frazoo's 14x24 in VA

[frazoo]

Well we are off to the races (in granny gear). Talked to building officials to build a rappoir with them.  Culvert pipe installed by VDOT (required here) and rough cut driveway 120 yds long and marked trees to be removed for finished drive and building site.  If I can't find a reasonably priced excavator for that I'll go to plan B and rent a trackhoe to cut out what's needed for the build.  14x24 may end up being 16x24, swmbo will make that decision.  Always listen to your significant other, it make life much easier .

frazoo

[John_M]

Go with the 16 foot width...you'll be glad you did!! (even bigger would be better)

[MountainDon]

My 2 cents...

Our planning began with a 12 foot wide, 12 x 20 I think it was. It grew, and grew, and grew....  Actual build size came out at 15.75 x 30 and we are happy we did it. (one room basically, link to it in signature below.

[NM_Shooter]

Ditto what Don said. 

I built 14X20 and am longing for that extra 2' of width and 4' of length.  My place is only a 4 or 5 day retreat at a time with my family of 4.  Any more than that and we start thinking about the Donner Party. 

[Squirl]

Also, depending upon which foundation you go with, 16' may cost a very little extra and lower your cost/sq. ft..

[frazoo]

All good points, thank you, I (we) will probably go 16' wide x 24 on this first phase. We will be adding on a 12x18 as soon as this one is done.

I believe I posted this thread in the wrong area, should it be it the build forum?  If so, do you move it or should I start a build thread over there.

thanks again,

frazoo

[RainDog]

I doubt they'd mind moving it if you asked, or you could just start a new thread when building begins. Either way.

[frazoo]

Our 14x24 is now a 16x28 . 

Thought you all might appreciate this one.  I put a sign up on the road front saying, "excavator wanted".  I gave the details of what we wanted done and a phone number to call if interested.  I have received 5 calls this week.  Nobody wanted to do the excavating, they just wanted the firewood from the felling.  Not unusual I guess, but the last call really took the cake.  The guy states, "I will only charge you a small fee cutting the trees and taking out the firewood."  I asked him if he was going to haul the leftover stumps away and he says, "Oh no, I ain't got no heavy 'quipment, I just want the firewood and I won't charge you much for it".    .  I don't think he appreciated my giggling as I hung up.

frazoo

[MountainDon]

I don't know if you aware of this or not. The comment about stumps made me think of it.

If you are going to be clearing trees to make space for a home or other uses it is much better to push the trees over with a machine and then cut the trunks off the stump/root ball. Then you need to have a place to dispose of the stumps. As you found people will be after the firewood.

We I spent hours knocking the dirt off the stump/root ball in order to get them to burn.

[poppy]

There are a few of us here that would encourage you to look at the trees in the way as more than just firewood or obstacles to get rid of.

Please look at the trees as timber or lumber.  It would only take a few constructions sites around me to provide me with all the timber and lumber I would need for my build, but bull dozers and burn piles seem to be the norm.

I am making useable timber out of trees as small as 6" in diameter.  Too bad you are so far away from me.

Good luck.

[frazoo]

There are a few of us here that would encourage you to look at the trees in the way as more than just firewood or obstacles to get rid of.

Please look at the trees as timber or lumber.  It would only take a few constructions sites around me to provide me with all the timber and lumber I would need for my build, but bull dozers and burn piles seem to be the norm.

I am making useable timber out of trees as small as 6" in diameter.  Too bad you are so far away from me.

Good luck.

Yeah  I know where you're coming from and agree wholeheartedly.  We moved the house site 5 times to find an area we would not have to cut down anything over 4".  The driveway snakes through the woods to save everything possible.  I hate cutting trees.  MountainDon, yes, much easier to push over, then cut.  Leverage is a wonderful thing.


frazoo

[John Raabe]

Congrats on starting the project. When you start buiding and posting photos you can start a new thread in the Owner-builder forum, but this discussion is fine where it is.

If I remember right, the saying "I'm stumped" came from the early settlers who were pretty good at cutting trees down but then wanted to plant crops...
 
Doh!!

[poppy]

I hate cutting trees

[MountainDon]

  I hate cutting trees. 

As with many things; it Depends.

Many places, like most of the western mountain forests have too many trees for a healthy forest. Our land had way too high a tree density when we bought it. If you counted anything over an inch in diameter as a tree there were at least 4x as many trees. The high density causes the trees to be stressed. Stressed trees are vulnerable to insects and disease. In addition the closely packed trees are a fire disaster waiting to happen.

The entire national forest around us was in the same condition. Ditto for all the nearby private land, with one exception. The exception was the 40 acres to the east of us. It is owned by a forest ranger supervisor. The forest service did thin about 1000 acres to our west north and south over the past year. That was wonderful to see. I would still like to see our neighbor to the west thin his 25 acres, but he does not seem to understand that sometimes it is necessary to thin trees. There is nothing natural about the condition of most of the western states forests.

So with that all in mind, I can honestly say that I thoroughly have enjoyed thinning something like 400 trees in the past few years.

[eddiescabin]

Just a little comment on if you have problems with tree huggers like we do in Cali.  I'm all for saving trees and all that, but when I purchased my cabin there was a large (4 foot across) oak that was perilously hanging over an eroding berm above my cabin.  I was shopping for someone to remove the tree (I wasn't about to sleep in there with 1000's of pounds of leaning oak above my head)  The local authorities claimed I could not cut down the tree as it was a protected "Century Tree"...I had my attorney craft a letter to the county informing them that if they denied me the ability to chop the tree that they were in fact assuming the liability should said tree fall.  After that the County servants almost came over to help me chop the tree!  Just FYI

[poppy]

I hope this is not too much thread drift, but Don raises a good point.  Forest thinning can be a good thing.

The state of Ohio has a program called Forest Legacy Program where woodland owners can be paid to maintain their woods as working forests.  About a third of Ohio's counties qualify including my county.

I haven't checked into the details yet, but it may be a good conservation program.  It permits logging, but not clear cutting.

I just wish my neighbor had known about it before he started clear cutting his 40 acres. 

[frazoo]

Congrats on starting the project. When you start buiding and posting photos you can start a new thread in the Owner-builder forum, but this discussion is fine where it is.

If I remember right, the saying "I'm stumped" came from the early settlers who were pretty good at cutting trees down but then wanted to plant crops...
 
Doh!!

My dad is 88 years young and grew up the son of a mountain farmer.  Farming to dad meant grubbing out stumps with hand tools and a mule.  He says the best thing that ever happened to them was the government taking the mountain land for a National Park.  He says life got easy then, he and his brother made a living felling serious timber with a crosscut saw until they enlisted in the military in WW II. 

frazoo