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Build a Mini Cabin -
Before you read further, look over the Mini
Cabin web site (http://www.minicabin.com).
The concept presented is that a building of 120 sq. feet or less (some
places as much as 144 square feet) can be built without a building permit.
Some zoning regulations allow the building to have a loft or even a full
second floor and still be within the 120 square feet. Of course, there are
many places, especially in rural areas, where there are no such
restrictions, or the regulations are largely uninformed. If you are
fortunate enough to live in such a place, then lucky you! Even for this
fortunate few, it is often a good idea to build small, especially for a
first project.
The web site was intended as a brief introduction to the mini cabin concept,
and does not give much detail on building. Since building my mini, I have
constructed three additional small buildings on that site, and read and
studied more on construction and architecture, especially as applied to
small structures. I make no claims to expertise, but have come to some very
definite opinions about building, architecture, and lifestyles in general. I
would like to pass on some of these suggestions and opinions.
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Construction Tips -
Do It the Easy
Way
There is a lot to be said for keeping projects simple, and for employing
labor saving building techniques. Any time you are relying on your own labor
to complete a large part of any building project, it often happens that the
builder (you!) gets discouraged, or runs into frustrating complications and
doesn't get the project done at all. Also, to be considered is the wear and
tear on the builder's nerves created by half-completed projects. The darn
thing needs to be protected from the weather and from vandals, and it just
doesn't feel right when you are out fishing when you know you should be out
on the property putting in windows!
A lot of the suggestions that follow are on ways I have found to do it
easier, cheaper, or both.
More and Lighter
Support Members
A structure may be engineered to use relatively few support members for the
floor, walls, and roof which means less nailing and can sometimes cut down
on the time of construction. This trade-off often means using very large and
heavy timbers. My own preference is to make the trade the other way: to be
willing to use more support members where the lumber can be smaller
dimension boards. Thus, roof rafters that would need to be 2 x 10's, with
two feet spacing between them can be replaced by 2 x 8's at 16 inch spacing,
or 2 x 6's with 12 inch spacing. Just because you can "struggle that
struggle" to heft heavy timbers into place and somehow secure them
temporally does not mean that you will willingly do so. I prefer to take a
little longer and have the building experience be less of an arduous task.
There are times when building with big timbers makes sense. For example, if
you are milling your own lumber with a chainsaw mill, then the fewer pieces
of lumber that need to be surfaced, the better.
Pier Foundations
Prior to building my mini cabin, I had the experience of helping friends and
neighbors prepare foundations for small buildings. This always involved a
great deal of cement work and even more labor and expense to prepare the
site prior to the cement pour. Such projects are, of course, quite doable
for the owner-builder, and with some kinds of cabins a cement foundation is
necessary. For example, if you plan on having a basement, then there will be
some digging involved -- either by man or machine, likely followed by a lot
of cement work.
The buildings I have constructed on my own (entirely with my own labor,
except for occasional assist from my wife) have all used a pier foundation.
The pier foundation, I am convinced, is a much cheaper, easier, quicker, and
less stressful way to build.
The pier foundation also disturbs the land at the building site a whole lot
less, and allows construction on sloping sites that would be impractical for
a cement foundation. It allows the building to be easily placed well above
the ground, so concerns about flooding or even tracking in mud following
heavy rains, are less of a problem.
Pier Foundations
of Treated Wood?
Most people will find that pier foundations made from treated wood are the
easiest way to go. Remember that treated wood has been engineered for a
number of applications: 1) wood used outdoors, but not in contact with the
ground; 2) wood used outdoors made for ground contact but not to be buried
in the soil; and 3) wood that can go directly into the ground. This third
type of treated wood is what is needed for the peers themselves. Any
foundation wood should be factory-treated to resist wood-eating insects. A
word of caution: all treated wood, especially which which goes directly in
the ground, has been treated with some pretty nasty stuff such as
strychnine. If there is any chance that small children or animals will
ingest sawdust or handle the wood, best use cement piers.
