James Hardi - HardiPlank lap siding - weight a problem???
sledgmb
with HardiPlank lap siding. My cabin is supported by 2 4"x8"x28' beams.
The beams are supported by concrete blocks every 4'. In addition, the
concrete blocks are filled with poured concrete.
Now,
I'm like I said, I'm thinking about siding the cabin with HardiPlank lap
siding - at roughly 20 lbs/board. It's gonna take about 100 boards to side
the entire cabin adding about 2000 lbs to the entire structure.
Should I worry about this additional weight to my cabin? Or am I worrying
for no reason?
Eric Lee Green
> Hi. I've built a 14'x28' cabin for deer camp. I'm thinking about siding it
> with HardiPlank lap siding. My cabin is supported by 2 4"x8"x28' beams.
> The beams are supported by concrete blocks every 4'. In addition, the
> concrete blocks are filled with poured concrete.
> siding - at roughly 20 lbs/board. It's gonna take about 100 boards to side
> the entire cabin adding about 2000 lbs to the entire structure.
>
> Should I worry about this additional weight to my cabin? Or am I worrying
> for no reason?
Your cabin is 392 square feet in size. You are considering adding 5
pounds per square foot dead load to your cabin. Your 4x8 beams are way
oversized to handle an additional 5 pounds per square foot dead load
in addition to the usual 12 pounds per square foot dead load of the
floor and 10 pounds per square foot dead load of the ceiling and roof
assembly, so the question is whether your pier foundation is
sufficient to handle the weight. Did you pour footings for your piers,
or are they just sitting on the surface of the soil? What kind of soil
are we talking about? What is the bearing surface of your piers, and
what is the bearing capacity per square inch of your soil? That said,
your cabin isn't going to collapse because of the weight if the weight
of your cabin exceeds the bearing capability of the soil. All that'll
happen is that it'll sink majestically over the years like a
super-slow version of the Titanic. Which will happen anyhow, it
always happens with a pier-and-beam foundation, just slower if you
have a proper footing sized for the bearing capability of your
soil. And when it happens, all you have to do is jack your cabin back
up with house jacks, and slide more blocks under there.
In short, I don't think it's a problem. Your pier-and-beam foundation
appears quite oversized for something the size of your cabin. But
if you're concerned, by all means ask a structural engineer :-).
--
Eric Lee Green EMAIL: mailto:er...@badtux.org WEB: http://badtux.org
There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
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sledgmb
frostline (not very deep in Central Mississippi) poured a bag of concrete
and then put crushed rock on top of that. The concrete blocks sit on top of
the crushed rock. I guess my concern was whether or not the concrete blocks
themselves (filled with concrete) would/can break/collapse. I did not fill
them with rebar which I now kind of think I should have, although no one
else at our camp has done so.
"Eric Lee Green" <er...@badtux.org> wrote in message
news:slrnaoagn8...@badtux.org...
Eric Lee Green
> At each of the 14 sets of concrete blocks (7 per beam), I dug down below our
> frostline (not very deep in Central Mississippi) poured a bag of concrete
> and then put crushed rock on top of that. The concrete blocks sit on top of
> the crushed rock. I guess my concern was whether or not the concrete blocks
> themselves (filled with concrete) would/can break/collapse.
Whuh? I've seen Victorian mansions sitting on top of that number of
piers. You're talking about a fishing cabin of under 400 square
feet. Do you by any chance have an idea of the compressive strength of
concrete? Let me give you a hint: If these blocks have a compressive
strength less than 1800 pounds per square inch, they're so utterly
defective that they should have crumbled when you took'em out of your
pickup truck. You have 14 sets of these guys. Each of them is what,
6x10? That means that the concrete blocks of each *ONE* of your piers
have a bearing capability of over 100,000 pounds or 50 tons! The
concrete blocks of all 14 piers has a compressive strength of over
1,500,000 pounds, or over 700 tons! Unless you built your cabin out of
lead (to foil those pesky mind control beams? :-), I don't think
that's an issue. The bearing capacity of the soil underneath the
blocks, not the bearing capacity of the blocks themselves, will be the
issue. And that'll just make your cabin sink majestically over time.
