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Small Cabin Forum / Member's Projects and Photos / 16x32 Gambrel roofed cabin in northern WI
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WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 10 Nov 2021 08:08
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Quoting: Nate R
Is that 3/4" foam for the baffles?

Yes sir! The 1" for the standoff strips and the edge by the soffit is behind the 3/4". Need to get some more though, bought everything left at my Menards.

Quoting: Nate R
Which exact color is the steel?

It's the charcoal black. I actually got that color by mistake...sort of. I wanted the true dark black, but i apparently didn't realize there was 2 black colors when i ordered the stuff online (idiot me didn't click on the see all colors button). I was fine with what showed up as i didn't know any better. When i went to order my custom cut soffit panels, i had to do so in the store and noticed the other black colors on the display. I expressed my disappointment in myself to the guy taking my order and he's like, wouldn't have mattered....they no longer offer the traditional black anymore. I was quite surprised to hear that, and he didn't seem to know why they discontinued it.

Quoting: Nate R
Still a bargain to get where you are vs no roof this winter.

Agree. Talked to a guy not far from me who had a steel roof put on his new cabin, only difference is his is 36' long vs. my 32'. He paid $2k just to have his steel put on his. I'll be at $2k for the sheathing, water and ice barriers plus all the steel. Plus...cheaper than a hospital visit!

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 22 Nov 2021 08:39
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Went up this past weekend (11/19/21) for gun deer opener and to get some work done on the cabin. Finally had all the parts to do the soffit and was able to get that all done. So now the entire roof is finally complete!!! Big relief.




Was also able to get the pellet stove fired for the first time!! It was 32F inside when i fired it. After a couple hours the thermostat on the stove said it was only 53 degrees. Keep in mind this is with zero insulation except that behind the stove. The vented soffit was also not on at this point. It felt pretty warm right by the stove, but still really cold in the rest of the cabin. The loft was definitely warmer than the area on the first floor away from stove. So i'm not sure if the stove will be able to keep up in winter without the insulation. It might be a little better now that i have the soffits on...they're vented but it should restrict the air a bit more, however the ridge is still vented so it's all pouring out up there.



At max output, she get's really bright!!


WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 22 Nov 2021 08:42
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Forgot to mention, was fortunate enough to shoot my first buck on this property and only my 3rd buck in 25+ years of deer hunting! He was a year old spike, so at least we'll get a couple pounds of burger and hot sticks! Sat for 2hrs in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon and got him at 4pm wondering into what used to be a small pond/wet spot at the front of the property right off the driveway.

ICC
Member
# Posted: 22 Nov 2021 08:51
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Until you can stop heated air from escaping through openings it will be cold inside, IMO. Better than no heat, but how good will be a matter of how well cold is tolerated.

Insulation in the ceiling/roof will also make a world of difference.

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 22 Nov 2021 11:34
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Quoting: ICC
Insulation in the ceiling/roof will also make a world of difference.


You aren't kidding.. In our cabin I had to run the stove at full bore to maintain comfortable heat. We insulated just 1/2 the walls and it became a sweat box when the stove was at full bore.

Now we have everything insulated and the stove never goes beyond the lowest setting.

snobdds
Member
# Posted: 22 Nov 2021 12:22
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If given enough time, it will heat up the place eventually. It will take a lot of pellets.

It will however work great once you get some insulation and thermal mass for the heat to sink into.

Nate R
Member
# Posted: 29 Nov 2021 13:15
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I got my ceiling insulation batts in last week. Made a big difference, even without the walls insulated. Could heat it up more vs outside temp and hold it MUCH longer overnight.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 29 Nov 2021 13:31
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Wont warm well if heat is going out the ridge vent, if nothing else staple some batt insul under the ridge?
And get a fan kicking air from the lower cold side of the room toward the upper side above the stove. It will mix the air in the room to a much more even temp. Doesnt have to be a huge fan either.

