20x30 Cabin in NE Wisconsin - Small Cabin Forum (3)

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Small Cabin Forum / Member's Projects and Photos / 20x30 Cabin in NE Wisconsin

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Aklogcabin Member	# Posted: 28 Sep 2021 11:58am Reply Congratulations the cabin looks good n your doing a nice job. Got a place for a meat pole picked out yet?

Nate R Member	# Posted: 1 Oct 2021 11:48am Reply I came up late the following week for a 11 day work marathon. My wife came up on the weekends. Had a couple family members come up and help for a few days as well. First order of business, I swapped out the entry door for the permanent one. We went with an outswing door, to not have to worry about door swing in our small entryway. We also got another window put in, and took care of routing the openings, sheathing, housewrap, etc. Next was work on the skylights. Our plan WAS to install 2. It ended up being just one. Struggled and struggled to get the shingles to release from each other. But, on that side of the roof, the adhesive strips were holding INSANELY. So often times the shingle would rip, or the one it was attached to would rip instead of being able to release the tab. Of course this was a special order color, and I only had so many on hand. After struggling to get one skylight in, I decided not to try the 2nd one. Weâ€™ll leave it as it is. It would have been better to do these when the roof went on, but I was up against the weather and time off clock then, too. I ordered laminated glass instead of tempered for the skylight. That way if a branch hits it, it wonâ€™t leave an open hole for weeks when Iâ€™m not there, but instead hold together like a car windshield. And, being a venting skylight, I can replace that portion if ever necessary, fairly easily.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 1 Oct 2021 11:52am Reply Got a large delivery after that.. All the soffit materials, interior wall framing 2x4s, fiberglass insulation for the ceilings, soffit baffle material, etc. Went with R38 batts that Iâ€™ll stack R19 batts on TOP of where thereâ€™s roomâ€¦.. Was going to do mineral wool, but the lead time more than DOUBLED as soon as I ordered it from 6 weeks to 12+â€¦I didnâ€™t trust that would actually be correct. Cancelled that, tried to find R49 FG. No one had THAT in stock either. So moved to R38 batts and then the R19 where theyâ€™d fit. Took hours to move everything around inside the cabin and out to get the new materials in a convenient spot and out of the weather. Once that was done, and I had help, got the BIG (9 foot wide, 6 foot tall) window assembly installed. Was a relief to finally get that in, and be able to take in the forest view! It all worked outâ€¦the overhangs being any longer would start to block the top of the window viewâ€¦and glad the window isnâ€™t any taller or wider. Happy with how that turned out! The next day, we made a run to the local landfill and got rid of a bunch of building material leftovers.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 1 Oct 2021 11:58am Reply Quoting: Aklogcabin Congratulations the cabin looks good n your doing a nice job. Got a place for a meat pole picked out yet? Thanks! Don't have the exact spot yet... Probably will figure that out once I start staying IN the cabin and get rid of my camper.

WILL1E Moderator	# Posted: 1 Oct 2021 02:28pm Reply Looking great Nate..keep it up!