The Elephant Test
There are some unique design concerns for building a home on piers. If the
project is very large, especially if a building inspector may have to look
it over either now or in the future, then it is best to either buy plans
which call for a pier foundation, or have an architect design or modify
blueprints for your home on piers. For small buildings you design yourself,
it is best to "overbuild". That is, make sure that your foundation structure
is so well built that you feel very comfortable it will stand up to most
anything that nature has to dish out, or that it will do at least as well as
your neighbor's architect-designed place.
For my own small buildings, I apply "the Elephant Test." I try to build my
structures in such a way that an elephant can sit on them without them
breaking apart. Now mind you, I have never actually persuaded an elephant to
sit on one, but if any elephant should come along who happens to be tired,
he or she is welcome to sit down.
I have concluded that my chickens' town house is so well built that it would
survive a major earthquake that would make splinters and cinders of most
other structure in California. So, when the San Andreas Fault levels
California, if there happen to be any survivors, at least those lucky few
will have eggs!
How Many Piers?
My 8' by 15' mini cabin uses nine 6'' by 6" peers, three in front, three in
the middle, and three in back. Stretched laterally across the peers are 6''
by 6" horizontal support members called "girders." When I can give myself
the luxury of not having to do exact fits, I do so. A master carpenter I am
not! The cabin cantilevers a few inches out from the girders on the sides.
This cantilever construction allowed some latitude in positioning of the
peers, made necessary by variations in the rocky soil of the site. So the
cabin cantilevers a little more on one side or another, but still sits
solidly supported by the nine piers. It would have been possible to build
this structure with as little as four piers for support. The added piers
make the building more "fail-safe," and also allow for smaller (cheaper and
lighter) floor joists to be used for the floor support than would be the
case with just four piers.
And what should the support members be made of, my love? There are
engineering tables that give safe spacing for various species and grades of
wood. These are available from many sources, including from the U.S.
Government's publications on farm building construction (government printing
office, Boulder, Colorado). They are also printed in the back of many "how
to" books, for example Low-cost Pole Building Construction, by Ralph
Wolfe, and How to Put Up Your Own Post-Frame House and Cabin, by
Alan D. Roebuck.
If you are making use of wood that you mill yourself (not a bad plan for
people with forest land), then be sure and use the "ungraded" category to
determine spacing between supports, even if your timber is good strong wood
free of knots. Also be warned that use of self-milled ungraded wood,
especially where used "structurally," will likely cause all kinds of
problems with building inspectors.
Concrete Piers
There is a lot to be said for making the piers themselves of concrete. You
can buy tubes for the forms in which to pour the cement. Easier and cheaper
is to roll roofing (tar) paper into the proper form size. The rolled tar
paper is then simply held to it's tubular shape with string or electrician's
tape.
Preparation of
Footings
Footings are rock-solid slabs of concrete or stone that go into the hole
where your piers will rest. A rule of thumb often quoted is to make the
footings 1 1/2 times the area of the piers themselves. With just a little
extra work and cement, you can easily double this. You will need even more
substantial footings for poor soil. A good easy-to-read reference on this
subject is Low-Cost Pole Building Construction by Ralph Wolfe, Garden
Way Publishers. This book is now out of print, but is available used
through most book sites, including Amazon.
Don't be Intimidated
Anybody giving advice always tries to err on the side of caution. No one
wants to give bad advice that results in a person being injured. That said,
a would-be do-it-yourselfer could be so intimated by the advice to play it
safe that he or she doesn't dare to try! Start small. Overbuild. Ask a
friend with building experience to look over your plans and to act as kind
of an informal building inspector. There are a lot of people with experience
in construction. Many are more than glad to give advice, or even help out
with the building of the trickier parts of your project. Be sure and ask the
favorite flavor of Cool Aid your "expert" enjoys, and have plenty on hand!
Platform Framing
or Timberframe Construction?
