also includes the resorts of Goderdzi and Beshumi. People buy old village houses here, build houses for year-round living and guesthouses for tourists. We take on mountain construction by separate arrangement, and in Khulo we plan for winter with particular care.

Khulo: the top of the gorge

The town stands on a steep slope above the Adjaristsqali, its streets climb in hairpin bends, and the houses rise in steps. A cable car about 1.7 kilometres long spans the gorge, linking Khulo with the village of Tago on the opposite slope. Around the town are villages with high mountain pastures, the Skhalta monastery, Khikhani fortress and medieval arched bridges.

For year-round living people look at the town itself and at villages along the highway, which machinery can reach in winter. Remote villages are hard to reach in winter, and houses there are more often built for summer.

A house for winter

Winter in Khulo is long, snow lies for months, and frosts are harder than down the gorge. We build a house for year-round living here to be warm: insulated walls, floor and roof, windows with good double glazing, an entrance vestibule. We design the heating with a backup so the house does not cool down if the power goes out: a wood or pellet boiler alongside an electric one, a generator or batteries.

How we design heating for a private house is explained on our page about heating. We run water pipes inside the heated envelope or below the frost line, and in a house left empty in winter we fit a valve to drain the water before leaving.

Water, septic tanks and the road

The villages around Khulo usually have no central sewerage, and water comes from a spring or a village water supply. So we design the septic tank and water supply on the plot: the septic tank goes below the house and away from the spring, and the pipes are protected from frost. How we build off-grid sewerage is described on our page about septic tanks.

A plot is often reached by a narrow serpentine road that a long lorry cannot pass. We bring materials in smaller vehicles and with a margin, and we order long beams and panels in lengths that can actually be delivered. The crew lives near the site, and that is also part of the estimate.

A short building season

Outdoor work in Khulo runs from late spring to autumn. In that time we aim to lay the foundation, raise the walls and close the roof, and interior finishing is often moved to the winter or the next season. We do not pour concrete in the cold, and we do not start exterior masonry or rendering if there is frost at night.

We design the roof for the snow at the plot's altitude and make it pitched, with a steep slope so the snow slides off. Above entrances and paths we fit snow guards so that snow does not fall from the roof onto people and cars.

Guesthouses and tourists

In summer tourists come to Khulo: for the cable car, the Skhalta monastery, the mountain trails and on to Goderdzi. Guesthouses open in the villages, where guests stay and eat with their hosts. We design such a house with a separate entrance for guests and rooms with their own bathrooms. How we build guesthouses is described on our page about guesthouses.

Building permits are issued by Khulo Municipality City Hall. Land in the villages is often not fully registered, so before buying we compare the Public Registry extract with what stands on the plot.