phew, well, after spending most of the day yesterday on the phone, i wound up calling the magnolia building dept. and they
said i'd have better luck calling tomball, which i did, this is what i now have
6x6x18' post (high side)
6x6x16' post (low side)
embeded 3' on a 14" footer with anchor bolts, spaced 8' o.c.
rafters 2x8x16'
2x4 stringers
the one question i forgot to ask the very nice fella at the tomball building dept. was backfilling with pea gravel, or solid concrete
my resesarch shows that the posts will be weakest at that point, and we should just backfill with gravel, but i checked an old
book out of the library that shows them sinking the posts in solid concrete
thoughts?
still no word on tring to get an updated bid for power to the property, but i know folks are busy, and i'm not the only human
on the planet, so i'll give them more time before i try calling again
tesa
If concrete is poured around and under a wood post, water will accumulate around the post and rot it away. It is possible to put a layer of gravel in the bottom of the hole, then set the post and pour cement around it. That way the water running down the sides of the post has a way to escape at the bottom.
If the ground is good and solid, not loose like sand, and will support the sides of the posts, it's likely that using gravel under and packed around the posts in the hole would be the best method.
Diagonal braces between the tops of your posts and the beam between them along both sides will go a long way to stabilize your structure. On the ends, I would look at putting a level 2x8 or 2x10 from the low side to the high side, so a triangle is created between the sloped rafter and the level end plank. That area could then be gusseted with plywood to resist side-to-side movement.
great, so i shouldn't use a footer?
i understand the idea of water, and giving it room to drain away
this is great news!!
thank you so much
tesa
The last item on this page is something similar to what Harry is talking about - but it's post and pier.
http://countryplans.com/foundation/index.html
One especially important thing mentioned in the link Glenn posted is to be sure to get ground contact pressure treated posts.
tesa, I know this forum is about building it yourself and all, and I don't mean to discourage you from doing so. However, you might want to also look at these guys in Houston. If nothing else, you might get some ideas from what they offer to duplicate.
http://www.movablewoodbuildings.net/carports.htm
wow, great link! thanks
for our size, their RV covers are a bit out of our budget, since we need something wide enough to open up the slide outs
while we live in it to build, thats why the odd depth, unopened, the RV is only 11' wide, but with the slide out, its around 15'
regardless, i'm gonna contact them with some questions,
thanks again!
tesa
Whoa! 11 feet wide? Are you sure? That seems very wide. Standard road lanes are 12'. I think most restrictions for vehicles on roads are not to exceed 102" with some exceptions. You might want to check that dimension.
Regards,
Frank
102" (8'6") is the maximum over the road RV width as far as I know. The mirrors make its effective width greater. Local jurisdictions can limit width to 96" and in some places there is a special outside or tire to outside of tire limit of 108".
sorry for the delay in replying, i've been offline for a few days, well, more than a few days, but regardless
we wanted it that wide 'cause we wanna open up the slide out since we'll be living in it
with the slide out closed, its like 11'wide, but with the slide out open, its like 15'
we want to harvest rainwater, so we thought the best thing to do was build a shed for the RV, that way
we sort of kill two birds, one we need a cover for the RV anyway, and two, we need the water
tesa