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hbarker1
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# Posted: 28 Jan 2010 22:04
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We are planning a small cabin in the high desert of central colorado.
About 9000 ft elevation.
The building spot we picked is on a tophill side,, We are considering digging in the hillside to where the NW corner would be in the ground at least 6 ft and this level would tapper to the opposing corners . The ground is really hard and compact, this area not accesable with a cement truck so mixing by hand. On such hard ground and below grade would a 6" deep. 16" wide footing and built up cement filled hollow block with rebar be ok?
Also would like to build that and the cabin walls and roof., Then smooth and pack the dirt inside and iether pour 2 er 3 inches of cement inside for the floor,, or lay 6 mil polly, then 3/4" foam board in between 2x4 flat runners and running a 2x6 t&g red cedar over then for a finished floor.. ?
and input on this ??
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 28 Jan 2010 23:34
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You will find it will depend on temp. Uusally, the bottom of the footing to the final grade is atleast 24", in colder areas, where i suspect youra may be, its going to be deeper. Stemwalls are usually 8" wide, footing about 24"
Lots of cement. Can a pumper truck reach it? I just built a small 18X16 and used a footong/stemwall, was almost 8 yards of concrete.
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Moontreeranch
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2010 14:32 - Edited by: Moontreeranch
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2-3" of concrete for a floor...is 2-3 " less than what is normal for a slab...even mixing 3" by hand for an average sized room is going to "kick your butt"...a 3" thick slab for modest 10 x10' room is over 3300 # of concrete (42 -80 pound bags) plus 45 gallons of water or so...
Where in Colorado...I'm at 8440 feet in the mountains west of Boulder (my house) our frost depths here is 48"...
for our cabin in New Mexico we built on piers...with built up beams. All our concrete was hand mixed 1 bag at a time and we went with footers about a foot deep...we still mixed nearly a ton of concrete for that. By using built up beams any potential frost heave will be distributed via the beams...
you can see some pics at
http://www.small-cabin.com/forum/6_169_0.html
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hbarker1
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2010 22:06
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what about the plooy , foam , and wood right over the packed dirt?This being lay between a surrounding footing that supports the walls/.
Where we live now would not work at all, BUT in that part of Colorado it is dry ,, and NO subteranean termites !
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Moontreeranch
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2010 23:22
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We dont have termites like the SE and other areas of the country but dirt + Wood still = rot the poly sheeting would help but I still would be cautious.
Concrete in the floor would give you some thermal mass and temper the temp swing summer and winter. I just read some info on AGS Annualized Geo solar...
some nice concepts
http://www.greenershelter.org/index.php?pg=2
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