16x12 Cabin in Maine

Started by Bishopknight, May 18, 2008, 10:28:07 PM

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Bishopknight

I bought 10 acres last month. This is a little cabin I started building 2 weeks ago. I've made lots of mistakes so far. Rob Roy says you have to build 3 houses before you get it right. I can safely agree so far :)

Johns Raabe's Little House Plans kit can make something similar to this house.

Its just an on grade gravel/block foundation for now. It drains well as its on a slight sloping area.

Next week, I will finish sheathing and hopefully start the roof.








ScottA

Looking good.  :) Are you going to put siding on the outside? Need more pics.


Bishopknight

Thanks Scott,

Yup cedar shingling. Similar to what you did, I'm building a smaller house first :)

glenn kangiser

Don't forget about fire danger and insurance req's with shingles.  My mom said my sisters neighbors had to have the roof torn off as bringing up to code to replace cedar shingles with comp or something.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

ScottA

Doh, I didn't notice the subfolders at the pic link. Good job.


mvk


MaineRhino

Looks great Sean!  We got all of our windows at the same place, it's actually called  Sit n' Bull !   :)

Bishopknight

#7
We got the roof on this weekend.










Sassy

Wow, you guys are moving along really fast!   Gorgeous area, wonderful work you're doing  :)
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free


Bishopknight

#9
Thanks Troy, Glenn, Sassy and Scott :)

We've made some good progress lately ( and bad ). I knocked out the power last weekend for 2 hrs cutting down a tree near the entrance and broke my JD Backhoe this past weekend. But other than that, every weekends been a success because I've come back injury free! Anyways, on to the pics!

Almost finished shingling










The biggest pain so far has been the mud and dirt not drying up enough to build the 300 ft road into the camp.

glenn kangiser

The place is looking great.

Don't feel bad about breaking things -- MY JD Backhoe is still down the hill waiting for me to put new filters on it and prime it.  I tapped on a filter to see if I could get it to drain the crap out not realizing it was glass because it was covered with dirt.  d* d*
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

Redoverfarm

Looking good.  Can you convience her to mud and finish as well. 

I you use stuff S*&* happens and things break. Took a little time off to mow. Well didn't happen as the regulator went out of the riding mower.  At $52 an hour LR at JohnDeer they figured it out after $330 worth and a day lost from working. Sad thing is the part was $60.

Bishopknight

Little update here.

I hooked up my 3 solar panels last week. The other day I was getting 15 amps through my charge controller with the sun out. Each panel is rated for up to 7.8 amps , but 15 for all 3 is good. When its cloudy, I get about 2-5 amps.






John Raabe

Sweet cabin and nice little solar setup.  ::)

I'll be interested in following your progress with both.
None of us are as smart as all of us.


TheWire

Can you give us more info about the PV panels and charge controller at your cabin? 

Also,  I looks like you have your inverter cables attached to one end of your parallel battery bank.  Connecting one of the inverter leads to the same set of cables, but at the other end of the battery bank, will help even the discharge across the battery bank.  Otherwise, the battery closest to the inverter will discharge slightly faster than the others and over time that battery will wear out sooner. 

Great little cabin BTW.

Sassy

Really like your cabin - love the siding!  Very nice job   8)
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

georgevacabin

Hey BK,

Great job!!  Very nice. 

Yes, please post specifics on the solar system if possible.  Looking at possibly doing the same.  ;D  Thanks!

My best,

George

Bishopknight

#17
Thanks everyone :)

Sure thing. First of all, I'm value oriented and budget conscious, so that affected my purchase decisions. All items are quality pieces.

I'm running 3 , Kyocera KC-130 TM solar panels mounted to a Iron Ridge TP 04 mounting kit. I'm using a 12-3 rated 50 ft extension cord to make the connection to the charge controller.

The charge controller is a Morningstar Tristar TS-45. The 45 in that name stands for the max amperage allowable. My 3 panels at max would use 22.5 amps, allowing for 3 more in the future, but I would have no problem adding 5 more because of the lower than received amperage that I get from the panels. I also have a Morningstar remote monitor adapter for the TS-45 which displays lots of cool information, like the current amount of amps generated.

The Charge controller feeds 3, AGM ( Absorbant Glass Mat ) batteries with 88 AH ( amp hrs ) each. AGP batteries are durable, can be drained down extremely low without fear of abuse and are frequently used in UPS battery backups and jet fighters. They also don't gas like Lead acid.

The batteries feed a 1500 Watt Pure sine wave AC inverter , all via 4 guage car battery wires bought from autozone. The 12-3 plug feeds the 45 amp main power panel above ( not seen ) which drives my lights and electronics.

Thanks Wire, I planned on doing that but have been slow in getting to it, mainly because I need to buy longer guage wires to stretch that far. The same with the feed from the charge controller, so it charges at uniform rates to all batteries.

The whole setup will power most everything a cabin / small house needs ( not high demand though like fridge, AC, heaters )

Anyways, on to more pictures.




muldoon

Very neat little project, moving along very quickly too. 

