(pic intensive!!!) A general hello and my "soon to be" underground project....

Started by jeramiez, January 29, 2011, 11:15:23 PM

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jeramiez

sorry Glenn... you lost me there.... LOL   ???
was that a response to me asking about the wood on our land.....   d*
it's been a while so I'm not sure... lets get back on track...
apparently my jokes don't quite interpret well on-line... lol  

jeramiez

so... what I get from Glenns last response is that although I might be dealing with what I have found online is determined to be "hardwood" I can't use it unless I reduce the load... but wait... it's hardwood.... not to be a prick here, but wait... it's hardwood...  so I should be able to increase the load...

or am I WAY confused.....??????


glenn kangiser

Well Jeremie... I don't know what to say except that sometimes soft wood is more durable than hard wood.  Possibly because it has more flex to it, it is not prone to sudden failure.... and you know, you don't even want to go there.... [waiting]

Quote
What Is Hardwood?

Don't let the name fool you; hardwood is not necessarily strong wood. Hardwood comes in various shapes, colors, and strengths.

Due to the seed process, hardwood (generally) has more density than softwood. This can often make it better for jobs that need support or strength. This does not mean that it will always be the best choice for strength, however. Balsa wood is a fairly brittle wood that is considered hard. There are various types of hardwood that could be good for your project. These include Oak, Cherry, Beech, and Maple. This also includes wood such as Ash, Holly, Boxwood, Ebony, and Mahogany.


What Is Softwood?

Softwood does not always mean "soft", as in weak. Softwood often refers to the fact that it is "softer" than hardwood, meaning that it is easier to bend and ply without breaking. While soft and malleable, it is still durable and strong. There are various types of softwood, but the most popular are Cypress, Larch, and any Evergreen tree.

Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/softwood-vs-hardwood--whats-best-for-your-project#ixzz1KPEMeuYp

That site is for furniture, but Mikes engineer specified specific wood types so I would still reduce loading when dealing with unknown wood qualities unless you research it and find it to be superior in strength to the wood the engineer specified.. That's just my view , and of course... I am not an engineer... [ouch]
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

jeramiez

Gotcha Glenn...  I'll look into it..... 


still mad about the sundials though... LOL   :P

jeramiez

a long time since an update.... 

Been busy boxing up the two housholds that will eventually become one... and saving money for the u-haul caravan that we will take in the beginning of July...

Found out recently that due to the severe weather Missouri has had the past few months, the main road to the land we purchased "washed away"...  it seemed to be seepage rock filling in an old run-off creek bed anyway....  Thinking culverts might be something to consider down the road...

Other than that... it's just been getting ready for the big move...

but we are still out here, still breathing, still planning and researching....

and getting really tired of taping boxes.... LOL


glenn kangiser

"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

jeramiez

Well, we are on our way... cleared out the house we are in, secured a place to live near our land...  tonight and tomorrow we finish loading the u-haul trailer and start the 14hr trip that begins this great adventure!!!!

astidham

"Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice"
— Henry Ford

jeramiez

A quick update from my phone, more and pics to come when I can locate my laptop...
Got up to mo just fine though it was slow going...
Secured a 28' travel traier on a property nearby that's not being used, a generator powerful enough to run everything but the a/c...
Unloaded the u-haul into a storage unit in town and set up camp...
Around day three I built a log structure holding a tote rigged with a garden hose to act as a temporary gravity fed solar shower and my 3 pit barBQ kitchen... lol
Scouted the land and found a perfect location for the house, marked a rough area to dig out and started removing some of the smaller trees...
Found a travel trailer that needs restoration for a few hundred bucks which will include having it moved to a small temporary spot near the build site...
Found out someone used to grow grapes up here a long time ago, but the vines have gone wild and are spred over the mountain, apparently in spring you can gather a good harvest...
Christy got her first tick of many and apparently horseflies think she's yummy....


glenn kangiser

"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

speedfunk

thats pretty awesome.  Glad you are moving closer.  To build that house with a 16 hour drive I would imagine to be really tricky.  Stay positive.  Living in the travel trailer is not that bad...except the fact it heats up like a tin can and cools off like one to.  I know my wife and I our looking forward to getting into a high mass thermally sound home lol. 

