Quote from: Motovista on May 17, 2024, 09:38:49 PMThey were $4 when they were first issued. The architect who created them allowed someone to share them. That person decided to use them to sell some plans that there is very little interest in. That's not what I call ethical, and likely not what the architect had in mind. When they first got hold of them, they offered them if you purchased three months of a membership in some home building club for $30. That's closer to reasonable. I don't find it hard to believe that a company would try to make money, I find it hard to believe that someone would try to use them to sell something that apparently few people are interested in. I have no issue with paying a fair price for them. Paying someone who had nothing to do with their creation and got them free almost $300 is something else. It's like someone got a free chicken, and offers to give it away. But to get the free chicken, you need to buy 18 ducks, whether or not you want 18 ducks. If you describe this to most people, they will tell you it sounds like a scam.

Why not just ask the Raabes?  I doubt he's making a killing selling $300 plans to a handful of DIY people, which is rare enough these days especially now that most places are regulated into oblivion.  

FWIW the dude got started in the peace corps for god sake, living in Kurdi gunds of Rojhilat probably surviving off of naan, chai, and cheese.  I've lived with those people, I don't think the scamming sort would last 2 years out there, part of the reason why I was attracted to Mr. Raabe's plans in the first place.

Quote from: homesteadhappy on May 14, 2024, 02:50:49 PMI'm new to the terminology, so please bear with me.

Including the porch on two sides of the house, my total dimensions are 24'x24'. The house itself is 16x20. I am planning on a pier and beam foundation. The county I am in is completely unrestricted (no building codes/zones/permits/building department/etc). There's not a single red light in the whole county and much of the population is Plain (Amish/Mennonite), just to give context.

Frost line is 10-12" and state code says we should have a minimum 12" deep footing for the piers. I was going to go 24" down, 6" compact gravel of some kind, and then 18" Sonotube cement footing. I was planning on doing double 2x8 beams (aka 4x8 beams) and doing 2x8 joists every 16" oc.

I am trying to figure out how many piers I need. I was thinking about doing 4 rows of 4 (16 total distributed evenly), 4 rows of 5, or 5 rows of 5.


Am I wildly off here or is this okay? Thank you!

Piers and beam are engineered foundation, of course you don't have to engineer them but I think it difficult to determine without calculating for your soil.  For 320 square feet 12" frostline you could very easily do a full perimeter block foundation, just saying, then you wouldn't lose any sleep over wondering if it was 100% as you'd be 100% up to IRC prescriptive codes.  I think it took me only 4 weekends to do a foundation 33% larger perimiter than that.  Jus sayin.  Maybe go back and read the debates and decide yourself and you may decide a few extra days of work is cheap insurance if this is your full-time house.

If you decide to keep going with pier and beam maybe you can look around at the amish houses and see and ask what they did?  Might give you ideas of what worked locally.

Take a look at this build thread.

https://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=8931.msg115200#msg115200

As I know, the number of piers you'll need depends on factors like soil type, load-bearing capacity, and the size of the beams. It might be worth consulting with a local engineer or contractor for personalized advice.

Hi Motovista,

Here at CountryPlans-evil-mega-corp we do everything possible to scam our users, haha!

Seriously though, your take is funny because from this end (running this little family business) it feels like just the opposite: spending a ton of time avoiding spam/scam emails, forum attacks, calls, etc. etc.

Keeping this thing up and running, and not buried in spam, for all these years requires work. We're grateful to Jeff for allowing us to offer the plans and help support the site and ultimately: all the awesome long-time users, so their great stories and knowledge can live on and help other DIY builders for years to come.

If you really need the plans for some reason (maybe you're an educator/non-profit/ having financial hardship) just send us a message at questions@countryplans.com
We're happy to help

Quote from: jsahara24 on May 13, 2024, 11:45:04 AMI would also do my best to try to find them for free, but I am confused that you find it hard to believe that a company would try to make money?  Its only $300, unfortunately not much in todays world....

Anyway, my only thought on how to get them for free beyond the internet is maybe a library?  Good luck..

They were $4 when they were first issued. The architect who created them allowed someone to share them. That person decided to use them to sell some plans that there is very little interest in. That's not what I call ethical, and likely not what the architect had in mind. When they first got hold of them, they offered them if you purchased three months of a membership in some home building club for $30. That's closer to reasonable. I don't find it hard to believe that a company would try to make money, I find it hard to believe that someone would try to use them to sell something that apparently few people are interested in. I have no issue with paying a fair price for them. Paying someone who had nothing to do with their creation and got them free almost $300 is something else. It's like someone got a free chicken, and offers to give it away. But to get the free chicken, you need to buy 18 ducks, whether or not you want 18 ducks. If you describe this to most people, they will tell you it sounds like a scam.

No issues ever experienced with propane or liquid canned stable fuels, or water in the buried cistern. We used to leave 3/4 full gallon jugs of water over winter inside the cabin. Those would freeze but being only partially full and flexible never leaked. Kept them in a large tray in case a leak did happen.

Just fine!

I have a 500 gallon propane tank that I fill up before winter and use to keep my super insulated back room from freezing.

Coleman fuel will last a long time.

Version 3.4.6 - 05.16.2024
- Enabled sheathing, cladding, ridge cap and labels for dual pitch trusses.
- Updated the polynesian truss so layers and materials are properly assigned.
- Enabled the "Edit Truss Assembly" function for dual pitch trusses (imperial and metric units).
- Enabled the "Edit Truss Assembly" function for polynesian trusses (imperial and metric units).
- Enabled the "Edit Truss Assembly" function for bowstring trusses (imperial and metric units).
- Enabled the "Edit Truss Assembly" function for bow barrel trusses (imperial and metric units).



The edit and regen functions have now been enabled for all active truss types within the plugin.  However I still have four truss types that need to be setup and activated. 

Tks. 

Would folks here know how Coleman fuel and propane in tanks (15lb tanks) hold up?