I have a few questions if you have the time. 

The siding shingles, did you treat them or stain them?  Do you plan to seal them, if so with what? 

Also on the wall detail, just to be sure I understand your approach, its 2x4 lumber framing, 4x8 sheets of OSB, 15# tar paper, then cedar shingles?  Is that correct?  What fasteners did you use for the shingles? 

Last question, you said you used gravel on grade foundation with some concrete blocks.  With a location in Maine do you worry about ground heave? 


Bishopknight

Hey Muldoon,

My responses are in red:

The siding shingles, did you treat them or stain them?  Do you plan to seal them, if so with what?
Neither yet, I plan to treat them with Cabot cedar stain and paint the doors, window and trim a dark green color with high quality exterior paint I bought.

Also on the wall detail, just to be sure I understand your approach, its 2x4 lumber framing, 4x8 sheets of OSB, 15# tar paper, then cedar shingles?  Is that correct?  What fasteners did you use for the shingles?
Yes, thats correct. I used galvanized 1 1/4" brads with a ryobi One brad nailer.

Last question, you said you used gravel on grade foundation with some concrete blocks.  With a location in Maine do you worry about ground heave?
I do worry a little about it but its on a sloping hill with good drainage. I also wanted the ability to move the entire house in the future and have less footprint on the land.


TheWire

I want to caution you on your cables supplying your inverter.  4 gauge copper is good for about 70 to 95 amps depending on the insulation.  Your 1500 watt output inverter could draw 160 amps (1500 watts/11 volts/0.85 eff).  Possibly more if it has surge capacity.  You can limit your AC usage, but if you don't have a fuse or breaker sized for 4ga cable on the DC side, a bigger AC load or inverter fault could majorly overload your DC wiring and possibly start a fire. 

I just got done wiring my 2000 watt Prosine inverter and I have it hooked up with 4/0 cables and a 250A DC breaker.  I used high flex marine grade DC cables and still had a time wrestling the close to 1" diameter cables around.  I want to use some 12V for pumps and LED lights, other wise I could have went with a higher DC voltage to reduce the size of the cables.  I got a new AirPax/Xantrex 250A breaker for $35 on Ebay and think I got a good deal for the custom marine grade 4/0 cables to connect 4 GC2 batteries through a breaker to the inverter for $140.

Jerry


MountainDon

You can get pretty good deals on high amp DC rated breakers at  www.solarseller.com
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

Bishopknight

Thanks Jerry and Don!

I'll look into it this weekend.

- Sean

MountainDon

A note regarding the super flex large diameter cables. Not all connecting lugs are approved for this finely stranded type of cable. I'm not sure of any real difference between the UL approved and the non-approved. It likely doesn't make any difference unless the installation is going to be inspected.

On the same subject battery cables are not UL approved and will cause a red tag inspection, if applicable. Ditto welding cable unless it carries the correct UL approval.The inspector does look for this.

And since I'm picking at "problem areas" that will fail an inspected DC installation... red is not an approved color for + cables/wires, black is not approved as a negative line. Black is approved for positive while white is the norm for the negative or neutral line. Red would be okay as a third wire. These are the same rules as applied to AC circuits.

Note this is aimed at those who will face inspection or those who want to go by the book. I doubt that any problems will arise from using battery cables, unless they are undersized for the loads imposed. However, I have seen photos of failed fine strand wire connections when used with standard crimp connectors.  ???  But then I have used copper pipe or tubing crushed in a press with no failures to date.   ;D

UL is required for residential or commercial buildings. A marine or other high quality cable may actually be able to meet UL testing; but it may not have been submitted for testing. The manufacturer has to pay for the testing.

One last thing and I promise I'll go. You may have seen electrical components such as circuit breakers that are marked as Underwriter Registered (It's a U with a backwards R symbol). These are not the same as UL approval. UR components can be approved when submitted as a part of a unit submitted for testing. That is, XYZ Inverters may use a UR breaker in a package they manufacture, but you or I are not supposed to incorporate that same UR device in something we put together ourselves. Once again, only a concern if inspections are required (and if the inspector is eagle-eyed).
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

glenn kangiser

...and anal retentive.   

While you are right, Don, this just illustrates the ridiculousness of the laws, rules, regulations made to be sure you buy from corporations who have paid the ridiculous fees posed by the good ol boy system and its method of making sure you buy from the corporations who grease the palms of the tax agencies, testing agencies, inspection departments  etc.

I was always taught at the truck repair shop that a good soldered connection cant be beat, but have heard some who say crimped is better. 

I also know that the crushed or hammer flattened cooper over the wire and drilled works great.  Yup - no approval for the money grubbing idiots.

If anyone thinks I am too hard on them, I know of two recently inspected, passed and burned down houses -one was electrical for sure.  Funny -- the county doesn't seem to be making good on their inspection guarantee - neither do Underighters, UL, UBC, Fire Code or anyone else associated with the Good Ol Boy (GOB) profit, revenue and taxation system.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.