Foundations and Floors

[HADave]

In support of shear walls and county requirements with regard to code. Some sort of seismic structural plan is required but appears to be governed by the Architect or Structural Engineer involed in the plan drawings.

My concerns with a designer suggesting the allowance of a plywood shear wall is that as it may help prevent siesmic sway and walking but it doesn't help in adding weight for lateral wind forces. It seems to me that it wouldn't take much wind to lift a single wall home with a strapped roof covered by light weight steel for roofing so the more weight in the foundation the better and perhaps additional straps secured to bedrock would be the real answer to lateral force protection for us living in the lava fields.

I'll bet there is room for real discussion concerning this issue

I would like to hear from pslamont and how they secured their posts to their hand poured piers.

The store bought piers I'm seeing in photos supplied in the mls listings just don't appear rigid enough for me straps or no straps the post only rests on top of the pier and all it is going to take is 1 good hurricane to do them in. Now if those piers were made so the post set into the pier by six or more inches and then attached to the post, then your talking a strong positive resistance to seismic and lateral forces eh?

Dave

[HADave]

According to the USGS and I quote; The newly adopted 1991 Unified Building Code requires that new homes are built on, and secured to, a solid foundation or slab.

So the partial perimeter foundation does cover all bases in times of earthquakes and hurricanes.

The drawing i'm looking at shows for one story homes the longitudinal and transverse (corner) walls be 8 ft long and 12 ft long for two story homes. both being bolted to the sillplates.

Dave

[leilaniguy]

Aloha Dave, you mentioned imbedding posts into your piers. I don't know how you could do it and comply with code, since wood cannot directly contact concrete. Also, there is something to be said about keeping your house somewhat "portable" if you're in lava zone 1 or 2. I lived here when Kalapana was overrun, not everyone lost thier homes, many of the post/pier houses were trailered out. They chainsawed the piers out and dropped the houses on flatbed semi's. There used to be a long row of houses sitting alongside Rt. 130 on blocks, right in front of the Star of the Sea church, waiting for new sites. One of them is right across the street from me in Leilani, others went to Blacksands, Seaview, Ainaloa, Orchidland, and especially to Paradise Park, where a kind philanthropist actually gave lots to some of the unfortunate. I've always lived here accepting the possibility I might have to move out of the volcano's path, Madam Pele always wins.



Edited by - leilaniguy on 12/04/2005 14:44:41

[HADave]

I must say I've always been thankful for the Devil's Advocate. Thanks Hutch for reminding me of the obvious, I don't actually think I would of done that though. It did get me to look at better anchors for self poured piers and www.cornerhardware.com/articles/art47.html shows a cast-in-place anchor that I really like as opposed to the flexible straps I've seen. I guess I've decided that I will advocate for the partial perimeter foundation, built on a pip footing, with the drafter for our new home.

Rob, you mentioned about fabric forms for footings on uneven hard lava, I'm trying to get my head around this but ...could you find me/us an example to read about. sounds very interesting.

[David M]

Here's links to what Rob is talking about I think:

http://www.fab-form.com/products/fastfoot/fastfoot.html

http://www.fab-form.com/products/fasttub...video.html

Ninole Resident

[HADave]

Thanks for the reply, quite an interesting concept, one I am diffinitely going to keep in mind.

Does anyone have have an estimated weight on the store bought concrete piers.

[HADave]

As the discussion nears the wood framing I thought I would give out this site so anyone that wanted access to reinforcement material you could familiarize yourself with these items. It might be of help when discussing with drafters and for the diy who is concerned with seismic and wind force protection. I'm sure it will be required in some areas but this site provides for all areas.

www.strongtie.com/products/category_list.h tml#woodwood

Dave
Sure wish I had an edit icon

For those p&p foundations A very good idea that I like is a large two foot wide plywood gusset on both sides of the beam attached to each post glued and screwed. I'd also suggest installing your post anchor perpendicular to the gussets for max stability.

The automatic level, I spoke of under tools and materials will come in real handy here. remember they can be rented.

One more note for those of us planning to work in the rain. Don't forget to pack some nylon tarps and rolls of heavy twine we can cut posts to make roof covers over our tools that are setup not to mention covering material. I believe I read that Hi-Bor shouldn't be overexposed to the rain as the treatment leaches away.

Another site for retrofitting and building partial perimeter foundations.
www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/fixit/manual/pt11-Ch-6.PDF

Edited by - HADave on 12/04/2005 23:33:53

[wyatt]

Can anyone email me a referal for a cement contractor & plumber for a house slab. I would like to get the process started

Thanks
Wyatt

[Rob Tucker]

Wyatt, It will help if you identify the area where you intend to build.

Chairman, Punaweb Committee, MSPA

[David M]

Highly recommend any owner-builder become familair with Simpson - Strong ties and proper use and installation. I've had 2 completely separate sets of plans, one by McMahel Design, 1 by Hilo Design and both called out specific simpson products. If you visit their website you can order a paper catalogue and their CD. Both HD and HPM have pretty good stock.

Ninole Resident