20x34 Universal Cottage Tahlequah Ok.

[UK4X4]

"Man that sketch up is difficult to use"

If you have no drafting experience or autocad type things yes, its a learning curve

squared graph paper and a pencil and rubber work well, and can be photographed/ scanned and posted

I did all my preliminary dwgs with paper and pencil

only got into sketchup for the exterior look and the final build dwgs were with an autocad clone...permit office would probably accept nicely drawn scale dwgs as long as the detail is there.

I bought the plans from here- asked a huge ammount of technical questions which were well answered

My final plans were completely diferent than the plan set......but roughly matched page by page for the details and the way things were drawn..

I think I had 6 "final" sets then when the actual house frame was finished we completely changed the interior !

Scaled dwgs with graph paper is cheap easy and acceptable 1

[FarmerBill]

Yeah we are sketching it out on graph paper. I am still trying to figure out the size of the window openings and total house length situation. If the beams are 3 2x6's sandwiched together then that gives you a 4.5"by 5.5 post so if you set them 3' o/c that means the windows will have to be 2ft 7 1/2 inches right? If you wanted true 3ft windows then the total house length would have to be 33' 9" in order to have 4 3x5 windows and a 3x7 door. Are my calculations right?   

[Don_P]

Yes paper and pencil work just fine. I was drawing in sketchup and we kind of went off on a tangent on that. I'm faster in that now because it's quicker to modify when you get fairly deep into a project... pixels erase easy and for instance I only drew one post and one bent in those drawings and then simply copied them. But there is a learning curve for sure.When you have a distance from post to wall on the 20' wide we can recalc the beam.

Yes a 3 ply buildup is 4-1/2" wide.  Windows come in many sizes, you'd have to look at the manufacturers specs for rough openings. A typical 3' door has a rough opening of 38", the frame is actually 37-1/2" wide and a rough opening is typically 1/2" oversized to allow a window or door frame to be shimmed into correct alignment withing the rough opening... framing is rarely absolutely correct and you don't want widows and doors out of plumb and level or that bind. Also price the windows and doors or have them already stockpiled before final drawings. I framed our house for very fine windows from one manufacturer and then went and priced them, they were unaffordable. I then had to scramble to find affordable stock good quality windows that would fit my existing openings. We got somewhat lucky but that was dumb. Actually, now they are 25 years old and all the seals have failed, they need replacing.

[FarmerBill]

My concern is the spacing on the bents. We need to know what the spacing needs to be on the bents so we can determine the length of the house and the size of the windows. For example if we use a typical 3' door and the rough opening is 38" then the bents need to be spaced 38" apart or 40 1/4 o/c. (right?)
  That will change the entire dimensions of the house. Our first thought is to do 3ft between bents but giving us a total house width of 33'9" but it sounds like that will not work if we want to use a 3ft door.
Your thoughts? 

[Don_P]

38" in the clear + half of a 4-1/2" post on each side puts the oc spacing at 42-1/2", at least on the door bent. Which then makes me think about stair opening requirements, not less than 36" clear width so as I see it that bent must also be at least 36" in the clear.  Another thought, can the 3' door be on a gable end?

[FarmerBill]

Not really we want the front of the house to be on the wide side. We are going for a specific look. Is 42-1/2" getting too wide between posts. If we make each bent 42-1/2" o/c then that means each floor joist will be 42-1/2" o/c. This is getting discouraging 

[Don_P]

My original drawing had the bents 4' oc, 1-1/2" T&G of even modest grade is approved for this span for a subfloor. If there is a midspan beam supporting the joists they're still fine.

[FarmerBill]

I went out and took some pics of the spot where we are going to build the house. We have some boards laid out to give an idea of where we will be sighting the house if it is to be a 20x34 footprint but still that has yet to be set in stone. The snow and cold has stopped our work, at least for this weekend. We also received the info package from FirstDay today it looks impressive, "Man, I just wish we could use local materials"


Standing in what would be the front yard.


Standing in the would be backyard, the pasture behind Suzuki is about 7 acres and we plan on planting it in garden vegetables, to sell in a roadside store.


The creek about 75 yards from the proposed back yard


The barn about 50 yards from the proposed house, We have plans to dry in a room of the barn and to sell vegetables out of it. It is only 75ft off a major highway. 

