Rebuild of a 1924 redwood milled log cabin on stilts

[eddiescabin]

Hi, I'm Eddie, rebuilding a small cabin I purchased some years ago.  It was a total disaster, looking as if it was ready to "give up the ghost"!   This cabin was built in 1924 by a very wealthy family for use  by their guests in the summers.  There were less than 100 of these cabins built in a very narrow canyon located within their vast ranch. All cabins were built of the same milled redwood logs, they are approx 8 inches tall with tongue and groove edges, however, the cabins vary greatly in their design. Some have ridge beams (my neighbors) some do not (mine).  Some use long timbers, others only 4 foot sections.  All had beautiful douglas fir floors, all other wood was the Redwood, which is very tight grain, rich red color...not available in this quality today.

My cabin hangs off of a mountainside that has a 45 degree angle. The original cabin footprint was 24 feet by 20 feet.  Along the 24 foot wall, facing down the hill, and thus 20+ feet off the ground are six windows, 4 ft. wide and 3 ft. tall..they open by pulling from the bottom inwards, attaching to the rafters overhead, opening the top half or the entire wall. The cabin frame, which supports the cabin from below appears to have been built on 8 foot centers, using 4x4 timbers, some resting on stacked rocks taken from the creek below.

There are no studs/frame for the walls, the "logs" simply sit tongue and groove atop one another! It has hand hewn trusses that give a 15 degree pith to the roof. When I purchased the cabin it was leaning BAD downhill and the front wall (the one with the windows) leaned approx 4 to 5 inches out of plumb(the top was +/- 5 inches further out than the base! Additionally, the 4x4 frame on 8 foot centers was collapsing and the floor dropped dramatically in the front/far corner.  It had an addition on the back that was 8 feet wide and ran the 24 foot length of the cabin...it looked horrible, like someone glued a shoebox  onto the pretty redwood cabin.  Part of the reason  the front wall was so out of plumb was the original hearth made from the local stone that seemed to be slumping on to the top of the back wall.

The ugly addition contained a small 6x8 foot unusable (due to size)  room, a very large bathroom and a wash room...and that stone hearth enclosed in sheetrock (yuk!). Under the house was filled with debris that took many truckloads to dispose of. The cabin has a septic system, yet city water. Part of the purchase agreement was a $24000 contract to have the supporting frame underneath rehabed and secured with some "puddle pour" concrete piers. The floor did have some issues in the back, near the addition, but I was furious  to find that the contractor, as part of the rehab. had used a skil saw on the 80+ year old beautiful douglas fir floor! I fired him on the spot and got a $24000 refund which I threw directly at my new mortgage (I was 30, single and broke...but had a desire).  

I hired a buddy to build a temporary frame underneath to support the listing house so as it didn't fall down the hill! We used railroad ties to lie on the sloping ground under the cabin and basically any 2x4/ 2x6 we could get to create this ugly spiderweb of support!  I then with youthful bravado, demolished the rear addition and removed the stone hearth  singlehandedly,  I had to remove that leaning/pressure causing hearth.  Suffering for the next few years this included the toilet/shower. I bought a cheap portable auger and went to work designing and attemptinmg to dig holes for piers on which I envisioned placing a grade beam made of bolted 2x12 sandwich( a plan later abandoned).  I dug and dug but the going was rough with the rocky soil.  I should state that before purchase I hired a soil engineer for $200 who inspected the site and stated that the rock mountain the cabin was built on has not moved in the 80+ years it has stood there, and that there was no water encroaching under the cabin, and no cracks in the soil (we are in earthquake country California).

Finally I enlisted a friend who was a large building contractor, as in I trusted him, and I am NOT trained in home building!  He came with a crew of workers that dug treches longitudinally across the slope approx 2 feet wide, 18 to 24 inches deep and 25 feet long.  They built one on the lower slope 4 feet in from the front wall (the one with windows) and another at the back, uphill section, 14 to 16 feet back from the front wall.  9 yards of concrete was poured  and threaded anchors were placed , 1 course on the lower cement footing, 2 on the top. I mounted 2x6 inch pressure treated sill plates, 1 bottom, 2 at top.

