14x36 in Northwest Arkansas

[jdhen]

Hello all!  I bought the Big Enchilada plans several years ago with plans to build on a piece of land that fell through.  Well, this spring my wife and I closed on 9 acres outside of Fayetteville in Northwest Arkansas and we've finally started to build!

For the past month and a half I've worked on the pole barn so that I'd have a place to store lumber and tools in a dry location. 



Also we plan to collect rainwater off of the roof so we've placed 4 poly tanks totaling 6400 gallons inside the barn to protect the poly from the sun.

I placed the ridge cap last weekend and seamless gutters should be placed soon so collection should begin soon.  The only problem is I hate to hope for rain when I'm starting to frame and it will likely be quite a while before I get dried in!

The block foundation was completed earlier this week and yesterday I set the mudsills in place (no pics of that yet)



I really have very little experience except for a few small framing jobs.  I've purchased almost all of the recommended books and I hope to rely heavily on the experts here.
So.......
here's the first of many questions:  Are diagonals 3/8's of an inch off something to be worried about?  The foundation itself was 3/4 inch out of square so with the sills I've been able to correct it by 3/8's but I don't see how to make it perfect.  When I snapped my lines for the sills everything looked great but after placing the sills.....    All of the measurements- front to back and side to side are perfect and if I move the sills anymore it will affect those dimensions.  Is it worth it to make the anchor bolt holes bigger so I have more play in them or should I just leave it and be satisfied?
Some of the books I have indicate anything under 1/4 inch is de facto perfect so should I sweat that 1/8th?

[Redoverfarm]

Nice looking layout of the land.  Using a steel 100 ft tape and diagonal measurements you should be able to tweak it a little closer.  It will not hurt to widen the anchor holes in the sill as long as they are not on the edge of the sill. Just put a larger plate or washer on top to keep the anchor nut from falling through.  Yes it is a little time consuming but the "out of square" will be transfered all the way to the roof and haunt you through the framing amd finishing process.  If you can widen the bolt holes in the sill to the direction that you need to go and using a piece of ply at the corners (4)secured you will be able to shift the sill without affecting the corners being square.  Then when you are closer then remove the ply and recheck. 

[bgarrett]

Would it be good to place the water storage tanks as high as possible so they will drain without having to be pumped out?

[poppy]

  Nice looking place you have there.

I would think that it would be a good idea to elevate the water tanks a little.  And boy, that sounds like a lot of water.

Unless the pics are tricking my eye, it appears that the barn is down hill in a slope.  If so, do you have drainage provisions that divert water away from the barn?

The same drainage question applies to the house foundation.

On the out-of-square question, is the sill plate wide enough to do some adjustment with the walls?

You made a smart choice to build the barn first. 

[travcojim]

Looks like around the West Fork area?

[jdhen]

John, I took your advice and continued to work at squaring up the sills and I'm happy to report that I was able to make it perfect!  The diagonals are now the same as are the rest of the dimensions.  I will have to get larger washers as you mentioned for one section that did require much larger holes to make the needed adjustment.  I also added a termite barrier and sill foam sealant under the sill plate.  Will be starting the floor joists hopefully next week!

Poppy- the barn is on a slope but I've positioned it so it's on a saddle of sorts and the grade drops away from each of the long sides.  At the upper short side the land levels out some so drainage has not been an issue.  We've had some good downpours recently and no water has run into the structure.  Still I plan to add a swale at the upper side to prevent this ever occuring.

As far as the tanks go, each one sits about 4-6 inches lower than the previous one and they are sloped slightly downhill toward their respective drain port.  Cleaning should be fairly easy.  On that note, however, I've visited recently a guy in a neighboring state who's been collecting water for the past 10 years and has not had to clean his tanks once.  He never filters and the water runs into his house with gravity pressure.  I tasted it and it was quite good!

Someone knows their topography quite well- I'm about 3 miles from West Fork.

[Redoverfarm]

 jdhen just a simple word of advice.  Yeah it's free around here.  That is if you used Pressure treated lumber for your sill and used aluminum termite guard they are not compatable.  The chemicals in the PT lumber will corrode the aluminum and eventually it will fall apart.  There is a simple solution and that is to use 30# felt paper(tar paper) between the two.  That will eliminate the reaction to the aluminum. 

[Mike 870]

How far should the termite guard overlap either the  blocks or the sill?  Should it fold up or down or not at all?

[Redoverfarm]

30 degree angled down. Supposeably at that angle they will fall off if they attempt to climb any higher.  On mine I put it the width of the block + 1" on the outside.  That is just what mine worked out as I took a full roll and bandsawed it in half to do the entire house foundation.  Another reason to run it at least half the width of your block is so the weight of the house will hold it in place.

[jdhen]

John, I very much appreciate that piece of advice.  I had no idea that could be a problem.  I'm glad there's the easy fix. Tell me this- I have several rolls of 15 lb.  If I place 2 layers of that is it the same as one layer of 30lb?  Just curious...

[Redoverfarm]

jdhen I would say 15# will work OK. I just am prone to 30# because of the weight.  Basicly it is just a moisture barrier to keep the aluminum from making contact with the PT lumber. When I found out about this it was suggested I could use copper flashing.  As copper would not react with the PT.  Right $$$$ .   I did however use it as an underlayment on hardwood floor because elevation was an issue.  

