Look over my plans (Picture Heavy)-Updated 29Oct

[MWAndrus]

I have been a lurker here for a few years and have got many great ideas from this forum. I wish there was a way to donate money to whoever runs it, because I feel bad that I am taking so much, but I don't really have a way to give back.

My wife and I have bought a piece of land in Northern Wisconsin and we plan on starting to build in the spring. Our building codes have a minimum building size, so I have modified the 20x30 plan into a 20x40 1 1/2 story. I was wondering if someone would be willing to look over my plans. My drawings are in a 5mb Google SketchUp file. I have hosted them on Google Docs at: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4XXvNXEkQreYzQ3MTI3NWEtZTlkMy00OGYyLWFhMjUtMzhkODk2YzA5MjVi

[Alan Gage]

Can you post some JPEGs?

Alan

[MountainDon]

Yes, not everyone uses sketchup nor has a fast connection to D/L a 5 MB file.

[Tinga]

[MWAndrus]

Wow, Thanks Tinga! You beat me to it. I got a lot of inspiration for the pier design from Dug and Jenny's 20x30. Right now I have it drawn up with 12" piers, but I am debating reducing them down to 10" diameter. The footers will be no less then four feet below grade. Our soil is sandy loam with a good proportion of large chunks of limestone.

Also, I just noticed that I forgot to add the spacer underneath the ridge board so that the heel of the rafter has something to sit on. This will be added in the next revision.

[Squirl]

I can't tell, is that a load bearing wall under the ridgeboard in the loft?

Also the ridgeboard should extend lower so the whole rafter rests on it.  Use two boards if you have to.

[MWAndrus]

The center wall upstairs is not exactly centered under the ridge beam. It is offset by about four inches. I did not intend for it to be a load bearing wall.

I caught my mistake with the ridgeboard not being tall enough for the entire rafter to sit on it. I have fixed it in my drawing.

[Don_P]

That would be one of those cases where no matter what we call it, that is a load bearing wall. If you can't move it under the ridge, run a horizontal 2x across under the ridge to the opposite rafter and tie both sides well, tight over the top of the wall.

The minimum width of a winder tread is 6", 10" at the 12" walkline IIRC.

If you carry the lower roofline tails across the 2 story wall it helps break it up.

if the bolts out of the piers came out in the line facing the next pier plywood wall panels could be inset between piers giving much better bracing.

[MWAndrus]

Thanks all of the suggestions. I took your advice and moved all of the center walls directly over the center floor beam and directly under the ridge board. I also added headers to the doors on that new load bearing wall. I'm not sure why I didn't have it all centered in the first place.



I think I am OK on the winder tread depth. Wisconsin Residential Code says:
a. The winder treads shall have a minimum tread depth of 7
inches measured at a point 12 inches from the narrow end of the
tread.

There is no mention of minimum depth at the narrowest end.

[ajbremer]

Wednesday Morning - October 12th, 2011 Oklahoma, USA

Hi MWAndrus,

Hey, I looked over your drawing in sketchup and Wow, you must have spent a lot of time doing that, creating components, and getting everything just right. Do you have the Sketchup Pro version? Thanks for sharing that drawing with us.

[archimedes]

It's hard to tell from the pics.  How many piers do you have?  And what are the dimensions?

[MWAndrus]

I think I have my plans almost ready to send to the building inspector. I have finished the 3D model and put together a presentation in Google Layout. Take a look and let me know what you think. I do not work with residential blueprints much, so Im not exactly sure what they are going to be looking for. The 3D Model can be found here for people that have SketchUp: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4XXvNXEkQreYzQ3MTI3NWEtZTlkMy00OGYyLWFhMjUtMzhkODk2YzA5MjVi

Here is the presentation that I have put together:

[MWAndrus]

See my above post. After some feedback from the building inspector I changed the roof pitch on the second story roof to 4/12. Also, while looking at insulation considerations, I decided to change the 1st floor roof. I added a rafter tie on every rafter instead of on every third. The ceiling wont be as high now, but it will be much cheaper to insulate. I have a bad feeling that this is going to cost more than what we expect and they wont let us move in when we want.

One question that I have is: Should I have double floor rim joist because the exterior wall is sitting on that edge?

[trish2]

Suggestion: With 2 bedrooms upstairs, consider putting in at least a powder room, if not a full bath, on the upper level.  If family or guests on the 2nd floor need to use the 'facilities' in the middle of the night, groggy people might fall down a flight of stairs on the way to the 1st floor bathroom.  How far is the nearest emergency room?

