SurvivalBlog.com

This is the final part of this article series, As the title indicates, reviewing our family’s move to the American Redoubt and building our log cabin. We have the majority of the work behind us at this point and are now at the final steps and finishes.

Plumbing

(Plumbing required two weeks.) I’ve never done plumbing before, so I became acquainted with Mr. YouTube for over a score of hours. I sat inside a McDonald’s restaurant to utilize their free Wi-Fi, as I don’t have it so remotely out in the boonies, to gain an understanding of the ins and outs of plumbing.

Three Parts to Plumbing

There really are three parts to plumbing. The first is the internal organs of the drainage and venting system from roof to septic tank. Then the second is the PEX water lines feeding every fixture in the home with hot or cold water. Third is the gas lines, which I didn’t attempt and hired a licensed plumber.

Plumbing Venting System

After filling up my hot cup of tea with honey at McDonald’s, I waved goodbye to the cashier and realized I was going to tackle the plumbing venting system for myself. This was because it had to be accomplished prior to the roof being installed. (See roofing step above.) The code called for a four-inch venting PVC pipe to exit the roof and must be higher than the highest peak; then I was to couple it down to a three-inch PVC pipe inside the home. The reason for the large four-inch PVC pipe to penetrate the roof (the portion visible outside of the home) is due to the cold weather and ice building up as cold air and moister entered.

The venting system ran down the entire length of the loft and bottom floor and terminated just below the floor joist in the crawlspace. It was one vertical length with no elbows but just connected with sleeves. I would come back to it later after the roof was on.

Continue reading“A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 6, by X. Liberal & China Doll”

As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. At this point, we have the exterior of the home finished– the basement, the log walls, the gables and the roof, and also the porch. Now, it’s time for some of the added necessities to make it liveable.

Septic Tank

(Four days were required for putting in the septic tank. This included the time to dig and also grade after it was completed.)

YouTube For All Construction Phases of This Project

Many videos on YouTube will explain how to do things and also how not to do things within just about any subject matter. I used YouTube for all of the construction phases of this project. Since I have zero prior experience in construction, I was able to complete the entire project myself, with the exception of running gas lines and the work to power trawl the basement floor.

Rented Bobcat, Permits, Inspection

I rented a Bobcat mini-backhoe for the day. It had a plow attached to the front and a long digging arm with bucket on the rear.

Check with your state/county laws for the proper filing of permits. I needed inspection on a number of things, and this septic tank was one of them.

Leach Field Trenches

Once you have been signed off on your design, proper paper worked filed, and a stamp of approval given, the leach field trenches were first to dig. The number of square feet you have for your building structure as well as the number of bedrooms determines the length of the leach field. The plastic chambers come in five-foot lengths by three-feet wide, so you want to plan accordingly. For instance, it is feasible for your leach field runs to be four-feet wide and have an extra three-feet at the back ends where they terminate.

Continue reading“A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 5, by X. Liberal & China Doll”

As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. At this point, we’d already dug and poured the foundation and put in the walls of our log cabin. However, it’s not a log cabin without logs.

Unloading Logs

(Four hours were dedicated just to unloading the logs.) This required another piece of rental equipment called a lull. (It is a large fork truck that can keep level when it’s on rough terrain by tipping its shocks to compensate.) The semi-truck pulled up and parked 200 yards from the site due to the terrain not being drivable.

Unload the Entire Truck and Place on the Property

Bundle after bundle of sticker-coded logs were removed and placed at this site. This process took about four hours in order to unload the entire truck of stackable logs, windows and doors, beams, tongue and groove roof, tongue and groove flooring for the loft, and posts/beams for the interior of the log home. It was a surmountable amount of weatherproof packages to organize and place in the proper order of consumption on the property.

Stacking the Logs

(Stacking the logs took four weeks.) This was the fun part of the project. It was like building a large Link-N-Log home, as you men might have done as a boy. Each log came numbered/lettered coded and held its place on the schematic. The walls where in the proper allotment and would be stacked correctly and real soon. (I recommend stacking the logs as soon as possible.) We waited a winter, and though it is good for the logs to age a bit, they could split and crack to become unusable or, worse, their label could fall off and then you have no idea where its placement should be in the grand scheme of things. Thank goodness neither of those happened to us.

Continue reading“A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 4, by X. Liberal & China Doll”

As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. In part 2, we began with an overview of our finances/expenses of our move and property purchase and began detailing the build activities. Today, we are continuing with our log cabin construction process.

Concrete Pour

(We required one day for the concrete pour.) At this point, your first cement truck will arrive, with spinning bucket and all. Back them up to the corner that you want to start at, and have him extend the chute to boom over to line up between the footer forms. That’s your target for pouring the first batch of concrete. He’ll hit the lever and start pouring the concrete fast or slow depending on the mixture. The footer mix has more crushed stones embedded in the mix than you will have for your floor or wall pours and is for strength.

As he repositioned the truck after exhausting all the movement in the chute extensions, take your trawl and smooth out the concrete along the footer. It is imperative you do this, as the IFC blocks have to be attached to footer via foam cement and you want a smooth surface without obstructions to have a nice leveled wall when affixed.

Now you can back fill dirt in around the footer on both sides. However, on the inside of the footer, the backfill must be four inches lower to the tops of the footer boards due to crushed stone being inserted for the future floor pour.

Plumbing In Place Prior to Your Footer Pour

You also want to be sure that all your plumbing is in place prior to your footer pour. The PVC plumbing pipes should be secured under the footer due to evading frost. If this is a crawl space, then the recommended depth is four feet. Some examples of PVC pipes under the footer would be from your water cistern or well (usually two inches in diameter), basement/crawlspace floor drains, sump pump if utilized, any venting for solar panel batteries (usually two inches to vent the nitrogen buildup), and sewer if required by code (not recommended as the septic tank is peculiar in its placement with exact slope from crawlspace/basement wall into the septic tank).

Continue reading“A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 3, by X. Liberal & China Doll”