Nate R
Member
# Posted: 29 Nov 2021 13:36
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I found setting XPS foam sheets against the walls helped, too. As in, sheets you probably already have that you'll use up..

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 30 Nov 2021 05:45
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If your going to insulate next just install it. If your not going to insulate next at least finish the ceiling and insulate that. No point in doing a bunch of temporary work for a few degrees temp rise.

Congratulations on your buck. I got a 8pt last week on our property. Just prepping the scull now for a mount.

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 30 Nov 2021 08:05
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The BI said she wanted to inspect it before insulation goes in. So i guess i need to get the electrical in so she can come do that and then i can insulate.

Quoting: Brettny
Just prepping the scull now for a mount.

I've been doing the same the last few days. Should be done with the boiling part, now just need to get it clean off and let it dry. Never done this method before so kinda guessing as i go!

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 30 Nov 2021 10:05
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A pressure washer makes prety quick work of anything left after its boiled. I didnt use peroxide like some say, didnt seam needed...didnt cover the base of the antler in anything either.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 30 Nov 2021 11:05
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We tried peroxide once, the skull yellowed badly, I suspected the peroxide but I dont know.
We have some pretty big ant hills in season. they will strip stuff down pretty quick.

Saabu
Member
# Posted: 1 Dec 2021 20:24
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Willie its Wayne i'm watching your project build and wondering if you are doing ok, have you suspended your project after getting the roof on? i'm curious what you have dreamed up for floor plan. i'm looking at doing a 16 x 32 as well, but not sure about one-story no loft, or trying to incorporate a loft.
Looking forward to hearing from you,

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 2 Dec 2021 09:01 - Edited by: WILL1E
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Hey Saabu! No, the project continues. I've been picking up some side projects lately to replenish the bank account, however i've still been trying to get up there at least every other weekend. This coming weekend will likely be my last until the new year. My goal is to get the cable trenched from my existing power pole to the new cabin before the ground freezes more...hopefully it's still diggable this Saturday!!

The part i've been struggling with for the interior is the stairs going to the loft. Somehow, somewhere i messed up with calculations that the stairs would fit in the location shown in the 2 attached photos. Even with the bedroom and bathroom doors as close to the exterior walls as possible, the run plus rise of the stairs to get to the 106in high loft floor is not possible in that space between those two doors...plus still leaving enough height at the landing. This is obviously following things to code which is min. 9in tread depth, max 8in riser height, 36in tread width and having 74in of headroom for 3ft in front of and at the end of the stair run.

Now i could play the "it's for storage only" card in regards to the loft, but i'm not sure i want to pull that card just yet. So i'm playing around with two different u-shaped stair patterns as well as a spiral staircase. Both have serious impacts on the kitchen space and the entry space. I don't want to mess with the bedroom and bathroom layouts as i like how that wall will end flush with the edge of the loft. Maybe i'll post some photos of the layouts and get ya'lls feedback.
1stfloor.JPG
1stfloor.JPG
2ndfloor.JPG
2ndfloor.JPG


Saabu
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2021 13:02
Reply 


i hope someone else has a brainstorm for you because 'i got nuthin', i have no experience with building, yet!
thanks for the floorplan pics. what are you doing for a kitchen? i'm grappling with expanding my project to 20' or 22 foot wide - i didnt realize how limiting 16' is in terms of the size of rooms you can have, plus its pretty much impossible to have a hallway of any sort, so like you, you just have to jam everything into the end of the structure. This leads me to thinking that i'll have to have a loft, so have to grapple with how that will impact the plan, budget, etc. So many 'regrets' videos talk about how they should have made it bigger from day one, so i dont want to make that mistake!

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 2 Dec 2021 13:37
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Your site and wallet will determine what you can do for sure!

