At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

How did everything weather the cold? I'm glad to hear on the news that your temps are comming back up.

We actually got some work on the house done during the last two weeks (walls, floors, stairs). The framer worked many afternoons in spite of the cold. However, due living in the camper, the long stretch of subfreezing temps without a thaw was a challenge but we have managed. Except for the camper's fozen pipes we found when we returned after being gone 2 nights to escape the snow, we've had water all the time. We just haven't had toilet because of the frozen black tank. I'm planning on trying to dump the camper's black tank today. I'm hoping it has thawed out.

Obed

 

[Obed]

OBED
Did you get up on there and do a little dance? Looks good. Is this rain getting you? We are getting all muddy again, will have to put off the septic work again.
Cary

Cary, I haven't done a dance yet. Seeing the floors and stairs was exciting. My emotions have been a roller coaster ride during this process. I'm not used being up and down; I'm normally fairly even-keel.

It rained all last night and is supposed to be rainy today. Monday and Tuesday look dry.

We had the septic tank and drain field put in before any work on the house began. We did that so we could live in the camper on the property while building. In retrospect, I would have installed the drain field when we did it but would have waited to put in the tank until after the basement was excavated. Having the tank alread in place complicated getting the plumbing drains in the basement right because we had a limited about of fall for the drain lines. It would have been much easier to put in the basement drain lines first, then install the septic tank at the appropriate depth.

Obed

 

[radioman]

We actually got some work on the house done during the last two weeks (walls, floors, stairs). The framer worked many afternoons in spite of the cold. However, due living in the camper, the long stretch of subfreezing temps without a thaw was a challenge but we have managed. Except for the camper's fozen pipes we found when we returned after being gone 2 nights to escape the snow, we've had water all the time. We just haven't had toilet because of the frozen black tank. I'm planning on trying to dump the camper's black tank today. I'm hoping it has thawed out.

Obed

If it been raining, then its should be warm enough to thaw out the tank. good luck , I doubt it you will need it, but if anything is still frozen in the tank but can drain, running water from hose into the toilet with valve open will tank take care of it.

 

[ToadHill]

How far is the camper from the septic tank, and is there any way to plumb it right into the septic system. If you have a downhill run it might be an easy task.

 

[Obed]

How far is the camper from the septic tank, and is there any way to plumb it right into the septic system. If you have a downhill run it might be an easy task.

The camper is 140 ft from the septic tank and is uphill of the septic tank. I ran a septic line from the camper pad to the septic tank.

Camper toilets normally work as follows: There is a black plastic tank hanging on the underside of the camper below the toilet in the bathroom. The toilet does not have a water tank like a home commode. When you flush the camper toilet, it just drains a couple feet into the blank tank below the bathroom. This system does not require much water to drain the toilet to the tank. The camper toilet works much like a Porta-Potty except, unlike a Porta-Potty, the sewage tank is separate from the toilet.

The black tank has a valve on the tank's outlet drain pipe. We always keep this valve closed except when we dump the black tank. There is also a grey tank for catching the bath sink and shower water drainage. We leave the valve to the grey tank open so that during normal use the grey tank does not fill up. Twice a week I close the grey tank valve and let it fill up from showering. The grey tank will hold approximate two showers worth of water. I then open the black tank valve and dump the full black tank. When the black tank is empty, I close the black tank valve and open the grey tank valve to dump the full grey tank. Dumping the grey tank after dumping the black tank helps to flush the solids through the septic lines.

In a sense, the camper is "plumbed directly into the septic." However, the process I described is important to keep solids from building up in the tank and the drain lines. If I left the black tank valve open all the time, solids would collect in the black tank while the liquids would drain out and result in a mess.

Obed

 

[EddieWalker]

Obed,

I want to say that my comments are meant to point out things that I notice in your pictures that you may not have noticed yourself. I don稚 have much confidence in your framer, and won稚 hide the fact that from early on, he痴 set off allot of red flags for me. I will also qualify my comments by saying that you are building a house unlike anything that I致e ever done before. Some things are basic and other things I just don稚 know. When somebody excuses something that they have done wrong by saying its how everybody else does it, I get nervous. When they brag on a great concrete job, but it痴 obviously not such a great job, I get nervous. When you have to start measuring your walls to see how far they are out of alignment, then have to shim up your trusses, I get nervous. With that said, I don稚 know if he痴 done anything that will affect the integrity of the building or not. Nothing jumps out to me as being incompetent or unsafe. It does bother me that he has had so many problems and it痴 just the beginning of the build. One or two things during the entire build might be normal, but he痴 setting records with so many little things that I壇 seriously consider pulling the inspector aside and asking him to do a more intensive look at the framing before passing it.

The headers might be code, but they look like an afterthought. I致e never seen anything quite like them.

