Recomendations on how to build a church building

[Woodbuster]

Hello,

I live in Mexico in the mountains of Oaxaca. A church in the mountains here is wanting to build a church building and I want to be able to help them with suggestions. They live in high altitude where pine is very prevalent and will be used primarily. They will have to truck the logs down to a sawmill to have them cut or else cut the up with a chainsaw.. As far as I know they want a two story building with the idea of having class rooms upstairs.

The climate is cold with low humidity. Termites are not a problem because it is too cold. Earthquakes occur and the foundations would have to be strong enough to prevent it being blown off a mountain.

Concrete is expensive compared to wood but is available. I think they will use that for the foundations.

I thought of using a footer of concrete around the perimeter of the building using beams for the walls and floor. Wooden siding on the outside to shed the water and tongue and groove paneling on the inside. All wood would have to be processed from trees. It isn't like you can go buy 2x4's. They would use tin roofing for the roof.

Would anyone here have any experience in this that could give me any advice on foundations and construction methods for something like this?  What they want to do is not very common down here. Most of their houses are very roughly built.

Thank you,
Roger
Here are some pictures of the village and the area:



  

 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Woodbuster.....were glad to have you here and a big Welcome to you.

What a rewarding challenge you have ahead of you and I'm am sure the vision of a church will become reality.
I am not a builder and can not give you very much information about your questions. However we all here can pray for your church and I'm sure someone will be along shortly to give you some good advice.

Take care buddy.
David

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum,    Woodbuster. 

[Woodbuster]

Thank you sir. I appreciate the kind words.

My parents came here as missionaries almost 20 yrs. ago and I was born here two yrs. later. Being able to grow up here and see the work the Lord has done is something very special. One of the greatest things about this whole thing is that the congregation there is going to build their building  out of their own sacrifices and those of sister Mexican churches without the help of foreign aid. It is a great testimony to others to see them depending upon God for help and not upon American help.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I hope you will show us some pictures as building progresses. 

[Ianab]

Others should be able to point you in the right direction regarding the actual building. I'm just wondering if you have considered a portable sawmill to operate in the village?

I'm thinking that extracting the logs, trucking them out, getting them milled, and the beams and boards trucked back is going to cost a fair amount of cash? Possibly enough to justify a manual portable sawmill, which is still there after the project, to use for more building work. I'm sure they would like to upgrade their current buildings, but materials are probably too expensive?

It seems a fairly common thing for missionary projects to be involved in because it helps the locals to be more self sufficient and generally improve their lot. As you say, rather than relying on foreign aid, get them the tools they need.

Ian

[rospaw]

Welcome!


(building my posts up ;)

[thecfarm]

rospaw,I like that van in your avatar. start a thread about that. Must be extreme 4 wheeling???

[Jim_Rogers]

What size church are you looking for?
Could you tell us in feet and inches not metric?

Jim Rogers

[clww]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Woodbuster.

[purple otter]

Welcome Woodbuster! May God bless your efforts. I'll second the idea of a sawmill in the village. It could be used for the church and future projects as well.

[Woodbuster]

Hello,

Sorry about being so tardy in replying. I started a new job a couple weeks ago and I haven't been on the computer that much.

I've mentioned to them a bandsaw mill before. I don't think the cost would be too much but the difficulty of getting it down here would be great. Besides, when you do something somewhere with help from outside that others cannot do it produces jealousy in others. It would be better for them to make it from locally available material if they wanted to do it.

I they would like to build something similar to this:
cdn.stylisheve.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/traditional-portable-barns.jpg

Active links to off site pictures are not allowed. I have removed the active link text.
You need to create an album here and place your pictures in that album and then post the picture from the album. moderator
PS. if someone wants to see the picture copy the text above to a new browser window and it should show

What kind of foundation would you use for something like that.

Thanks,
Roger

Oh, BTW I think the building would be about 40' x 26' as far as I know.

[learner]

Wellcome to the forum Woodbuster.  Without knowing more I can't offer much advice.  If you want to go with a concrete floor then things change a bit.  Otherwise a 24" deep 8" wide stem wall should support all the external walls.  You'll also want the same stem walls for any internal wall supports that will be holding up the second story.
If going with a wood floor you can pour the stem walls so they are 4" above the ground.  This will support any floor beams and allow for any water flow under the floors.  For a 2 story structure you will want to use 2x6 wall studs and 2x8 floor beams to support the second floor.  If the first floor will be supporting a great deal of weight from the second story, then you will want to use 2x10 floor beams for the second story floor at 12-16" spacing.  NO greater than that!  The second story can be built using 2x4's for the wall studs.  The Main thing is the bottom story and ensuring that it can safely support the weight of the second story.  As I said though, without more information, I can't safely offer any advice.

[Woodbuster]

What exactly is a stem wall?

I think the building will be primarily beams for the structure. How would you go about that? How do you attach the beams to the stem wall?

[routestep]

You might already have your answers but:

A stem wall sits on the foundation. The foundation is below ground level and below the frostline.  It is poured concrete with embeded rebar in it, say No. 5 or 6 two or three bars. The foundation is twice as wide as the stem wall and as thick as the stem wall. Since you have earthquakes you should hire a contractor that works in your area to get the foundation correctly sized.

The stem wall comes up from the foundation. In the US it can be made out of block or poured concrete with rebar. In an earthquake zone I think I would use concrete and rebar both verticle and horizontal. You would have to get (rent?) forms or build them. The stem wall has to be high enough to get the wooden wall built on it well above the dirt. You would have to have j bolts put into the wet concrete to fasten the wooden sills to the stem wall. I think US code has the j bolts within 12 inches of the corners and every four feet going down the length of the stem wall.

The sills are them drilled and slipped down onto the j bolts and bolted down. Do this after the concrete has dried and the forms have been removed.

Do a google search and you will find lots of info.

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Hi Roger,

I sent you a private message as well.  If you are up for a timber frame, you should be able to build it without concrete, all local materials and traditional methods.  What do you think, are you up for that?

Regards,

jay