Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[daugen]

What a gorgeous place to live. And nice JD too with the forestry capability.
You've got us all dreaming.

[wmonroe]

Beautiful view! Your truck/trailer look good all loaded up with the load of logs. Do the walls just sit on the gravel or do you pour footers?

[pclausen]

Day 26

Yes, it is my understanding that the walls sit directly on the gravel and are then tied together. Will found out Monday exactly how they do it!

I got the hardwood logs unloaded 1st thing this morning:



I then went back to get the rest of them:



All loaded up. Here you can also see that they brought one more load of gravel for any needed "touch-up":



They got a nice thick base on which to stand the walls on. Looks to be about 6".



They marked the corners where the walls will sit.



Unloaded the rest of the hardwood. I think I got a couple of folks interested now. I'll lay it out for easy cutting if/when they get here.



Got the trailer all cleaned up and converted back to 'regular duty'.



Went back over to the lot just to clean up a little of the loose stuff by hand and snapped a few pics of the "locals"







And finally a few shots from across the pasture showing the lot from a distance.





Here's close to the same shot from back in April of 2006:

[Scooter78]

Great looking place you got their and awesome thread I am really enjoying it.

[dave1949]

Ooh, that's pretty. Never lived in that area, but after traveling through one summer, I've always thought the VA climate where you are tucked up against the Blue Ridge, and up off the coastal plain, must be quite nice. It sure was a relief to get there after being on the coast. The heat, bugs and humidity were much more to my liking.

[SPIKER]

Very nice for sure. Be sure they DO compact that well and should have some THICK plastic down between it and the concrete. Might even ask about a layer of polystyrene 2" blue or pink 250PSI for under concrete insulation. The fact is ya cant FIX it AFTERWARD that is for sure...

Mark

[davedj1]

The norm here for blue insulation is 3" under slab. Used to be 2".

[Scooter78]

I would have to agree with six dogs, I would ask Eddie Walker from what I can tell like six dogs said he knows his stuff.

[Obed]

I don't think gravel needs to be compacted all that much but I do think it needs to be compacted at least some. Maybe research a bit before Momday. Ask Eddie Walker on this site if you can--he knows his stuff.

When building our house, TBNers recommended compacting the gravel before we laid the garage slab. We had about 6" of gravel in the garage. I made the sub compact the gravel; he wasn't planning to to it. We rented a compactor for $50. The 6" of gravel compacted a full inch; we had 5" of gravel after compacting.

Lesson: Gravel will settle. One inch of settling for 6" of gravel is significant.

Obed

[Kyle241]

Yes, definitely gravel should be compacted, doesn't take a lot of time with the right equipment, e.g. backhoe with packer attachment. I am surprised the walls are going directly on gravel but then again I haven't researched the type of walls you are getting installed. Granted you're also in VA where frost is no where near the issue it is up here. Having built three homes, one stick-framed, one strawbale and one SIP, all had heavy duty foundations due to the frost we get up this way. Like another said, you can't change it once it's in! Great thread and the beauty of the area shows through with your pics.

Edited to add just looked up Superior Walls and it's a great idea, wish it was available up here when I built this house 4 years ago.