You have so many piers and such large beams that, as long as you don't
store 100,000 pounds of lead weights in one corner of the cabin :-),
it should sink fairly evenly and over a fairly large number of years.
Typically on central Mississippi soils (which I assume are similar to
central Louisiana soils, i.e., red clay) you'll need to jack up and
re-level your cabin every 15 years or so even if the blocks were *DRY
LAID* (ie., just laid on top of concrete pads set directly on the soil
with no concrete and no grout fill for your piers). You do have some
rudimentary footings under there, so you might make it 20 or 25 years
before you need to jack up your cabin using standard house jacks
available at any tool rental place.
> I did not fill
> them with rebar which I now kind of think I should have, although no one
> else at our camp has done so.
Rebar is needed only if the piers are tall enough that you can get
non-compressive (i.e., horizontal) forces upon them. That is, if
they're tall enough to lean. You haven't told us how tall these piers
are. I've been assuming they're short stubby ones, that stick up maybe
2 feet above ground at most. It isn't until you get up to 4 feet or so
that you need even *start* thinking about rebar, and that said, the
front piers on my Uncle Denny's fishing cabin were at least 10 feet
tall with no rebar (it was set on an extreme slope, the back piers
were only a foot tall). About 40 years after he built his cabin he had
to jack it up because his piers were starting to lean a little, and
re-set his piers (he did this one pier at a time). It's not a big
deal.
Now, I'm not a structural engineer. I've seen a *LOT* of pier-and-beam
foundations, growing up in North Louisiana, including some done a lot
more sketchily than yours, and they lasted fine for the most part even
the ones like on my Uncle Denny's fishing cabin where common sense
says it'll fall over, but I'm certainly not going to guarantee or
certify anything. But for a hunting cabin of 400 square feet, I'll
stick with my original observation: your pier-and-beam foundation
is WAY oversized, and the only bad thing that'll happen from adding an
additional 5 pounds per square foot dead load is that you may have to jack
it up in 14 years rather than 15 years. Oh the horror!
> "Eric Lee Green" <er...@badtux.org> wrote in message
> news:slrnaoagn8...@badtux.org...
>> Your cabin is 392 square feet in size. You are considering adding 5
>> pounds per square foot dead load to your cabin. Your 4x8 beams are way
>> oversized to handle an additional 5 pounds per square foot dead load
...
sledgmb
made me feel much better about the foundation and adding the extra 5 lbs/sq
ft. I'm not a carpenter, but have been very careful to build this cabin
nicely. My only concern to date was how much weight the cabin would put on
the concrete blocks, but you've answered my question. Thanks so much - I'll
put up the HardiPlank lap siding without worry now. Mind control beams he
says....genius.
"Eric Lee Green" <er...@badtux.org> wrote in message
news:slrnaobrei...@badtux.org...
James W Lazenby
"sledgmb" <sle...@worldnet.att.net>
wrote in message
news:7qah9.14508$1C2.1180896@bgtnsc04-ne
ws.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>
> Should I worry about this additional
weight to my cabin? Or am I worrying
> for no reason?
>
distributed over your exterior bearing
walls, you have other concerns that are
likely more pressing . . . such as a
moose breaking in with his weight
concentrated more locally . . . or such
as a party with four or more cloggers
stomping away.
Your biggest concern will be carrying
that 2,000# into the woods. (Don't
forget to paint the stuff and take care
of the butt joints. It doesn't cotton
to water and neglect.)
Jim
sledgmb
instructions and do plan to caulk all butt joints. I will paint very
shortly after I get the stuff installed. I imagine my GMC 2500HD (8.1L
Vortec V8) will be able to haul the 2000 lbs into the woods! Thanks
everyone.
"James W Lazenby" <aajwl...@gbronline.com> wrote in message
news:Puoh9.70146$z91.2...@bin3.nnrp.aus1.giganews.com...