[MWAndrus]

The second story storage room is intended to be converted into a bathroom in the future. I called it a storage room so that we dont have to finish the walls before we move in. We will finish it out as a bathroom in the future after we move in.

[kalstar]

I do not mean to hijack, but.......

Would you be willing to charge for that pier foundation plan if it can be adapted . I plan to go with a 32x26 and the building inspector asked for the exact plan you drew.

[MWAndrus]

Most of the foundation ideas that I have used have come free from this site, so I wouldn't feel right about charging someone. I drew up the model in Google SketchUp and then made the plans off the model in LayOut. My model is available from the link in my first post. You are welcome to take it and modify it. Or if you send me a sketch, I will see if I can model it for you. Just remember, I am not an architect.

[Don_P]

Things that popped out during a quick run thru;
It would probably be better to specify HDG 1/2" fasteners in the foundation rather than grade 5. I'd spec J bolts in the pours rather than machine bolts.

Technically it is required to block over the point of bearing supporting a cantilever, this isn't much of a canti. Single rim is ok.

The winders look to have unequal treads at the walkline, they look dangerous IMO.

The west elevation needs to be balloon framed, that plate is a hinge pont in the wall.

I'm assuming this is a level soffit.

There are no lookouts/ barge rafters/ gable overhang shown.

[kalstar]

Most of the foundation ideas that I have used have come free from this site, so I wouldn't feel right about charging someone. I drew up the model in Google SketchUp and then made the plans off the model in LayOut. My model is available from the link in my first post. You are welcome to take it and modify it. Or if you send me a sketch, I will see if I can model it for you. Just remember, I am not an architect.

Could modify what you have there down to a 32x26, I would be happy to pay you an hours labor. Send me a pm with your email and I will send you my sketches. Thank you for the offer to help me out.

[MWAndrus]

After looking at this house plan more, we were not happy with how far away the woodstove was from the bedrooms and the house is a bit bigger then what we would like. So I don't think we will be building this one. However, in case anyone is interested, I did get a quote for materials from a local Menards. To get this house dried in, they estimate materials alone will cost $15,383.This includes all of the framing, subfloor, insulation, drywall, fasteners and roof material. This price does not include windows, doors or siding.

[duncanshannon]

great looking plans (visually, not technically). 

so you purchased sketchup Pro?  happy with it?

[John Raabe]

Nice piece of work with Sketchup! It will allow you to make modifications and change the details.

[MWAndrus]

If you are looking at purchasing SketchUp Pro I would recommend that you download the free version first and make sure that you like it. The Pro version doesn't add a whole lot of functionality. All you really get with Pro is Google Layout for creating the 2D prints. Im pretty sure I could have created something similar with other 2D software. I am pretty happy with SketchUp though. I started drawing a different plan in SolidWorks, which would have given me some more tools like structural analysis, but my laptop could not handle it. Here is as far as I got with it:

I like that any changes that I make in SketchUp are automagiclly transfered over to the plans in Layout. The engineers at work draw 3D models in AutoDesk Inventor and have to redraw 2D prints in AutoCAD. This would drive me crazy, and I think I would give up. Another thing that I like about SketchUp is that there is a large community supported 3D warehouse. So if there are items that you want to use in your model like windows and doors, you can just grab them free from the warehouse.

Here are my new plans for our 24x32 cabin incase anyone is interested. We cut it down from around 1200sq/ft to about 770sq/ft. Oddly enough the cost of materials stayed pretty much the same. One thing that I did to cut down on cost was to change the beam seat that I had originally called out. I didnt realize how expensive the Simpson beam seat was that I had called out in the first plan. When I started looking at prices, those came to around $120 per piece. I decided to use a column seat similar to what Dug and Jenny used. These run around $30 a piece. This should save me almost $1500.

Here is the Layout file:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4XXvNXEkQreZWUxZjQ0NzQtY2Q4My00OGM5LWFlY2MtOGI4M2M2M2JlMTQy

Here is the SketchUp 3D Model:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4XXvNXEkQreZTJlNzMyZDQtMTFmMy00MWRlLThmZjYtNDA0NzRiYmJmNjZi

Here is the PDF:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4XXvNXEkQreOTg4NGU1MzMtZWM2Ni00OWQwLWE4OWEtNGNhY2M2ZGZhMDZl

[Don_P]

I stopped with the hinged gable framing, that needs to be balloon framed. I just wrote a little bit about this on another thread;
http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=11513.new#new

[MWAndrus]

Per DonP's request. My gable wall. Now with more balloon.