My new cabin, beginning questions. (Foundation)

[oakey]

Let me start off by saying I wish I knew about this site years ago, I have always found interest in this type of lifestyle (cabin living) and it is time to build my dream cabin.

I have some land that I am ready to move on. It is in southern-mid Georgia. Open pasture land. I have dug holes on it before, fence and swings, so I know about the soil type. The first foot and a half is packed-sandy then leads to the hardest clay to be found. No moisture sits where the cabin is going and has great drainage. Very slight slope but looking at the lay of the land, it is hard to tell. I want to do a pier and beam foundation. The size of the cabin will be 20x36. Two bedrooms on one side and open living/ kitchen on the other side. Bath in the middle. I want to do 6x6 beams/post. I am also the type that only wants to do something once and I usually go above what is required to be on the safe side.

So my beginning question, how deep would you go for the post holes? Concrete bottom or packed gravel?

I will have many more questions and will be posting my progress as I get started. Going to busy at work the next few weeks and then it will be time to start.

Thanks in advance for information and comments.

[dug]

   oakey!

Any plans? More information would be helpful.

In general the footers for posts must go below frost line, whatever that is in your area. I can't be of much help on the footer question but I know clay can be troublesome.

6 by 6 posts should be O.K. for about whatever you are building, but if you use 6 by 6 beams they won't span very far and you would need a lot of posts. Better, and cheaper, to size the beams so that they can span 6 ft. or more and limit the pier/posts.

[oakey]

I see now that I didn't have enough coffee this morning and put 6x6 post and beam. I just ment post. I am doing a laminated 2 by beam spanning the post.

The cabin plan is this one, the 2nd (720sq ft) over from the top.

http://www.countryloghomes.com/standardModels/sportsman.html

[astidham]

oakey, that is similar to my plan.
I have John's 20x30 plan available on country plans home page.
The plans includes a few different types of foundations and a guide to help chose the one right for your soil type!

[MountainDon]

I have had a long time passing interest and a more recent developing interest in log structures. So this may be a 'dumb' question.

Can a log home be built on a pier and beam? memory, such as it is,    seems to only recall seeing log cabins and home that sit on the ground. That is that sit on a perimeter foundation od some kind.  A log structure is going to weigh much more than a stick built, so it would seem that there would be so many posts needed that I have trouble visioning post and beam as my first choice for logs.

I could be all wrong on that.   Maybe Don_P will notice this topic. Maybe I'll drop him a PM alert. He's worked with logs a while. Maybe redoverfarm would have some input as well?


and    oakey

[oakey]

For clarification, it won't be a log cabin, that's just the plans I am giong with. Normal 2x4 walls with exterior sheathing.

[MountainDon]

Ok. A different question then. Are there neighboring buildings, built on similar ground and using pier and beam? If so, how old and how have they stood the test of time? 

Which leads to another question; are you subject to building codes and inspections? If so they may be your best local source for what foundations work there.

[oakey]

You could say I am way out in the country, way out. The closest house it probably 10 miles away. I have spoke with the building inspector and county commissiner, no permits needed.