20x30 Cabin Construction in Southern Illinois

[MrSlithers]

Hello all. New to this forum but have been browsin around for a few weeks and  ! I'm in the Army National Guard and a Gov't company also so I travel alot and just moved into a 1400 sq. ft. house in March.... rented..... My father owns 215 acres in southern Illinois and I offered to buy 5 to 50 acres of it. If I can get it, I want to do a dream of mine that i've had ever since I was a young'n. Build me a small, simple place in the middle of the property and not worry about paying rent/mortage, gas and electric (solar). I grew up lovin and hunting in the outdoors and deffineatly aint no city boy. I want to do a 20x30 cabin with a 15 foot loft with stairs. The main thing is, is how I want to do the base. I want it to be simple....... No digging (very flat land) and minimal concrete. Any input would be great!

[Steve_B]

I am no expert by any means..... but flat land like that sounds perfect for a concrete slab, then just start building up the walls from there

[MrSlithers]

I was also thinking about doing 3 rows of 10"X10" peirs. It'd save on concrete cost and should work fine.

[rsbhunter]

MrSlithers, don't mean to hijack your post but I am curious about this also, i will start building my 20x30 cabin this next spring. I am planning on using 16" sonotubes every 7'6" (per plans) and run a beam in the middle on 3 evenly spaced piers, so that the floor joists can be 9' something, instead of having to span 20'.Any advice on sonotube size would be great, plan on using 4" gravel with 4"-24"x24" footers down around 3'.... Will be using joist hangers on the floor joists(with bracing)...rsbhunter

[BobHHowell]

That's my dream, too, brother.  Sounds like you got a good plan.