Nate R Member	# Posted: 29 Nov 2021 01:25pm - Edited by: Nate R Reply I've been so swamped with working on things this fall that I've been behind on keeping track of what I get done when, and taking pictures, etc. Just trucking along whenever I can. A short list of what's been done: Got the exterior T&G soffits stained and installed. T&G porch ceiling stained and installed. (After exchanging bad material for good.) Framed interior wall for bedroom separation. Decided to NOT frame a separate enclosed entry area. Electrical wiring cleaned up/added onto a bit for more lights, moved some receptacles, etc. Wood stove hearth tile installed and grouted. Wood stove and chimney installed and in use. Installed a 3000W electric wall heater. Soffit baffles installed. Skylight tunnel framed out and foamed. Got rid of the camper, started sleeping IN the cabin! Started installing insulation. Rented a Uhaul truck and brought up some furniture, fridge, etc. Bought 2 dual-sport motorcycles, one for the wife and guests, and one for me. More later! Hoping to complete the main insulation this weekend, and start on the R4 XPS foam that will go on the ceiling between the trusses and the drywall. Once I finish the wall insulation this weekend, I should be able to keep it quite warm, and get some more work done this winter.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 10 Dec 2021 09:56am - Edited by: Nate R Reply Continuing on that 11 day marathon, after the BIG window was in, I moved onto the chimney. Previously had quite a time figuring out how to get the double wall stove pipe to adapt to my particular wood stove. (Jotul F100.) With some help from the hearth.com forums, got a solution eventually that worked. Painted the exterior chimney parts black using special paint for stainless, and then special paint for galvanized. Weâ€™ll see how it holds up. Chimney is TALLâ€¦.but has to be to get above the ridge enough for the 2-3-10 rule. So support legs were added to the top section. I used Selkirk DSP for the stovepipe, and SuperVent for the chimney. Also added the long leg kit on our Jotul F100â€¦.so the stove is a little over 2 inches higher. So the chimney was in, but stovepipe wasnâ€™t set up yet. I wanted to get the hearth tile done first.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 21 Dec 2021 10:51am Reply Getting too far behind real time to keep track, figured Iâ€™d just do some photo dumps and updates. Since I used 2x4 rafter tails on the trusses (shouldâ€™ve asked for 2x6 thereâ€¦.) and because I used 2x6s for subfascia.. that wouldâ€™ve meant a LOT of shimming out. We decided to paint the subfascia instead and leave it exposed, nailing the soffit material to the 2x4 truss tails. This was WAY easier than the alternative. First added Cor-a-ventâ€™s soffit vent strips in black, which blend right in! For the soffit, used 1x4 beaded T&G, stained with a timber oil. We were going to use the same thing on the porch ceiling, but got a batch of defective T&G boardsâ€¦.the tongues werenâ€™t machined right. Returned them and got some 1x8 based T&G boards that were in stock. Added 2x10 cedar on the front of our double LVL beam and 1x10 cedar on the back. The 2x10 was screwed in with proper bolts, so it can add a bit of extra load capacity. Got the wood stove tile installed and grouted, and the finished the wood stove install. The tile (tough to see in some of my pics) has an awesome embossed pattern in it.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 21 Dec 2021 10:57am Reply Installed soffit vent baffles. Made from 1â€ XPS so they are R5. Used 1 Â½â€ spacers to make the airspace above. Also put R10 XPS against the sheathing that overhangs the top plates, and spray foamed the seams, so made a nice, airtight space for the fiberglass batts, and the first 2â€ over the top plates is solid XPS. Weâ€™ll se how that does for preventing ice dams.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 21 Dec 2021 11:07am - Edited by: Nate R Reply For more than 20 years, Iâ€™ve wanted to get some more off road motorcycle skills. I had a garbage dirt bike for a bit when I was 14, but it barely ran, so never got to do much riding off-road. Iâ€™ve had plenty of on-road motorcycles, but never a functional dual-sport. Over the course of the fall, we bought 2 dual sports for eventual cabin use. We bought a Suzuki DR200 for my wife to ride, and later shaved 2â€ off the seat so she could fit better, and put on smaller tires. (Someone had crammed some oversize ones in.) We bought a Yamaha XT250 for me. Fuel injected, but still air cooled, small, simple. I didnâ€™tâ€™ want something overly expensive or overly complicated to maintain, or something Iâ€™d worry too much about dropping. Also wanted it new/nice enough that It didnâ€™t need a bunch of work right away! These both fit the bill. I got a little time on the DR200 here and there this fall, but the XT isnâ€™t at the cabin yet. Next year, I suspect weâ€™ll be taking little jaunts out on forest roads and having lunch somewhere in the woods. ðŸ˜Š Looking forward to learning how to ride off road with an engine (vs mountain biking)

gcrank1 Member	# Posted: 21 Dec 2021 01:39pm Reply Both are good bikes! Ive had various Yam 500 singles for decades and an '09 Suz TU250X since '13?, a lovely street single. Were I to get a dual-sport it would be in the class you have chosen, I dont want a heavy pig off-road.

