Category: homestead (Page 11 of 13)

After the floor of the house was completed, it was time to get the porch posts into the ground, because I didn’t want to put up the wall frames and then have to wait all of the time to do the porch posts with the wall frames sitting out that much longer in the elements.

I decided to make the porch 10 feet, because I wanted to have enough room to have the community sit outside all together; and I wanted to have it go all the way around the house, so that we could sit under a porch and be out of the sun, or in the sun, or in a breeze, regardless of time of day or weather conditions.

I also decided to go with a single post all the way into the ground vs. only doing a platform and attaching the roof posts after — it just seemed the single porch post would be more sturdy. Further, I decided to use 4×6 inch treated lumber for the posts. The biggest issue with these are that these types of treated posts can sometimes start to torque and bend in the sun; but I figured that if I could get to them quickly enough, it wouldn’t cause too much trouble.

And so the process began…

I set up the stringer for a line of posts, and here set it up for the corner:

And here’s the hole dug for the corner with the brace supports pounded into the ground. At the bottom of each hole, I beveled out the bottom so the dirt above the bevel would hold the concrete more securely in the ground:

For the corners, I decided to attach two 2×4’s on one long side of the 4×6, which made the post “L”-shaped. I also drilled holes and pounded in rebar so as to hold the post more firmly in the concrete:

To build the concrete up around the post slightly, so as to keep the soil from touching the wood, and to make it a little nicer looking, I used 8 inch (12 inch for the corners) concrete tubes cut at 4 inches high, and would slide it up the post, propping it up with screws, before standing up the post in the hole:

Here is a post set in the ground before final floating of the concrete and setting the concrete tube footer:

And here is a post completed, including the tube footer:

With each side of the house being 40 feet, thus making a porch side 60 feet, I decided to place each post around 10 feet apart (it actually ended up being 9 feet, 10 inches, to allow for some overhang of the porch joists), and then figured to use double 2×10 inch treated boards for the joist supports. I also put two spacers between the two boards, about 1/3 of the way in from each post. To level the boards from post to post, we used the same water level we used in leveling the concrete piers of the main house structure; and we leveled each post based on a single post so that any error introduced into the leveling would not be cumulative. Also, before attaching the joist supports, I’d have to sometimes use ratchet straps to re-level vertically the two posts I was working with, because they would sometimes over time start to get a little off-level:

Here’s an inside look of how I joined the corners. I used 1/2 inch hex bolts and screws to hold them up. Also, I had to add another piece of 2×4 between the boards attached to the two vertical 2x4s that were part of the overall post to be able to add a little more support for the boards (I probably should have had those part of the main post structure):

And here is a middle post join:

And here they are all in place!

As I had feared, some of the posts are starting to twist and bend; but hopefully we’ll be able to straighten them enough to where that won’t cause long-term issues.

We’re grateful again to God for allowing us the resources and strength to work on the house; and we look forward to continued progress on it, as He might will.

— David

With the foundation beams up, it was time to start on the floor.

Floor Joists

Given the approximately 8 foot spans, I chose to go with 2x8s for the floor joists, which I planned to overlap on each beam, spaced 16 inches on center. (I had originally thought I would need the entire piers under the floor; but in looking back, given there is planned to be a porch, I probably would have brought the ends of the floor to sit right on the beams.)

I started with the ends, which I decided to double because they were going to support the gabled walls; and I staggered them, similarly to the built-up beams. Also, since I would be overlapping the joists as they crossed the beams, this would offset the joists 1 1/2 inches off from the 16 inch on center layout, which would cause problems with being able to lay the subfloor down evenly centered on joists. However, having these end joists doubled would allow for shifting the subfloor boards to once again end up sitting evenly centered on the joists. The final subfloor board in a course would end up 1 1/2 inches off the end, which I would cut off and put back on the other side, which had been shifted 1 1/2 inches away from the end:

After putting them up on both sides, I ran a header string from each built-up joist…

…which would be used to line up the internal joists with each other:

Once a joist was in place, I toe-nailed it to the beam….

And finished them by hammering them in further. Being right-handed, it was fun to learn and practice hammering with my left hand:

And here is one side of the joists all set in a line:

This is the overlapping of the joists. With any warped boards, I would sometimes have to clamp them together to be able to nail them together properly:

I added spacers between the joists to straighten them and give the overall floor more stability. Also, I put them on the beams, again, for more stability:

After getting the joists in place, I added the header boards:

Because we are planning on having an inner wall down the middle of the house, and the middle of the house is in between two beams, on every other joist on the middle row of joists, I doubled the joists to give extra support to that wall. I doubled joists for another inner wall that’s to run parallel with the joists; and in this picture, I added several doubled joists in a row, which is where we are planning to put our wood burning stove:

To help against wind lift and to better secure the joists to the foundation, I attached each joist where it crossed each beam with hurricane clips:

And here are the joists completed…

…facing South…

…and facing West:

Subfloor

For this, I chose 3/4 inch tongue and groove plywood; the tongues and grooves fit together to make the places where the boards span floor joists much more stable. I also heard it was good to glue them to the joists and use screws, so I used external Liquid Nails for the glue and 3 inch deck screws to secure them, placing screws 8 inches apart on the board edges and 1 foot apart at the internal points on the joists. The board would be fastened down short end to short end across the whole platform, making a “course”; and each course would be staggered from the previous one by half the board.

