Oh, I just remembered one problem with the Champion that could not be fixed. The tires were a solid material, not air filled, and went out of round almost immediately, due to the weight of the generator.  The tire material had no memory, so rolling the generator was a problem. That was annoying because it is pretty heavy, and rolling it freely is important to be able to do.

I am no way as experienced as Don or Don but I would trade one of those 25 ft tapes for a 35 ft.  If I were to buy a new nail apron right now it would have suspenders because they get very weighty by the end of the day.  Another thing I have found very handy is a tool pouch with a good leather belt.  Lot lighter and holds the essentials and easier to get around in tight spots.  Pocket for a speed square, nail bag and a tape bag or pocket.  Loop for a framing hammer and pocket for a utility knife and a pocket from a pair of pliers and a couple pencil pockets all in one.  If you are getting a lot of rain try Black Line Brand chalk.  Stuff will not go away.  Use only when you do not want a line to go away.   

I talked at length with a gentleman up on the Skeena River in BC a couple years ago.  He was doing much the same as you are doing.  But was having to go through Victoria  and the Skeena Indians on a property.  He actually was pleased the way it was going.  Turned out the First Nations peoples denied they had claim to the property.  Pretty unusual for there so he claimed.  It to was on a lake.  I have wondered many times if he was able to complete his dream!

I have two Honda generators of the 2000 series love them.  I can link them and they run the fifthwheel no problem.  Pretty easy on fuel - they have a eco setting or switch that helps save fuel as well.  They are very quiet.       

The generator is a difficult question. For me at least. I worked for years (decades ago) using a typical loud generator when I was making/installing wood playgrounds. I hated it, but needed the power. I really like the Yamaha and Honda inverter generators. I have a 2800 watt Yamaha that is an older, not as quiet as the newer types, but so much better than the loud ones. I also have a new Yamaha 2000i and it is wonderfully pleasant when running. I used the 2800i for my 20 yr old Makita 7 1/4" saw when we built our cabin. Mine is still pretty much original, but it never got the use that Don_P gave his.     I also used an 18 volt battery circular saw whenever it could do the job.  The 2800i would also run my pancake compressor, but not at the same time as the Makita.  The 2000i will also run the compressor or the Makita, but I have not tried any lengthy cuts such as ripping a long 2-by-something.

However if there was no plan to use a generator after the construction was completed I would probably just buy a noisy cheaper generator.  But I sure like the quiet.  Lots more money though. You could buy a Paslode fuel cell nailer and a Champion generator and have money left over for the price of a 2000i.

I second Don_P's advice on the chainsaw dangers and the accessory protective gear. Protect eyes, ears, top of your head, legs and feet. I use electronic shooting ear muffs as they let me hear the normal sounds around me when the saw is idling or off.

Thanks for the advice on generators and tools. I'll be watching for deals on new or used tools/generators over the next few months. I have a lead on a used Husqvarna chainsaw. It will be a late Christmas present for myself. The safety helmet and chaps will be purchased shortly after.

I have been doing a bit of cabin design work in AutoCAD (I haven't downloaded SketchUp yet but I hope to at some point in the near future). Here are a few exports of my progress. Comments (both good and bad) are encouraged.

First up is an orthographic projection of the stonemasonry foundation (complete with 2x8 sill plate). This is a to-scale and slightly modified version of the 3D rendering that Don_P produced earlier in this thread. I did not include any dimensions on the drawing but at this point I am thinking the max. height would be 3 ft, all sections are 1 ft wide, each corner section would be 3 ft long, and the "columns" would be 2 ft long. The foundation is laid out to be constructable and to support the floor beams. I did not size it the way it is for bearing capacity. For the heck of it, I calculate a bearing capacity of about 360,000 lbs or 180 tons (30 sq. ft of bearing area times an assumed 12000 lbs per sq. ft for crystalline bedrock). If I dump 100 lbs per sq. ft on my 384 sq. ft footprint (38,400 lbs), I have a pretty massive factor of safety.



With the above layout the max. span for the beams would be 9ft and the span for the floor joists would be about 7' 10". My tables (CMHC Table 16 and Table 20) tell me that 3 ply 2x10 beams and 2x6 joists at 24" OC should do the trick (S-P-F No. 1 or 2). Not sure if that would feel springy. I might consider 2x8 joists.

I just guessed on the sill plate layout. It seemed to make sense to me. I went with 2x8 so that I could accommodate the 4.5" wide beam and the J bolt that will come out of the stonemasonry foundation. Hopefully the details are visible. I may have to make a zoomed in version of one corner...

