20 x 30 Single Story in Central NY

[Squirl]

I forgot one picture.

This was my approach to how to put a center girder.



I used a 4x8x16 block on the outside. The blocks underneath are hollow for now.  I will fill them with mortar and put a J bolt on each side.  I will put a 2x4 sill plate.  The J bolt will connect to an anchor which will connect to the girder.  I went with 2x8s because they are the exact size of a concrete block.

[duncanshannon]

very nice!  a great milestone in the project, esp. considering all the moisture you had to deal with!

[SimonASNG]

Yea, congrats for persevering thru the mud.  I was reading thru it at an accelerated pace, so one storm appeared to roll in seconds after the last.  I may have been laughing with sympathy...   "Oh man, not again! How much can this poor guy take?!"    But it all worked out.  Good job on planning the masonry work.

One thing I didn't notice was any sort of foundation drain to anywhere.  I saw a gravel layer, but that was it.  Did you put in a dry well or something to take away the water or do you have some other plan?

[Squirl]

So far my only plan is to grade the dirt so that water drains away from the foundation.  If I have to I will install some type of sump system.  My problem is the property is mostly flat with no more that 24" grade.  With the bottom of the foundation at 60" there is no place for it to drain to.  A drywell is just as much of a problem.  If the soil around the foundation doesn't drain, the drywell doesn't either. 

[Squirl]

So I owed the county highway department a culvert pipe.  They installed one the last time I was here, and I had to buy a replacement so I got a weekend to go up.

The weather was nice for one day, so I got the holes drilled and the boards cut for a sill plate.  I went with 2x8s.  Next time I go back, I will remove them and install the sill insulation, which hasn't come in the mail yet.

[UK4X4]

I bet your going to be glad to up and out of those trenches !

[speedfunk]

watching the rain from the bedroom now   i just think of water wheel i can turn with all the water we get

[Squirl]

watching the rain from the bedroom now   i just think of water wheel i can turn with all the water we get

I will smile about it when I get my cistern set up.  Until then it can stop.

I still have to do the center beam.  The tarp in the center was full of water and ice.  I was hoping to get the floor on before the ice and snow.  It is what it is.

[drainl]

Hey Squirl - have you started back up on your house yet this spring?

[Squirl]

No.  Even this past weekend night time temps were below freezing.  My next step is to pour the concrete for the center beam posts.  I have something planned this weekend, but I have next weekend scheduled.  Thank you for asking.

[Squirl]

So I got back to work last month.



Next I needed to add a sill plate to the pocket where the center beam that runs don the center of the house will sit in. I filled the holes with mortar and sunk the piece of pressure treated 2x material that I cut out of the sill plate above it.  I used a cut piece of 2x8 to level it with the sides so that the center beam will be level with the tops of the sill plates around the outside concrete walls.



I measured where the outside of the center beam should be and ran a string to keep a center line



I spaced five 16" x 16" square posts 5 feet on center down the 30 foot center of the building.  I should have been more accurate at this step.  I was off up to 2 inches in a few.  It won't affect it structurally, it just looks funny.



I tamped gravel under the form. Filled with a little concrete.  Added 12" #4 rebar and filled with more concrete.

[Squirl]

I then mortared and leveled some 8"x8" blocks in.  The 6x6 post on the wall I used to help line up the blocks with the string.




As you can see here I had to trim the post slightly to fit the bracket.  I had to use an 8" J bolt because there was no sill plate over the bracket. In the background is the block that was farthest off center from the footing. You can see the 2" on one side and 6" on the other.  Not pretty, but it still evenly distributes over a 12x12 base, which is more than enough by my load calculations.  The 16x16 was only for added safety margins.



All posts in place waiting to be trimmed. What you don't see is after I mortared them in place is I had to unbolt the posts from the bracket. Tighten the bracket bolt to the blocks, then rebolt and naile each post back in the bracket.  Also all the blocks are filled!  That was a full day of work, but I am glad I did it.

[MountainDon]

Also all the blocks are filled!

I'll bet that feels good!   

[pmichelsen]

Seems weird seeing your build site with dry ground  . Looks like you're making good progress.

[Squirl]

Yes.  Feels pretty good.  I've started slowing down a bit and enjoying the process.

A little water collects, but nothing like the hurricanes.  I still have a little bit of grading to do to drain the water away from the house.

[Squirl]

I built little concrete blocks and mortared in the girder for the crawlspace.



I built up the center beam out of 3-2x8s and 1-1x8 because they were the excact size of a row of blocks.



I put the sill seal on and bolted down the sill plates. The foundation is done.

[drainl]

Looking good!  Especially minus all the mud.   

[new land owner]

Nice to see another New Yorker back to work.

[AdironDoc]

Nice progress Squirl. You've got a nice spot there with a view of those rolling hills I see. I pass Otsego each time I'm headed up to my own camp just north of Herkimer. Takes me 4 hrs from Long Island on average, and by the time I'm passing the Cooperstown turnoff, I'm thinking, the lucky devils living here would be home already! The only solution I see is moving closer to the cabin    Keep the progress photos coming..

Doc

[Squirl]

Thank you all for the support.



I cut all the boards to fit the outside rim joists.  I nailed the rim joist to the joists at the corners.



I made micro corrections in the placement of the boards to get it square.  I then toe nailed the rim joists all into place.



I measured every 24 inches off the north side and 24 inches off of the sistered joist on the south side.



I then marked every 24 inches down the center beam.  I only had to do this for the north side, because the south side joists would be sistered against these. This is a better picture of the center beam too.



North side done.



I spaced the south side sill bolts the same as the north forgetting that the joists were offset 1.5 inches.  It doesn't violate any code schedules, but an amateur mistake.



Fire blocking installation.

[ColchesterCabin]

Holy crow Squirl I just read the thread here at work and it is very inspirational to see you come through all that. Now you can see the fruits of your labour show. I can't wait until I get back to my build next weekend hopefully, might even get the walls up, who knows.

[Squirl]

Ran the water line.



Subfloor glue



1/8th inch gap and 2" nail spacing of 2.5" galvanized full head nails.



Blocking on the cut short edge.  Due to imperfect tongue and groove placement all but 10ft overlapped the rim joist by 1/4 inch.  I blocked the rest.



Finished subfloor.

[drainl]

Awesome - congrats on the floor!

[new land owner]

Any updates?

Always nice to see what else is going on in NYS.

[offthegridcortland]

Looking good.  I see that last post was a month ago.  You may have walls up by now.  The people are waiting and need to be fed!   Putting up that subfloor is a double-edged sword- it's so flat and clean and nice and you can envision how your project will come together.  But it also feels amazingly vulnerable to have all that work sitting out in the elements.  You sure don't look at rain the same.