WILL1E Moderator	# Posted: 22 Dec 2021 08:08am Reply Nate, your place is looking awesome!! I love that beadboard you did, adds a nice design element on the outside! Where did you get your T&G? I'd really like to do T&G for my ceiling, but with around 750sq.ft. of ceiling, i think it'll be out of my budget. Hopefully we can get together for some beverage sometime next year since we're basically neighbors!

Nate R Member	# Posted: 22 Dec 2021 10:57am - Edited by: Nate R Reply Thanks WILL1E! Both T&G profiles I used are from Menards. Overall, theyâ€™ve been decent to work with. They sent a guy out twice (90 minute round trip, minimum!) to exchange out screw ups at no cost to me. The bad T&G wasnâ€™t their fault, but they made it right. They also sent me a 1x8 piece of cedar board instead of 1x10 for covering the beam, and they exchanged that with no issue, on their dime. Been decent to work with. Anyway, the 1x8 stuff I used on the porch roof is sku 1411300, and not cheap at $2.30/sf right now for 12 footers. The 1x4 beadboard stuff cost even more. I used 8, 10 and 12 footers of that, mixed. About $3.40/SF, 10 foot sku is 1411054. And youâ€™ll go through/need more to account for garbage pieces with bad knots, warp, etc. I had considered that for a ceiling too, but not for this kind of $. Iâ€™ll stick with the drywall for <$0.40/SF, I think. And yeah, we're close enough, hopefully we can coordinate a visit sometime next year!

Nate R Member	# Posted: 22 Dec 2021 11:00am Reply Quoting: gcrank1 Ive had various Yam 500 singles for decades and an '09 Suz TU250X since '13?, a lovely street single. Nice! I had a coworker who bought a TU250 after a long time away from bikes, seemed like a nice model. Similar...Simple, EFI, not crazy, but enough. Thinking I may use mine next year to access some harder-to-get-to hunting spots...especially for Spring Turkey.

MJH Member	# Posted: 4 Jan 2022 05:19pm - Edited by: MJH Reply Nate R Hey Nate, Not sure where you're at in Wisco, but I'm building in northern Langlade Cty. Super happy to see another dual sport on here, I ride mine all over the place. If you're anywhere near by and looking to get out next year let me know.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 6 Jan 2022 10:53am Reply MJH: I'm East of you, in Marinette county. Congrats on your build! Hope we see some pics/info sometime. Nice on the dual sport! What bike do you have? I may get out to the Lakewood area this year, but am curious about ANY places to ride within a reasonable-ish distance... Langlade county, etc would be of some interest to me. -Nate

BRADISH Member	# Posted: 6 Jan 2022 11:34am Reply Quoting: Nate R Installed soffit vent baffles. Made from 1â€ XPS so they are R5. Used 1 Â½â€ spacers to make the airspace above. Also put R10 XPS against the sheathing that overhangs the top plates, and spray foamed the seams, so made a nice, airtight space for the fiberglass batts, and the first 2â€ over the top plates is solid XPS. Weâ€™ll se how that does for preventing ice dams. I would love to know any more use case information on these as you live there. Looking to finish my cabin next summer and I wasn't quite sure what I would end up using for this. This is intriguing, if it end up being worth the time/money. Let us know how it holds up!

Nate R Member	# Posted: 6 Jan 2022 01:32pm Reply Quoting: BRADISH This is intriguing, if it end up being worth the time/money. Let us know how it holds up! Well, so far so good....Recently, had a day of wood stove burning HOT, being gone for a day, and then another 2 days of burning. The snow on the roof didn't melt hardly at all around the chimney, and no melting anywhere else. No ice damming... SO FAR. We'll see how it looks in Feb/March.... Also, WILL1E's cabin...take a look at his pics, he's doing something VERY similar for soffit venting.

WILL1E Moderator	# Posted: 7 Jan 2022 08:11am Reply Yup, got the idea from Nate, he guaranteed it and he said if my place is to cold in the winter i can come stay at his place My gambrel roof is built with 2x8's and the roof is vented. The only other options i would have had is to not vent it and then spray foam it ($$$) or to use the thermoformed plastic trays, but then my R value would have been really low. Someone could make some good bank if they molded these trays out of foam kinda like who Nate and I did it and give them some actual R value. Beats the heck out of hand building them like i'm doing!