The frame of a house is it's basic skeleton, so it is important that the
frame be sturdily built. Most of the houses built in American use platform
framing (sometimes mistakenly called "balloon framing"). The majority of the
remaining American houses use a framing system of more antique origin called
"Timberframe" construction. Which framing system is better for the novice
builder?
Platform Framing
For my first projects, I used platform framing and have no regrets for that
choice. Here are some reasons why:
1.
Most modern building materials
(such as T-1-11 siding panels) are constructed for use in platform framing.
Likewise, you can find off-the-shelf plans for many such buildings easily
and readily.
2.
Since most buildings are made
this way, there are lots of people who can give good advice. Also, building
inspectors (a curse on that swarthy breed) are most familiar with platform
framing, hence less likely to make your life a living hell!
3.
There are a lot of
do-it-yourself books written on platform framing.
4.
The materials used for platform
framing are generally lighter and much easier for a builder working alone to
manage.
5.
When timber framing is used, it
is often necessary to "fill-in" the spaces between the large members with
2x4 or 2x6 studs to form about the same kind of stud-walls that are used in
conventional platform framing. If all that work is needed anyway, why not
just do platform framing to begin with?
6.
Except for pole barns, platform
framing is generally cheaper than timber framing.
Timberframing
Timberframing has a lot going for it as well. The nice
little pole barns you see throughout the countryside are made with timber
framing techniques. These barns are built pretty-much like your backyard
"privacy" fence. Here is the formula for a pole barn: build fences on four
sides, put on a roof, and "presto-chango," instant pole barn!
Timberframing is used for some of the more expensive homes in America. Since
it allows a larger expanse between walls, it lends itself to the "open
architecture" so popular with the moneyed set. When the framing members are
left exposed, the structure has a very beautiful rustic charm. Timberframing,
with its large framing members, goes better combined with log construction
than the lighter-framed platform technique. Large framing members burn more
slowly than many small studs and rafters, so a timberframe house (other
things being equal) may be somewhat safer in case of fire.
My advice is to learn platform framing first before taking up timberframing.
An exception to this is in building concrete or earth-floored pole barns.
Shingle
Shacks
Lots of "how to" building courses teach students to use wooden shingles
(especially for wall coverings) as a technique that is fairly easy for the
novice builder to master. Because shingle building is forgiving of mistakes,
and the singles are light and easy to work with, the results apprentice
builders achieve are often about as good as those of a real carpenter.
Shingles are not necessarily just for small structure or cheap buildings.
Some of the best examples of American architecture make use of cedar or
redwood shingles. The "Shingle", "New Shingle" , "Wrightian”, "Craftsman",
and "Bay Area" styles (see discussion in American Architecture by
Lester Walker) are good examples of up-scale shingle shacks, to say nothing
of the fancy shingle work on Victorian and Queen Ann
homes.
Building with shingles is older than American. Such luminaries as Thomas
Jefferson and Henry David Thoreau made use of the craft. The technique
became especially popular with the invention of the cheap and plentiful
shingle nail when machines were perfected that could turn strands of wire
into shingle-nails.
Make Your Own
Shingles and Shakes
I have written an article on how to make your own shingles and shakes that
will soon be available on the net (I'll set up a link then, so check back
please). The beam machine chainsaw mill, or a small Alaskan chain saw mill,
can be used to make the backing strips that hold the shingles in place and
could even make the framing studs and rafters. These backing strips can also
be simply split (rived) out using the shingle making tools. A third
alternative is cutting them with a chain saw but just do it "by eye”. The
strips cut out this way are far from perfect, but work OK for rustic cabins
or outbuildings.
When Thoreau was crafting American's most famous cabin in the woods near
Walden pond, he made his studs and rafters from small pine trees he cut on
site, finishing only the sides of the studs and rafters needed to provide
flat building surfaces. There is no reason we can't do the same! A building
constructed in this fashion can be very cheap to make indeed. You are not
only providing the labor with no cost except your own time, most of the
building material is crafted by you as well!