I also have some pictures of the floor framing and the floor sheathing. The sheathing pic is really exciting...but it makes for easy calculating of sheathing quantity.
 


Actually, the sheathing pic brings up a point. T&G floor sheathing has the really annoying feature of being 15mm short of a regular 4x8 sheet. Is there any good way to deal with this situation or do I have to change the name of my thread to "15.75x24 1.5 Story Cabin Project" (like Mountain Don)? 

It actually gets worse than that the more you think about it. The floor sheathing forms the diaphragm we were talking about earlier in the thread. The perimeter framing is the shear collector and the sheathing is the web of that horizontal beam. If you do like most folks and just run a tiny rip of ply to make up the last couple of inches the diaphragm is not connected together, you have a group of individual parts rather than having built a component. Also if you hang a deck off the rim there is nothing tieing the rim back into the floor system for lateral.

That was the reason I cut a little off the width by trimming the joist lengths and then the final sheet of sheathing. I didn't try to calculate everything out to the fraction of an inch so I would not have to trim the sheathing. If I had done that I could have had an extra inch or so of building width.

Here is a more detailed look at one of the foundation corner sections. Does this layout pass the sniff test? I recall reading a comment somewhere that said the anchor bolt must be within 12" of the end of the sill and I have complied with that requirement. Metal strapping with long "tails" will be nailed to the underside of the sill, prior to installing the sill, and will then be bent up and nailed to the floor beam (and maybe even the wall studs, if I plan it right).

Hopefully all of you will be able to make sense of the drawing.

Remember this is engineer's work, so my sniff is not qualified, I'm simply trying to help make a remote build better. This is not something for others to emulate as the way things should be done. For us rubblestone masonry needs to be 16" thick... which is generally easier to build although it takes more materials. Coursed work can be thinner but I'm guessing you don't have too many flat rocks readily available. I'll often build an inside form to work against and then parge that backside. Yes 4-12" from the sill ends for the anchor bolts, plan your splice points as well. Anchor bolts, no more than 6' apart.

Quote from: Don_P on January 06, 2014, 03:08:44 PM
Remember this is engineer's work, so my sniff is not qualified, I'm simply trying to help make a remote build better.

It is a better sniff than most and it is much appreciated. 

Quote from: Don_P on January 06, 2014, 03:08:44 PM
Plan your splice points as well. Anchor bolts, no more than 6' apart.

I assume the above was an "in general" comment, as there will be no need for splices with my short wall sections.

Quote from: North Sask on December 06, 2013, 06:22:59 PM
That magic line is well over 500 km from where I live! I forgive you in advance if you think I am crazy. I am sure there are number of forum members who know exactly why I am willing to go to great lengths for a bit of true solitude.

I know what the area looks like up there, and fully understand why you're willing to drive over 500 km to get to a cabin.  Looking forward to following your thread!

Quote from: North Sask on January 06, 2014, 12:15:30 AM
T&G floor sheathing has the really annoying feature of being 15mm short of a regular 4x8 sheet. Is there any good way to deal with this situation or do I have to change the name of my thread to "15.75x24 1.5 Story Cabin Project" (like Mountain Don)? 

The T&G floor sheathing is really bugging me. Maybe I am over-thinking it.    My reference (see bottom right) is telling me that I lose 15mm (almost 5/8") of the nominal width for each sheet. That will add up to more than 2" for four sheets on a 16 ft wide floor. The loss of width doesn't concern me but my main issue is that the two inches is then reflected up to the gable end walls. I will need to trim the excess sheathing off the wall (it will be regular square edge sheathing) and the stud spacing at one end of the wall will need to be modified, correct? Am I letting my OCD get the best of me?

Why don't they make a 4' 5/8" wide sheet and then cut the tongue and groove into it? That would leave us with a nice 48" face width.

One other T&G question, is it common to rip off the "groove" on the outermost piece of sheathing or can you put the 5.5" wide sole plate over the groove?

OCD? whatever could that be 
I have found it's usually better to trim a little off than to try to use every bit. For instance decks framed a couple of inches shorter than a 2' increment can then be sheathed with a common length decking board.

I can only assume the mill equipment is set up at 48" but you'd sure think they could make them stack to 48", very annoying. You can start with the tongue under the wall plate. Use a block of 2x4 scrap about 4' long and a sledge to seat the T&G, with the grooves on the leading edge you can smack the 2x4 hard without damaging the groove, if you lead with the tongue you'll ruin it by trying to drive the 2x against it.

I strongly suggest you do like I did. Yes I trimmed here and there for walls. To me it was no big deal. Some people make a big deal out of using full sheets, which to me makes more problems to solve.