Next a 4"x6"x 20 foot pressure treated frame was built under the existing floor joists in a very convoluted act that removed the supporting spider web and replaced it with the 4x6's resting flat on the 2 top mud sills, attached via simpson ties, extending straight out supported by 4x6 stilts mounted on the lower mud sill with simpson ht22 straps, these new 4x6 beams were now on 4 foot centers! . Using a water level, we raised the structure to level, it was  sagging 11 to 13 inches in that far corner! YIKES!  Now it was level and strongly supported!  

I still had the problem of the walls not being plumb, seeming like the rear of the roof trusses would need to somehow be pulled back to bring that front wall back to plumb.  Also, I had a comprimised floor which had areas of rot directly under the redwood logs, which were simply sitting on the 3/4 inch doug fir.  I had to somehow slide a new floor UNDER the redwood log walls, AND the material, as it was constructed, was exposed to the elements, thus modern plywood subfloor was not suitable.  This problem remained without resolve for a very long time.  FINALLY I discovered a guy that was selling 4x8- 1 inch thick sheets of HDPE plastic, the exact material those white plastic cutting boards are made from.  It WAS impervious to any type of rot, any type of termites/insects and was slippery as heck to slide under those walls. The downside is that it weighed about 150 lbs per sheet and we were placing it atop that frame we had constructed...I think subfloor plywood is about 81 lbs per sheet. HEAVY!

As we cut/removed that old doug fir floor (with great regret) the original 2"x6" (nominal) floor joists had twisted due to the sag of the cabin all those years, AND some tails on the weather facing ends were rotted and needed sisters to return to solid timbers.  We knocked the floor joists square and used heavy 4x6 pressure treated blocking between them to reinforce the joists.  We also used 2x6 pressure treated to block between the floor joists in a ladder type fashion , which provided ample area to secure the new plastic subfloor .  When the floor was completely in place and secured, the entire structure, built from below, came together and FELT extremely strong! The floor was only out of square 1 inch over the entire 24 foot span ( an acceptable amount given the oddly bent redwood logs).  All I kept telling myself was this old cabin stood for 80+ years on those 8 foot centers, and I replaced everything I could with stronger, almost overkill materials and construction techniques.  

Next, we created 2 temp walls  that supported the roof trusses about a foot and a half in from both the front and rear  walls.  Only now was it safe to remove that badly leaning rear original log wall that was hidden by the addition.  Using those big yellow ratchet tie down straps truckers use, we wrapped them around the front wall's 4x6" cap (that supported the roof trusses and sat above the redwood logs/windows), we also attached them to blocks attached to the rear end of the trusses.  Using the ratchets, we actually were able to pull those roof trusses and front wall back 4 to 5" and make the wall plumb! we ran 2x4's along the base of the front wall and attached it to the floor, redwood walls using long deck screws and simpson anle brackets...

Next we used very little force to plumb the side wall (the far wall) and attached it to the floor also.  We used 4x4's to frame the far wall's windows (two exist) and put a center ridge support, all on the inside of the redwood walls.  I want to obtain some wrought iron material, prehaps 1/2 diameter, with flattened ends bored with holes on each end, to bolt through the walls to the 4x4 supports, thus sandwiching the redwood logs between the steel and 4x4s, preventing any type of "blowout" of the logs tongue and groove joints, as there are literally no fasteners holding the logs to one another...just seems like they could bow out.

