Need advice

[wvwoodsman]

Hi,
I just bought the little house plans kit. I want to build it larger with the post and pier foundation. Instead of 14' x 24' .....like 16' x 30' . I also want the walls 2x6. So can i make the beams out of 2x12 and the floor joists 2x10 to beef up the extra weight? Also , can i eliminate the distance between the peirs and not use as many? If this is possible , what would the canveliver be ? Thanks, wvwoodsman

[MountainDon]

  wvwoodsman.

There is a free download that John has graciously made available for those who wish to increase the width to 16 feet. This does away with the side cantilever and positions the longitudinal beams under the side walls. The beams would be three or four 2x12. The joists would be 2x10. See the download for details.

GO Here

That drawing is for a 28 foot length. You could make that 30 feet by increasing the pier spacing to 7 feet. I believe that would be safe, but I'm not a certified engineer. John will likely check in soon on this and advise if my gut feeling is a good one or not. To increase the spacing any more would require a large increase in beam size and then you might have problems with too much ground loading on the fewer piers.

16x30 makes for a roomy small cabin as far as I'm concerned. Of course I am biased being that I built a 15.75 x 30.   

[John Raabe]

You would likely be fine going to 7' on the pier spacing assuming you don't have heavy snow loads or a heavy loft load. If so, add an extra lamination to the beam for insurance. The consequence of overloading the beams would be a temporary deflection or bending which may not even be noticed over a 7' span.

[wvwoodsman]

First thing , thanks for all your help guys ! I looked at the plans for the 16x28 cabin. So the beams are out to the edge & no need for center support ? I will start building this spring when the weather breaks. It will be in West Virginia so theres some snow and the loff will have stuff in it. So i think i may go 6' apart.Would you guys like me to send pictures as progress begins ? Also the cool thing is where is a delapataded sheep barn there already so i'm taken that down and building right where it was. I figure the ground is already settled and it a beautiful setting!  Thanks again for the plans and support. Happy Holidays to you and your familys !!!

[MountainDon]

Sure we love photos!  Anytime you have something to contribute, jump on ib.   

[wvwoodsman]

Hi Don, I clicked on your cabin link , i did'nt notice it before. Did you build that or is it still a though ? Because thats close to the way we wanted to lay ours out. I would like to send a picture of my building location , but i don't know how? Could you please explain to me how to post a picture.

                                                Thanks , wvwoodsman

[MountainDon]

Our cabin is just about a done deed. Just the bathroom to complete.

Photos are posted in messages via a third party photo hosting site. There are many, some work better for me than others. I like photobucket.com.. There is a tutorial under the forum news section. I just noticed the other day that photobucket has made some more changes to their website so some things in the tutorial are out of date. 

Once the pictures are hosted then you copy and paste the link into the message using the {IMG} tags. Then the image appears here as if by magic. 

[wvwoodsman]

Hi Don,

Ok lets see if this works.

wvwoodsman<a href="https://s848.photobucket.com/albums/ab47/wvwoodsman/?action=view&current=121.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab47/wvwoodsman/121.jpg" border="0" alt="Cabin site"></a>




ED: I edited this. I left your original attempt there. You can open this messageby clicking on the 'modify' tab and see what is the difference.  In photobucket you just need to copy the line that is called "[IMG] Code"

[MountainDon]

Looks like some nice space there.