MJH Member	# Posted: 7 Jan 2022 05:04pm Reply Quoting: Nate R # Posted: 6Â JanÂ 2022Â 10:53 ReplyÂ Quote MJH: I'm East of you, in Marinette county. Congrats on your build! Hope we see some pics/info sometime. Nice on the dual sport! What bike do you have? I may get out to the Lakewood area this year, but am curious about ANY places to ride within a reasonable-ish distance... Langlade county, etc would be of some interest to me. -Nate My cabin is a little different... 6 inch stacked and dovetailed timbers. If I ever have the time I'll start a thread. Like these things go, it's been a slow (but rewarding) project... I'm on a Drz400 now. The last few years I was on a DR650 or KTM 690 Enduro R (sold to buy the land for the cabin), which are perfect bikes for up there. Wabeno, Wi is the self-proclaimed dual sport "capital of the world" and there are a ton of decent loops in that area (and a few huge organized rides). This site has great routes all over Wisconsin... just be careful on anything in the national forest as some of those roads don't open until fairly late in the year.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 10 Jan 2022 11:16am Reply Interesting, MJH! Nice to see the cabin progress! Cool on the DRZ400. I rode a supermoto version at the small track at Road America years ago. Nice bike! For me, I wanted air cooled for simplicity (less to maintain and break in a crash), and a bit shorter seat height for more confidence off road, and lighter weight than the 650. I REALLY wanted EFI, too, which I got all in the XT250. Obviously I gave up HP for that compared to a DRZ. Thanks for the site of routes! I had no idea Wabeno was supposed to be a good area for DS riding. Interesting!

BRADISH Member	# Posted: 10 Jan 2022 04:51pm Reply Quoting: Nate R Well, so far so good....Recently, had a day of wood stove burning HOT, being gone for a day, and then another 2 days of burning. The snow on the roof didn't melt hardly at all around the chimney, and no melting anywhere else. No ice damming... SO FAR. We'll see how it looks in Feb/March.... Also, WILL1E's cabin...take a look at his pics, he's doing something VERY similar for soffit venting. I saw you mention that they have 1.5" spacing, but how long did you make them?

MJH Member	# Posted: 10 Jan 2022 06:49pm Reply Quoting: Nate R For me, I wanted air cooled for simplicity (less to maintain and break in a crash), and a bit shorter seat height for more confidence off road, and lighter weight than the 650. I REALLY wanted EFI, too, which I got all in the XT250. Obviously I gave up HP for that compared to a DRZ. I hear this. I keep looking for a couple of TW200's to leave up there. the fat tires make them great in the sand, and the 200cc's and low seat height make them perfect bikes to suck in new or less experienced folks visiting for a weekend.

WILL1E Moderator	# Posted: 11 Jan 2022 08:16am Reply Quoting: Nate R Thanks for the site of routes! I had no idea Wabeno was supposed to be a good area for DS riding. Interesting! Others may need to correct me, but i believe Wabeno is the most southern town in northern WI to allow dirt bikes on their trails. I know Oconto County does not, and not certain about Marinette. Quoting: BRADISH I saw you mention that they have 1.5" spacing, but how long did you make them? For mine i laid 1" thick by 1.5" wide foam next to the rafters as shown in this picture and nailed them in with finish nails. I then put 3/4" foam on top of those while also gluing small scraps in the middle of the rafter bays so that if you press down in the middle of the 3/4" sheet it doesn't bow in and block air once the insulation is installed. Those sheets were nailed in as well. I then spray foamed all the seams. I used 2" foam down by the soffit.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 11 Jan 2022 08:39am Reply Quoting: WILL1E Others may need to correct me, but i believe Wabeno is the most southern town in northern WI to allow dirt bikes on their trails. I know Oconto County does not, and not certain about Marinette. Yeah, I talked with a DNR warden to clarify some vague language in the dirt bike handbook, etc. Yes, Oconto and Marinette do NOT allow dual sports or dirt bikes on ATV/Snowmobile trails. OTOH, unpaved and county and national forest roads are fair game for a plated dual sport. You might be right about Wabeno and dirt bikes....hadn't realized that, but that sounds right.

