24x42 Post and Beam Cottage in East TN

Started by bmurphy96, March 22, 2016, 02:52:44 PM

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bmurphy96

Hi everyone. We started a project last year building a small house for my in-laws. Just thought I would document it here for those who might have interest. It's our second post-and-beam building (our first was a 16x24 shed) and I really enjoy building in this style. It is pretty fast to build and certainly sturdy as well as having a very nice look

I'm going to put up some pictures of the initial frame / shell that we did late last summer. We decided over the winter to expand the size from the original 24x30 to 24x42 so that's going to be some fun upcoming work!!

The wood that we used is eastern white pine. The posts are 12x12 (ahmm..a bit of overkill!). For a place of this size I would probably do 8x8 next time. The beams/rafters are 8x12.  While they are more than needed I do like the way it looks. And you can hang a v8 engine off the rafters if you need to which is always a bonus if you need to do some engine work in your living room.

During the first week of work we cleared the site and put in the foundation. This was a 24x30 slab of 4" concrete with 4" of gravel underneath. There is a 2 x 2 foot footer under each post.



During this process a bobcat proved invaluable. What did people do before these machines?



The view...



Here is the final result.



That slab was 24x30. As I said above we decided over last winter to extend the house a bit. So there will be another 24x12 slab poured soon.

Keith







bmurphy96

#1
Once we finished with the initial foundation we moved on the next week after allowing the concrete to cure.

Unloading the timber from the flatbed..



Before setting up the post we had to square the ends.



Two posts, a beam and a couple of knee braces done. If you look closely you can see the where the posts are bolted down to the concrete.



Next up was one of the trusses. These are massive for this size building. Again, I overbuilt. As you can see in this picture the timbers where not planed when we got them. The grey on the truss is weathering that we had not sanded off yet. It turns out that they could have been planed at the mill and I really regret not having it done before building. We sanded as much as we could before putting pieces up but we ran out of time. Now we have to go back and use a scaffold for sanding. Wasted time and energy for what would have cost a few bucks more.



Here we had all posts/beams and three trusses in place. I believe this was on the third day of the week. The trusses are set at four foot OC. Also you can see the straps on the trusses very easily. This was originally going to be a shed / workshop so I wasn't worried about aesthetics very much. Since it's going to be a house now I would have liked to have them be a bit more decorative.



You may be wondering how we set the trusses in place. While the posts where raised by hand we set the beams and trusses with a nice forklift.



The center knee bracing was the most challenging.



For the end trusses we dressed them up a bit and made king trusses.



Putting together the trusses was done on-site. Not the best conditions but it worked.



For the roof I wanted something that was quick to install and provided quality insulation. These SIP roofing panels provided the perfect fit.



While the roof work was going on the framing between the posts was done as well.



I made the decision to use traditional stick framing / insulation and osb instead of sip panels because of cost. As mentioned this was originally going to be a workshop. In retrospect I probably should have gone with sip panels.

Roof, framing and house wrap completed by the end of the second week. We also installed piping for a small stove which you can see in this picture.



Keith


pmichelsen

Quote from: bmurphy96 on March 22, 2016, 02:52:44 PMThe beams/rafters are 8x12.  While they are more than needed I do like the way it looks. And you can hang a v8 engine off the rafters if you need to which is always a bonus if you need to do some engine work in your living room.

Never know when you might need to land a helicopter on the roof! Looks awesome, can't wait to see more.

bmurphy96

I went back in October of last year and put up the majority of the boards for the board and batten. Now I just have to get a scaffolding up there and finish the boards and staining as well as the battens...

Boards are 1x10 eastern white pine. The battens are 1x3 or 1x4 if I recall. When we stain it will be a clear coat so it won't change the look much.

Here is the back of the house. This is the part that unfortunately I have to extend. I will need to take the boards down and cut into the studs/osb. Fun times.



This is my eight year old. He was a huge help. I calculated we put in about 1800 screws in three days. He put in half (900) of them. He is the best worker you could ask for!!



Front side - we will be building a small porch on here after we get the house done.




bmurphy96

Quote from: pmichelsen on March 23, 2016, 06:41:11 AM
Never know when you might need to land a helicopter on the roof! Looks awesome, can't wait to see more.

ha ha ha..no chance of that on my income but hey, we can dream right?

Keith


Don_P

If you're adding on, here's a couple of pics of another way to do trusses, the heeljoint is a good bit stronger.


These are some kingposts for another job;


White pine is sure fun to work in, I've been using it on a porch job the last few days.

bmurphy96


ajbremer

Wow, those beams are massive. Now that's a sturdy house!
Click here to see our 20x30 and here to see our 14x24.