Bought Land, Tractor and then got Stupid

[cmmac]

Block Foundation -

Here are some pictures of the block foundation.

I finally got to get my hands dirty and have started the "One Man vs One Building" experiment.

The block took me three weekends to complete and was not as difficult as I imagined. The first course was very, very slow going. This was my own doing as I was very concerned that I started out square and plumb.

After the initial learnings, I got into a routine and it went fairly smooth. I have respect for people that do this for a living, I am fairly young but my back and hands were killing me after.

Mistake number 3 - CMU block will wear through a cheap pair of gloves in a hurry.

Mistake number 4 - Having water onsite would have been nice. I had to make trips to the swamp/pond on the property to get water for the mix.

 

[cmmac]

Double Orange -

I would love to see some pictures. My initial plan was to go authentic, but sadly the permit process put a stop to my plans of buying an old structure and then reassembling it. (That and the fact that my wife started to see "guesthouse" where I was seeing CMMAC's shed)

I have a real appreciation for the old buildings. In many cases the craftsmanship puts most things today to shame.

 

[LBrown59]

CMMAC,
I found your post most interesting. I have a Circa 1700 barn on my farm. With the crib barn attached. Not a single nail in the whole 2 story barn. All hand sawn wood and wood pegged.. Yes All Pegged.
Suppost to snow tonight, I'll get pictures tomorrow if you wish.

Frank

How is the hand and eye doing ?

 

[Reg]

Fun project, congrats.

I took a trip with a couple of horses from Rhode Island to Tennessee last month.
At about the halfway point I put the horses up at an overnight barn and noticed an old barn with an overshot water wheel on the side of it.
Two problems jumped right out at me, even after driving nearly 700 miles that day;
1) The whole thing was at the high point of about a three acre field.
2) Trestles built from pressure treated lumber.

Making your place look like an old tobacco barn that has been re-modeled for living in will be quite a trick.

 

[LBrown59]

1*The Permit Process......

In hindsight, I could have handled this part of the process better......

1*After buying the plan, I quickly learned that in this part of NC you can not just buy a plan and submit a copy to the local permit office.

2*I also learned that you should not let your wife say "guest house" or "weekend cabin" in the permit office. It took a significant amout of effort for me to get the office to classify it as an Accessory Building after that.

3*Getting it classified as an Accessory building saves me alot of headaches. (Number of inspections, Insurance Amounts during the build, Etc).

4*The county would have also wanted me to sub-divide (or survey out) a seperate parcel if it was classified as a dwelling.

5*Lesson learned - Had I spent 20 minutes researching the facts - I would have submitted the form to get my property classified as a working farm. I could then build whatever I wanted - however I wanted.

6*In order to get the plans approved, I needed to get the plans reviewed by a structural enginneer and also produce a certified roof plan.

7*I then also found out that most Engineers turn their noses up at "book bought" plans and want to charge you to redraw/etc. After some time and money, I got what I needed and received permission to build on my property.

8*That last sentence pisses me off to type - The fact that I had to get permission to build on my property.....

1*I like my countys set up/ No Permits or codes.
2*-8*How to eliminate all this crap and harrassement
See Number 1*.

 

[cmmac]

Reg -

You are 100% percent correct. Once I realized that I had to scrap the slab and go with the CMU block foundation, I knew my goal of making this thing look like an "old" tobacco barn was shot.

Don't know about you, but I don't see too many old tobacco barns with a crawlspace around here. (ggg)

 

[LBrown59]

Eddie -


They dot the landscape here in NC, but are getting harder and harder to find in good condition. Most of the farmers have switched over to metal buildings/etc.

I used to see them a lot in NC & TN when my family would vacation there in the mid fifties when i was just a kid.

 

[cmmac]

LBrown59 -

I am jealous. I had serious thoughts about building this thing without going through the permit process, but in order to get the electrical hook-up I needed to get the "official" stamp of approval.

Nothing but a fee collection scam. I would have rather just paid up front any monies/etc and signed personal liability waivers and been done with it.

 

[cmmac]

Floor Joists -

The span of the structure is only 16 ft. I had planned on just using conventional lumber to do this - actually I looked at using some salvaged timbers, but quickly got priced out of that idea.

I also got the skinny from the local inspector here in town. It seems some of my problems stem from my engineering letter itself.

Long story short - My brother in-law is an engineer. He is not licensed in NC, but did the Engineering letter for me. I believe he was trying to help me out (who knows mayble he was trying to screw me), but he over engineered the piss out of this thing and then had a NC engineer stamp his letter.

Well - the local inspector tells me "You shouldn't have had your engineer be so specific. If an Engineer says it in his letter, we are going to hold you to it. We don't want the liability."

Since me brother in-law got so specific as to name the brand name, type, size, etc of individual fasteners, lumber, etc. I am being inspected on these things. Turning out to be a pain in my ***.

In fairness, the inspectors are nice people, but simply checking a box vs using some common sense.

Anyway, the floor joists are pretty straight-forward. I-Level Joists spaced 16inches on center. The back 8ft of the structure they are spaced 8 inches on center. I am guessing this if due to the stair case being in the back half of the structure.

You can see from one of the pictures the grade of my field and why I opted to go the foundation route vs slab. (Also the tractor in the background )

The IJoists are then banded with standard Band Board.

The work in the pictures below took me a weekend to do.

Lesson Learned - This work was not at all hard. The IJoists are very light and easy to work with; however, I am finding myself not working "smart".

I am going at this as an individual project, but am taking longer than it should take. As an example, I could have cut all of the joists to length all at once. I didn't - I would cut one - install - repeat. Hindsight - Not very effecient.

No worries though - I am having fun and so far at least holding my own in the "One Man vs One Building" experiment.

 

[cmmac]

Eddie -

Here is a sample tobacco barn picture.

My plan, unfortunately, will only "resemble" something similar. - May have to have a good imagination in order to make the connection.

But this type building is the inspiration. We shall see just how much "vision" someone will need after I complete the building process....

Tobacco Barn on Flickr - Photo Sharing!