My Industrial Cabin Build

[WoodChuckDad]

Thank you, everyone for the great ideas. Keep them coming, please. You may see me grabbing onto some of them in the videos. I am willing to try just about anything that will fit the specific situation. It's Christmas Morning. This afternoon, My wife wants to go out there and work on the header for the next window section we are putting in. It's a monster. Looking at the plans, it is two L-shaped pieces that come together at the top, with a header underneath and a bottom section below that. Those three pieces will be 8 feel long all together. The header is over 5 feet long and made from 3 2x12's. I can't think of a Way to put this together piece by piece so I think I am going to assemble the pieces upside down, then use the excavator to lift it up and set it into place. Then use some ratchet straps and a come along to work it into place.

 

[ededic]

Woodchuck,

We used ratchet straps. Our first wall was 12’ and learned fast about the spacing. 1/16th of an inch of space down a long wall... well, adds up to 1/2 and 3/4 inch real quick. Some one said to build this one to practice, that is exactly what we did. Built our shop in 2016 and will start building house in a year or so. Tried every technology we wished to use on the house to test it. Will absolutely use SIP again. Love it, love the building with it, love the warmth, strength and finish. Thinking about using it for interior wall too to save time.

One thing I see with your system is they all come in 4’ wide or less panels. Mine were up to 24’ long x 8’ high and where they needed to be taller they were up to 8’ wide.

We would assemble on horses and stand up, headers and all. One benefit, we had lots of neighbors to help with the big panels.

 

[ededic]

Woodchuckdad,

I am sorry I did not chime in sooner here. My wife and I built in 2016 with SIP and learned a lot. While I know from experience you don't have much time right now, I have documented my build in detail here: New Cottage retirement home near Lake Michigan. While I am not complete in my documentation I am beyond where you are and this may be helpful as I have used lots of photos. You can start at post #47 for the SIP panel start.

Since I documented after the build, there is not a lot of daily chatter and goes along pretty quick and chronological which may be helpful from a time sake but not a lot of outside input which is so valued on TBN. I commend you for doing the YouTube videos and documenting for us in real time. We built while I was working full time and started each day on the build in the evenings until late in the night. Was fast and furious and every night just collapsed, no time for documenting.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Woodchuckdad,

I am sorry I did not chime in sooner here. My wife and I built in 2016 with SIP and learned a lot. While I know from experience you don't have much time right now, I have documented my build in detail here: New Cottage retirement home near Lake Michigan. While I am not complete in my documentation I am beyond where you are and this may be helpful as I have used lots of photos. You can start at post #47 for the SIP panel start.

Since I documented after the build, there is not a lot of daily chatter and goes along pretty quick and chronological which may be helpful from a time sake but not a lot of outside input which is so valued on TBN. I commend you for doing the YouTube videos and documenting for us in real time. We built while I was working full time and started each day on the build in the evenings until late in the night. Was fast and furious and every night just collapsed, no time for documenting.

Thanks for the link. I will start reading thru it tonight.

Today, I plan to try the ratchet straps. I think 3.5 inch deck screws on mounting plates, fastened to the double 2x6 splines of the previous panel should provide enough sheer resistance to allow the use of ratchet straps. There is only one way to find out.

 

[dstig1]

This is the hook style you want on the straps:
2" Flat Hook
—
Ratchet Straps USA

 

[ededic]

This is the hook style you want on the straps:
2" Flat Hook
—
Ratchet Straps USA

Exactly!

 

[Rustyiron]

Woodchuck, I don't know how your panels actually fit together, or if this would apply to your "growing" wall length, but in similar construction sityations where you want to end at a specific point or location, it's common to measure when your half way there and start adjusting slowly before you need to do all the adjusting in the final piece. It did look like all your panels were basically the same width, and ededic's comment about growing 1/16 (or whatever) with each panel happens a lot. Accumulated error it's called.
This may not be possible with your panels, just thought it might be worth a mention. Great project and look forward to see the Dour fir timbers going up.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

We got just a little more done this week. The straps seem like a good idea.

Christmas family home building. SIPs build - YouTube

 

[s219]

You know, the other thing that jumped out at me was that you could make some absolute reference marks (starting from the corner where the first panel goes in) along the sill, to mark where the panel joints should sit. That way you will have a running visual of any creep as you go down the line. This could be especially helpful on a long wall where the creep will be worse. You may be able to preemptively counter the creep with an adjustment somewhere in the middle rather than wait for the last panel. There may be cases where an adjustment in the middle is more appropriate or far easier.

Unless the panels were all short cut 1/16" - 1/8", I think creep is inevitable. Even engineered wood has day to day variability. Even the most precise wood joint doesn't come together perfectly. And even the best home framing has tolerances that we accept. With stick framing we build in variability and slop with rough openings, planned adjustments, and of course you can make unplanned adjustments on the fly to hit a dimension. With pre-fab panels, you lose a lot of that "flexibility" and I think creep is a reality. So the strategy is accepting and managing the creep.

If I was making the reference marks down along the sill, I'd do it with a sharpie and make a fat 1/8" mark (because a sharp pencil mark is way too optimistic). Seeing the joint land on/within that 1/8" mark is pretty darn good in my opinion. Miss the mark and you will need to make an adjustment on the next panel or thereafter.

 

[airbiscuit]