I don't understand why the mills don't make it work to cover an actual 48", but they don't and they don't listen to me. 

One other note on T&G sheet goods. The T&G are machined to leave an apparent gap when fitted together. I have know people to use a big hammer and force the joint together. Don't do that.



Not the image I was searching for... the one I wanted shows the "interference" fit of the T&G. Forcing together can split the groove.

Thanks Don and Don. I want to make sure that I minimize waste. If I go through the effort of hauling it 6 hours and then floating it 10 km, I want to bloody well use it on the cabin.  But trimming a little bit of sheathing here and there is not the end of the world.

I am going to have to get to work on revising my plans. If I ever come across the inventor of T&G sheathing I'm gonna have some choice words.

Just to confirm, I will be able to stick with my 24" OC stud spacing until the last stud bay, at which point I will need to make up the lost width, correct? The gable end walls won't be symmetrical....uh oh, the OCD is flaring up again. 

Quote from: North Sask on January 10, 2014, 11:19:04 PMJust to confirm, I will be able to stick with my 24" OC stud spacing until the last stud bay, at which point I will need to make up the lost width, correct?

Yes, but the stud bays will not all be equal even if you built a wall framed to be exactly 16 feet wide. You lose something in the width of the end stud bays the way the corners are made typically with three 2x's. If you build the long walls first they occupy 3.5 or 5.5 inches of the 16 ft width, throwing off the symmetricalness.  Plus the end bays are different widths from the rest when you make allowances for the first stud being fully covered by the 4 ft wide sheets of sheathing.

Quote from: North Sask on January 10, 2014, 11:19:04 PM
The gable end walls won't be symmetrical....uh oh, the OCD is flaring up again. 