The only reason my cabin is this big is due to finding a happy medium of what i wanted and what the wife wants. The easy solution would be putting the main bedroom up in the loft and either making it bigger doing a second loft on the other end (one of my original ideas). The other fix is a ladder vs. stairs, but that's a no go for a few reasons for us, primarily being the dogs getting up to the loft to be by my son. The other pain point for me now is all the windows are in so i'm locked into that, thus preventing me from shifting the stairs to a wall.

One thing i'm learning about designing floorplans is think about consolidating as many shared dead spaces as possible. Example in my layout i just posted is that i had the front door, bedroom door and closet doors all in the same area. So instead of having 3 unique dead spaces for each of these door swings, closet access, bedroom entry they were consolidate into one.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2021 23:03
Reply 


We did a bedroom loft on Cabin I, the older we got the less of a good idea that was. We had a decent ladder access but even stairs would have become problematic as knee and hip issues popped up.
Cabin II is 16x24, open cath ceiling, no loft; just one big room we can set up how ever we want .
The only loft Id do again would be for odd&ends and seasonal stuff or kids. But we are far past kids.....

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 6 Dec 2021 11:25
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12/3/2021 Update

Made it up for another weekend of work. Was able to get the main wall that will seperate the bathroom and bedroom from the rest of the cabin up. Needed to get this done so i knew where my electrical panel was going to end up.



Before the big storm hit i was able to get the trench dug from the existing power pole to the cabin. I used my gas auger to drill holes right next to each other. Then came back with a trench shovel and knocked out the bridges between the holes and cleaned out the trench. Got the ground rods, ground wire and cable all in and filled back up.



Installed the panel and got the wire into it for now, need to finish this connection as well as the connection at the main power pole.



installed a 3 layer collar tie, aside from additional structural support this will be what the ceiling fan will hang from. I'll probably install 1 more between this one and where the edge of the loft is.



Installed the rest of the insulation i had laying around. Can't do to much more because the BI wants to inspect before the insulation is in.



A snowstorm hit Sunday morning and dumped 6-7" in a matter of 7hrs. I was on top of the camper shoveling off and snapped a couple pictures from up there.



Productive weekend but of course never as much as i wanted to get done.

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 4 Jan 2022 09:10 - Edited by: WILL1E
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1/4/2022 Update

Made it up for another weekend of work. Somehow i always leave disappointed that i didn't get nearly as much done as i wanted. Single digits at night, teens during the day...burnt alot of pellets to keep the cabin barely above freezing. I think i'll be staying in the camper until i get this place insulated!

Still plenty of snow on the ground!


Finally got the power hooked up at both panels and energized to the cabin! Got the loft outlets installed and about 3/4's of the outlets in the main living area.


Added another rafter tie up in the ceiling. Now i don't have more than 4-5ft of cabin length that's not tied together.


Spent an entire day just getting the baffles cut, installed and foamed in just the loft area. I thought i'd be able to get the entire roof done in a day, but only got 10 of the 32' done. The rest will likely take even longer because it'll all have to be done on a scaffold



gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 4 Jan 2022 09:56
Reply 


You're a better man than I, Willga Din! Those are tough conditions to work in.
Dont fret the slow go, good work done slower beats bad work done fast.
You do know that 2 people that work well together are 3 x as fast as one? The trouble is finding that one good other.....

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 4 Jan 2022 12:09
Reply 


I bet you will see a major gain in heat being trapped once you get those foam baffles in the ceiling done.

How are you cutting the foam? When I did out ceiling I measured the bay widths and cut them 150mi away on my table saw. As fast as I could push them through is as fast as I could cut them. The canned foam around the outside allows for alot of sins when cutting. I use trim nails to hold them up until foamed.

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 4 Jan 2022 12:43
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All the foam is cut by hand. Aside from not having my table saw at the cabin, i didn't want the mess either.

Quoting: Brettny
The canned foam around the outside allows for alot of sins when cutting.

Agree 100%, and i need to take advantage of that and set my OCD aside. This way i can precut all my panels down on the floor and then just get up on the scaffold to install. If i can manage to do that, that should speed things up.

