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A-Frame Cabin

Started by ehewitt05, December 18, 2017, 01:39:03 PM

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ehewitt05

Anyone on here built any A-Frames? Just looking for pictures/insight.

Wondering what it is like to build one. Seems like the roof would be challenging....

Don P

Yes, never slide down a cedar shaked one! Dad built us an A frame playhouse when I was a kid. At about 5 or 6 I figured out how to climb it by grabbing the underside of the fascia and walking up the edge. Scooted down the ridge and slid down. Then the long ride to the doctors office on my knees looking out the back window of the truck. I kind of sidesaddled into the office and dropped trou and the doc plucked an inch and a half splinter out of my rear with both of them cracking up. Oddly, I hate A frames  :D

GAB

Quote from: Don P on December 18, 2017, 06:44:06 PM
Yes, never slide down a cedar shaked one! Dad built us an A frame playhouse when I was a kid. At about 5 or 6 I figured out how to climb it by grabbing the underside of the fascia and walking up the edge. Scooted down the ridge and slid down. Then the long ride to the doctors office on my knees looking out the back window of the truck. I kind of sidesaddled into the office and dropped trou and the doc plucked an inch and a half splinter out of my rear with both of them cracking up. Oddly, I hate A frames  :D

Don:
Sorry to hear about your em-bare-assing experience, however I get the feeling it was also highly educational.

ehewitt05:
Some years ago I was in an A-frame and the upstairs felt like being in a tapered tunnel.
Now I saw where someone used arched barn style rafters to build an A-Frame style home.
I sometimes wished I could have seen it from the inside.
Gerald
W-M LT40HDD34, SLR, JD 420, JD 950w/loader and Woods backhoe, V3507 Fransguard winch, Cordwood Saw, 18' flat bed trailer, and other toys.

Jeff

My mother just loved the idea of an a-frame, but never got one. Myself. I look at them and wonder why the heck you wouldn't throw some walls under one and make a whole lot more space.  It seems to me like living in your attic.
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

newoodguy78

It is like living in an attic, I did it for a few years. Being 6'3 I Learned to not like them one bit. Other than being cheap to build I'm not sure there is much benefit to them,they are full of a lot of wasted space or should I say a lot of very hard to get to space

thecfarm

And diffeant to look at. There is one just a few miles from where I live. I suppose it's a stick built one.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Don P

The roof is actually a piece of cake. Since the roof goes to the ground if you put the feet of the ladder about a foot away from the roof plane and have the wide standoffs at the top of the ladder you can touch anywhere along the roof from the ladder.

I would assemble the frame as trusses, the floor joists with the rafters plywood gusseted on top of the joists and plywood gussets at the peak across that joint. Build them on top of a pattern truss and then tip them up in place, Dangle a plumb bob off the first one before you tip it, brace it off well and then brace as you go working and dragging the pattern back 2' at a time till the pattern becomes the last pair of rafters you tip up. Ply the floor and roof, metal up top and its dry. They are quick and cheap, and tentlike.

ehewitt05

I haven't considered coming up with a BOM for one but I'm looking at a set of drawings from 1963 by the North Dakota Department of Ag.

Im doing rough numbers in my head and I'm thinking to myself, with the Woodmizer LT40 I can use, this thing is down right cheap.


Raider Bill

Have you ever spent anytime in one? Personally I did not care for it. Cheap and easy to build yes but not very practical imo.
The First 70 years of childhood is always the hardest.

Hilltop366

Another option could be to frame and sheath the floor first and put your bottom plate down then fasten joist hangers to the plate where your rafters go. Then when you notch out your rafters it will leave a place to put a overhang for fascia and vented soffit if you want to insulate.

The larger A frames with a knee wall and some dormers aren't too bad but I have been a smaller one with windows front and back only, can feel a bit gloomy.

Ianab

This is a holiday house that we stayed in when we got married in Rarotonga.



Obviously it had been built this way to add a 2nd rental dwelling to a site, as cheap as possible. But the concrete base is quite practical for the tropics, and the 1/2 wall made all the floor space on the ground usable.  2 bedrooms upstairs, so it made for a quite practical little house / cabin.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

starmac

One complaint I have heard from several different people, had to do with heating. It seemed by the time the bottom floor was comfortable the sleeping lofts were too hot.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

kantuckid

I built one for my 1st self built house when a bachelor. The roof was roll asphalt. The loft where I slept, I'd close the trap door to keep it cold up there in winter or not waste heat when awake and downstairs. easy solution for a small cabin with one/two occupants.
I had plans to build a big one in the early 1970's after marriage, when they were fairly popular but glad I didn't go that route after all.
They do fit certain build sites very well and logical in smaller sizes IMO. Mine sat on piers and three western cedar beams which were then bored by wood bees-a reminder of times to come in the 1960's? Until that time I didn't know they drilled into cedar or into PT wood as nowdays!
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

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