Im not sure if I have bored anyone with this explanation, or if anyone even cared.  I wonder if more of these cabins exist?  I also should say I am a vision impared person in poor health, so this is made a little more difficult by that. Im only 44 and have paid down the house to where it will be paid off in 3 years. I just know I wont be able to be gainfully employed (though I am educated) and better pay it off now. Sure back when I bought I could have over extended myself and got a finished home for more money..but also knew I had bad health and would never live to say I owned it outright...and I would someday lose that finished house.    Ill add more later. Thanks, Eddie

ED: inserted some paragrapgh breaks - MD

[Redoverfarm]

Eddie  .  Sounds as if you have had a wild ride with the renovation.  The only thing lacking is some pictures of the experience which I hope you documented to represent what had transpired. 

[glenn kangiser]

Interesting story, Eddie.    to the forum.

What part of CA are you in - I'm in central by Yosemite.

[GeorgiaShooter]

"A picture is worth a thousand words..."

[poppy]

  Eddie

Very interesting story, but would be perfect with pics.  We want pics.  Love to see the redwood.

And to now express one of my pet peeves: run on sentences.  The return key is your friend and short paragraphs are very easy to read for us old farts, and especially someone like yourself.

[Pritch]

Welcome, Eddie!  What a neat project.  I can't wait to see some pictures. 

[MountainDon]

That was a lot of work.  Not to sound like a skipping record, but yes, we would like to see pictures.


I took the liberty of inserting some paragraph breaks. Thay may or may not be in the best places, but it sure makes it easier to read, even when I blow up the font size.

[eddiescabin]

Thanks for all the kind words.  I WILL definately get a buddy to take some pics for me to post. (Remember, I'm visually impared, so pics have not made the short list until now! ha ha)  I'm at 1200 feet and in December 2009, we got the first snow since 1974!  6" and it stuck around until the following day.  It gets cold (for Cali) upper 20's in winter.  Next phase is install a power pole and have a 6 inch, 10 foot x 24 foot slab poured in back that will house a 12 x 12 breakfast room/ extra bedroom, a stairway and 8 x 12 bathroom which encloses a washer/dryer and tankless water heater.  This plan will keep plumbing simple with the water supply leading to the water heater in a iron grate covered trench within the poured slab floor. The supplies for washer/utility sink and the supplies for tub, basin and toilet all originating in the same water heater closet and ending on opposite sides of the same wall.  Upstairs will be a 12x24 master suite with bath and wet bar. The rear of the master (facing uphill/east) will be almost entirely glass opening to a deck mounted close to the ground (since it is such a steep upslope) pics to come!
the ground floor already has a 24 x 30 deck I recently refinished with Superdeck ...which is an oil based product that the weathered wood absorbed and loved!!!  On the ground floor, the wall facing the deck will have 2- french double doors blending the inside outside transition  seamlessly. When the back temp wall is gone I will finish the plastic/slab floor with 2x6's to match the deck.

[eddiescabin]

A little more detail on my 1924 redwood milled log cabin.  As described earlier, I have a 2 parallel concrete strips, approx 24"w X 24" tall running the width of the cabin, 25feet...one laid higher up the hill, one approx 12 feet lower on the hill,  2 mud sills mounted parralel  on each concrete footing.  Using 7  PT 4x6x20' beams mounted 4feet apart resting directly on the upper mud sills and being mounted on 4x6 columns/simpson brackets The columns are approx 5 ft tall.  On top of these 7 PT beams are 2x6 floor joists, fully blocked at ends with 4x6 to prevent "roll" and then fully braced/blocked using pt 2x6 on the inside/ field.  On top of that is the HDPE plastic 1" 4x8 sheets used as subfloor.  I mention this as I see many builds that are similar size that have a perimiter post/beam type foundation but the span the open area with just 2x6 or 2x8 floor joists.  With my floor joists 24 ft. long that may have been too much span, but with them supported by the 4x6 pt beams, it really seems like I overkilled it.  I did not engineer for loads as I easily made it 10 times stronger than the 4x4 on 8 ft centers that the cabin existed on for 80+ years! I really felt the structure come together after the HDPE was laid and fastened along every joist and blocking in the field. Super grip deck screws were used to fasten the subfloor. 

[eddiescabin]

Finally got some pics!




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