Ski Cabin - North-Central Cascades, Washington

Started by bac4uw, December 11, 2015, 12:57:46 AM

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OlJarhead

Since it will be inspected I would submit a plan for what you want.

As for ground rods there are options and usually the inspector will provide some guidance.  I have had good experience with inspectors on 'permitted' builds in the past (installed my own service panel, feed from original panel, and all wiring etc for a 580sqr foot addition a dozen years or so ago without issue).

Many topics here about ground rods and I found that where I could not drive one straight down in my rocky soil I could drive one at a 45 degree angle which can be approved in certain circumstances.

pmichelsen

The easiest way to drive a ground rod is with a rotary hammer. I welded up an attachment for my rotary hammer specifically for this.


bac4uw

#52
After reading the L&I guide and energy company installation guide, I'm gonna go for installing the whole thing myself. The parts I've never done before will take a little learning, but it seems learnable. I priced out the materials and it came to about $750.

I had 25 big bags of Roxul insulation delivered yesterday. When the truck showed up, I thought 'oh crap'... that's a lot of insulation!


By shoving the 10 R30 bags upstairs, I was able to get it all into the cabin. I actually was able to install about 5 bags of the wall R23 that won't interfere with the wiring in any way. This weekend, we're hoping to finish the bird block so we can install the 10 bags of rafter insulation.

Had a little help last weekend getting the rest of the Tyvek on and the porch and deck ledgers:


Facebook is a funny beast (I'm not a Facebooker). My wife posted a slightly different picture which showed that our ladders were not at the proper "OSHA" angle. Some Facebookers picked up on this and got snarky. I've built this cabin with my ladder at all kinds of angles that might not have been proper, and I let my feet and balance do the rule-making. Here, we were installing a porch ledger board where it would have been difficult to position the ladders closer in (at least the 12 footer) and get the job done. Whatever, it felt safe to me! ; )
--Bryan

OlJarhead

Don't worry about FB'ers....just tell her to make the posts 'friends only' and they won't be able to see it ;)

pmichelsen

I'd be willing to bet, at least half of the people making these comments, have never been on a ladder  d*.


Don_P

They mean well, not everyone is a great communicator.
I've ridden a few, I think my wife wins the altitude record for longest ride down the face of a wall. A straight claw hammer can excavate a nice little pit to set the feet in quickly for leveling and to restrain the thrust as the pitch gets lower. The best piece of safety gear is between your ears though.

bac4uw

Today, a buddy and I installed all of the cabin electrical boxes, tunneled paths through the studs, and pulled wires for all circuits. We slowed down significantly as we made the connections to the outlets/switches/lights... but it was also getting towards the end of the day. And with day-light savings kicking in, we could feel the day coming to a close rather quickly. Next weekend is a 3-day weekend and my hope is to complete the inside and outside electrical work by the end of it.

I am glad I decided to not hire out the electrical work (so far). It was one of those things that I would have hired out to do at the right price, but at the end of the day I enjoy doing electrical work.

I'd attach pictures, but pictures of wires are kind of boring!
--Bryan

jimvandyke

I assume since you are insulating and installing electrical that you have passed your framing inspection. Did your gable end walls pass inspection for your locality? In my area they have to be balloon framed or tied together with lots of strapping and bolts. But I do live in a hurricane zone (110 mph) but I figured you live in a earth quake zone which would be similar.

I did all my electric and plumbing and am glad that I did. I used the hose and pvc pipe method to drill a hole for my grounding rod, post hole dig as deep as you can then use hose and 8 ft pvc pipe with a manufactured jet on the end, you have a lot of rock though not sure how well that would work for you. Works great here in low country NC in clay and sand, we have to buy rocks when we want them.

Jim

rickeyleee

How is the treated foundation secured?  There were some posts here about horizontal wind loads and although I understand there will be some gravel and dirt set in around the exterior of the foundation, i don't suppose there will be any on the inside and if there was, it seems like you would need to sheath  and plastc that side also.  Did you have a 2x8 on the bottom of your 2x6 foundation wall?  I guess in my mind, i don't see where a 1" lip and a foot or two of gravel would help much in a severe wind storm....  i suppose you don't have many hurricanes to contend with though... :-)


Don_P

I think you are confusing uplift and lateral loads. For uplift figure the magnitude of the uplift force, deduct the weight of the structure and make sure the attachment to the ground is better than that... I'll bet he is there. Screw anchors could supply more resistance if needed. For lateral, horizontal, loads figure the magnitude of the load and check to see if the walls can resist that shear, again I'll bet he is more than adequate. Mentally apply that horizontal load to an unbraced pier, the pier tips over where the wall braces all of its vertical elements. Make sense?

Starvin

Looking great! Really enjoying this build, especially as I plan on building a similar cabin (though 12x18)

I may have missed it, but do you have a rough floor plan you can share (how you plan to lay out the first floor, etc.)?
Also, how high are the knee-walls in the loft?
One more, roughly how high is the clearance in the loft (deck to bottom of LVL ridge beam)>