My Industrial Cabin Build

[WoodChuckDad]

Some hints: place the gravel around a perforated PVC pipe and wrap gravel & pipe in a layer of geotextile to form an underground French drain along the entire perimeter of the foundation along the bottom of the foundation block.. Combine the perf pipe into a single larger pipe and slope (1 to 2 degrees of slope is plenty) all of this French drain to a central spot well away from ....and slightly downhill ...from the house. Very inexpensive to do & you'll be glad you did.
For the electrical transformer... They vary in the amount of buzz noise they make. If you get a noisy one ask for an exchange or see if they will put on of their sound insulating boxes around it.
Enjoy,
rScotty

That sounds like good advice and this would be the best time to do it.

 

[rScotty]

That sounds like good advice and this would be the best time to do it.

It's just simple stuff that one learns from having made the same mistakes. We built our rural horse property back in 2007 and I didn't put a perimeter drain around the foundation. In hindsight, a foundation obviously disrupts the movement of underground water....but I didn't understand that. We just finally retro-fixed the drainage around the foundation this summer. As for the "buzz box", a local flood ruined our underground lines and forced us to go back to bringing in electrical power using traditional poles. There was a noticible difference in noise.

The good news is that none of these building hints are "show stoppers". The homestead will still get built and the land will be better for it. Problems can all be adjusted later. If needed.
rScotty

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Foundation drain is required here.

 

[dstig1]

Make sure you use solid PVC with holes, not the corrugated black drain pipe. The corrugated always ends up collapsing. My excavator told me so, and later when we had to dig up a small section around some of it I had placed before that, it was indeed collapsed. And the holes go down so they pick up water at the lowest point.

 

[clemsonfor]

I have not noticed ash on my property
I have seen a fair amount of butternut or walnut. And tons of different types of oak. There was a large stand of white oak that I had marked to keep but they got cut down. I was mad but I choked it down. It seemed like a miscommunication from my forester to the logger but my gut says this is business as usual. It didn't leave a good taste in my mouth.

This stuff happens all the time, but as a forester my self that is their screw up. All that said I hope they paid you the going rate for Oak if it made sawtimber. If it was that big a deal I would of told my forester that was a timber trespass and make them pay the state restitution rate, which if the area was small would not have been much but would have made them think and listen next time. Again this happens and this is why you need a forester that will check his loggers and tell someone on the crew that will convey the message to the cutter man if not tell him his self. I hate that this happened to you as I know how much the looks and integrity of a stand mean.

And I bet you have Ash , you just may not notice it. We have it here in upstate SC but its not a common tree. To one who cant identify trees it may look similar bark to a hickory or oak. Most probably would confuse it with one of the hickory species which there are 2 around here that one may confuse it with.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

This stuff happens all the time, but as a forester my self that is their screw up. All that said I hope they paid you the going rate for Oak if it made sawtimber. If it was that big a deal I would of told my forester that was a timber trespass and make them pay the state restitution rate, which if the area was small would not have been much but would have made them think and listen next time. Again this happens and this is why you need a forester that will check his loggers and tell someone on the crew that will convey the message to the cutter man if not tell him his self. I hate that this happened to you as I know how much the looks and integrity of a stand mean.

And I bet you have Ash , you just may not notice it. We have it here in upstate SC but its not a common tree. To one who cant identify trees it may look similar bark to a hickory or oak. Most probably would confuse it with one of the hickory species which there are 2 around here that one may confuse it with.

I don't blame the loggers. They called and asked the forester because his markings were wider. I had gone back thru and marked the stand. About half an acre of mature white oak. He gave them the go ahead. I would not hire him again. Nor could I recommend him. They paid the contracted rate but you can't replace a stand of oak trees that are older than me. It burned for a while but I let it go. This was the second batch of loggers. I fired the first batch. I have a thread about that. All in all I was eager to get the land cleared so I could start my orchard. If I had it to do over I'd go slower. Live and learn.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Today was digging the trench for the 4 inch pipe for the main waste line on the master bedroom side of the house. 36 feet long 16 inches deep at the upper side . Only a couple inches deep on the exit side( the ground slopes downward...this is a mountain). Lots of rock. Hand tools come to a quick halt against a 4 or 5 inch piece of quartz. My wife shoveled up the dirt and dumped it out of the foundation, away from the block and kept the area clean. I went slow and careful because I wanted to obtain and maintain 1/8 inch drop per foot. Tomorrow we will be dry fitting the pipe in with al the additional connections needed for the second toilet , shower, sink, bath, kitchen sink and boiler room drain. Those are all joining from above and do not require excavation. I am hoping the 104 tons of #57 I had delivered last week will be enough to fill the foundation.
I need a shower, whiskey, and Motrin.

 

[airbiscuit]

I need a shower, whiskey, and Motrin. QUOTE]

You need a double of one of those!

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I need a shower, whiskey, and Motrin. QUOTE]

You need a double of one of those!

It was 36 feet not yds. But I still had a double.

 

[cat fever]

It was 36 feet not yds. But I still had a double.

Looks like you are moving along nicely. Building on a slope so you don't have to dig as much is cheating. :laughing:

My own house is 88' long and I had to dig the entire length because the septic was on the south end and my mud room bath was on the north end.

Remember to take pictures of all the plumbing as you go, later on it might come in handy.