Our 2 acres with plans to build

[puglife122711]

Long time reader first time posting. My wife and I purchased 2 acres about 45 minutes north of Houston . It needs a lot of work but were slowly getting it together.

[dablack]

We need pictures and what your plans are?  Is it just you and your wife?  Is this going to be a weekend place?  How big?  Near a lake?  We are interested.  What have you done so far?  Do you have before and after pics of what you have done to the land? 

I lived in Houston for 10 years.  Now we are almost 3 hours north in Rusk. 

[puglife122711]

im slowly figuring out the photobucket thing will post pics as the upload. will be just me and the wife, the property has a decent size pond and we will eventually be living here full time. we can only do what we can on the weekends. it had a house the burnt down and needs a lot of cleaning. so far we have cut down a lot of small trees and cleared most of the brush, last weekend we got the front property fenced in.

[puglife122711]

the start of the fencing, we used railroad ties for the corner braces and along each side of the driveway. not the easiest or most fun job getting them in place.









let me know if I need to figure out how to resize the pictures.

[puglife122711]

when we first bought the place it had been vacant for a while, grass and brush was a good 5 feet tall, a few piles of trash and lots of cleaning. it has a well, but somoeone scrapped the pump and its components.


before

after

[UK4X4]

last time I saw a pond like that it was in Houston, george bush park........absolutely full of 7-8" long baby snakes,

there was my stupid dog having a drink when I noticed them and swiftly removed both of us from the area, some sort of viper but was'nt waiting arround to meet mum or dad  !.

I think cleaning up a property is very rewarding as the changes made are quick and visable, I guess a few dump runs were made to get rid of that trash pile

[puglife122711]

Haven't seen too many snakes around the pond, but there are lots of bullfrogs some of them about eating size.

The plans are to build something on pier and beam, thinking 32x48 at the biggest. I've read a lot and heard the discussions on pier and beam debates. Plan on using 6x6 pt posts and tripled 2x12's for the beams.

What are the pros and con's of using sonotubes with the bracket on top rather than just dropping a post in the hole and concrete around it?

What is the longest length I can make a triple 2x12 laminated beam?

[rick91351]

There are a couple things come to mind on post pier brackets or embedded.  Number one after time if a post should fail you can crawl underneath and remove the old and place a new with some blocking and a little jacking.  That is if you have a bracket to work with.  Embeded not that easy.  Neither are easy by the way.....  We have a good friend that owns a lumber yard he made a nice deck and used pressure treat 4XS.   All under the deck failed within a few years.  All rotted from the inside out.  Those on the perimeter have remained in good repair.     His wholesaler is wondering as well.   Pole buildings like shops and barns if they rot off you just dig another hole beside it.  Drop another post beside can be fairly short and lag it off to the original with tread all or long bolts.  Going under your house and doing such is a real pain. 

You could go across the whole USA with a triple 2X12 laminated beam.  It is the support under it that you need to worry about. There are span charts and such available on the net.     

[puglife122711]

That makes sense about being able to change it out later on down the road if needed. I just hate messing with concrete, but I think it'll be better in the long term.

[Don_P]

whatever way you go, there needs to be a footing UNDER the post. Dropping a post in a hole and concreting around it allows the post to slide down through the concrete sleeve and settle. Typically something like a 2'x2'x8" thick footing with 2 pcs of 1/2" rebar each way with post secured to the center of that footing is specced on the plans I see, for things like decks and porches. Running concrete up to grade and setting a post on top of it does create another hinge point in the support.

[GSPDOG]

Nice job on the fencing btw it is often over looked but I did similar along the front specifically.  It makes a very quick statement that the place is occupied.

As for the Post solution I went back and forth about this for sometime reading various opinions here and elsewhere.  The end result for me.  I went with a poured slab foundation with footers.  I went with post 6x6 on the porches and they do support some of the roof weight but a majority is displaced on the slab.  Other than the technical reasons for that solution it was cheaper in my area to go this route and less likely to get vermin and reptiles specifically Copperheads in this part of the country under the house.  The other issue talking with locals was leaves and trash getting under the house and potential for fire during the fall from leaves blowing in under the house.

[puglife122711]

I finally got ahold of someone at the permit building. They said here in Montgomery county there are no building codes I have to worry about,but any enclosed structure will need a building permit regardless of size. And before we can get a building permit we have to have the well and septic system inspected and signed off on. They gave me a list of 5 inspectors and they are the only ones we can use. I just hope they don't fail the septic and make us use an aerobic system.

[puglife122711]

what is the best way to align the piers, keepin them all in a straight line, and making sure the first on the row is the same as the last one?
#    if I have nothing to measure from how do I know they will be straight (#) example on the left..i can use strings to get them in a row, but it could be at an angle.
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[MushCreek]

Correct- you use a string to get them lined up in a row. Then, you want to square up a side in relation to the first row. Use the 3-4-5 triangle to do that. Measure 3 feet, or three yards, or any number divisible by three on one leg, the same unit times 4 on the second leg, and the hypotenuse (diagonal line) must be exactly 5 units. Now you have two walls square to each other, and just measure the post spacing from them. I usually set up 4 corner stakes and get the dimensions right, and get them squared up before placing any posts or footings. That way, you can study the orientation for how it fits the land, taking into account view, sunlight, energy efficiency, topography, and whether or not the wife likes it. It's a lot easier to move stakes and strings than a whole house!

[puglife122711]

finally got around to tearing down the old shed last weekend. the floor was rotting out of it and it had seen its better days.

[puglife122711]

I plan on building a 32x48 house. it will be built on pier and beam. will be using 6x6 posts approved for ground contact. for the 48' length I plan on using 9 posts, 6 feet apart on center .I will have 5 rows 8 feet apart to make the 32'. my question is will tripled 2x12's at 12' intervals be enough support? in Texas, so no snow load. planning on using trusses for the roof, so I wont need a wall down the middle of the house correct? my other question is for the floor joists could I make them in two sections each spanning 16' if so what size joists should I use?

[puglife122711]

Been awhile since I last posted but things have been moving forward, slow but forward.finally have electricity and water. Two big steps out of the way.


You don't realize how out of shape you are until you are digging a 130 foot trench with a pick Axe.

URL=https://s1375.photobucket.com/user/puglife122711/media/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1423527611072_zps58bf40e0.jpg.html]
Got the well house finished up
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[Bevis]

Place is looking better.  I'll second that being out of shape comment.  I dug a trench to my dog pen 140' with a shovel 24".  Took most of a day.