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The Cabin at Riverside

Started by Don P, January 17, 2005, 07:07:11 PM

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Don P

We've been working on a D style log home the last couple of weeks. It has a cross, or cruciform, plan that has 4 inside and 4 outside corners. We decided to use a grooved 10x10 inside corner post similar to piece-en-piece style. Thought some of you might like to see it. It could be used on a post and beam style building. On the logs we drill and cut electric boxes as we go, then run bandstrap thru the holes for the electrician to use as a fish.


This shot is of a corner notch for the outside corners, I like to remove the tongues on the outside while doing it.


We've had a pair of redtails riding the air current overhead almost every day, fun to watch.

Norm

Wow that sure is a pretty spot you're working at Don, thanks for the pictures. :)

Don P

Thanks Norm,
That is a beautiful spot, I had e-mailed a picture to Jeff 4 or 5 years ago showing some of the scenery in the county. It was from one of my favorite spots on the drive home, about 200 yards from this house site, never thought I would later be working right there.
The canoe takeout for this section of the New river is just below us. Twice we've gotten to the takeout and had to mill around the far bank waiting for a baptism to wind up so we could get out, I think we're in the background in some home movies  :-[ ;D.
The last couple of days I'd swear there's a large block of ice behind the mountain in the background, brrr!

pappy

Don,

Nice local for a log home in the woods. Great view!!!

How are you tying in the corners, log cabin screws?? Doesn't look like the regular butt and stack corners.

More pictures Please   :)
"And if we live, we shall go again, for the enchantment which falls upon those who have gone into the woodland is never broken."

"Down the Allagash."  by; Henry Withee

Don P

That corner joint is usually referred to as "notch and pass".
I've been e-mailing photos to a friend who is going to be starting in Feb. this is a shot we have sent back and forth a couple of times. It shows an assembled corner alongside one of the plumb story poles.

 We use 10x3/8 lags to assemble. They are run thru a 1/2" prebore that has a 1-1/8" counterbore about 1-1/2" deep. A 12" long 1/2" drill bit with a setscrew adjustable counterbore slid on it is used to do this in one step.

We were talking about where the "crosslag" goes. It is the one with the arrow pointing to it. The pass log is lagged down then the butt log which has been cut to a matching tennon is slid down into the notch. These are both lagged down and then the crosslag is run inline with the outer tongue to hold the joint snug. Then a 1"x9" hole is bored thru the joint at the red dot. Caulk is pumped in ther hole and a dowel is driven in. The tennon is 1/8" shy of bottoming out, this is supposed to pump caulk into the recesses of the joint.

In hurricane country I've made the notch and tennon with a vertical dovetailed tennon that has about 1/4" of draft to let the joint drop together and then snug as it bottoms. We call that a french dovetail but I'm not sure if that's just a local term. This helps lock the joint even tighter. You need a couple more saws at the bench then.



The piece of threaded rod you see leaning up is our electric hole ramrod, makes a good rasp for the hole too. We drill electric chases as each row is stacked and then ram the chips all the way through the hole each time. If they pack up you got trouble! If they pack up and then get rained on you got REAL trouble! I now own a very long drill bit  :D.

Another tool we use all the time is what we call the logroller, logslider might be a better term. We slide a speed square along the flat faces of the adjoining logs at each lag location and align the wall flat with the roller as each lag is run home. The handle can be inside or outside depending on which way you need to pull. This is an old site built one. I've broken a few of these so welded up a strong one,  this one will work for a house or three. Just a big "tweaker".



We got the kitchen wall up to countertop electric row yesterday to much rejoicing, we get to drill a few less holes. Switches still have to continue on up. We're getting freezing rain today and it sounds like for a couple days, we stacked log scraps over the holes last night. Good time to sharpen up and carb load for next week  ;D

Don P

Here's a couple more pics I took last week.
The crew was assembling the right corner and by lunch I was a pretty far along on the material for the left. The prebore is in the second log from the left.

The second shot shows the groove in the vertical posts that accepts the log.

Chipped ice for half a day today...come on sun!

Don P

This is something along the same idea as that vertical post above. It would be a post and beam type building with log or timber infill. The threaded rods could be tightened as the infill shrinks, a head trim would cover the gap that formed at the top of the infill. The height of the walls would remain the same even if the logs shrink.

Treeman49649

Is there more info on this build... Thanks in advance ! Hardly any bandwith around here to search with

Jeff

Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Don P

Wow, time flies, this is still a new house in my mind

No more info on the net on this one, what do you need to know?

samandothers

Glad Treeman asked about this Don.  I have enjoyed the read and the pictures of the new river. 

Treeman49649

Jeff... the Bandwith is a local problem[backwoods].
 The website is great !!!
 I am narrowing down my available material and researching post and beam infill. I have healthy Hemlocks to frame and beam with. I am considering Red Pine round for fillers . Any thoughts ? You know this area well. Thanks in advance ! You Guys are great !!!!!

Treeman49649

Don P,
 I have plenty of questions... lol!
 I like the idea of a Post and Beam Hemlock frame. Hopefully 32x24. A lofted 12/12 roof... Interior could be 7" beam walls... Please understand I am new to log homes. This idea began a month ago and I can be very patient but I just want to do things right.
 It appears that I have around 600 feet of 8x8 minimum Hemlock square but natural round outside corners seems nice Thanks a million !

Hilltop366

Sounds like a great project Treeman!

112+ feet per row x 12 or 13 rows to get to 8 feet + gable ends, looks like you will need more than 600 feet.

I guess once you know where the windows and door sizes and location you might save some there but could also end up with pieces too short to use.

I see some calculations in your future.

