fresh home build coming soon

[BoomerD]

It is what I get with an 8' wall on the low side and a 12' wall on the high side with a 30' span.
If I push it to 3:12 I will need engineering for a taller wall. It may come to that. That would mean a 15' high wall on the high side.
It will have standing seam metal roofing.

I'm sure you've seen this, but...

Chapter 18.24 DESIGN STANDARDS

 

[skyking]

It would also require a 2x6 wall. 14' is the maximum allowed for 2x4 unless it's horizontally braced.
I assume you're using TJ's for the roof framing? Or do you have intermediate bearing walls?

You can use standing seam on a low slope roof? I have no experience with it as it's almost never used around here in residential.

We use it frequently in the PNW. It is also popular in the mountains, and might save a home or two in fire season.
Mechanically seamed roof can go as flat as 0.25:12 !
I would like to use TJ's everywhere, I love the flat and true and strong. I'd need 16" deep ones to get the required r-38 insulation and they span 30' easily.
What I really like about them is the wide crown to glue and screw sheeting. It is exponentially stronger over a traditional 1 5/8 lumber crown.
There will be an interior wall and beam between floor 1 and 2, so I can use the ~12" Tj's there. That 3.5" crown cuts effective subfloor span to 12.5" on 16" centers, and I will probably use a 3/4" OSB subfloor because of it. It will be plenty rigid and squeak free when glued and screwed.
Probably use LVP flooring, with the exception of a tiled entry for durability.
I would never dream of anything less than a 2x6 on exterior walls.

 

[skyking]

I'm sure you've seen this, but...

Chapter 18.24 DESIGN STANDARDS

That section is pertaining to commercial buildings, note the reference to worker well being. They can't be talking about us

 

[MrSquished]

you DO realize this us about 3000 miles west of the Catskills...right?

Well yes. I'd just like to have the same design, but in the Catskills. A dream is to have a close by mountain getaway I could Airbnb out and use when I wanted in all seasons.

 

[skyking]

My ( latest) design would work for Airbnb. Ironically our city does not allow for short term vacation rentals. 4 bed 4 bath, it will be 2 up and 2 down, master up and down, and have a seating area and small kitchen up. The entry design I am working on would allow for discrete entry to either floor with the only common area as the entry and stairs up.

 

[Greenman]

We use it frequently in the PNW. It is also popular in the mountains, and might save a home or two in fire season.
Mechanically seamed roof can go as flat as 0.25:12 !
I would like to use TJ's everywhere, I love the flat and true and strong. I'd need 16" deep ones to get the required r-38 insulation and they span 30' easily.
What I really like about them is the wide crown to glue and screw sheeting. It is exponentially stronger over a traditional 1 5/8 lumber crown.
There will be an interior wall and beam between floor 1 and 2, so I can use the ~12" Tj's there. That 3.5" crown cuts effective subfloor span to 12.5" on 16" centers, and I will probably use a 3/4" OSB subfloor because of it. It will be plenty rigid and squeak free when glued and screwed.
Probably use LVP flooring, with the exception of a tiled entry for durability.
I would never dream of anything less than a 2x6 on exterior walls.

TJ's are best when you're setting them, really lite. Though I did watch a union crew setting 16' TJ's on a second floor deck with a crane, did them one at a time.

We don't use 2x6 walls around here unless they're over 14' or have concentrated loads, don't need the insulation. We also can't screw down decking, 10 shorts for everything.

 

[skyking]

We'll shoot the TJ's out a few at a time with a big reach forklift, with somebody at each end on proper scaffold or a scissor lift to safely set them. I have one set of scaffold with rollers, and will get another.
the longest biggest will be 16" x 34' long. If I go with the 3.5" crown, that's 150 pounds each. I think I'll build a jig to hold them vertical out near the end of the fork. Those would be a bastard to roll up out at the wall top.

