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General => Owner-Builder Projects => Topic started by: North Sask on November 05, 2017, 08:11:23 PM

Title: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: North Sask on November 05, 2017, 08:11:23 PM
Time flies.

It's been about 3.5 years since my last post on Round 1 of the Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure (http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=13410.0). Jeez, it took me 5 minutes to figure out how to include that link. Anyway, things went sideways with that project. I ended up not receiving approval for my recreational cabin lease in summer 2014. There were problems during the stakeholder consultation process. I tried fighting with the government for part of 2015 but that went nowhere fast. By 2016 it was back to the drawing board. I gave up on the original location and started my desktop reconnaissance for a new location. In the summer of 2016 we headed up north to do some exploring. By late June 2016 I submitted an application for a new cabin lease. With the benefit of experience, I knew the process was going to take a while. Luckily, the consultation process went rather smoothly during Round 2. A site visit with the government was arranged early this summer and the lease was finalized on September 30th, 2017. The project is once again a reality and there is lots of work to do.

The new site is now 700 km from my house rather than 550 km. A long way from civilization. It is arguably a better site than the first attempt so maybe everything worked out for the best. Everything is still going to be manual labor and the site is still boat access only. Material and equipment will still be transported to the site by a home built barge. The ground conditions are glaciofluvial sand, not bedrock. Test pits indicate clean poorly graded sand to 2.5' and then very dense sand at 2.5'. Site clearing was completed this fall by myself and a friend. I'm planning to put in the foundation next year when the ice comes off the lake. I'll then go back up in Aug/Sept to do the framing and get it sealed up before winter.

I'll try to get some pictures posted soon and will also share my musings on foundation options (spoiler: Option 1 - braced concrete pier and beam foundation, Option 2 - concrete strip footing and PWF stub wall)

Looking forward to interacting with the good people on this forum again. The great Photobucket disaster has occurred during my absence. I can't even remember how I was hosting/posting photos. Using google drive maybe...I never lost any photos on my old threads.
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: ChugiakTinkerer on November 06, 2017, 12:25:41 PM
Sounds like an adventure!  No winter access by snowgo?

There are alternative free photo hosting sites, I am using Imgur.  It works for now.  I'm sure at some point they'll do the same thing PhotBucket did, so one just needs to anticipate that, or else pony up cash.

Looking forward to seeing your location and hearing about what you've got planned.

Oh yeah, welcome back!
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: Don_P on November 06, 2017, 06:16:37 PM
I'd look at load and capacity, a pwf and no concrete.
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: North Sask on November 10, 2017, 11:01:58 AM
Winter access by snowmobile will be a great option for the future...when I have lockable storage. If I haul my building material in over the winter I have no guarantee it'll be waiting for me in the spring. It's a remote location but there is definitely a bit of human activity. Showing up in the spring to build and not knowing what I'll have for material is not something with which I am comfortable.

Foundation option 1: reinforced concrete piers (either 6 in or 8 in dia) with Bigfoot 20 bases. There would be four "brace walls" built between the piers, two in each direction, anchored to the piers. This wouldn't be truly code compliant but I'd sure be able to sleep at night. Similar in cost to Option 2 but about 1600 lbs lighter (6600 lbs vs 8200 lbs - those weights include foundation and floor because the floor system is different for each option). Ultimately not as structurally sound as Option 2 & 3.

Option 2: reinforced concrete strip footing around perimeter. PWF crawl space wall (4 ft tall) will be built on top of footing and anchored to concrete with foundation bolts. This would be a code compliant option (except for the shallow depth). Similar cost to Option 1 but more weight to haul to the site.

Option 3: PWF with no concrete. This would be a code compliant option (except for the shallow depth). AWC and others show this type of foundation resting on a layer of coarse, clean aggregate. I would consider omitting that detail because of the weight associated with hauling in bags of aggregate. That might compromise the longevity of this option a bit. Im also a bit concerned how well this option would be secured into the ground (uplift from wind). I suppose it's only marginally different than Option 2 (and even Option 1, for that matter). This option would be the lightest and lowest cost so that makes it a real contender. Just some lingering longevity concerns. Can anyone put my mind at ease?

