Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[Windpower]

speaking of fires....


Here north of Chicago there was major haze today --- I thought it was just normal summertime haze albeit down to about 5 miles of visibilty -- marginal VFR

but when I got out of the car I could smell the smoke

Apparently the fires in the boundary waters in northern Minnesota is drifting down here 470 miles


dry summer

[Ernest T. Bass]

Yeah, it's been really smoky and hazy here in the U.P. as well. We even had ash falling from the sky a couple nights ago...

[glenn kangiser]

There are fires burning places I did not even know would burn... Texas for example... all I remember there is sand - gravel and sage brush, but I may have drove through the forest at night. 

[Gary O]

There are fires burning places I did not even know would burn... Texas for example... all I remember there is sand - gravel and sage brush, but I may have drove through the forest at night. 

Yeah, Texas has a lot of dry territory with little vegetation, but places like Corpus Christi, of which I fell in love with back in the sixties, being quite the tropical coastal haven, hasn't had rain in many months. Quite unusual for that area.
A few months ago, an acquaintance told me how horribly dry it now is there.
Nature doing it's thing, with a little help from us.

[glenn kangiser]

With what we see in the skies around here, Gary, I tend to think it is quite a bit of help from us. 

[glenn kangiser]

So, ran around doing local things getting ready for my stint in prison next week...

Got by my buddy, J's U-house project yesterday.  His is a bit of a hybrid like mine having the front area pop out as a log cabin that will have a low earth covered roof in the front area.  I think I may get to work on it tomorrow some with them if I can make time.

Here is a shot of current progress to get us started and I will get more in here later with more info.



Note the gin pole on the ground that he has used to place some of the beams with a block and tackle.  Maybe I can take my crane tomorrow to speed things up a bit if I can get it close enough to the site.

[ben2go]

That looks just like a large log cabin being set up in the ground.Impressive.

[glenn kangiser]

The part sticking out looks very much like a log cabin... and.. I guess it is a log cabin..... hmm

[Ernest T. Bass]

Looks pretty awesome... I'm excited for more pics!

[glenn kangiser]

Ask and you shall receive, Andrew?...



A shot looking down into the bedroom.  Note the concrete pad under the end of the post -it has a plastic vapor barrier under it.





An inside pix of the front log walls.






Here is a look at the French drain at the bottom outside the walls  the pond liner directs water to it.  EPDM is tough and stretchy.

[Ernest T. Bass]

That classic log look will never go out of style.. How deep are the footers under the retaining-wall posts? They look like shallow concrete pads, and I was wondering what braces the bottom of the wall against the weight of the earth?

[glenn kangiser]

The pads under the posts are only a couple of inches, Andrew, but under them is a pier that goes well into the undisturbed porphyry claystone we have here.  If you saw the earlier pictures you would have seen a rather loose non supportive top soil that we did not trust to bear the concentrated weight from this type of construction.

I instructed J to go through the soft loose clay soil and down to a good solid footing.  He went from about a minimum of 18" where it was rock hard to about 4 feet or better where it was deep to the good claystone at the front.  In the center of that is a 3/4 rebar pin that protrudes up about 8 inches into the bottom of the post. 

The piers then resist the forces of the bottom of the posts.  Bracing is still necessary on walls that are not supported by earth opposite sides that have earth backfill.

[Ernest T. Bass]

So the pads are basically just concrete shims?

[glenn kangiser]

Exactly.  they do two things - they make the pad conform to the base of the post for full support - we use stiff concrete for the pad, and they allow a vapor barrier to be added under the post before the finished floor grade is done stopping moisture from coming up through the concrete and int the base of the untreated post.  The also elevate the post a bit more above the soil.

With a wire or rebar ring in the pad they could be used to key the post additionally to the pin rather than just relying on the fiber stress strength  of the wood against rebar pin.  I have not seen that to be a problem though as there is also the friction of the loaded wood post base against the concrete which also resists movement.

[glenn kangiser]

Here is a pix looking through the roof.



J used a double sided EPDM seam tape that is applied after a primer is put on the EPDM to soften it and make it like contact cement, to join the EPDM sections for a totally waterproof membrane.





The seam is so strong it is nearly impossible to separate.

[ben2go]

I am looking on with intense interest.

I thought the idea of the outer wall posts and timbers were to resist the earth trying to push them in.In my mind the stacked logs would roll out of place with enough exterior pressure from the earth.I know there's something more to this that I am not seeing or understanding.I also thought the roof needed to be sloped like a shed roof instead of A framed like a stick built house.Seems like to me that this would cause soil erosion over the roof.

