Building our pier and beam foundation
A pier and beam foundation seemed like our only viable option in the location we chose for our cabin. We didn’t want to go completely overboard on resources with an actual concrete basement. But we also didn’t want to risk to just use a slab of concrete, because that’d crack over time in the cold climate.
And deck blocks were out of the question for several reasons: the frost would again have too much potential influence and because we were dealing with a slope, we wanted a sturdy (aka concrete) solution. So working with the concrete piers, with big foots under the frost level, felt like the only option.
The entire process happened over the span of a couple of weeks. When we finished the outhouse (or halfway finished it, haha), on our final day there, a local contractor helped us to level the ground. He also dug the holes for the piers. Too bad we had to leave to Vancouver for work the day after.
We picked a date for the concrete truck and pump (shoutout to United Concrete in Williams Lake, they’re awesome!) to come over in July when we planned a trip back up. Little did we know that we’d required quite the bit of extra digging.
When we left to Vancouver, we hadn’t fully considered the idea of a second floor. The cabin design changed as we thought about the implications of not having a separate bedroom etc. So because we decided we wanted a full second floor with pony walls, our foundation needed something extra. Just to be safe.
We opted to change to bigger foots for our bigger tubes. As you might remember from our outhouse endeavour, that digging was no small feat. We had to stab the ground and gain inch by inch. And this time with a deadline approaching of the concrete delivery.
But before we started digging, Jelger installed boards and strings, to make sure the holes were lined out with each other and that the middles of the foots would be aligned with each other.
I don’t have a lot of photos of us actually digging, but the photo above gives you an idea. Two sweating (and often cursing) people covered in sand and with some nice blisters. 😛 You can get a feel for it in our video at the bottom of this post.
I still don’t know how we did it, but we managed to finish all the digging the night before the concrete delivery. We installed the cardboard tubes (with a level, Jelger style). But just as we wanted to cut the tubes, it started raining pretty hard! Because the tubes are screwed onto the foots and because we took so much time lining everything up, we hoped a tarp would protect everything enough. Luckily it did!
We had to get up extra early to cut the tubes, because we expected the truck around 9am (they arrived at 8, lol) and we also had some rebar to cut and get ready. We added 3 pieces of rebar to each pillar for extra sturdiness.
I didn’t take photos (only video!) of the concrete delivery. As Jelger finished the final prep, the concrete truck rolled up. We also had ordered a separate pump truck, because our building site is in the forest and not right next to our parking space.
The pump truck didn’t get up our steep driveway!! But luckily Jelger had a big strap (a gift from a friend, thank you Ben!) that was used by the concrete truck to pull up the pump truck, haha. Too much excitement, haha. We were completely worn out from the digging and almost saw the whole plan collapse. But in the end it worked out perfectly.
After the concrete pouring, we took a day off and thanks to our neighbours it was an extra fun one! They took us tubing on the lake. It’s just so gorgeous on Horsefly Lake and it’s even better when shared with friends of course.
Jelger created the foundation beams out of multiple large pressure treated boards. The pressure treatment is extra important here, because the concrete can absorb water and transfer it to your beams. We want this cabin to last for a lifetime (and more?)!
We initially planned to stay a bit longer, but the forest fires that were raging all over the Cariboo threatened to close all roads to Vancouver. Because we were booked for work (aka photographing a wedding), we dropped everything and drove back overnight. It’d take us several weeks before we had time to come back and finish the floor platform. That’s for my next post.
Tanja