As mentioned earlier, the ground gets hard at 2.5 ft so that's as deep as I'm going. I'm not terribly concerned about frost heave because it is clena sand with little or no silt/clay. I can accept a bit of jacking and shimming over the life of the cabin. We did end up deciding on a stone masonry foundation for Round 1 of this project. That was a great suggestion from Don P. We actually started building some of the stone masonry foundation at the last site (Yes, without a lease. It was stupid. My spouse reminds me from time to time). I'll have to go back and update that thread at some point. There was a lot of readily available rock at that site. There is far less accessible rock at our current site. Option 2 & 3 will both require more digging and I'll be the machine doing that digging.
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: North Sask on May 02, 2018, 11:30:08 PM
Ive been plugging away at cabin design and planning over the winter. The devil is in the details.

I'm intending to build a simple structure with four walls, gable roof, cathedral ceiling, rafters not trusses. I had it in my head that I'd build and raise the 24 ft walls first (they'd be a full 24 ft long) and then the 16 ft gable walls (balloon framed) would come next. These would be 11 inches less than 16 ft (2x6 framing).

If I want no top plates on the gable walls (I'll attach the rafters to the top of the studs by notching the tops of the studs) I'm going to have to frame and raise the gable walls first, no? (Rafters tail conflict) They will end up being a full 16 ft and the eave walls will be 24 ft less 11 inches. This seems like a simple question but I've gone cross-eyed from looking at these plans for so long.

Let me know if I didn't explain this clearly enough.
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: Don_P on May 03, 2018, 06:20:02 AM
With that arrangement I stick build the gables in place, I don't usually have enough muscle to stand a tall wall and it is easier on my little pea to first stand the ridge BEAM support posts, set that beam, then hang the rafters, then notch and install the gable studs fitted to the gable end rafters.

If there is a top plate on the wall I've done it both ways. If there is a way of lifting the tall wall we've lofted it out on the floor and then lifted it as you describe. If there isn't a way to lift it safely we've built it in place.
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: ChugiakTinkerer on May 03, 2018, 01:46:04 PM
Just want to reiterate Don's point above.  With a cathedral roof and rafters (not trusses) you are going with a structural ridge, correct?
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: North Sask on May 03, 2018, 10:53:36 PM
I revised my plans to not include a ridge beam. The short reason is that installing tall posts and a structural beam on a very remote site (without scaffolding or heavy equipment) wasn't appealing. The rafter spread will be resisted by the loft joists in the back half of the cabin. I will be installing some steel cables with turnbuckles in the front half to resist the spread. I'll try to get some plans posted at soon.

So without the ridge beam, but with cables and loft joists in place, I could install the rafters and then build the gable walls in place. I'm thinking things would be a bit wobbly at that point without the structure tied together.

I do have wall jacks and I hope to have at least four people on site during wall raising so building and raising the 16ft long by 16 ft tall (at the peak) wall should be possible...I think. I like the idea of building and sheathing four walls before working on installing rafters.
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: SouthernTier on May 10, 2018, 12:15:25 PM
I really should get my build thread going, but in the meantime....

I too have a cathedral front gable wall (loft in the back half, too).  22' wide, 18' tall in the peak (I will be using a ridge beam).

The gable wall will have sloped top plates - I've done the design on CAD, and should be able to get good accurate  dimensions to size the studs and the sloped top plate (we'll see...).

I was concerned about wind pressure on the front wall and so did some calculations on the central stud (more than one) under the ridge beam, since there will be slider doors and picture windows on either side, so will be handling a 6' tributary load.  I did the calcs looking at this as a beam, although it is not clear at all what wind pressure to use without down a full ASCE 7-10 analysis (I recall using something in the range of 20 +/- psf).  I ended up deciding on a 2x8 wall, and will use a pair of LVLs for the central stud.  I say all this to point out it will be a heavy wall.

My intention for raising the gable wall is this: 

I plan to frame it laying down, but in two halves.  I probably will leave out some of the trimmer/jack/cripple studs to be installed after I raise it.  I will only minimally sheath it (just the top - yes, the heavy end, but cutting out the window holes).

I bought, but have not tried yet, a pair of wall jacks.  These are only good up to about 10' walls, but I can mount them in the large picture window "hole"about half way up.

Once both halves are up, I will nail the two LVLs together, and install the trimmers next to them.

That's my plan at least.  Hopefully I will get a few friends to come by and help.
Title: Re: The Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure....Round 2 (16x24 1.5 Story Cabin)
Post by: Outdoors stuff on June 24, 2019, 03:34:51 AM
Hey where did you find the legal links regarding building a structure on crown land in SK? Do you know what penalties consist of for not having the required permits?
Thanks,