20x30 cabin

[jbiehl]

Believe me I have done my share of moving over the years lol and a queen size mattress has recently been involved (cant keep sleeping on my trusty futon anymore) lol. The way I hope to move the mattress is and eventually out (future add on plans) is to take down the railing of the stairs (and later put back up) to give it a lot more of an angle and slide in the mattress through the doorway, into the walk in closet and then back out into the bedroom. That was surely one thing I was thinking of when i designed the upstairs lol

Another note, I just downloaded the Texas Residential code on PDF, over 42mb at 597 pages . Might be a good lil' read  But I did check that the section on stairways was exactly the same as the link you provided 

[MountainDon]

If you could post the D/L link it could be useful to other Texans. Thanks.

[jbiehl]

Of course!

http://www.archive.org/details/gov.tx.residential

All i did to save it, easier than to have it completely load, was to open the PDF form on the left and then hit the save button right away so it will just save rather than having to load first. There is also other options for just text (no diagrams) or even to download to kindle! Gotta keep up with the times i suppose lol

[phalynx]

Just to make the reading more fun, look into the law in TX that says there is no building official unless it is an incorporated area.  Counties are specifically denied the ability to have building inspectors.  There are state permits/inspectors if someone else builds your house but not if you do.

[jbiehl]

and probably when you go to try and sell your self-made home.... and how exactly would insurance roll into that, structural insurance lasts about 7-12 years right? so if you have no inspector, how would you be able to get that insurance? or would it just godly high premiums? I suppose I am going to have to look into that as well then.

[phalynx]

My agent came out, looked over the house and wrote a policy.  Houses are sold all the time without building inspector approvals. 

[jbiehl]

No kidding, a lot different from Ohio then, when we sold our place up there we had 3-4 inspectors come out to check things over, granted we sold it to the relocation company and they wanted to make sure they aren't taking on too much risk but still. 

[CjAl]

God bless TX.

just highlights the reasons i left WI for TX

[phalynx]

Texas, a couple of counties in Idaho, and just a handful of counties in TN are the only ones left in the country without permits, inspectors and impact fees.  Idaho and TN had septic permits.  TX, only some counties have septic permits (some are just too small to support a septic permit/inspector)

TX ended up being the last place left.  We looked at a variety of states for relocation years ago.

[texasgun]

God bless TX

[jbiehl]

^^^ agreed, atleast we are finally getting some rain, it was gettin pretty bad there for a bit.

[jbiehl]

So I had some spare time this weekend and sat down to add window headers to my design and finalize a few other aspects while I have this rare time 
Let me know if I overkilled it a bit or if you have any concerns.

[jbiehl]

Re-Designed the stairs, to fit how I would like it, it will be 13 Runs of 9~1/2" and 14 Rises of 7~5/32". w/ a 3' wide path of travel (3'x6' landing)

(The image just shows it at  9~1/2" and 7.)

[Don_P]

The window drawing needs some work, too much wood but not in the right places.
The king stud, 1 on each side, full height sole plate to top plate.
Jack stud, typically 1 per side up to 6' wide opening, unbroken from sole plate to bottom of header.
Cripples, on layout, plus I like 1 under each side of the sill, 1 trimmer per side up to the window top, i cripple per side up to the header.
Some guys like to double the sill as well to make nailing the casing trim easier.

[jbiehl]

How is this for an example/design?



Designed

[Squirl]

Normally I see it like don had said the jack stud (the stud supporting the header) straight down to the bottom and not broken by the sill.

[jbiehl]

Gotchya, so something like this then?

[Squirl]

That is usually how I see it.

[jbiehl]

ya after seeing it, it makes alot of sense to have it built that way than the way I had it.

[jbiehl]

So I have a bit of a question.

With a basement like pictured below, that is only partially covered by soil, in an area where the soil is practically all clay, "Houston Black", would it be less prone to the shrinking and expanding soil movement from the various dry to wet months Texas has versus a fully covered basement? Or would it have no affect to the shifting clay material?

[John Raabe]

For clay soils (especially those that freeze) the key is to have good drainage material between the outside basement wall and the soil. This drainage material should be protected from silting up and have a footing drain to daylight. That way water can be carried away and the freezing clay will not be able to get a bite on the wall. There are combination insulation and drainage material panels that are used in Canada.

The height of the backfill doesn't make much difference except for where the freeze zone is.

[jbiehl]

Well its texas, so freezing is not something im too concerned with, my concern is the shrinking and expanding the soil has when it goes from being wet, to extremely dry. Where I am in texas we have about 7 days a year where it gets below freezing, and not all at the same time. I was planning on going from a post and beam foundation but I saw a lot of other buildings with the basements like the picture above and I really liked it. Its a thought, maybe only wishful thinking but I just want to figure out if with the type of soil I have in the area if a basement is even logical.

[MountainDon]

I just want to figure out if with the type of soil I have in the area if a basement is even logical.

Local engineer

[jbiehl]

So I dug a bit deeper into my question and found a company nearby that deals with foundations, framing and inspections and they had this to say:

"For increased performance or where anticipated soils movements are particularly high, foundations may be suspended above the ground, isolated from the movement of the soil by waxed carton forms. Two common types of suspended foundations are the pier and beam and the carton form suspended slab. All suspended foundations are supported by piers."

So I suppose my original thoughts on the pier and beam foundation are what I am going to keep in my designs. With the proper maintenance, (keeping the correct soil moisture either with self watering or foundation system installed) I could go practically any route, pier and beam just seems most logical for this project. 

[MountainDon]

Two common types of suspended foundations are the pier and beam and the carton form suspended slab. All suspended foundations are supported by piers."

So I suppose my original thoughts on the pier and beam foundation are what I am going to keep in my designs. With the proper maintenance, (keeping the correct soil moisture either with self watering or foundation system installed) I could go practically any route, pier and beam just seems most logical for this project. 

By pier and beam I think those guys mean something different than the typical pier and beam foundation commonly found here. Or am I wrong on that?    Seems to me I recall something about the beams meaning poured concrete perimeter beams and I forget what else. Or I could be thinking of something else altogether.