WILL1E Moderator	# Posted: 11 Jan 2022 08:46am Reply Well the wife, son and I have ATV's so maybe if you ever want to check out Wabeno we could meet up for a ride!

MJH Member	# Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:04am - Edited by: MJH Reply Quoting: Nate R Yeah, I talked with a DNR warden to clarify some vague language in the dirt bike handbook, etc. Yes, Oconto and Marinette do NOT allow dual sports or dirt bikes on ATV/Snowmobile trails. OTOH, unpaved and county and national forest roads are fair game for a plated dual sport. Northern Wisconsin is pretty restricted for true dirt bikes (unplated), but a lot of the ATV trails (ie. the entire Langlade County system) is really old logging roads where ATV's are permitted (along with any plated road-legal vehicle... although they are too torn up for most vehicles). Staying off the ATV/UTV trails can be a lot of fun. They tend to be dusty, crowded and a bit more dangerous. A lot of the public land has overgrown and lightly traveled roads that are more enjoyable if you're looking to explore. Many of them are not very well maintained until the bear hunters start clearing them mid summer. Sorry to have derailed your build thread somewhat. Dual sports and cabins are a perfect combo, though.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 15 Feb 2022 12:23pm Reply Love the thread derailment, no worries! After a 2 month break from working on the cabin, got back up for a weekend. First I got a few more outlets installed so we have 4 inside instead of 1. I had 4 sheets of drywall delivered before for testing a few things with 5/8 thickness, etc.... We got sick of moving them around, and instead decided to put them up. Had enough 1 5/8" screws on hand to hold the sheets to the walls.....I'll add more later. Moved on to continuing to put R4 XPS foam on the ceiling in the main room. I completed the foam install in the bedroom previously. By Sunday afternoon, got the foam all up in the main room. So now the bottom of the trusses have R4 3/4" foam on them, which will later get the large gaps spray foamed, and then the seams taped. This will be my air and vapor barrier in the ceiling, and I'll drywall over the foam. Next trip, foaming/taping the foam, and air sealing/foaming/caulking around windows, doors and bottom plates. Oh, and got pretty cold up there that weekend! I saw -6 overnight. I set the electric heater to 61, and got up twice each night to restock the wood stove. We were able to stay comfortable, and the electric heater only kicked on before stove refills at night. Thermally, things are so far about as expected. Wood stove on it's own wouldn't be enough for a weekend where we want quick warmup (with the slab), nor would the 3KW electric heater. But together, they're doing great. Went through about 118 lbs of wood this weekend at about a 15% MC. Keeping track, so I'm starting to get a better idea of how much wood I'll need in a year. (Wood is about the same BTU/lb, so that is easier to track vs space since I use different species, split sizes, etc)

Nate R Member	# Posted: 15 Feb 2022 12:34pm Reply Now I notice I hadn't caught the thread up to where I was at..... So since the late fall, I finished up some wiring details and insulated as well. That didn't work out exactly as I'd planned.....Couldn't get R49 batts anywhere. R38s I could, but was going to stack R19s on top where I had room.....but then found that was too heavy, and the R38s wouldn't hold up. So, walls are R21 Fiberglass batts with R23 Mineral Wool in the bottom 10" or so. (Outside, I ran treated ply on the bottom 1 foot, so there's blocking at that point creating a separate bottom channel.) Ceiling ended up being mostly R38 batts with a couple areas (like an end wall) with R19s above in the middle 10 feet or so.... And then the R4 foam on the bottom of the trusses. Total assembly R Values (including framing fraction, etc).... Right at R30 for the roof/ceiling, and about R18 for the walls.

Nate R Member	# Posted: 28 Feb 2022 02:01pm Reply Up recently for another work weekend. Not the most exciting stuff, but needed to be done.... Did a bunch of air sealing. Got the R4 ceiling foam seams spray foamed where needed and taped. Taped the top plate seams and foam to the top plates. My wife caulked the bottom plate to the slab and between the bottom plates. We foamed and caulked around some of the windows, too. Ready for ceiling drywall!

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