Quoting: Brettny
I use trim nails to hold them up until foamed.

Yup, i just 2" trim nails and it worked well!

Nate R
Member
# Posted: 4 Jan 2022 13:09
Reply 


Looking good! While slow, it IS progress.

I have the same feeling/frustration about how long things take. Learning to accept that better.

Cutting foam....I used a table saw and a vacuum on the outlet, and still there was a fair amount of dust for mine, but I used the 1".
I found the 3/4" stuff cut OK by hand for my bedroom ceiling.

And yeah, I undersized mine slightly. Got the first one good enough, cut the rest to that size on the ground (except the bays that are different). That made it faster than measuring/cutting, etc. The spray foam can take up a LOT. And no one will see it after the insulation is in, so it doesn't have to look good either.

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 17 Jan 2022 13:45
Reply 


1/15/2022 Update

Well, the foam baffles are finally installed




Was off to a bad start this visit. Realized i forgot a couple things at home on my drive up. Then the electric fireplace in the camper wouldn't start...seems like when it's cold it always shuts itself off like it errors out or something. Then when i turned the propane on for the main furnace i instantly smelt gas by the tank, so i shut it off and turned on the other tank...so the seal or something must be dirty or so cold it wasn't sealing. Then got into the cabin and went to fire up the new pellet stove only for that to error out after about a minute into it's startup giving me an overtemp error....needsless to say the only temp error i should've been getting is under temp!! Spent about an hour starting and restarting that thing and after about the 50th try it made it through the startup cycle and worked the rest of the weekend.

After that it was mostly smooth sailing minus the finish nailer constantly smashing up nails inside it's head. Must be some burrs or something causing them to not fire right and get jammed. I need to add some more spray foam in a couple spots and then i should be ready for running wire for the ceiling lights and then installing the insulation and vapor barrier. Oh, and i need to install 2x's to give me some structure around those gusset plates....so couple more days of scaffold work

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 17 Jan 2022 13:47
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BTW, Comfortbilt has been awesome customer service wise. Chatted online with them this morning and without much question they are sending me a new motherboard, control panel and temp wire to install, with no cost to me.

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 17 Jan 2022 15:25
Reply 


Quoting: WILL1E
so couple more days of scaffold work


It took a bunch of time, but eventually my body seemed to adjust to the heights (and scaffold movement). Things got way easier after that and I was able to work much faster. Hopefully the same happens to you..

By the pics, it looks like you are dropping your ceiling height (and using high up collar ties).

Glad you got some work done. I haven't been up to mine since new years and am pretty sure I would need a snowmobile now!

WILL1E
Moderator
# Posted: 17 Jan 2022 15:38
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Quoting: travellerw
By the pics, it looks like you are dropping your ceiling height (and using high up collar ties).


So there are no collar ties in the loft section because the loft floor joist are keeping the walls tied together. The unlofted part of the cabin is 22' long. I've got 2 collar ties roughly spaced 8' apart starting from the unlofted gable end. I've got a 2x6 also just below the top plate at about center of the unlofted area. I'm either going to leave this and plan on boxing in later, or i've got dibs on an old but very solid beam rescued out of barn that i might put in it's place...it's just heavier than heck and will take some work getting it in there.

It's the one in the middle of the picture with the notch in it towards the end up top.


jsahara24
Member
# Posted: 17 Jan 2022 16:21
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When things get that cold nothing wants to work and everything seems to break.....I was planning on going to camp this Thursday night but they are calling for -19*F and I would be arriving to a cold camp at 9pm...Thinking it might be best to wait till the morning....

Keep up the good progress!

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 17 Jan 2022 17:20
Reply 


We found we dont much care to go to an ice cold cabin that takes hours to really warm up and its not nice enough to do anything outside, especially if it is, or gets, windy. Huddling around the stove is good for just so long.....
That pretty much draws the line a 25*f, even better at about 30*f. Today was a pretty nice 26ish; dang, we missed it!

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