Pier and Beam anchoring suggestion

[LumberMizer]

Ok, I'm sure this has been beat to death  . I am building a very remote cabin with pier and beam foundation. I will be milling all my lumber from my bandsaw mill on sight. All the construction will be done with Post Oak. The cabin will be 24'x24'. With a double shed roof.  Was considering milling my beams to 6"x8" or similar. Having never done this, I'm wondering if a solid beam would be better or, "laminating" 3, 2x8's. Less twisting and checking? Theses timbers will be fairly green. I don't have the time or resources to dry these. My second question will depend on the suggestions from my first question. I will have 4 rows of 5 piers. Obviously I want to anchor the beams to the concrete in some fashion. I refuse to pay $30-sky's the limit, for the anchors I've seen that I'm not really that impressed with. 

I'm considering making my own channel for the beam to sit in and having rebar welded to the bottom to anchor in the concrete

Curious if anyone has done this? Worth the time? Looking for the lowest cost practical.

Thanks for all the info I've gathered on this sight! 

This will be done in Southwest Missouri. 

[Don P]

Pier and beam foundations, yup, beat to death :D
Piers tend to overturn and also settle differently in relation to one another. The building code finally made them an engineer required foundation, too many failures. The problem is you are building a large heavy sail on top of unbraced stilts, there are hinges between the piers and the structure. Sort of the equivalent of putting the family car on the dining room table.  Yes it will hold it if you don't bump the table. I've built all over the country, everyone uses the excuse that they are very remote. I've never failed to be able to get a full perimeter foundation in. The block for the house I'm sitting in came in on the back of a Willy's, it took a few trips but soon forgotten, the concrete trucks were pulled up with a dozer. I have mixed by hand as well. The real driver is time, labor and cost. I have built a braced "core" structure under part of a house and then used piers under the rest, I'm working on the design of one now and will submit it for plan review shortly, that works well for protecting the wet rooms and utilities, the floor collects the lateral and transfers the bracing to that core, we'll see if it'll fly or if it'll take a stamp.

If the steel forms rigid bracing between pier and floor or pier to pier that would help with the lateral bracing.

Triple 2x8's is considerably stronger than a solid sawn 6x8 timber, the defects are better scattered and you can grade a dimensional stick better than a timber.

[LumberMizer]

I get the piers acting as stilts and such. Maybe I should have went into more detail or am using the wrong terminology. My "piers" will be 4' in the ground. Only a few inches of the pier will be exposed out of the ground. My question was about anchoring the beams to the concrete. 

And I will not be dragging a concrete truck up to the site. 

[Mike W]

I see where Don is coming from, I was thinking piers, with posts to the bottom of the beams, which is a typical installation, after re-reading the post and your reply, it appears you are pouring piers to grade (a few inches above the surrounding dirt) all leveled to the bottom of the beam which you wish to attach the beams to posts for uplift retention and any side shifting off the piers, is this correct?  It also appears you don't wish to purchase items as the standard Simpson ties and anchors, is this also correct?

So if the two presumptions above are correct, you could notch the top of the beams to house a cradle (U-shaped piece of 1/2" or 5/8" (#4 or #5) rebar, support the beam on your form work of the piers, either boxed forms or SonoTube anchored well to support the beam in place.  put the rebar cradles with the legs hanging down into the piers and pour your piers to grade to bottom of beams.  if this sounds like a cheap enough solution, you should at the least hammer tack a strip of asphalt roofing or a few folded pieces of 30lb felt at each pier location where the beam contact the concrete.  Just a thought

[LumberMizer]

Thanks Mike. You would be correct in both of your assumptions. I believe you put it into words much better than I had. That's definitely a simple enough option that I had not thought of. I am certainly looking to keep the wooden beam from being in contact with the concrete. 

This will not be a permanent home. This is just a getaway for the family and something I've always wanted. 

[VictorH]

They are a bit pricey but I've used Diamond Piers on my 14 by 20 frame.  been over a year and a pretty cold winter and they didn't move a bit.

[Don P]

One thing to do when looking at non prescriptive construction methods or materials, something not spelled out in the building code, is to look for an ESR, Engineering Services Report. That and an intended uses page are under the "code officials" tab on the Diamond piers website. Both documents state that they are intended for decks, walkways, and accessory structures. That doesn't get us to a habitable structure. The way forward then is to contact the company and/or an engineer to see if it can be used under the alternative means and methods provisions. From what I'm seeing from their load tables by the time you get there with these it would probably be cheaper to do a conventional foundation, as is often the case. It's often worth exploring the options but so often what we find is there is a reason why conventional becomes the convention