1 & 1/2 story, U.P. Michigan

[scottz]

Hi Everyone.  My name is Scott and here is pics of my camp and progress.  This is just outside Iron Mountain in a city called Hardwood.  I have started a thread a couple years back when I was originally going to start the build, but my brother/partner in the project had some major medical issues which changed everything rather drastically.  So I'm doing the build on my own and trying to recruit friends to help along the way.  I am not a builder.  Most everything I have learned was from lurking this site and from friends/local Uppers.  So if you see anything wrong, PLEASE let me know.  I'm honestly kinda nervouse posting the pics here... like going to the doctor when you know there is something wrong.  Hopefully, you give me a thumbs up so far.  So here goes

Camp is on the Sturgeon River. Here is some frontage


Walk up river a little to this resivoir:



Damns off and then leads to camp... about a ten minute walk:



Fishing is pretty good here and I have pics to prove!


Started out by building a tool shed in the wooded area of camp... the cabin will be in an open field area


Next, we dug a hole, BY HAND, for the soil evaluation.  I figured I would save a couple hundred bucks in backhoe rental and what a mistake.  Lots of football size rocks!  Hold took almost a day.  Wasted time and broken back


I contracted out the excavation, piers, and septic. Here are some photos:

[scottz]

Now I get to start working  Starting with the posts


Now the beams:



Floor joist:


Well guys showed up, here are the photos of them digging the well and the water line.  Turns out that they got to a good quantity of clean water rather quick which saved me $2500 from the estimate.  I love when a contractor comes in under the bid!!!  Im getting 20 gallons a minute which I think is good?  Should definitely be good for my purposes as it will not be my primary:

[scottz]

I decided to do the deck next thinking it would help with the roof install:





Insulation, vapor barrier, and ply goes down.  I also ran the pumbing from the kitchen to the septic before the insulation went in as this was a decent run. Septic comes in right under the bathroom.  With my timeline of having to get the roof on before snowfall, I figured I would cut out the floor after I have the place sealed up to install the bathroom and utility room plumbing:




Wall start going up.  I did this in 8'-10' segments as I was by myslef.  Just about broke my back, again


Exterior wall coming along.

[ListerD]

Looks great! Contractors coming under bid is a luck we should all have!

[scottz]

The walls are up.  This is a great room view

Here is view from the kitchen looking North

Here is where the bedroom will eventually be.  View from bed waking up in the morning is also to the North... I cant wait to actualize this!!! Now, I sleep either in a tent, in the truck, or on the subfloor under a tarp.  sleeping under the stars is pretty awesome, so not complaining too much... but I have been alone for half of the build thus far, so its a little nerveracking sometimes with the animals around.


So those are the pics so far.  I go back up immediately after work on Oct 3.  After twisting arms, I have 7 friends and family to help get the roof on next trip.  On the agenda:  Finish the interior wall that supports the loft.  Install loft.  Build temp scafold in the great room.  Install remaining windows, doors.  Sheath the exterior.  Roof truss.  And hopefully shingle.  So much to do and I hope I get a lot done with the decent size crew this time.  I figure I have one more trip to after next week to finalize everything before the snow comes. 

If you see anything wrong/alarming, please let me know.  Again, I am not a builder... hopefully, I did my homework thoroughly???

[upa]

Looks great, knowing that there are many ways to do the same thing and not being an expert but I might have waited to install the windows until after all my walls and sheathing were up as you might experience some lateral wall racking and have your window framing pop out of plump and/or square, just my two bits for whatever it's worth. Again it looks really good  

[MountainDon]

  scottz.

How much land do you have?


I have a question or comment about your walls. You have installed the windows already. It is more inline with common building practices to install the exterior sheathing first. The OSB or plywood is nailed over the exterior, over the window framing and all. The windows are then cut out with a reciprocating saw or something. You can leave them uncut for a while even, as you get the roof done.


If you can safely remove the windows I'd do that.