GL with the next stages!!

jeramiez

Let's see if I can figure out how to get these from photobucket to here with my phone...






UK4X4


With so many rocky shelf outcroppings

have you worried about depth ?

Ie the soil thats there seems to be only lightly covering the bedrock

One of the eroded vally's or the groto may end up being the only spots where you could dig in using the existing depth change from one shelf to the next and scap soil up and arround the sides, with the natural rock as the rear wall


jeramiez

It was something we considered... the rock outcroppings end mostly around 800 ft and we plan to build around 920 ft with the creek at 740 ft... the land near the ridge is mostly rock littered clay... C wanted to use one of the rock outcroppings as a natural wall, but we found that they drip and seep a  lot of water durring the wetter seasons so it seemed impractical...

I do think the initial dig will definately lead us to discover what's actually under the top layer and we may find ourselves mostly berming as an alternative...


glenn kangiser

Looks like fun, Jeramie, and I see you have the barbecue going..... that's the important thing.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

jeramiez

Just a quick update and more pics to come soon I hope...

Well, things have changed a bit but for the better and should be moving along a bit more soon...

As luck would have it a 20 acre parcel on the other side of the lower creekside easement road came available... and the advantages outweighed the negatives so we ended up signing a purchase agreement...

Met the guy who owns the land that the easement road dead ends into... nice guy, owns 200 acres he treats like a nature preserve... liked what we were planning on doing especially since we were keeping the big power lines out of the equation... dropped off a couple packages of beef short ribs, checked up on us after a pretty good thunder storm, and offered us a chainsaw he no longer has use for...
He also informed us the the creek has a tendency to wash out the road a bit during heavier spring rains and can be impassable for a few days... not cool...

Taking that into account and some other things mentioned by folks here, the new parcel seemed to fit a better bill... less large rock outcroppings with the ground mostly fist size and smaller rocks and clay... better access on the east side easment road with more of the creek and creek road to the west at the bottom of the slope facing our first purchase, a good clearing to set up a basecamp, and an outhouse less then 4 months old... LOL

Spoke with the guy that grades the road and fills the washouts and he mentioned that a spot on the parcel where he used to get road fill is down to a good clay base that should hold water and make a nice spot for a pond...

Did a rough flag marking of where we want the house on the new property, saving the old site for a later build or a little get-away cabin down the road... and looking to start cutting down trees this coming week...

Took a bunch of pics, but working from my phone at the moment, so will post them soon...

glenn kangiser

"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

KLF

Quote from: jeramiez on January 31, 2011, 02:51:15 AM
A plan related question for the masses:
...
on further thought, locating the bathrooms at the lower end of the house might place them closer to the 'considered' spot of the septic system below the house...  
(and allow for easier modification of the model....  he he he)
but no other real benefit that I currently see...




I actually registered here because I wanted to share my thoughts here but I kinda forgot... Fixing that now.

I liked this setup because first thing that came in my mind was simple central heating with water radiators. Granted, it probably is overkill* but similar has worked in my parent's house built in the 1932. System has no water pump, just the furnace is in the basement and hot water goes up to the living floor radiators and returns when it's cold. Because this house is planned to be elevated at one end, that setup would also work.

* I have no idea how hot/cold it can be there. We have enjoyed here almost +35C summers and -35C winters in the last two years. Even colder in Lappland part of Finland.

This system basically heated all hot water used. At first furnace was burning both wood and oil but I hardly remember ever oil being used, I do remember well carrying all the wood though. When I moved out ~20 years ago, they switched to oil after couple weeks that winter. I felt cheated a bit :D

Since my parents are nearing 60 now, system has been slowly upgraded in the last years. Electric heater for smaller water tank was added to allow showering at summertime without need to put on fire. Furnace was upgraded to use pellets instead of wood, oil wasn't been used for years before that.

As far as I remember, the house was originally built without running water, it had not wc but an outhouse behind the barn. The whole central heating was retrofitted later (60's) and a toilet added in the main floor, shower and sauna was built in the basement.