When I first started, I didn’t really think through which long end type I should place against the first outside corner, the tongue side or groove side of the board. Well, I chose groove side, because it didn’t seem right to use the tongues side. Well, this stroke of genius started me on a path where with each subsequent course I was trying to fit the groove into the tongue. Needless to say, it was quite difficult, although I finally did get into a pattern where I’d loosen the screws next to the tongue of the previous course and use the mini-sledge hammer to knock them up and loose from the glue so they would flex better when I was trying to slide the groove onto the tongue. I also learned to clean out the groove and clean the tongue so nothing was in the way of them coupling. All of this worked ok until I learned from those much smarter than me that you could hit a board against the opposite site to force the tongue and groove together. I thought I had tried it before; but when I tried it again, it worked great. Of course, by then I only had about a course and a half left. 🙂

At any rate, given how long it took to get the floor on, I figured it was going to be a while before the house is dried in, so we painted the subfloor with water sealer, tinted cedar color (just to make it darker as a personal preference). Notice the stagger pattern of the boards from course to course:

Here is a course where the boards were shifted 1 1/2 inches to accommodate the overlapping of the floor joists, and I cut off the other overhanging end of the last board of this course and brought it over to this end to fill in the gap:

And here is the platform finished. Thanks to Sue for all of her helping me get the boards in place, and for painting the rest of the floor and repainting my terrible painting job!

Even though it took several months, it’s finally done; and we thank the Lord for the continued progress on the house.

— David

Apparently, concrete doesn’t cure as well in colder weather as it does when it’s warmer. From what I’ve read, it’s not ideal to pour standard concrete in “cold weather,” which is defined as three consecutive days with lows and highs in the 40-50 degrees F range. And my understanding is that freezing weather is not good for the setting of new concrete. So, I’ve been trying to beat Winter in building our concrete piers for the foundation of our house.

Well, even though things started to cool down with the weather quite a bit, I learned there are some things you can do to allow you to go ahead and pour anyway, if the temperatures aren’t too low. You can add more cement, and you can warm the concrete mixture (I suppose this is more applicable if you’re having concrete delivered). You can also attempt to keep the poured concrete warm with blankets, and even heaters, if necessary.

And so, for the last several piers, I covered or wrapped them in blankets in the evening after the pour. For the upper part of the pier, I would let the piece of board holding the bolt in place remain there for two days before removing it (whereas before I was only keeping it there for one day). And then, if the sun came out, I would uncover the concrete to let the sunshine in:

Throughout building these piers, I had no trouble with the concrete tubes. On the second to the last pier, after finishing the top part and setting the bolt in place, I was cleaning up; and I turned around, and the concrete had sunk probably 3/4″ down. I wondered what was happening; and when I looked, the bottom of the tube had cracked open, and the concrete was pushing out. Oh no. I didn’t know what to do. Should I pull the concrete tube and try to salvage the concrete, quickly cut another tube, and put the concrete back? But I figured that was going to be difficult to even physically accomplish, and the whole area would be difficult to reset with the amount of concrete used (the tube was nearly 3′ tall), among other potential problems. And so, I ran and got the duct tape and taped around the break to try to “stop the bleeding.” I had to pull the pier back up to being level too and reset the wood bracing form to hold it upright. And then, I just put more concrete on top. It sank some more, and I had to add concrete again; but after that, things seemed to set. And it appears to have worked ok. Thanks to the Lord for granting that!

And with that pier done, it was on to the last pier. Here it is!

And here’s me prepping it for cold weather:

This is me reading it a bedtime story from its favorite book, after tucking it in for the night:

After 38 piers, using 312 1/2 bags of concrete, all mixed with water by hand, the piers for the pier and beam foundation of our house are finished!

This is a view from the north:

And this is from the east:

We thank the Lord for granting us the provisions and strength to work on the house.

— David

Part of the house design was to have a root cellar/storm shelter in the vicinity. I wanted to have house access to it so it would be quick and convenient to be able to get into in an emergency. In thinking about designs, I had hoped to not interfere with the layout of the foundation piers as much as possible. And so, the plan was to dig out the main area of the cellar under where the porch is to be, have the landing area go between two piers, and then have the entrance way under the actual house structure; this would allow for the cellar to be covered by structure (the porch), easy entrance from within the house, and the foundation to continue to be laid out as it was without having to add piers or other modifications to it.

I decided to hire a contractor to do the digging, partially because the hole needed to be dug fairly precisely since the landing was going between the two piers, and also so I wouldn’t have to deal with damage that might happen to the equipment. But, after several weeks of delay with an inattentive contractor, I decided to just rent a backhoe and do it myself.

And so, here I am starting the digging process:

Well, not more than a few feet down I hit that rock layer that I’ve been setting the piers on. I thought for sure I’d be able to get through it with a backhoe, but one by one the teeth caps on the backhoe bucket started to break off. I went through several before stopping. We thought about it and then came to the conclusion that it wasn’t worth proceeding because more possible damage could happen; I could possibly disturb the ground under the piers, thereby potentially weakening the house structure; and we already have a root cellar/storm shelter. So I filled back in what I had already dug, and parked the backhoe.

We had to pay for the damages, but the folks from whom I rented the backhoe went out of their way to help us. We rented from iRent in Brownwood, TX, and Milt the manager there really helped us in diminishing the fees as much as possible. He was a breath of fresh air in customer service, especially given our experience with the local contractor noted above.

I lost about a month of time with all of this but have restarted the foundation building process, and here is where it is currently…only five piers left!

Thanks again to Milt at iRent for his excellent customer service; and we again thank the Lord for His graces, mercies, wisdom in and sovereign power over all circumstances.

— David