T-1-11 Siding
After framing your cabin-to-be using the platform framing technique, the
traditional building method is to next put on sheathing, usually plywood,
though oriented strand board is fast replacing plywood for this application.
After the sheathing is applied, the builder then adds a siding material.
T-1-11 siding, which comes in 4' x 8' sheets, is designed to serve as both
siding and sheathing; thus one step in the process is eliminated.
Using T-1-11 as outside wall coverings is one of the easiest, fastest, and
(unless you can make some of your own building materials) is also one of the
cheapest wall covering methods available.
There are a number of variations on T-1-11 siding that present interesting
possibilities. Several products combine plywood with hardboard to produce a
tougher outer layer. One of these, called "Duraframe," was used for my mini
cabin. I used traditional T-1-11 on a more recently built structure. Both
materials worked well, though the Duraframe had the tendency to be "curly"
and was thus a bit more troublesome to work with. We’ll see how the two
kinds of materials hold up to the elements (Duraframe is guaranteed by its
manufacture for 20 years).
The Duraframe people make a similar panel, but with a texture to imitate
stucco. I haven't tried using this material yet, but a person should be able
to craft half-timbers onto these panels to produce a cabin or home in the
Tudor architectural style without mixing stucco.
Bracing Stud
Walls with Stimpson Strapping
Stud walls that consist of just the studs and top and bottom plates can
wobble like a Stork high on Moonshine mesh. Traditionally, the wall is
stabilized (prior to sheathing) by running catty-corner (lateral) lengths of
1/2" by 4" boards. The studs are notched out with a hand or circular saw to
fit in the 1/2" by 4" boards, a time consuming and tricky process for the
novice builder. An alternative is to run lateral strips of Stimpson
strapping (or its equivalent) to take the place of the 1/2" by 4" boards.
The Stimpson straps are more expensive than the boards, but not appreciably
so. The advantage of the Stimpson strapping is that it goes on very quickly,
and it is not necessary to do any time-consuming notching. The resulting
wall is also somewhat stronger than the one made with the 1/2" by 4" boards
since no material is removed from the studs.
Don't Make What
You Can Buy
How do you decide what to make and what to buy? Do you make your kitchen
cabinets from scratch, or do you buy them ready made? For that matter, what
is "scratch"? Do you start with a tree and end up with kitchen cabinets, or
do you start with plywood and laminate, and end up with kitchen cabinets?
Ideally, the things you make should be items that are very expensive to buy
but which can be made by you fairly easily, or made from materials native to
your site. Items that require a lot of time and high skill level are "no
brainers": you will want to buy them.
For example: I usually buy doors, windows, skylights, kitchen cabinets,
heating stoves, and tile.
Most people will make the "rough carpentry" items themselves, but from
lumber they buy from the local lumber yard. A lot of the opportunity for
very inexpensive building comes from finding building methods that allows
you to use rougher, less expensive material, often that which you have made
yourself.
The final way to make substantial savings is through use of salvaged or
reworked materials.
- Log
Cabin Building -
I'll start with the usual caution: that
building with logs is not the easiest or cheapest of construction methods.
That said, logs and cabins seem to go together, and apart from building with
stone, logs homes can last longer than any other material.
Log Home Kits
There are lots of nice log cabin kits, where the manufacturer has taken a
lot of the work out of log home construction. Often these kits go up quite
quickly on your site, and the manufactures have worked out a lot of the
problems (such as those caused by the heavy logs "settling"). Links to
dozens of fabricators of these kits is given on our links page.
Live in the
Woods? Use Cedar
With dry logs, free from rot, your home should last a long time. That is
true, unless you plan on building where the climate is damp a good part of
the year. Some of our nicest forests have damp climates, besides which there
is plenty of wood around undergoing decay all of the time, which means lots
of airborne wood-loving spores flying around just aching to take up
residence in the logs of your home.