[jdhen]

I'll just get some 30lb to be on the safe side.  It's not like it's expensive.  I'm glad to know about this now but I sure hate to undue all that work!  Everything's perfect!!
When I'd done a search for termite guards I came across the copper ones and I thought what a ridiculous expense!  Now I get it.....

[Redoverfarm]

You can probably just loosen the sill bolts , raise up the sill plate and slide the felt in.  I would mark the location of the sill in respect to the block location to make sure you get it back in place. Just a felt tip marker would probably work.

[poppy]

Jesse, looks like you have the drainage under control, and the swale is a smart thing to do.

John, good info. there on the termite guard.  I plan to use aluminum and the 30# felt seems like a good inexpensive solution to prevent corrosion.  I will also use it between the PT lumber and the galv. ties.

[MountainDon]

Just a note if anyone is interested in pursuing copper. Try Storm Copper. They do not sell termite shield, per se, however they sell all sorts of copper materials, sheet, rod, bar, etc. . They are fast shippers too.

[NM_Shooter]

Ever make it out to Lake Weddington? 

[jdhen]

I've enjoyed several nice hikes out there but I haven't been recently.  Sometime I'd like to take the longer hike out to the Illinois river overlook.

[jdhen]

I started framing the floor today.  It's gone well for the most part but I'm having some trouble I need help with. 
Last week the sill plates were reasonably level within acceptable tolerances but we had some heavy rains that caused some of them to cup and warp badly.  Now when I placed my band/ header joist it's not sitting flush because of the cupping and general warping of the plates. I picked the best straightest lumber I had in the pile so I don't think it's bowing that's causing the problem. I haven't been able to make it sit flush with toenailing or even standing on it (I'm not sure how that would work anyway as I'm working alone and don't think I could nail while standing on the joist)
In several spots there's a gap from 1/16th up to close to 1/4 inch between the sill and band joist.

I'm guessing it will settle over time but in the mean time it's making the band and the floor joists not sit level.  Some of them are either lower or higher in relation to the band.


For the ones that are higher, do I lift them flush with the band and end nail them and expect them to settle over time so that they will bear on the sill plate?  Or do I shim them? 
  For the joists that sit higher than the band (only a few do this due to asymetrical cupping of the sill) do I chisel out the difference in the sill plate so that they sit flush with the band?
None of the joists are nailed in yet since I wanted to wail until I figured out the best way to proceed.
Thanks!

[NM_Shooter]

Don't take this wrong.

Repeat after me:   "I am not building furniture". 

A quarter inch proud might be a bit of an issue, but how many of those do you have?

If the deflection is only near the rimjoists, the amount of deflection reduces quickly as you move away from the joist. 

I would shim the ones that are not in contact with the sill plate, and ignore the high ones (okay, it might be hard to ignore 1/4").  Once you get your deck down you'll never notice them again.  After the whole thing is loaded down, and it dries out and stabilizes, you'll be fine.

You could chisel the sill out for the high ones, but guess what... as the moisture changes, the amount of cupping will too. 

[jdhen]

I think that's part of the problem.  Most of my experience working with wood has been building furniture.  Thanks for reminding me that this is not a custom cabinet! 

[bayview]

   Shim the low, and undercut the high floor joists so they are all level . . . Otherwise you will have "high" spots when erecting the walls.  This will transfer all the way up through the roof.


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[considerations]

I had a place where there was a gap between the rim joist and one of the 2 floor beams. It was because the floor beam was a little warped.  As the cabin progressed, walls went up, roof went on, that gap disappeared....probably from all the weight.  It was a gradual thing, and sort of fun to watch the progress.  My floor is still level.  My guess is that the same will happen with your lumber. 

[jdhen]

Thanks for the replies.  I did buy some shims today and will use them to set everything level and will keep in mind that it doesn't have to be perfect and that some things will resolve as the building progresses. 
"I'm not making furniture......I'm not making furniture"

[jdhen]

I'm making progress slowly but surely.  Over the past week I've finished framing the floor of the north porch and began laying the Advantech decking today.  Everything's going smoothly so far.



I picked out my framing lumber and expect to take delivery later this week. 
I looked into wall jacks for raising the frame but no one in this area rents them out.  I think I'll just frame the walls in 12 ft sections.  The walls are 12 feet tall so even 12 feet will be heavy. A neighbor of mine who's a framer suggested I leave the headers out until the walls are erected.  It's tough for me to get enough people together at one time so I'd like to keep it manageable.  It will likely be me and one other person.
Anyone have any thoughts on the best approach here?

[Redoverfarm]

 jdhen strike you a chalk line where the interior of the plat will go. Then place your plate (outside bottome edge) on that line. Take 10d nail and toenail the plate to the subfloor.  This will allow the wall to be raised and the plate will not slide.  Have a couple of 2X ready to use for bracing temporaily holding while you plumb.  It is nice to have your sheeting attached but this will add to your weight.  Be nice if that farmer would lend a hand with a bucketed tractor.  I noticed that you have a portion of the joist headed off. Is that for a flue? Good progress.