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shnnnh
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# Posted: 31 May 2012 05:30pm
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My folks are letting me use a patch of their acre in gorgeous Black Mountain, NC to build a little cabin.
My dad and I will be building this (he's 75, I'm 40 and female) with some hired help if/when need be.
The site has a frost depth of 12" and the soil is a Cecil clay loam. Winds are moderate, usually from the north. The building will face south. The lot is wooded. I haven't picked the exact spot on the lot yet but looking at the GIS site it looks likely that there'll be a slope somewhere between 1 and 5 feet.
This will not be for permanent year-round residence and we are not planning to run electricity or plumbing (unless a hose from the house counts as plumbing 
The main functions of the structure will be:
wood-fired sauna room
wet room/changing area
lounge area
queen bed in a loft area built above the sauna room
I will most likely be getting the sauna room interior as a pre-cut kit and the sauna room will be a cube 80" on each side internal dimensions. The ceiling will be insulated with two layers of R11 and the walls will have one layer.
In terms of the roofline, I am really going for an uneven pitch/double lean-to design similar to Gary O's model. I want to have clerestory windows at the loft level.
I was wondering if a modified pole barn/post-frame structure might work, with 6 6x6 posts on the corners and nearly in the center of the 16' span--I say nearly because the sauna and changing room will have about a 7' width leaving 9' for the lounge area.
I would put down 6 x 6 PT skirts between the posts. There is a fairly local truss company that seems to have a good stock of surplus trusses that they say can make a good shed roof.
Then for the walls I was wondering if I could use GMA pallets, which are 48" by 40". My thinking is that in a post frame structure the poles and the ground are doing most of the work, so the inferior rigidity of a pallet wall is less of an issue than with platform framing.
But this is all based on books and websites, not actual experience, so I'm hoping that others will chime in.
I am unsure about the foundation. I hate the idea of pouring a concrete slab. I am thinking/hoping I can just dig/pour concrete in the post footings but use dek-blocks for the floor foundation (and for a small freestanding deck that will be on the southern and western sides).
The wood stove is about 150 pounds, and with a 100 pounds of rocks added to that, two or three people in the sauna, and a loft bed above that, I am planning to put in an extra joist in that area.
I am hoping to get this built in two or three months of my full-time effort and my dad's part-time effort. My budget is $10,000 of which about half will go to the sauna kit and stove.
We do have a lot of surplus cedar and other wood available nearby so if all goes well perhaps I could do the sauna interior as well.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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shnnnh
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# Posted: 31 May 2012 05:37pm
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Sketches here: http://www.holyghostbuilding.com/scribbling-toward-a-plan/
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aktundra
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# Posted: 31 May 2012 06:25pm - Edited by: aktundra
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Curious why you are going with a kit? 12x16 is really easy to build and I think you will save money and build a better quality sauna than a kit!
Foundation on our sauna was railroad ties. My river neighbor's sauna is on pile and post. I think your post footings should be fun.
Good luck!
aktundra
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tnky03
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# Posted: 31 May 2012 11:46pm
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Quoting: shnnnh My dad and I will be building this (he's 75, I'm 40 and female) with some hired help if/when need be.
Enjoy this special time with your dad. My dad, age 69 and I, age 40 (also female) built a two story cabin (with some help from some friends) that I designed on graph paper. Neither of us had much building experience and at first he was skeptical. We went to auctions and salvage stores collecting materials for months. After it was finished he was so proud of me for having the vision to do it, totally debt free. He passed away five years later. I treasure the pics I have of us working on it together. All the best and keep us updated on your progress.
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shnnn
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# Posted: 1 Jun 2012 06:57am
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Aktundra, knowing you're here to help, maybe I can do the sauna myself instead of from a kit . Looking back, it is probably visiting my friends in McCarthy/ Kennicott and sitting in their homemade saunas that planted the seed of this project.
Tnky03, thanks for sharing that story. This will really be a dream come true for us and I'm so grateful to have the chance to do this with my dad.
And you know, as I scour the web for plans and ideas, I see that the style I'm looking for is basically an old henhouse or brooding shed. My grandfather was a dairy and chicken farmer who died before I was born, but I have a piece of a henhouse that he built hanging on a wall in my home as a treasure shelf. So in some way I'm doing this with him too.
As a wise man once said, "Life is short, but it's wide."
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shnnn
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# Posted: 1 Jun 2012 07:01am
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URL This agricultural extension site has dozens of old building plans for all sorts of outbuildings and is really fun to browse through.
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turkeyhunter
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# Posted: 1 Jun 2012 07:17pm
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looking forward to watching your build---keep us in the loop with pic's please
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shnnnh
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# Posted: 1 Jun 2012 07:51pm
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Maybe The Art of Sauna Building by Bert Jalasjaa?
and thx for links, will check them out.
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