So if you plan on building in or very near a forest or other damp location,
one solution is to build with logs of naturally rot-resistant species,
notably redwood or cedar. These days, redwood is being used almost
exclusively for fencing and outdoor wood, but there are many log home
manufactures that have cedar logs as an option. The cedar will cost more,
and pine logs are perfectly fine for most climates. If in doubt, build with
cedar.
Homes from Logs:
the "old method"
Why would anyone not want to just buy a kit? Most people, building log homes
these days, simply buy a kit or pre-made log home. With many of the kit
homes the logs have such a high degree of finish that it is debatable
whether the homes made from these materials should still be called "Log"
homes. Even when the manufacture is working with logs as they came from the
forest, the log-home is built on the manufacturer's site, numbered and
disassembled for shipment.
When pioneers cleared their home-site for farming, there were often plenty
of trees that had to be taken out. These trees were put to use to build log
cabins and other log structures right on-site.
Back in Grandpa's day, hand-crafting of individual logs was still the way
that log homes were erected.
It is still possible to use the "old method" of log home construction. There
are a variety of building techniques you can learn through "book learning,"
should you be like most of us and not know a friendly and willing old-timer
to teach you the ropes. Some of these techniques require a lot higher skill
level than do others.
I admire greatly the intricate joinery and notching that goes into a highly
crafted log cabin. However, I don't particularly want to learn such skills.
Yes, homes built that way are "built to last" and may well last a century or
two. Practically speaking, however, most such structures will be demolished
far before that time. People make other plans, the county appropriates the
land for widening the road, and your nephew who inherits the cabin from you
just doesn't like the looks of the old cabin. Unless I can find short-cuts
to build with logs without spending years putting up the walls, I'm just not
going to do it.
Fortunately, there are several techniques
to craft buildings with logs that make use of less labor-intensive methods
which also don't require log-joinery skills. I'll discuss these shortly.
First, you must acquire the logs!
Buying Logs
The price of the logs themselves is often quite reasonable. It is the
transportation and handling of them that boosts the price. Even adding these
costs in, the logs for home-building are still quite reasonably priced. Here
are some tips for buying logs:
Buying Pulp-Wood
Logs
These small logs are cheap and easy to handle.
Owners of forest land who grow trees for timber sale will often do thinning
cuts of their forest land. This is much like gardeners do with their
vegetable garden, taking out extra plants to make more room for those that
remain. Trees removed during the thinning operation are often not big enough
to be marketed as "saw logs," so they are sold for pulp wood, to be made
into paper products. Logs sold for pulp will command much less money per ton
than will the larger saw logs.
Pulp logs are 3 to 6 inches in diameter, and come in 8 to 20 foot lengths.
They will have their bark still on, but often with the bark pretty-well
skinned up from the machine-handling of the trees.
Costs of Pulp
Logs
Probably the best place to buy pulp logs is from small lumber mills. Be
prepared to offer the mill considerably more than they paid for them. You
are asking for something "not on the menu." The mill will normally send
these small logs on to paper companies in very large bulk. Your order of
logs, if the mill will mess with it at all, involves the mill doing more
handling and sorting than they do routinely. Be glad you have found a mill
willing to deal with you.
Other possible sources of pulp logs: 1) Timber Harvesting Companies; 2)
Private Foresters (who can perhaps arrange a purchase)'; 3) Tree Farmers; 4)
Paper Mills.
For what it is worth, as of the late summer of 2002 the timber grower in the
Southern US was getting as little as $1.00 a ton for pulp logs!
Larger Logs
When you buy larger logs, you are obtaining timber that could be cut into
lumber for building. Consequently, the price you will have to pay per ton is
considerably higher than for the small logs. If you stick to the 6 to 10
inch logs (you probably won't want to try to build with any larger ones),
this premium will not be unreasonable. As of late summer 2002, saw quality
Loblolly pine in the Southern US was selling for $40 to $60 a ton.