[FarmerBill]

man, story of our lives. Last year we had a pretty mild winter. It would have been a great time to build a house. But this year we have has nothing but wet cold weather. The last few snowstorms, along with frigid temps, throw in unexpected work travel and the holidays and we have accomplished nothing on our build. So here we are with no further progress to post on the forum.
  However we recently traveled to Pensacola Florida for business, which would have been great if it hadn't been for the polar Vortex 
When we were there my family and I walked around the Pensacola Historical village, for house ideas. We both love those southern cottages on the gulf coast. One thing I noticed there was all the houses were on post and pier foundations. And they were 100 plus years old.
So my question is "Why are we going to the added expense and labor to build a stemwall ? 

[Redoverfarm]

I think your last post in December has answered your question.  OK is nothing like FL as far as climate goes.  On piers it is very difficult to insulate for your utilities in colder climates.

[John Raabe]

A crawlspace also allows for a critter free environment down under. If you can you might want to consider the option of a sealed crawlspace.
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/building-unvented-crawl-space

That is what I did in my house. But I have to say that if I were building the foundation under this house again I would invest a bit more and do a basement.

[Don_P]

The house in the picture appears to be sitting on modern piers mounted on a grade beam. Or... the foundation failed at least once before.  It's an option however unless there is some reason to do this with its' associated engineering costs it's generally cheaper and easier to build prescriptively. The reason in the deep south is cooling, mold, and coon hounds.  Google "pier and grade beam" for this foundation type. Having been down that road before, somewhere along the way you will likely also see the poorly built ones after hurricanes and remedies in a FEMA study.

[Txvineman]

A crawlspace also allows for a critter free environment down under. If you can you might want to consider the option of a sealed crawlspace.
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/building-unvented-crawl-space

That is what I did in my house. But I have to say that if I were building the foundation under this house again I would invest a bit more and do a basement.

Mr. Raabe, Just curious to know if you are able to use this crawlspace as a useful storage area, or if it's largely just "that place under the house"?  We are considering a sealed crawlspace vs. open (lattice wrapped) pier and beam 20x40 universal cottage right now in Central Texas.  I've been eyeballing another project in Oklahoma that used piers tied to a continuous concrete footer down the sides (cant find post at moment...) and that looks promising.  My biggest concerns are adequate airflow to prevent mold, expansive clay problems, and the ever delightful western diamondbacks and their plethora of friends deciding to party in my crawlspace in winter.   

Did the OP get a foundation up?  would like to see it!

[Don_P]

In my own we built half the house over a sealed crawlspace. There is a thin slab poured on the floor of the crawlspace, the excavation under that is pitched and swaled with a drain and gravel over that, then the rat slab. Ours is unconditioned but happily gives no trouble. The modern method is to include the sealed crawlspace in your HVAC envelope to avoid moisture/mold problems, a short conditioned basement. I do store stuff under there, it is an overflow pantry, taters, etc as well as the pile of pine and cedar beams and the old Opel 1900 engine... anybody need a '72 Opel motor, race rings, .010 over 

In your soils though a post tensioned slab is common, or deep piers and grade beam, well, there are a number of ways. It would be better to look around locally and talk to good contractors for advice on what works locally.

[hpinson]

Thank you John for posting that Green Building Advisor link on crawl space foundations. It provides a clear description of vented and unvented crawlspaces, and design considerations for a unvented one.  I've been looking for such an explanation for a long time.

[Txvineman]

In your soils though a post tensioned slab is common, or deep piers and grade beam, well, there are a number of ways. It would be better to look around locally and talk to good contractors for advice on what works locally.

thanks Don_P,
a conditioned space, or at least enclosed, would be a nice place to put a trapdoor cellar if we built it high enough but I've cleared where I want my house to sit, and it's currently on a 1:20 slope that should carry away the 32 inches of rain that tends to fall all at once here. We also have a near constant breeze/wind from the south to keep air naturally flowing under the house if it's left exposed.  So I guess the real debate is to go with the natural features of the land and put the house on piers, with the understanding that it will need to be leveled now and then (I'm fine with that), or build a concrete palace to put my little farm house on top of and surround it with drainage ditches and conditioned space.  The houses that still stand around here after a 100 years all seem to have the bottoms exposed, but the most common foundations I see in our immediate area are very thin slabs on grade (probably because it's cheap, understood, and theres no codes).  I better start my own build thread it seems, don't want to hijack this one...