 

[skyking]

The design process has been cooking along in my brain. I have an open concept common area ready to go to virtual paper now, complete with structural bearing walls and a beam figured out.
The bedroom and bathroom area is still in the conceptual phase but I know what I have to work with.
Same goes for that upstairs suite of rooms.
The roofs have changed, I no longer have really low pitch requirements as I am back to the skillion rooflines in post #7.
I can get enough square footage for the solar panel install on an asymmetric roof. I may do a reverse skillion on that upper roof, with clerestory windows on the north for indirect light. Typically you face them south, but I would rather have steeper roof pitch for the solar panels and that flops things.
The roof over the single story portion will have the proper south facing clerestories.
I am probably going with ICF for the basement concrete.
The equipment will occupy one wall of the basement, and the rest of it will be an unfinished man cave.

 

[IronWing]

you DO realize this us about 3000 miles west of the Catskills...right?

He's from New Jersey; there is nothing west of the Catskills.

 

[BoomerD]

He's from New Jersey; there is nothing west of the Catskills.

There's definitely no sign of intelligent life anywhere in Joisey...

 

[skyking]

I had a great chat with a GSHP guy in Michigan. My brother was sitting with me and listening in, and getting all jazzed up about it. I dug in his geo system in 2011.
Based on that convo, we are going with two GSHP units, one for hydronic heat and the other a regular air handler for both heat and AC.
The hydronic will do the bulk of the heating, and the air unit will do that rapid response morning heating and what little AC days we have there. It is quite cool and not many AC days at all.
The average July high is 70.
I love warm floors. Love warm towels on hydronic towel racks. Dogs love warm floors. They melt onto them.

 

[skyking]

The upstairs main bedroom is getting the SE corner. It will have it's own door onto the sundeck for egress.
The upstairs guest room is kitty corner at the NW corner, and I will run a 5' walkout deck along the north side to give it a door out too. Both will have interior doors, but those personal entrances are a nice touch and also cover the fire egress requirements.
There will be a 3rd door onto that deck from the common entertaining area.

It was OK to lay out the downstairs, it was somewhat fun. This upstairs is going to be a blast in comparison. I have ~1000 SF to make a 2 bed 2 bath apartment.

 

[skyking]

I snapped some pictures of the first draft and called the building inspector, and we chatted for more than an hour about my prescriptive design. He was very helpful and I got the feeling I can move forward with more details. I proposed raising the house up 18" ( or more ) from existing grade, improving drainage grading on the uphill side, improving the view, improving the daylight aspect of the basement. I can do all the grade work with the basement spoils.
He thought that was a good idea considering the possibility of underground water moving through. A couple of feet would be epic, and for sure would allow me to daylight the footing drains easily.

 

[herm0016]

would love to see your pics! sounds fun and we will be working on our trip up hopefully this week.

could lend a hand on the electrical side if you see any need to double check code stuff.

 

[MrSquished]

He's from New Jersey; there is nothing west of the Catskills.

Well I've been to Cali five times, Oregon twice, Arizona once, Colorado, Nevada, Louisiana, Texas, Illinois and probably going to Montana this year.

Definitely wouldn't live in Arizona, Nevada, Texas or Louisiana that's for shit sure.

A mountain retreat in the Catskills would be amazing that is for sure. More than a beach house at the shore for me.

 

[skyking]

would love to see your pics! sounds fun and we will be working on our trip up hopefully this week.

could lend a hand on the electrical side if you see any need to double check code stuff.

I will get you some images soon, it is really rough right now. I could use a hand with a lighting and electrical plan to submit, for sure.
The electrical will be complicated. The solar system will be set up for net metering, and the PUD requires a disconnect that they can switch off in case of a power outage so they can work safely up-line.
I will install something like this:
https://bigbattery.com/products/48v...Title&utm_campaign=Analyst&utm_id=ButtonsCamp

And a limited load automatic transfer switch and modest inverter.
All I want to back up is some outlets and the lighting. It is too much to get the heat pumps on battery. IF the lights work and the food doesn't spoil, I'm good.
What gets complicated? they want to turn off the solar grid tie inverter, and I want a system I can use in an outage. I will have to prove a safe and complete disconnect at the transfer switch, a break-before-make system.
Then I have to get some of that solar lovin into my battery pack during an outage.