The offset of the nailing flanges is usually set for installing the windows over the sheathing as well. With the window flanges under the sheathing you may have issues with the final exterior wall covering being thicker than the amount the windows extend outwards. (Hope that's understandable.) My bigger concern is with sealing/flashing the windows... keeping the water out reliably. With the ext. sheathing over the window flanges you will have issues with properly flashing the windows.


The normal sequence would be something like this:  wall framing - exterior sheathing - cut out window openings - apply weather resistant barrier - install windows with flashing. This order allows the best, longest lasting waterproofing of the window (and door) openings.

[upa]

Forgot to ask, what are your floor plan dimensions?

[scottz]

Just a couple questions.. thanks in advance for any input.  Oh, please excuse my poor termonolgy.  I'll try to explain my predicaments as best as possible.  

When I install the loft, the plans call for a horizontal 2 x 6 ledger to be installed on the perimeter walls and to be notched in to the wall studs... on which the joist will rest.  I ordered 2x12's for the joist so they will cross each other by 2 feet in the center and be supported by the center interior wall.... then supported by the 2 x 6 ledger on the exterior walls.  I was looking at the areas immediately above the window headers where the ledger will be placed.  And I think I may have done the headers wrong?  I used two, 2x10s for headers and both of them are situated at the furthest exterior point of the wall studs, leaving a 2.5" gap on the inner part of the wall stud.  Seeing as the loft joist ledger will be less than a foot above the headers, I think I have to add another header toward the inner part of the wall studs.  Did I jsut butcher this question or what???  here is a picture to help describe.

Second question and more complicated (arrgh).  After talking with the locals, they advised that I minimally need to extend my roof over the deck on the North side of the cabin.  They said that in some cases, the snow and freezing snow build up will fall off the roof at once and can wipe out a deck!  Originally, I did not plan for this.  They said it is mostly a concern on the North side of the cabin as it does not get too much sun.  So, I will go forward with extending the roof on the North side.  On the Nroth side, my deck piers are situated at 8' increments.  I plan to add roof posts every 8' (directly above the deck piers), a rafter beam and 2x10" rafters @ 16" centers.  I think I may continue this extened roof over all of the deck just to be safe.  But on the east side of the house, the piers are configured a little different.  They are approx 9.5' apart.  The piers are strong with footers and dug nearly 4' deep.  If I bulk up the deck beam to 3, 2x10's,, do you think this will be sufficient enough to support roof posts, roof beam, 2x10x6.5' rafters at 16" centers, and snow build up?  Unlike the North and South side of the home, I will not be able to put the roof extension posts directly above the deck piers... on this east side, the roof extension posts will need to be supported by the deck beam.  

Thanks again in advance and please let me know if I need to re-word the questions.
Scott

[scottz]

Hey, thanks everyone for the quick input!  I will be back to answer some of the questions.  Regarding the windows, I can definitely take them out before sheathing... Thanks for that advice!  I'll be back shortly to reply more.
Scott

[MountainDon]

When I install the loft, the plans call for a horizontal 2 x 6 ledger to be installed on the perimeter walls and to be notched in to the wall studs... on which the joist will rest.  

Scott, you have made a heap of extra work for yourself.    The notches for the ledgers are best cut into the studs before the studs are in a wall. Here's how it can be done....
http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=1418.0


Headers normally have a sandwich of foam insulation between the outside and the inside 2x material. Or plywood, or OSB in between. Or in the case of small openings there are times that a single 2x header is suitable. In that case a 2x, the same depth as the wall stud should be placed flat on top of the single header as well as under the header. The one on top bears and spreads out the weight of the wall stud above. The one below makes finishing the walls easier and more solid. Think ahead to the finishing stages where you will need something to nail the interior wall material and trim to.

[MountainDon]

Another question for you. What is your snow load? I'm asking because I'm looking at the large door openings. I believe the headers may be undersized, depending on the snow load, the building width and the actual size of the header span, and whether or not the wall is a load bearing wall.

If the snow load and upper floor load is high enough, I believe you may also need double jack studs to hold up the weight that the wide header will transfer downwards.


I'm not an expert and not knowing the dimensions, loads, etc I'm just speculating.

