Home › Forums › Public forums - everyone welcome › General discussion about log homes and cabins

Deep frost lines, would this product work with a LHBA style home?

02/04/2010 - 22:21
ccosborne3
Posts: 15
 Joined: 2010-01-29

Hiya, I'm thinking about building near Caribou Maine and the frost line is 60'' deep. I'd prefer to build on piers, I don't want or need a basement and it keeps things simple. I've come across a product called the footing tube, here's a link.

http://www.foottube.com/

They are basically plastic tubes that come in several different sizes, the largest being 8' tall. The base is 2' wide and it tapers up to an 8" opening to pour in the concrete. It's my impression that on an LHBA home the first level of logs has their end joints rest on the same pier. Unless I use 4" logs it's probably not going to happen. I could probably fill a sonotube with concrete and wrap some plastic around it to get the same frost resistant effect but I like this product. It seems workable and it's easy to understand.

What is the traditional method you folks have been using to defeat the deep frostline?

‹ White Pine Log Prices Reversing the rust process - renewing antiques/rusty equipment ›


Comments

02/05/2010 - 01:46
rreidnauer
rreidnauer's picture
LHBA Member
Posts: 1584
 Joined: 2005-03-09
You are correct that the

You are correct that the corner piers are shared by the wall logs, and that pretty much skunks your plans right there. But don't worry, that's not the only problem using those forms. The LHBA style log homes are very heavy. Those forms simply don't have enough soil bearing area to support the home without further measures. (i.e.-a footer)

Defeating deep frostlines just means taller piers. (but additional reinforcing rebar is required)

--

Rod Reidnauer
Class of Apr. 9-10, 2005
Status: GOT LAND! Prepping for driveway and septic
Thinking outside the vinyl sided box
My log model



02/05/2010 - 04:00
ccosborne3
Posts: 15
 Joined: 2010-01-29
Yeah, I thought that would

Yeah, I thought that would be the way of it. No biggie, I don't have any solid plans yet. Instead of worrying about construction techniques that will be explained later I should focus on hooking my tract up with utilities. Not to mention paying it off. That should be plenty enough challenge right there.

Thanks for the help



02/05/2010 - 16:34
2 cents
2 cents's picture
LHBA Member
Posts: 835
 Joined: 2007-03-12
Caribou Maine

Caribou Maine-- what an awesome name for a place :)

might be worth it to calculate the concrete volume needed for those big piers vs concrete volume needed for a basement.
seems like when you get that deep it could be cost effective to go with the basement...
otherwise, like you said don't worry about it too much until you take the class, and put all the info together in your noggin ;)

--

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's log, log.... It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's log, log.... It's better than bad, it's good!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimpy's_Big_Day



02/05/2010 - 19:49
ccosborne3
Posts: 15
 Joined: 2010-01-29
Thanks for the reply, I've

Thanks for the reply, I've read a few of your back posts while looking for other info and admire your can do attitude. I like piers because I know I can just whip them out. I know others here have done full basements but it wouldn't be sticking to my simplest method philosophy. Basements you have to dig, get batter boards, pour everything out, hope like Hell you don't screw it up. Then again I can't really plan anything. Not just because of the lack of cabin building expertise, I need to get the site checked out, put in a driveway, have a well dug, do a septic system. All sorts of crap. Heck for all I know the ground is unsuitable for piers. A basement might be needed. It'll all work out in the end, It always dose.

Have a good one.



02/06/2010 - 01:00
RockEngineer
LHBA MemberProfessional Engineer
Posts: 285
 Joined: 2005-01-10
Alternate Footings

I had one guy in New York wanting to use the Big Foot System due to the frost depth. I did a little research and it looked like it would probably work although you would probably want to have a rebar cage inside for additional bending strength depending on your seismic or wind loading. They are available much larger than 8" diameter at the top. When you get 5 feet below ground, the soil bearing goes up appreciably so having these on 5 ft to 7 ft centers would probably work for a 2 story log home. You should have your foundation requirements checked out by an engineer for your location.

http://www.bigfootsystems.com/

--

Richard Rock, Rock Engineering