The ridge will be centered, unless you make it uncentered, on purpose or accidentally. Once the interior and exterior is sheathed and finished only you with a tape measure will know what is under the skin. 

~~~~~

You mentioned 24 inch stud spacing. I did that and now that you mention it I remembered there were times I wished I had gone with 16" OC. I went 24 to eliminate some studs, save money. Also, in theory a 24 inch wall has greater thermal performance, a higher overall R-value. In practice it probably doesn't matter much. And of course there were a few pieces less of material to carry or move.  On the downside I felt forced to use 5/8 drywall to head off the possibility of wavy walls. It does happen with 1/2". The 24 inch spacing also reduced the number of positions that could be used for electrical boxes without resorting to using "old work" boxes that fit anywhere mid span. I did that in 2 places and it was a PITA. Either way works.   Just my thoughts...   

The first layout pull on a wall is normally either 15-1/4" and then off that 16", 32, 48, etc... or for 24" on center it is 23-1/4" then 2' off that. That allows the sheathing to break on a stud. Well, unless you really want to go OCD and allow for the corners of the sheathing to lap in one direction, then allow for that 7/16 or 1/2" as well. We usually layout to the framing perimeter but you can layout to the sheathing perimeter. I prefer 16" oc but you can do 2' or even 19.2"... How tight a knot do you want to get twisted in?  If you are careful with window and door placement you can eliminate some framing by using studs that are on layout. If you really want to cut down on lumber investigate "OVE" framing on the APA website. That rears it's head every few decades but you need to detail it well and I've rarely seen that happen.

Quote from: MountainDon on January 10, 2014, 11:55:07 PM
Yes, but the stud bays will not all be equal even if you built a wall framed to be exactly 16 feet wide. You lose something in the width of the end stud bays the way the corners are made typically with three 2x's. If you build the long walls first they occupy 3.5 or 5.5 inches of the 16 ft width, throwing off the symmetricalness. 

The stud bays wouldn't all be equal but they could be symmetrical (mirror image). Here is a plan view of my stud layout that I drew before I realized the T&G sheathing issue. It is 16' x 24' with 2x6 studs at 24" OC. The outermost stud bays in the gable ends are 22.5" - 5.5" = 17" wide.



I will have to modify this to have one outer stud bay with an opening of 17" and the stud bay at the other end of the wall will be a couple inches narrower (all of the interior stud bays will remain at 22.5" wide). Note that the above pic does not show the the 3 ply 2x6 columns that will support the ends of the ridge beam. Of course those columns will also affect the stud bay dimensions.

Don_P, I am planning to implement a lot of advanced framing principles. Mostly to reduce the amount of material that needs to be hauled to the site, but partly because I like the idea. So far I have read some of Lstiburek's writings on OVE. I will check out the APA website. As you may have noticed, I am rather detail oriented so hopefully I can do justice to OVE. I will put up some of my early framing plans once I make the "T&G edits" to my width.

Going back to the floor/foundation...

Should the middle floor beam be dropped or flush, relative to the joists? I won't be running any utilities, so the dropped beam isn't as appealing/necessary. More hangers would be required for a flush beam (more squeaks?) but I would have direct load transfer from the middle ridge beam column to the middle floor beam. Another minor issue with a dropped middle floor beam is that it would require shorter stone masonry columns and the beam ends would be exposed.

Wood on wood is better construction than hanging on nails, the tie across the building is better, but either works. Blocking over the dropped girder will support the post and is good practice to support the joists against rolling.

Brings to mind a house we worked on after a fly by nighter flew. There were several heavily loaded support posts and they appeared to be sinking into the floor, yup no blocking under them, they were sagging into the subflooring that had nothing under it. When there is a point load over the blocking I paint the blocks red and write "Do not remove!" on the blocks. Another story, some tradesmen are animals.

***I moved the roof insulation discussion to the General forum. You can disregard this post but I have left it here for posterity.***


I have reviewed some of the old threads on cathedral ceiling insulation and I have reviewed the Green Building Advisor article on insulated cathedral ceilings. From that I have come up with three alternative roof insulating scenarios (vented and unvented). It seems like Option 1 and 2 would not meet code as shown below but they are a step in the right direction. Any tips on determining what the insulation thickness would need to be for the setup shown in 1 and 2 (to meet code)? I think it would be appropriate to assume -30 C (-22F) outside and 21 C (70 F) inside as the worst case. I don't really know what to assume for humidity levels. Are there any resources/references for that or can you just use the humidity provided by the weather forecaster? Keep in mind there will be very limited winter use, no showers, no laundry, wood stove heat, and no interior plumbing whatsoever. I want an insulation system that will allow me to keep some heat in the cabin for the occasional winter trip but I also don't want to create a mold/rot disaster.

I am leaning heavily toward Option 1 (or some variation - I could also add rigid foam insulation to the interior of Option 1 or 2). Part of the reason is because the upfront cost would be low because I could/would insulate some time down the road. Option 3 would have a large upfront cost. Option 2 is a slight variation of 1 with a home made rafter vent rather than a factory made vent.

Option 1


Option 2


Option 3



I have a first draft completed for the cabin plans. I will post some of the details when I get a chance. I am struggling with the interior layout. 

Here is some of the design work that I have completed so far. It is definitely a first draft and I'm sure it will change many times. I'm not really happy with the layout but it is a starting point.

Gable wall framing - no windows or doors yet. I am currently planning to balloon frame the gable end walls but I am also going to prepare some plans for a platform framed gable wall with the loft sitting on top of the lower gable wall.



Loft Framing. Nothing too exciting here. There will be a load bearing 2x4 wall supporting the loft joists at their midpoint.



Roof Framing. I have not yet decided what to do for the barge rafters. Advice would be greatly appreciated. The rafter ties and collar ties are visible in this drawing. Rafter ties will be architectural only (not structural). The collar ties will be on every other rafter pair. I don't believe this meets the new IRC but I am comfortable with this decision given the relatively low wind loading at my build location.



Here is a section view with a bunch of details. Not sure if all the details make sense or if they are proper. Let me know if anyone sees anything scary. Hopefully the finer details are visible.



And last but not least, here is version 1 of the layout. Suggestions are strongly encouraged. Note that there will be additional sleeping quarters in the loft. The "X's" between the studs are potential window locations.

Check your subfascia and fascia detail. I like to have 1/2-3/4" of the fascia dangling below the soffit to form a drip.

Double top plate the gable wall 5.5" below the roof plane and run lookouts on edge from the last inboard rafter to support the overhang and fly rafter.

I'd omit collar ties and run metal straps over the ridge connecting rafter pairs together, more headroom.

If there were a door onto a full length porch where the futon is and if the roof were a simple gable covering  house and porch there would be more room in the loft as well, and a place to hang out and keep stuff dry.

Going back to foundation, if you enclose a room between corner, center girder pier and center piers you'd pick up all kinds of lateral strength and have a good lockable generator storage place early on.

Quote from: Don_P on January 23, 2014, 08:47:34 PM
Check your subfascia and fascia detail. I like to have 1/2-3/4" of the fascia dangling below the soffit to form a drip.

Here is a more detailed view:


There is 9/16" from the bottom of the sub-fascia to the bottom of the fascia. After I use up 1/4" for the soffit there would be 5/16" remaining for a drip edge. I set it up that way so that both fascia and sub-fascia were flush with the roof sheathing. To get more than a 5/16" drip edge I would have to use a 1x8 fascia board and rip it down, correct?