Building our new retirement place

skyking1 said:
They are and thank you.
I found out from the inspector that the way I have it now, I am only able to use lightweight sidings such as vinyl or aluminum, or reduce the south wall windows by about 4'
It is one of the vagaries of doing a prescriptive design. One solution is to open up my wallet a little bit, and have an engineer draw up and stamp my plans. So far, only the basement has required engineering and there is no way around that.
Click to expand...

Did he explain why ?

It seems to me , the wall portions not having windows would be made extra strong (more studs, and headers) to compensate for all the windows. But maybe there is a limit ?
 
I picked the wrong dead wall weight PSF when I ran the calculations, if i intended to use the heavier concrete fiberboard siding.
I may go with vinyl and not have to change a thing. We will go look at products.
 
That is weird. We didn't need a engineer stamp for any part of our house design.
 
Fermion said:
That is weird. We didn't need a engineer stamp for any part of our house design.
Click to expand...
A couple of years ago when we were planning our new lake house (in a rural county) our architect niece asked our builder what kind of package the county required with the building permit application. "Oh," he said, "I could probably walk in there with a sketch on a napkin."
 
OldShooter said:
A couple of years ago when we were planning our new lake house (in a rural county) our architect niece asked our builder what kind of package the county required with the building permit application. "Oh," he said, "I could probably walk in there with a sketch on a napkin."
Click to expand...

Yes that is about like our county. This doesn't mean that we under engineered our house though. We used a 3.5 inch by 16 inch, 30 foot long laminated ridge beam (think 3.5 inch thick plywood, 9 layers per inch) which supports 2x12 rafters, bird's mouthed and cross connected with galvanized bolts, and we used double 2x12s at the dormers. Metal straps connect the foundation to the first floor walls (in addition to the j-bolts in the concrete of course) at 4 feet from each corner, and metal straps connect the first floor walls to the second floor at the same positions (these are the honking big Simpsom straps).

So, it is engineered well, just by us, not a stamp.
 
Well, to be fair to the county, our builder is well known in the area for building high-end, high-quality houses. A less well known builder probably would be asked for something more than that napkin.
 
Fermion said:
That is weird. We didn't need a engineer stamp for any part of our house design.
Click to expand...

Neither did I. I drew the plans myself for our 2 houses, and the houses for several friends and relatives. Never had a question form the towns or county. But that was 30 years ago. Could be different now.
 
It is all about seismic zone D2
@Fermion, here are your requirements in/near Spokane.

"Ground Snow Load: 39 pounds per square foot
Basic Wind Speed (mph): 85 mph (3-second gust) Exposure B (Urban and Suburban areas)
Seismic Design Category: C"

Weathering: Severe
Frost Line Depth: 24 inches
Termite: Slight
Decay: Slight
Winter Design Temperature: 4 degrees Fahrenheit
Ice Shield Underlayment Required: Yes
Air Freezing Index: ~1250
Mean Annual Temperature: 47.2 degrees Fahrenheit"

Your requirements are going to be much different than mine.
More cold focused. Way less wind. More snow!
"Back of napkin" seismic bracing. Anything "C" and above is napkin drawing territory.

My requirements are:
20 PSF snow
Wind speed 110 MPH exposure C
Frost depth 12"
Winter design temp 23
mean annual temp 49.8
This is a big one, air freezing index is < or = to 1500. That is reflected in the frost depth.
 
When I built our home, we had hand drawn rooms and sizes etc.. The small community had a lumber yard I bought all supplies from drew some simple but great plans for us. No charge just part of a small business going the extra mile.

RO where handwritten in where I needed windows, doors etc.. I do think a county inspector walked through a few times but never heard from him.

I know inspector comes around and checks concert footing/walls and slabs now.
 
skyking1 said:
It is all about seismic zone D2
@Fermion, here are your requirements in/near Spokane.

"Ground Snow Load: 39 pounds per square foot
Basic Wind Speed (mph): 85 mph (3-second gust) Exposure B (Urban and Suburban areas)
Seismic Design Category: C"

Weathering: Severe
Frost Line Depth: 24 inches
Termite: Slight
Decay: Slight
Winter Design Temperature: 4 degrees Fahrenheit
Ice Shield Underlayment Required: Yes
Air Freezing Index: ~1250
Mean Annual Temperature: 47.2 degrees Fahrenheit"

Your requirements are going to be much different than mine.
More cold focused. Way less wind. More snow!
"Back of napkin" seismic bracing. Anything "C" and above is napkin drawing territory.

My requirements are:
20 PSF snow
Wind speed 110 MPH exposure C
Frost depth 12"
Winter design temp 23
mean annual temp 49.8
This is a big one, air freezing index is < or = to 1500. That is reflected in the frost depth.
Click to expand...