Cutting Your Own
Logs
Most cabin builders will stop short of picking up an ax or chain saw and
heading for the woods to cut their own logs. Leaving the cutting of logs to
the experts is a wise choice, in most cases. Modern tree harvesting uses
expensive specialized equipment. With such machines, a timber cutting
company can very quickly go through a forest for a thinning or even a
"maximum harvest" operation. Although these machines are very expensive to
purchase, if an operator can keep them in operation continuously, the cost
for harvesting any one acre of forest land is very low.
Cutting your own logs is dangerous, back-breaking work. Once the tree is
felled and limbed comes the task of getting the tree to your building site.
Most owner-builders don't have the equipment or skills to get any but the
smallest logs in from the forest. For one thing, the harvest site may be on
very steep terrain, where moving logs uphill is required. Then there is just
the sheer weight of the logs. A redwood log eight inches in
diameter and just eight feet in length will weigh about eighty pounds.
Increase the diameter to 10 inches and the weight goes up to one hundred
sixty pounds. Redwood is one of the lightest of the woods!
There are three ways that come to mind to make your logs manageable: 1)
reduce the length; 2) use smaller diameter logs; 3) size and shape your logs
in the woods.
Short Logs for
Building
The old-timers method of log cabin construction was to use full-length logs
for building the wall of the cabin, then cut in the doors and windows later.
Most modern log cabins have more door and window space than did the pioneers
log cabins, so building techniques that use shorter logs are often now
employed.
Palisade Log
Walls
Palisade log walls are like those you see in the Westerns where the settlers
take refuge inside the "Fort" as the Indians lay siege. The logs, running
vertically around the Fort are palisade walls.
If you are building 8 or even 10 feet high walls, then your logs need be no
longer than 8 or 10 feet. The ones used below or atop windows will be even
shorter.
The "gable ends" of your cabin with palisade log building often are finished
in boards or shingles, though logs can be used for this as well.
The Main Woods
Method
In the book Your Cabin In the Woods, by Conrad Meinecke, first
published in 1945, a method of cabin construction called the "Main Woods
Method" is described. Meinecke's book can often be bought used; my reprint
has a 1979 publishing date.
This technique consists of constructing "V" studs at each corner of the
cabin. Each V stud is made by nailing a 2" x 6" by 8-foot board to a 2" x 8"
by 8-foot board (for eight-foot walls). After standing a V stud at a corner,
logs are nailed to each side of the V by spiking through the sides of the
stud into the log-ends with 20 penny spikes. The mouth of the V is later
closed (just for appearance sake) by nailing on a rounded slab from a "split
log".
The advantage of this method is that the logs need not be lapped at the
corners so logs about two feet shorter can be used. This method should work
fine for relatively small cabins using small to medium sized logs.
Cordwood
Building Technique
The cordwood or "stackwood" techniques makes use of log-ends typically cut
to one foot lengths (six inch to two feet lengths can be used). This is
really a masonry building method using log-ends rather than stone. There are
a number of good books that describe this technique. Check the mini cabin
bookstore for information.
This method of building is very labor intensive, but it is also very cheap
since logs of just about any size and species can be used. A drawback is
that it is often difficult to get airtight walls since logs tend to develop
cracks in drying. The old timers who used this technique would often cover
the outer wall with plaster, stucco or shingles. This made for very cozy
houses but hid the quaint log pattern from view from the outside.
Combining Log Home Construction with other Building
Methods
It doesn't take very many logs used in construction to give the cabin the
rustic coziness we associate with log construction. Logs can be combined
with other materials to make very attractive structures, with many hours of
backbreaking work avoided.
I especially like the look of cabin walls made from hand split shakes
along-side the logs. The logs can be used at corners and around windows.
Another pleasing combination is to use logs for the first four feet of
walls, then shingles or board and baton sidings above.
That's all folks, of my brief suggestions.
Happy
Building!! |