Treeman49649

Thanks Hilltop366!
 I have a couple 80ft White Pines waiting in the hole...
 Clearing the last of the Hemlocks as we speak...only the 12"and bigger are down
 Does anyone have any basic plans to start with ? Thanks a bunch !

Treeman49649

About 300 feet of the Hemlock could be 12x12.
 I was hoping for 8' centers...
 I didn't mean to hijack this post. Thanks for the understanding

Don P

'05,I'd say there is no worry about hijacking

I think it's a fine idea you have. We built several with mixed red and white pine, most people cannot distinguish one from the other so it doesn't cause any visual problem. Red tends to be harder, more resinous, well pinus resinosa what did I expect. It tends to dry with more small checks where white opens up fewer wider checks. From the hip 8' centers on the posts is about right for the sizes and spans. I'm assuming under the lofted area a center bearing wall to break the 24' floor in half, same under the main, or at least that is how most I've done were broken up. I prefer siding in the gables with them framed, shrinkage issues if you log infill that area. I've done a number of around that footprint, how do you plan on orienting the space, or let me describe the basic scenarios I've done. A more traditional approach has the house oriented longways with a shed porch on at least the front 32' side, there can be one on the back as well. Entrance is into the house from the porch, roughly centered. A more modern design orients the views from the living room out a gable end generally with a tall cathedral greatroom and lots of glass in that gable. And then some are blends of both. Hmm, did I answer anything there or not

Treeman49649

You did great! Just trying to know limits and open to suggestions. I hope to learn from others experiences. Acquiring more logs may be easier for me than some. I live in the forest and own a tree service.
If there's anything that's worth the extra effort comes to mind I'd like to know! Really not hurrying except getting beams cut, stored and drying before my busy season comes. If I was more set in my plans the additional logs might be brought in and peel in a few months.
I like the traditional homes with porches. Modern glass gable types are impressive but...
Many Thanks !!!

Don P

That's my preference. Stepping in the front door typically they went a few different ways, these directions can be flopped. in one you stepped into the LR on the right of the ~center door, kitchen/dining was behind that. Stairs to the left just beyond the door swing, windered upstairs. beyond the stairs was the bath and laundry along the rear MBR to the front left, US 2 bedrooms and a bath. Dormers can be incorporated gable or shed up there depending on space/views.

Or enter just off center LR right, kitchen left straight run of stairs between. Behind the stairs was a walking area bath straight behind stairs in center, bedroom each side on the rear US 2 bedrooms, dormer to the rear if bath US. A couple ideas maybe.

Round corner posts work with flats skimmed for the infill logs. I did that on a half log sided job, the rounded "siding" was 5" thick. but it could be square faced stock as well. On that one I made it so there was 2" of flat on the vertical logs and bevelled the horizontal log round face then chooped to leave a 2" thick flat to hit the flat on the vertical. uh yeah, clear as mud right

Treeman49649

That's pretty much the floor plans I'm seeing. The frame seems to lend itself to a barn build. I know I am short on terminology but the beam size maters . Spanning logs [Benders?] are kind of rare.
 "Bear" with me... lol Headed out back to finish forwarding and getting a count. I hate idea of cutting something and wishing I had left it long.
 Thanks for the help ! 

Don P

I found the stick with more pics of this one.
This shows those posts I inset the logs into at the inside corners. I did that at the 4 inside corner locations in this house.


I topped those with a 10x10 beam set up as a kind of redundant tie, dropping that beam in in this pic.


This is how that looked in the finish. I put another 10x10 over the outer wall at the same plate level to help with wind hitting that wall, it goes from log below to stick frame in the gable and is cut up with lots of openings. We get a gorge effect wind coming down the river there that really slams into it.


Another shot of one of those posts


The finished exterior from the backside where you drive up to it.


I never got a good front pic, it dropped of rapidly on that side but gave a great view of the river. The New River is pretty neat, it is the oldest river on the continent so it cut through the mountains as they rose.

Treeman49649

Wow!  that looks great!
  I appreciate the dose of inspiration. it's been a long day...getting the Post and Beam timbers forwarded with inventory and racking tomorrow. 
 I would love to know more about those corners and infill techniques.
 Thanks for the help!

samandothers

Great picture of the home and river!  

What type of insulation in the ceiling?  I assume that is what I am seeing in one picture.

Don P

It's fiberglass, sweat equity client job. I prefer sprayed in foam there but it is expensive. I do insist on air chutes in every bay, all the way on  fiberglassed cathedral ceilings. The rest of the house was various scissor trusses then field framed porch roof/ceilings. At about the time we started the state condemned the old steel truss bridge over the river a couple of miles downstream. It made it very peaceful, there was no traffic to speak of below us. It's not a busy road but it became just neighborhood folks. Happily my house is on that side or it could have been quite a commute.

ten or fifteen years before that I was way upriver near where it crosses the state line working on a log cabin restoration job. We had found the owners brother's name carved in a log, he had never seen it, his brother had not survived WWII so that was kind of touching.  One day we were chinking inside and it was pouring outside. I remember Johnny Cash on the radio singing "How high's the water Mamma". Our way in and out was by a dirt road alongside the river that sometimes floods. We thought we were keeping an eye on the situation but as we went to leave it was obvious we had overstayed. As we sat in the truck looking at the water on the road contemplating a night in a cold cabin, one of the neighbors drove up and unloaded a kayak. That was what he did when it flooded, he had another truck on the other end. He probed the depth and led us out, I wish I had had a camera of the truck following the kayak

samandothers

Great story about the flooding.  I remember tent camping with the family in a camp ground (New River Camp ground?) on the river near the state boarder.  One night there were folks in their trucks in the river acting crazy.   Low water was in there favor.  The beverage was not!

Do or did you ever use SIPS on your cabins versus the spray?

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