Normal amount of lumber to find when digging a hole?

[snoranger]

 

[Rick W]

May want to look into using a spread footer closer to the surface before you dig a hole to China. If you don’t get all the wood out, that area could always settle. As an alternate, if there’s no evidence there has been settling, you can stabilize it with gravel and Portland cement, and then thicken the slab in that area so the spread supports that pole. If you do so, you should run some cross members through the pole to anchor it to the deeper slab: drill pole and drive rebar through the pole sticking out 12” on each side, maybe 4 or six at 45 degree angles 2” apart in height. Drill the holes tight and drive the rebar, shouldn’t wobble.
The correct method is always removing the debris and stabilizing the soil, but this might be a poor mans work out if it helps.

is it a permitted job or a shade tree? Ask the inspector for options. Maybe call the next county’s inspector and “what if it.”

hope it helps!

 

[scotts90ranger]

All help is appreciated! I actually ended up finding the bottom about 70" down so there's concrete 26" thick that will be under the post, which will be surrounded with 3/4 minus gravel for 44" with an X of 1' long pressure treated 2x4's attached to the bottom of the 6x6. The majority of the hole is outside of the building so won't be much settling under the slab. Up to the level of the top of the concrete pad under the post I put some clay I had from drilling the holes, on top of that will be more 3/4 minus gravel compacted about every 8" as instructed by the permitted plans. I'll just keep some extra gravel in that spot after it is together and tamp it down, I expect it to settle more than the rest over a few years.

It's permitted and approved so far, the next inspection building wise is final other than electrical which I will need to look into soon...

I have 10 of 14 posts set in the ground, two are blocked up but not squared, 3 of what's left have some more digging involved for the door posts. I have 6 rafter jacks lined up to borrow, the idea is to set up the rafters and purlans on the ground and jack the whole assembly up probably in two weeks.

 

[scotts90ranger]

For those following, here's the progress so far... last sunday there were no trusses in the structure until evening and even then only 6 were upright with I think 5 perlins, I worked my butt off in the evenings all week and got all the perlins cut (they were all like 3/4" too long), the first picture is where I got to Friday night. The second picture is about an hour ago... most of the work was done yesterday when I had a bunch of people over, first step was to nail down all the perlins then get the truss jacks in place and lift the roof. Those truss jacks were slick, simple yet elegent and a whole lot less sketchy than building the roof in the air... Had some of my friends stick around long enough to get the trim boards in place which was a lot easier than doing it myself...

Today I rested some since I was going from 7am to 9pm minus a few short breaks... Today I got the 18 big 3/4" bolts through the 6 posts that needed them then got the door posts attached to the gerts so I need to get more gravel ordered to fill in the last 3 post holes and start getting the floor leveled.

Next is to put the bird boards in, topline gerts up, door framing up, angle support things up at the ends then get to insulation and siding! Then slab and doors. Then office and bathroom. Some of that is in the wrong order...

 

[scotts90ranger]

And here's where I got to this weekend, I got one more panel (4 pieces of tin) in on the easy wall since I had just a little daylight left but not enough to start an end wall... I still need to install the fascia trim but that can happen any time... Not all of the background hazyness is smoke, it was foggy all day, the air smelled much better today than yesterday but I still wore a respirator all weekend for good measure... Working by myself makes the tin a long process, especially learning as I go.

 

[Dirtman]

I live in there now?

 

[Rick W]

You’re going to love it. I did mine in about 1995, two cars wide with a car port on the left, and then I moved the back wall back another 30’ after we were hit by a tornado In 98. My buds call it the “shed of miracles.” They come over for “how to” help, and then I walk in there and pull out the part!

 

[scotts90ranger]

I'm so looking forward to it, and do being done so I can do something fun with my energy, this is interesting and I'm learning, but it's a lot of work...

 

[scotts90ranger]

Getting closer, but progress has been slow lately... the covids have slowed things and so has weather and just running out of steam... At this point I've wired lights (no electricity to the building yet, but I ran an extension cord to the switch box ) and have the gravel down and compacted and ALMOST ready for concrete, gotta finalize some plumbing and electrical decisions before I get the concrete done but I bought plastic for under the slab, all the walls are done, got the polycarbonate panels up yesterday at the top of one of the long walls. Got the driveway graveled for about 20' to the level of the bottom of the slab for now

Picked a concrete guy I think, he's working on getting me on the schedule, I'm going to have him put in the rebar then I'll put the PEX on that to where I want.

I have my new toolbox ready and now in my way, so I need this done, I'm so ready...

 

[Shran]

Looks great. I had the floor done on mine for almost a year before I had a building on it... my neighbors kept asking if I was ever actually going to finish it

Have you considered doing in floor heat? Great time to run the plumbing for that...

 

[Rick W]

Just a thought. When I did mine, I ran a 2” pvc conduit from the shop to the house underground for whatever. Back then phone lines and security system wires in it. Now I can switch on/off inside and outside lights, and I have some led guide lights for backing in. & I have a small compressed air line to the house, and I have a few LED indicators beyond the security system. If I had it to do over, I’d go 3” or double 2”. Hardest part is digging the trench!

I also put a 1” conduit 90 degree sweep in 4 places along the wall. I stubbed them where they would be in the framing inside, and stubbed them out about 2’ and capped them. I’ve used 2 of them after 20 years. Easy stuff to do when it’s all open before concrete.

my 2 cents, hope it helps! Good luck!

 

[scotts90ranger]

Shran, that's part of what's slowing the floor, some is running out of steam... I'm working up the loop plan now, going to order the PEX soon... it's too late to add foam under the slab but it doesn't get that cold here so I'm not going to worry about it...

Rick, Not a bad idea and I was thinking about doing that but hadn't quite gotten that far.

 

[Rick W]

If you’re going to have any kind of driveway leading up to it, you might also want to run a 2 inch conduit across the width of the driveway extending out a couple feet on each side with a cap, several runs at strategic places along the driveway.

 

[ericbphoto]

If you’re going to have any kind of driveway leading up to it, you might also want to run a 2 inch conduit across the width of the driveway extending out a couple feet on each side with a cap, several runs at strategic places along the driveway.

Much easier than boring or trenching across the driveway later.

 

[Rick W]

& btw, when we poured our concrete on the last one, I put pennies into the concrete on each side when we were finishing, as markers where the conduits were located. There’s a trick to everything, huh?