[glenn kangiser]

The posts in the underground area do resist the earth pressure as well as earthquake forces, Ben. 

The log house portion of this cabin has little diagonal bracing in the center of the long wall though the side walls are securely fastened to the ground and to each other through bolts to the footing he put in at the edges and rebars driven from log to log.  This will give him good bracing at the sides and we are considering that the diaphragm bracing of the roof will be worth quite a bit toward preventing movement in the center of the house back wall.  The stacked log wall in the center by the bedroom will give some resistance also. but I am having him consider getting more diagonal bracing in the center also.

Erosion is much less than you would think with the clay soils we have and once the grass or garden is growing, erosion is nil.  This is actually a double shed roof with a lower section on the other side giving room for clerestory windows near the middle of the house.  I suggested he may want to get more loft area - free space while he is doing it.  In the "A" framed situation, water goes down each side the runs down toward the front from there and then away. 

Water still drains down on the soil as Mike recommends.  I am not sure what all he will do with the water from the low sloped front roof.  I understand it will drain toward the south side but not sure how much popout he has on that side.

[glenn kangiser]

Just a note here that J traded work with another sawmill owner - a logger- so that he could make his own lumber and saw the sides of his logs flat to stack as you see them.  He will have to do some chinking later but thinking about it, the logs will all shrink together so it may not make much gap anyway.  Where he will notice it will be where he has the logs spiked to the door and window frames.



This is not really a big deal when you have a structure you can live in for a very low price, that is ready in a pretty short period of time.  The log availability and work on this one took extra time.  In a normal Oehler design house you could be living in it within weeks.

Here is a pix of the uphill patio side showing the liner and French drain area at the bottom.  He will have one or two terraces on the uphill side to remove uphill water before it gets to the cabin.



He may expand with an upper level here later also.  Lots of possibilities when you are not limited by plans.  [ouch]

[ben2go]

Thanks for the detailed explanation.My pea brain is starting to grasp the concept in his design.

[glenn kangiser]

No problem, Ben.  Feel free to ask any time you need to.

We met the new neighbors this afternoon.  Couldn't have gotten better neighbors if we had ordered them.  Old time local family who likes the place the same way we like it.

Looks like we will get together and fence along the front of their place and join it with ours.  They have a horse and want to run a few head of cattle here too, so  we will all be protected from fire danger as well as have quite a bit of land for the cows to run on.  That would give us about 50 acres fenced on that side of the mountain.

They feel we may be reduced to barter if the economy keeps going like it is too so with our similar outlooks we should get along just fine.  He has been a cowboy and knows how to pull a calf if need be.  

They are also talking about putting in a garden so I will help them with drip as well as maybe get mine going again too, eh?  

[glenn kangiser]

So cool...  

Look who came to visit us tonight.  I first saw him walk across the floor headed for my pile of computer wires.  Within about 10 minutes he was up on the arm of my chair.......  [ouch]






Just a cute little fellow who never hurt anybody looking for that cute girl of his dreams so he can be happy like Sassy and I....

Come here baby and let me wrap about six of my legs around you....





Took a while to get him on my arm as he didn't trust me too much at first.  I know it is a him as they go wandering the countryside looking for love about this time of year.  The hooks on the underside of his legs are to grab onto and hookup with that love of his life... guess that is where the term "hookup" came from,eh?


It ain't me your looking for babe.......

[Ernest T. Bass]

Ohmygosh, no thanks.... I'll take the shoveling instead.

Wonder how he managed to breach the Underground Command Center's perimeter security?

[ben2go]

That's probably the only thing that would make me squeal like a little girl.     I have arachnophobia. 

[Sassy]

There are some spiders I don't mind, like tarantulas & daddy long legs, but Black Widows    No thanks.  There's been on living outside by the walkway I walk everyday...  Glenn killed one last year, but this one has been fat & sassy (not talking about me  )  I've smashed 3 egg sacks in the last couple months that she's laid.  Kept asking Glenn to kill it but he never did. 

I didn't much care for sticking my hand in the sticky web all the time & I'd see her hanging there - any movement she'd go into hiding.  They're really pretty scared of people & eat lots of bugs but I didn't want to chance her taking a bite out of my finger...  I've seen people in the ER who've been bit by them - not a pretty site - the wound keeps getting bigger & bigger & all necrotic.

I finally got it the other day   

When I was 8 or 9 I had a friend who had tarantulas - we used to let them walk on our arms.  I've held them a couple times since then but didn't ask to hold the one Glenn had   

[mtman]

 Now I see it, first I thought Glenn was showing off his hairy arms Now I can see the spider is even smiling, watch it Glenn I think he likes you!