piers/crawlspace/slab questions

[mcompton1973]

I have a question on foundation and footings.  Im going to build larger than the plans here...but will do as much work as possible myself...I know there are several owner builders here and so value the input.

Here is my situation. 

I live in Oklahoma.  Between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.  I live in a county with no codes or permitting.  I am on a small hill.  There is rock around 18-24 inches below the dirt.  The ground slopes a bit.  What I would LIKE to do is build a 30' wide by 50' long building and the long part would extend as the ground falls away.  So I would say that the ground falls about 4' across the 50' length.  (I will try and run a level tomorrow to verify that).

I wanted to do piers setting on the rock because to my simple mind, it would be easier to do myself and less costly.  I am just not sure it is deep enough.  I dont think there is a practical way to level the land and do a slab without an extensive retaining wall etc.  My original home plan was a pole barn, but I would need a slab AND need to dig into the rock for the poles, so that is out.  lol.  So maybe that leaves a crawl space of some sort?  Maybe dig down to flat and have a small percentage of the house below grade on a slab?

[DaveOrr]

My cabin I'm building is 24X36 and the drop from front to back along the long (36') side is similar to your project.
I am also on bedrock and am running pressure treated piers pinned into the rock.
Front left corner is 4' 8" to the 1st floor deck and the back right is 9 1/2' to the deck.
Here are some images to see my design.
I drilled 1" holes 8" deep into the rock to secure the saddles to attach my piers to.
They are held in and leveled using non-shrink grout.











This is where I'm at so far.



I made a water level to set the height of all my piers and it worked out awesome.