Trivia bit:
Last summer a movie was shot there and it made local newspaper at least (http://www.ts.fi/online/talous/150947_515h.jpg). Still waiting for premiere, should be in january 2012.
Since the house was built right after WW2, the foundation is really thick stone outside (about 40x40x70cm pieces) with concrete inside and the basement is designed to be shelter. Just add sandbags to the small windows in the foundation.

I don't mean that you should now do system as this is but it might give ideas to someone else reading these boards like I have done for a while now.

muldoon

Quote from: jeramiez on July 25, 2011, 10:35:40 PM
Let's see if I can figure out how to get these from photobucket to here with my phone...




[cool] 
nice to see what I believe is an old school New Braunsfels "hondo" smoker owner. 

I have a few smokers myself but love that particular design.



jeramiez

It is indeed a New Braunsfels Hondo... brought with me from Texas, picked up years ago in Scherts, right outside New Braunsfels... (and San Antonio) it was one of the few items I insisted on bringing, (even over more shovels... lol)
As I was putting it in the trailer, Christy was asking if I "had" to bring it.... my simple answer was "um, yeah..." lol she is glad I did now though!
It has served me well over the years and hopefully will continue to do so...

(Hers is the boxy thing made by charcoal or something... it works as a decent backup I guess... LOL)

Nice pics by the way! Glad you shared them!


jeramiez

@KLF... thanks for your post! I had an uncle who built his house incorporating copper coils in the subfloor which he could circulate hot water from his water heater to provide radiant heat, a similar idea... not sure which method we will land on when the time comes but it's great to have as many ideas as possible!

KLF

Trying to be useful here  :D

Underfloor heating was considered here as premium before and usually it was found only in bathrooms, if at all. It's more common now in new houses though, relative price has come down. However I think it's usually electric.

Most houses built from 60's to 80's had their water pipes built into the walls but since the 90's they are left visible. Reason for that is pretty simple, it's easier to detect leaks when water pours on the floor instead of inside the wall. My current apartment house I live in was built in -76.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0TJyqY2HnlI/TkwsDZ7wMiI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/0B2j4rmEjlQ/s576/IMAG0261.jpg

Snapped a picture from my kitchen corner. Thermostat, little bit radiator and some water pipes that disappear into the floor... (this is actually 9th floor apartment, first in my family to live so high... :D). Windows were replaced couple years before I moved in. They don't fit 100% and they snap, crackle and pop when sun heats them and again when they cool down after sundown. That's the reason for the crack under the window.

I also edited my previous post, as mom called and I remembered to ask some details. That house was actually built in 1932, before the war (but expecting one) and water pipes were added 30 years later in the 60's.

jeramiez

KLF, wouldn't you know it, went into town today to just poke around since the kids are in school for their second day and we could have some "adult" shopping time...  the town we went to only has like 900 people, but they have a second hand thrift store, the old school "looks like a disorganized yard sale inside" kind, (we asked them what the huge wheel and chain set up in the back corner was and they informed us it was the manually operated elevator to the basement...) and in the far back,  there were 2 rather large, i'd say 2.5 feet tall and close to 4 feet long radiators, asked about them and were told they were the old steam radiators for heating that came out of the old school house.... wouldn't have even thought to ask about them before... they were reasonably priced and we plan to pick them up next week if they are still there... looks like we might use it for part of the system anyway...

KLF

That sounds great. I'm really looking forward to see how your project advances, I've been interested in underground-ish building myself as a thought.

I think I have a bad habit to write a lot and still forget what I was saying ;D

My main thought in one sentence was: "Properly designed system will work without electricity, so it's perfect for off-the-grid system." Just in case someone else reads this thread and wonders what the eff I'm babbling here with my long replies.


jeramiez

Lol, don' worry, your making perfect sence.  And trust me when I say that I have been called wordy on more than one occasion!

Well, with winter right around the corner, we have focused on our rebuild project... rebuild is probably too gentle of a word here...

The travel trailer we bought felt it time to truley show us why we got it so cheap in that almost all the wood was rotted out.... spent most of the past week do a little more than gutting it... we got it down to the iron flatbed frame, setting aside anything and everything that was salvagable, from windows and doors to screws and hinges...

The next step is to start building on it...

We moved the frame over to a side spot on the
new 20 and drew up some rough plans for a 10 x 30 cabin to bebuild on top of it...

Now the fun begins...