Need help with Cabin Build- Ontario Canada

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# Posted: 21 Dec 2025 12:05pm
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Hi there,

I'm looking for help on a cabin build I'm looking to complete.

I recently bought a 2 acre property and I want to build a cabin on it. A cabin that can be used as a hunting camp and also a place for friends and family to stay when they come to visit.

I'm thinking of making it 16x36, where I want to build has kind of a narrow long envelope surrounded by trees. I also don't want to completely rule out the idea of keeping it as a building lot, and want to make the cabin something that could possibly be moved someday (hence why I wanna make it 16 feet wide)

I thought the best way to do this would be to build on concrete pads/blocks up off the ground. Then it would make it easier to possibly be moved someday if I wanted to build out there.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with this? Is that a good way to do it?

Also wondering if anybody has any plans of this size or pictures. I want it to be a 2 bedroom (with 2nd bedroom possibly being the loft), big min area and smaller kitchen. I also have old cook stove that I would like to incorporate into it for heat. I also would like it to be rustic with board and batten siding and steel roof.

Thanks again

philpom
Member

# Posted: 21 Dec 2025 08:04pm
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To be sure you would want footers that go below the frost line in your area. Make them flush with the ground and then stack blocks to get it level. If any movement happens down the road you can jack it and shim it. Building that large are typically built mostly onsite (assembled) because that size is s challenge to move. Go check at some local barn/shed dealers to see the largest models they will deliver intact and take a good look at the foundation assembly for its to make sure it's strong enough to move down the road.

Sitting on blocks is no big deal.

DRP
Member

# Posted: 21 Dec 2025 08:42pm
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16 wide with a loft will not go down the road. Unless it is on steel girders you'll likely break it before you move it. I'd view this as the core, build it with a real foundation and provision to add on later. Below is 16x28 with loft above, its about 20' above the foundation and just enough room to stand upright under the ridge above. 13' above the road is max road height and there are axles and frame in that. At 16 wide it is pretty much all 2x12's. I seriously doubt you would or could move it.

patricksframe.jpg

PatSE.jpg

gcrank1
Member

# Posted: 21 Dec 2025 10:24pm
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Our new pre-built milled log cabin last year is a 12.5 x 28' c/w a 4' front door overhang on one end. Without the overhang we could have had a max 32'. I dont know the height but it was over the road legal here in sc WI, delivered on a portable building truck rig and moved onto my prepped site and floating foundation with a 'mule' (portable building short fork iift to guide and a set of boggy wheels on the other end). It took them less than an hour to unload it out on the little town road out front, bring it up the 350'ish foot driveway and set it on my blocks.

Steve_S
Member

# Posted: 22 Dec 2025 09:16am - Edited by: Steve_S
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Near Algonquin Park here...
I used a Frost Protected Slab Foundation (FPSF) incorporating R20 high-density foam under & surrounding the slab, with 7/8" Radiant Heat plumbing within, and it's the ultimate for comfort, when it's 24C inside, everything is 24C, no COLD floor, or bed to crawl into, warm walls and more... Great for a creeky ol geezer ! The thermal mass also helps keep the house cool in summer along with the passive building methods used in its construction.

* MAX Height allowable on an Ontario road is 13.6' from the road surface to the absolute top. But if not going on the road (moving it on the property) it's whatever, but trickier too... lumpy bumpy ground +++

Lessons Learned Dept:
- I built standard 8' high walls and I really should have built 12' high wals (storey & half) with my loft side floor at 8' as usual, providing a "half wall/knee wall" for the loft giving better clearance.. I do have a 10:12 Pitch roof so it's pretty steep, and it woudl have worked a treat for clearance etc.
*NB: Note that a 1/2 Story is not calculated as "Living Space" for Tax Purposes which also helps keep insurance down a bit (every bit counts these days). Also makes for a nicer Cathedral Ceiling in the open area. DO consider a skylight or two.

- I designed & built everything using a 10x12 block method as I went 20x24 footprint. I prebuilt all the wall modules on the slab and stacked them up, when it came to assembly, 3 friends came up and we had all walls up within an hour and screwed together with structural screws and anchored to the secured baseplate on the concrete (gasketted & sealed).

- Hindsight, should have likely gone 24'x30' but that would have put me in a different class. Regional classifications at the time.

* I worked for Guildcrest Homes (Modular home builder) in Morewood, Ontario, for a couple of years after I burned out of the High Tech IT sector and learned several great tricks to my benefit, and i learned how hard it is to build something that will be moved, it's not that simple OR cheap really. But again, those modules were shipped by transport distances so that's a big part... bad thing to have fall apart on the roads eh ! LOL.

Personally, I would design & build accounting for future expansion by creating wall sections that can be easily opened up when additions are made, allowing for seamless integration.

Hope some of this is useful to you.
Steve

PS: My home is Hyper Insulated. 9" thick walls with UHD closed cell Foam Insulation sheets & 12.6" thick roof filled with Solid PolyIso Sheet insulation. Both are Thermally Broken. Rainscreen Siding (live edge Cedar) with 2" free flow airspace to Cool Roof system that also has 2" airspace between shell & root that allows air to be pulled up from the walls using convection & vented out the roof via the Ridge Vent. This prevents heat loss/gain within the structure. All wiring & plumbing are internal, meaning that none of it travels through the exterior walls, it's all within the interior walls or coming down from above, so I have minimal air leakages, improving efficiency. Windows & Doors are installed into Insulated "Bailey Boxes" which are installed into the walls first, keeping everything thermally broken to prevent losses/gains.