Ever Done One Of These?

shanekw1

I worked on this job a couple years ago, this guy was building a new house and the entire thing was on wood, no concrete anywhere. He built it on built up rows of gravel with treated 2x10 or 12 laid flat on the gravel, then a treated 2x8 flat on top of the 2x12 and finally a treated 2x6 flat on that. The walls are treated 2x6 on 12" centers with 1" treated plywood. Poly laid on the ground and the floors hung off the walls.

When the inspector showed up he was like "umm... are you sure you can do this? I've never seen or heard of it." He and the HO talked for a bit, then another inspector showed up and was like "ummm... I'm not sure if you can do this" but eventually they passed it.

Any of you guys ever see or do one of these? I think it's the craziest thing ever.

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Bill

Im not sure, but I do know they have installed those prefab concrete walls, Superior walls I think, and I had to install the plumbing under the slab before they poured. I dug under the wall expecting to hit a footing, but no, there was none! Just the walls sitting on peat gravel! So I guess you can. And yes, there is a company that specializes in wooden foundation walls too. Not seen that though.

Got to be a HO, notice the ladder?

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mickeyco

There's a couple of homeless shacks out here that are all wood construction, don't know about longevity, the cities tear them down pretty quickly.

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Stewy

Have seen it a few times, if done properly suppose to work well and last a long time. You may find some info if you search "wood foundations"

neolitic

First treated foundations I saw
were in the 70's.
Lot's of problems like anything new,
but they are approved in most jurisdictions.
As far as the gravel footers,
some of the oldest houses I've worked on
had either gravel or cinder footings.
Some just 12" of brick on clay
and doing just fine thank you.

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Bill

We have here in VA some homes that were actually built on "Piles" of rocks! Thats right, just piled up rocks in the 4 corners with maybe a few piles in the center. Morter? None. You can remove some of the rocks by hand. Now thats scary to crawl up under one of those things!

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Cdat

We have one just down the street about 12 houses away. We all laughed when they were building it but so far, five years, no problems.

Dustball

Permanent Wood Foundations PWF

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...od+foundations



My local PWF builder has a 25 year leak-free warranty

TimNJ

Last fall the wife and I went to check out a couple log home factories in NY outside of the Binghamton area. One of them had a group of like 4 models built on the road side. One had a wood foundation that was built out of 2X6 12" OC. After seeing the wicked bow in the walls I would never do a wood foundation. Judging by the age of the appliances in this particular model, it must have been built in the late '80's. Wood foundation...you can keep it.

TimNJ

Ummmmmm, sounds like Mr. Inspector didn't bother to review the plans before he issued the permit. The time for him to question the foundation is when it is on paper on his desk in the office, not after you built it.

wallmaxx

When I had to remodel a 100 + year old farm house out here, it was sitting on big 16" diameter cedar logs for a ground contact foundation. The cedar was fine. I guess as long as it says dry from rain...the ground humidity was negligible. It did seem that the house had settled a bit though. some of the hand-made wood windows were a bit skewed.

Off topic - the carpenter's back then were awesome. The MADE everything! They built from scratch every part of the window except for these heavy weight things that were inside channels in the walls.

Higgs

one of my instructors in college built his first house that way. it worked and i believe he sold it for a good chunk of change

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cleveman

oh ja. Before concrete was invented, all the foundations were Barney (Rubble). I taught everbody knewed dat.

AZ GRC

check 2007 IRC, still legal rarely practiced. Much like balloon framing and box headers, nonsense that has and will work when done right.

TMG1

Heard of it, never saw one though.

tool junkie

The problem with inspectors is they dont know it all and question stuff if they never did it themselves. The plan checkers are a more knowledgable bunch and approove designs and issue the permits. Then Mr Inspector comes allong and nay-saying what has already been approoved. Then he puts a hold on the project while he goes back to the dept only to be told yeah its fine. I cant count the times Ive had to go to the city myself to get the inspector over-ruled.

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Midwest BuildIT

If i had a million dollars for every time this has happened. I love it when they approve plans and then tell you, you built it wrong, when you built it to the plans they approved..

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72chevy4x4

You're kidding right? That's the best ladder ever! I just used it for a roof inspection-21' extended to get atop the roof, pulled it up and set it up as an unequal leg A to get on top of the second roof. It's also the perfect width for a 12' expandable plank to slide into the rails.

J.R.

Wel from a log time concrete guy I think its time for termites :-)

Agolk2

Those are called counter-weights Make it easy to open large windows before WD-40 and metal track existed

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