Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Cabin foundation suggestions

I have built a number of small cabins and outbuildings with torsion boxes and used them as beams to straighten sagging cabin floors. I would suggest it would save money, time, energy, and reduce the materials needed to build the floor.

I can probably locate drawings I made a long time ago with a couple good designs.

Pay attention to the wind loads as 458Lott mentioned...

The only thing I will add is that you will likely regret any foundation system that doesn't allow you to 'adjust' the level of your structure as necessary.

There's a big difference between running a tracked mini excavator down an RTV trail, and being able to drive a cement truck to the site. Not to mention closest cement trucks are likely a solid 2 hour drive, if not 3 hours each way.

Even if feasible, I'd look at what the increase in cost for building a crawl space (of limited benefit in a remote cabin IMHO) vs. spending the money on increasing the floor space of the cabin by building it longer or wider, a big benefit IMHO.

Torsion box set on top of treated wood sleepers with crawl space access.

Virtually no excavation required if your site is fairly level.

Cabin will probably be no bigger than 20x24, it's just the 2 of us and our 2 pups so we don't need a huge cabin. Besides, I need to leave some room for a shed big enough to park our sleds or wheelers in just in case I have to work on them and the weather is nasty outside.

Put the cabin up on tall piers and enclose the base later for a shed...

I plan on using the space under the cabin to store stuff but there's no way I could make that thing high enough to park a Rhino or even a snowmachine.

Adjustable pier blocks are pretty handy in some applications. Screw in metal piers are another option. Home show in Anc. next weekend - might be some good info if you are in the area.

almost all of the cabins in my neck of the woods are pier blocks with the adjustable screw ins


few exceptions

have to tinker with them from time to time but easy and cheap.

longest one set up that way was built in '92 IIRC

it about slid off the damned things that earthquake we had last August that followed the flood waters we had in July

but fortunately we a bunch of us were there and got him fixed up muy pronto

I have a hidden trap door opening in the cabin floor to access the crawl space and the space serves as storage and secure place for tools, fishing, hunting gear and other small items that could be stolen while I am away for extended period of time. Wood burning stove is the only source of heat so I store canned goods and other perishable items if I am away for a few days in the cold months. Should I put in in-door plumbing the craw space would help in the installation. In addition, the concrete crawl space is a plus for resale versus a pier system.

For my specific purposes the additional cost is worth it. IMHO

if you want this as something that will last for generations to come and to be handed down in the family over time (hopefully a long time) do it right once and enjoy. as mentioned wind and snow and the combination of the two along with the deep frost does present some challenges but they can be accommodated. when designing for wind, the devil is in the details if you will. the load paths and connections have to be done correct or while it may look impressive, it will be a waste of time and money. look through a Simpson catalog for ideas on proper wind design and how the connections required to make it all work including the hold down details from roof to foundation. another item i would suggest is when you place your roof trusses i would go with half of them as a "Room in attic" truss and the other half can be a scissors truss for a vaulted ceiling over the other half. the room in attic type truss will give you a loft area for either sleeping or storage with not much more addition work than erecting the trusses you would be putting up anyway. i did this for a buddy of mine for a cabin on his property and he was most pleased with the affordability of the design and results. i am sure there are tons of ready made plans out there that will give you what you are looking for. also since this is not going to be a huge cabin, just go with 2x6's as the wall framing for the extra insulation properties and strength for the snow loads on the roof. it really will make a difference in the performance.

Does anyone up that way do helical piles?
If so, why not have someone put those in and you could just start at the beams.

I did a little research on the helical piles. They look like a great specialty product for the right soil conditions, right loads and with experienced contractors installing them with the right tools.

But for building a remote cabin where you are unlikely to run core samples in the soil to find out what you'll be setting them in, it doesn't sound like such a hot idea.

Those work great in the frozen permafrost mud we have out on the west side. They take some significant equipment in many situations however.

Around here they put them in with a rig you could easily pull behind a wheeler. Not sure about up that way. Looks like there is a place in wasilla that does this kinda work. I'm sure they wouldn't be cheap. If you can get a mini in there and have friends that don't mind work, maybe the sakcrete/sonotube route would be best. Just don't burn out your labor on the foundation.

Granted I am not a soil or foundation engineer or even close.

I do see lots of foundation plans of all types in plan review at the office. And I see them implemented.

I'm a firm believer in a concrete foundation generally speaking and in our area with bell less piers too.

But what I see in Alaska every trip we make, makes me really think that blocks would be one of the very best ways to go, and keep a big jack on hand for adjustment as needed.

Would be interesting to try to apply mobile home type anchors to help with wind loading, as it seems 30-40 mph winds are just a breeze up there, around here we'd be complaining about high winds...

If that doesn't work out, I'd be thinking hard about seeing if you could get pier and beam footers in place, but I'd sure be scared of variable permafrost issues and such, though I have wondered if one could not drill piers deep enough to get into the permafrost and if that would solve a big problem.

Still think the blocks might be the best solution though.

Technometalpost.com

Neighbor down here is an installer. His posts are the foundation under the addition we're currently doing. The machine is about the same size as a small Bobcat. It has a short boom and drills helical posts into the ground until reaching a gauged pressure. He welds on a bracket and you build from there.

I could go with a pier/piling like that. Set at a certain pressure, seems 10,000 psi comes to mind but I may be way off.

Though I'd much prefer adjustable tabs to build on.

Thats what moms foundation is on now days and makes for an easier adjustment when that time comes.

Homer has very little permafrost. Petersville has lots. I would avoid metal posts for that reason.

What does permafrost do to metal? Serious question.

Seems the pipeline is on them but it has radiators for lack of a better word.

Expansion contraction? Or brittleness of steel if it gets really cold?