[scottz]

Arrgghh, I understand the header situation.  I will have to redo   I even went to the extent of redrawing all the plans on a 2D program just so I would minimize the mistakes, but I obviously missed this. 

Regarding the patio door headers, the owner of the lumber yard I am ordering from helps me quite a bit with structural.  He seems like a pretty knowlegable guy and gives me a lot of attention anwering questions.  We went over this and he gave the ok on the patio door framing.   Now you got me wondering.

And since my expereince is not quite to par, I even had the inspector stop by to walk around last week.  He did a quick walk around and did not say anything which is kind of upsetting. 

Oh, the dimensions are 20' x 40'. 

Thanks guys for your input!!!  I REALLY appreciate it! 
Scott

[MountainDon]

Second question and more complicated (arrgh).  After talking with the locals, they advised that I minimally need to extend my roof over the deck on the North side of the cabin.  They said that in some cases, the snow and freezing snow build up will fall off the roof at once and can wipe out a deck!  

My number one concern would not be the safety of the deck, but rather the safety of myself and anyone else who may be around. Snow sliding off a roof does not give much warning. Only those with finely tuned hearing and lightning reflexes stand a chance of taking successful evasive action. I've seen the snow slide off my cabin roof and there was virtually no warning.

As for whether or not what you propose is strong enough, there's no way to tell with the information supplied. I can't even tell what direction is north, how the roof is configured and so on. We would need a lot more info, pictures, drawings, details before venturing into that corner.

[scottz]

I put together a sketch of the new idea for extending the roof over the deck on the North side of the home.  My intial thought on this arrangement is that the load of the extended roof and snow will be transfered to the beam and the concrete piers.  do you see any issues with this arrangement assuming I have a triple 2x12 rafter beam.  Thanks
Scott

[MountainDon]

Regarding the patio door headers,

The chart I have indicates that for a single floor building with a snow load of 50 psf, a 20 ft wide building, two 2x10 for the header will span up to 7'3" using any of the common #2 lumber. However, it shows that 2 jack studs per end are required.

Adding the weight of a second floor with center supported joists changes that to a max span of 6'4", with 2 jack studs per header end. If you have a loft that falls someplace in between, MTL.

You can read a copy of the IRC2003, which has the charts, here... follow the link in the first post...
http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=2590.0

There are also snow load charts in the IRC, although a more reliable source should be the local building permit department.


As for the inspector.... some are more conscientious than others. Some are real nit pickers. Some will freely give good and correct advice. Some will freely give bad advice. Some don't know their --- from a hole in the ground. And their "pass" does not come with any guarantees.



There's also another link someplace here to later versions, but the charts don't usually change rom version to version.

[MountainDon]

I put together a sketch of the new idea for extending the roof over the deck on the North side of the home.

What kind of roofing material? Metal will have a lot of the snow on the main roof sliding down to pile up on that shed roof over the porch. You must determine your snow load. Even with a shingle roof there will be some build up on the shed roof unless the wind scours it away or unless it melts.

The transition from the steeper pitch to the lower pitch may be vulnerable to water backing up under the roofing. Be sure to use a good water and ice barrier there and at the eves on the other main pitch.


And sort of related to this... How are you planning on insulating the main roof (over the loft)? Do not skimp on the R-value there. You want to keep the heat inside the building in the winter. Heat leaking out through poorly insulated roofs/ceilings leads to ice damming problems at eves and transitions.


As for whether or not you plan is sufficiently robust, I can not pass judgment on that.

[scottz]

This helps so much Don!  Thanks.  I think I should start asking questions here vs locals. 
Thanks again on the headers info.  I will research the links you gave and make adjustments. 

Scott

[scottz]

I will shingle.  And as far as the insulation, I do plan to insulate as if I were going to occupy during winters, but the cabin will be closed when the snow starts falling.

Thanks
Scott

[miman]

if your in the u.p. you got to keep it open in the winter. thats why god gave us snowmobiles. your place is looking good. i have been building my place for three years, and just got my well in this summer.  get the roof on quick, your in a race with the weather now.  do you live down state, how far is your cabin from your home.