 

[herm0016]

that could be something I might finish after I have my occupancy permit if you get my drift.

 

[skyking]

wink wink

I am bringing in a 400 amp service to the meter with two 200 amp disconnects on it.
The meter read is an atrocious $40 per month, so you do anything to avoid a second meter for the shop. That will be handy for the temp power panel. I can have that going off that shop disconnect, and wire up the whole house job and not have to disconnect to make the final connections. I can pick up a 200 amp temp panel with a bunch of outlets on a post on CL.

 

[skyking]

After my conversation with the inspector, we had left it at a point where he was going to check on some things.

I thought about the roof design and then did not sleep much, and woke up early and thought some more.

It just wasn't right, too high ceilings to get some light in. It also had me up against some code limitations for prescriptive design. I knew it, and thought through the process and made a completely different natural light design using a shed roofed cupola.

He calls me back today and started in about the other roof plan, and I said hold on, that thing is on the cutting room floor now He was sounding apologetic that my original idea would not work so I was glad to say it was a goner.
We talked another hour or more and hammered out some other little structural details. So far working with a small town has been gold. I need a stamped foundation design and the ICF form company says they will supply that.

I've done nothing more than do some rough drawing on 2 sheets of grid paper and he and I have worked through a lot of things that would get redlined on the first go around.

I confirmed I need another stub footing under a wall that I will use to bear the 2nd floor shower. He gave me a suggestion and approved my solution for another tall wall section with a hinge point. Now I can draw this up with structural details that work.

 

[skyking]

We are going to the property today with a post pounder, posts, stakes, ribbon, string, 300' tape measure and the laser to lay out the house. I don't have a good benchmark within reach, but I have an old proposed development of the property with topographical lines on it, and one of them goes right through the corner where I do have a survey marker. I'd wager I will have elevation plus/minus a foot.
Per the conversation with the inspector, I will raise the finished floor up and place the excavation spoils around the upper yard area. This will improve our views and also the daylight basement lookout.
I'll mark the finish floor (FF) elevation on the stakes with some tape, and then set the beam to match that floor level. Then I can directly read my cuts and fills on the rod. I can figure out the daylight point for the footing drain, and the outer end of an ADA ramp to the basement. The ground falls away while that ramp goes up at 1:12 slope so I am hoping it is not too long.
Basement is FF -9, footing drain and footings are FF -9.87
I will also mark for locate with the white paint and call for locate on the whole property. There is an underground power main along the whole south property line I want to pin down. When we bring the power up to our transformer pad, we will dig right next to that main per the PUD. The water main is easy to see with a cluster of valve boxes. PUD will allow our water service to go in the same ditch after I backfill 18". That puts our service right at 24" and the frost level is 12"
I always toss an extra pipe in the ditch because the $200 spent is cheap insurance. I will also toss in two conduits, one for an ISP and the other for my gate.
There is a nearby manhole, I will pump to that main with our sewer. I have not found an as-built for that or I would have a great elevation reference.
I had the sewer guys pull the lid and get me an invert of 47" below rim, so I have what I need to calculate my pump and line.
I will come home and get the site plan drawn up. One step closer!

 

[skyking]

The property spoke to us and we finally listened.
My wife's former sister in law came up to the property with her husband.
They are a few blocks away.
He said you could turn the house to face the view.
That was my first gut response, but solar panels and general tidyness said to put it square to the world.
We staked it out turned about 30 degrees. We loved it.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Good choice. You're not building on a city lot around a bunch of houses where the symmetry matters.

 

[skyking]

oops I have a bust in dimensions. Stand by for corrections

 

[skyking]

main floor is done. Ask away about any details I have not labeled.

 

[Greenman]

I haven't seen a hand drawn plan in 25 years.

What's the thinking behind the 5' deep master closet? While it technically becomes a walk in closet, functionally it's still a 24" closet. Were you trying to avoid big closet doors?