Sounds like an interesting task. You are a better man than me for taking it upon yourself. I hope it turns out to be a fantastic home.
 
skyking1 said:
It is all about seismic zone D2
@Fermion, here are your requirements in/near Spokane.

"Ground Snow Load: 39 pounds per square foot
Basic Wind Speed (mph): 85 mph (3-second gust) Exposure B (Urban and Suburban areas)
Seismic Design Category: C"

Weathering: Severe
Frost Line Depth: 24 inches
Termite: Slight
Decay: Slight
Winter Design Temperature: 4 degrees Fahrenheit
Ice Shield Underlayment Required: Yes
Air Freezing Index: ~1250
Mean Annual Temperature: 47.2 degrees Fahrenheit"

Your requirements are going to be much different than mine.
More cold focused. Way less wind. More snow!
"Back of napkin" seismic bracing. Anything "C" and above is napkin drawing territory.

My requirements are:
20 PSF snow
Wind speed 110 MPH exposure C
Frost depth 12"
Winter design temp 23
mean annual temp 49.8
This is a big one, air freezing index is < or = to 1500. That is reflected in the frost depth.
Click to expand...

We are north of Spokane, so our footings were 30 inches deep instead of 24 inches (actually they were a few inches deeper than that, a few inches wider than minimum and three rows of horizontal rebar). We put in a footing drain pipe around the entire outside of the house footprint but I have never seen any water drain from it yet.

You only need 20 psf snow load over there?
 
yes my roof design requirements are 25 live 15 dead load. They don't design below 25 on the live load anywhere, so it is the minimum.
I am using 11 7/8" TJI's throughout the whole house for floor and roof joists. There's about 3100' total!
The quotes are about $5 a foot so it is the biggest framing line item by far.
 
skyking1 said:
yes my roof design requirements are 25 live 15 dead load. They don't design below 25 on the live load anywhere, so it is the minimum.
I am using 11 7/8" TJI's throughout the whole house for floor and roof joists. There's about 3100' total!
The quotes are about $5 a foot so it is the biggest framing line item by far.
Click to expand...

I assume the TJI is like the BCI floor joists we used? Sort of a plywood upper and lower with a OSB type webbing? We used 9-1/4 for the first and second floor and 14" for the attic (for insulation thickness reasons, not load). They got really expensive for awhile when OSB was $$$ but maybe they have come down now. Building a house isn't cheap!
 
Yes, Trus Joist is the brand name for weyerhaeusers engineered I beams.
They were the original before Boise Cascades BCIs and they have a little bit of an advantage for me in the cantilever design for that second floor. BCI's building Guideline won't let me kick out that 4 ft overhang without an interior reaction wall below it at some distance in on the sistered joist.

It's really weird and doesn't make sense but it keeps me in the TJs, which are often a bit of a premium.
 
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I have submitted my plans to a couple of engineering firms and found a match with an engineer that was recommended to me. He needs details and dimensions on my drawings so I have to get busy with that. I figure two weeks for my part and he thinks 4 weeks to wrap up the foundation engineering.
The city seems to move pretty quickly and the inspector has been reviewing my ideas as I go along. We could break ground in May.
Some things I had not really designed in detail. I have not chosen the materials and methods for the external staircase to the sundeck, for example.
Part of me wants to go with concrete butterfly steps on steel, like this:
butterfly.jpg


I can do that kind of construction myself. I need to cast a landing for that, one step down from the sundeck.
EDIT:
These would be a little easier to do.
mobile-welding-concrete-stair-treads-18.jpg
 
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I was thinking of a spiral staircase for us, just because they look cool. Our back deck is 16 feet off the ground level though.
 
Those staircases would not have been a consideration for us. I don't know how a person with limited mobility would get up those stairways unless there is access another way from the top. The stairways we do have are designed with 36 inch width and straight runs that so one of those seats on tracks can be installed and someone could climb the stairway that way.

Looking at them too, with an eye to the code I wonder if they would be legal given the open space at the backside of those treads. In our case I believe the maximum on the open space would have been 4 inches if the treads had been open so that means there is a backboard or some other kinds of protection so that a little kid can't slide off the back of the stair.
 
+1 A friend of mine has a spiral staircase in their summer house because of its small footprint. It is a PITA. I would not go with a spiral staircase unless there is no other practical alternative.
 
pb4uski said:
+1 A friend of mine has a spiral staircase in their summer house because of its small footprint. It is a PITA. I would not go with a spiral staircase unless there is no other practical alternative.
Click to expand...

Personal preference, I hate spiral staircases. They sometimes look nice in pictures and might have a practical use if space is limited but I'd never install one if I didn't have to.
 
Damn that spiral staircase looks nice.
 
We also do not want spirals.
Looks like I will be building something around those wood treads above.
The house has an elevator shaft so there is other access.
 
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