Did he bolt the sill plates down to the concrete every six feet? Is that the load bearing wall in one of the pictures without any bolts in it? Or am I not looking at the right wall? Or am I just not seeing the bolts in the picture?

Have you measured the tread height of the stairs? I壇 have to look up the code to see what is allowed, but seven inches is what I always make mine. There is some variation that痴 allowed. It might just be the picture, but it looks like a pretty big step.

The decking looks nice, but I知 wondering why he didn稚 block the ends of the trusses before putting down the decking? It would have been very easy to do it without the decking in the way. Now it痴 going to take twice as long. Make sure he does this. You want to have solid support under your load bearing walls. This is important.

Again, I apologize for being negative. It seems that I知 always criticizing, and bringing up problems. I知 not trying to be rude and put down your builder at every opportunity. I see things that I don稚 understand, or think should be done differently, and want to make sure you see them too. It痴 your house and a HUGE investment. If you are happy with it, then that痴 all that matters. My comments are meant to help you out and offer suggestions that might allow you to build the best house possible.

Eddie

 

[dcyrilc]

The camper is 140 ft from the septic tank and is uphill of the septic tank. I ran a septic line from the camper pad to the septic tank.

Camper toilets normally work as follows: There is a black plastic tank hanging on the underside of the camper below the toilet in the bathroom. The toilet does not have a water tank like a home commode. When you flush the camper toilet, it just drains a couple feet into the blank tank below the bathroom. This system does not require much water to drain the toilet to the tank. The camper toilet works much like a Porta-Potty except, unlike a Porta-Potty, the sewage tank is separate from the toilet.

The black tank has a valve on the tank's outlet drain pipe. We always keep this valve closed except when we dump the black tank. There is also a grey tank for catching the bath sink and shower water drainage. We leave the valve to the grey tank open so that during normal use the grey tank does not fill up. Twice a week I close the grey tank valve and let it fill up from showering. The grey tank will hold approximate two showers worth of water. I then open the black tank valve and dump the full black tank. When the black tank is empty, I close the black tank valve and open the grey tank valve to dump the full grey tank. Dumping the grey tank after dumping the black tank helps to flush the solids through the septic lines.

In a sense, the camper is "plumbed directly into the septic." However, the process I described is important to keep solids from building up in the tank and the drain lines. If I left the black tank valve open all the time, solids would collect in the black tank while the liquids would drain out and result in a mess.

Obed

You are absolutely correct about the process and necessity of that process. You have obviously lived in a trailer long enough and deserve that nice house you are getting built.

I'm glad to hear that the frozen pipes turned out to just be a nusance and that nothing froze hard enough to burst.

My car is down right now and I have been driving our motorhome for my transportation. I was using the furnace to warm it up while using it, but when the cold hit here, the valve on the tank froze and we lost the use of the propane until it warmed up again. The heater from the engine just doesn't have what it takes to warm up that much area when it's 20 degrees out. I had some cold rides to work for awhile.

 

[bake321]

Yep, you want to avoid the "Brown Mound"

 

[Obed]

The headers might be code, but they look like an afterthought. I致e never seen anything quite like them.

Did he bolt the sill plates down to the concrete every six feet? Is that the load bearing wall in one of the pictures without any bolts in it? Or am I not looking at the right wall? Or am I just not seeing the bolts in the picture?

Have you measured the tread height of the stairs? I壇 have to look up the code to see what is allowed, but seven inches is what I always make mine. There is some variation that痴 allowed. It might just be the picture, but it looks like a pretty big step.

The decking looks nice, but I知 wondering why he didn稚 block the ends of the trusses before putting down the decking? It would have been very easy to do it without the decking in the way. Now it痴 going to take twice as long. Make sure he does this. You want to have solid support under your load bearing walls. This is important.

Eddie, Thanks for the suggestions on things to look for. The headers look to me just like the pictures in the code book (IRC 2003). There are bolts in the bottom plates every 6' in all the load bearing walls. Yes, the tread height meets code. My wife spent a lot of time getting that piece right in the design.

What do you mean by "block the ends of the trusses"? Several days ago I asked the truss designer about what bracing needed to be done. As best I can tell, the trusses have been installed just like the truss designer described to me. He didn't say anything about "blocking" with regards to what was needed to support the trusses.
Obed

 

[EddieWalker]

What do you mean by "block the ends of the trusses"? Several days ago I asked the truss designer about what bracing needed to be done. As best I can tell, the trusses have been installed just like the truss designer described to me. He didn't say anything about "blocking" with regards to what was needed to support the trusses.
Obed

I'm not talking about the trusses, I'm talking about the space between them, at their ends. I drew some circles on your picture so you'll see what I see. There will be a load bearing wall above these spaces, and if you don't block in these openings, your walls will form to the shape of the openings. You have to have solid lumber under your exterior walls.

Eddie