Questions about foundation in Canada

[wingsfan92]

I've been reading this forum for a couple years, after we decided a few years ago that we wanted to build a log home. I know I should take the class, but unfortunately, I can't travel to the US anytime soon (three kids under 4, and no babysitter for a weekend)
Maybe have a class in Canada?
We purchased land, and have been collecting stuff for the house, mostly free stuff (you wont believe what people give away.)
Anyways, I want to know about a foundation and well. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, the frost line is 4 feet. Our land is in New Brunswick, Canada.
A regular foundation, will cost us a fortune, between 8-10k. Way more than we want to spend.
Also any ideas on a well? That too is 5-10k. We're handy, have tons of tools, and we're young and able.
Logs aren't an issue we have fir and pine on the property.
Thanks for your help

[ChainsawGrandpa]

Because a log home (well, this style, & method) can be so inexpensive it makes a basement a frivilous expense, but in your case it may be a practical alternative. Piers may be questionable. They will need to be tall enough to reach below the frost line, plus another 18" above grade. A tall pier can tip over (yes, even below ground).
Ok, everyone's wondering how...
...an earthquake, plus the weight on top being transferred to a side weight....
If you can place the well inside your structure you might consider an Agua Yaku (do a search, there are a lot of links) type well and pump. They can be manual, or electric, and have been bored to 185'
Hope ths helps.
G'pa

[wingsfan92]

Thanks for the info! Agua Yaku... very interesting! Can the piers support the weight of all the logs? A full foundation might be the only option, someone said about a slab, but it would shift the thawing an freezing with the ground. Earth quakes aren't an issue here, been a handful in 50 years, most between 1.7-3.2 on the richter scale
We plan on taking the class, but it won't be until the next one, depending on when and where it is.

[rreidnauer]

Grandpa is talking about concrete pyramidal piers. (should you be mistaking that for pilings) How far down to solid bedrock? I've gotten lucky on that one myself, around 36 to 40 inches down, making my crawlspace foundation more affordable by excluding a footer.
Have you considered alternatives to a well? How about rainwater catchment or a spring if lucky enough to have one on the property, stored in a cistern, filtered and UV treated for domestic use?

[Wilbert]

we are in BC and also had to go deep. We build a continuous foundation according to plans. Tons of rebar in it. So that ads up in cost. piers are so much cheaper, but not workable if you want to do it right.
Next time I would do a footer and on top of it big sona tubes with rebar in it. Would work faster and would still be strong and a lot cheaper.
for a well I contacted drilling fab in texas to build my own rig, (35usd for the plans and 2k for all material at local retail and weld yourself) still cheaper than 40cad a feet!!! Still have to build it though, building a log home is time consuming

[MacGregor]

We are building in Cape Breton, Canada, and are putting our house and garage on a slab-on-grade. Here everything out of the ordinary has to be designed and approved by and engineer, but with that approval we are fairly sure it will work as planned. We have already poured the slab for the garage (our practice build) and are getting ready to put logs up later this month. We have about $5500 in the foundation(24 x 30), including the engineer. We never took the class, but would love to if one comes to Eastern Canada. We have been studying this type of build for 4-5 years and been in the building trade for over 30 years so we are going ahead and let the logs fall where they may. I know we will make some mistakes, but we have seen 1 of these builds and feel confident we can do it.
Thinking about getting a self-drilling well outfit for about $3000 and capable of going up to 250 deep and multiple wells, so may be able to recoup some expense. We are pushing 60 and have been told we are nuts by some and inspiring by others, we'll let you know at the end of the summer who is right, as we plan to have the garage finished and some of the logs for the house peeled.

[RockEngineer]

As an alternative to the trapazoidal piers or a perimeter foundation may be the Big Foot System. <a href="http://www.bigfootsystems.com/">http://www.bigfootsystems.com/</a>

[wingsfan92]

Thanks for all the information.. we're looking at all of the options so we can understand what type of budget we are looking at
Anyone ever successfully used a rubble trench foundation?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubble_trench_foundation

[gen2600]

I hope this is appropriate. Here is my low tech drawing of a post-on-pad style foundation variation my mom and I used when we built our small frame home:
http://infohammer.net/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&amp;g2_itemId=58953 2&amp;g2_serialNumber=1

We built this up in Fairbanks with thoughts toward the over insulation of perma frost which would cause ground swells and with the regular change of the ground level due to frost content. We did this in 1991 and the house is still solid. We ended up measuring and shimming about once a year.

A = Mother earth. The hole that we dug was around 4 feet deep and 3 foot across.B = Hard packed gravel. About 6-8 inches thick.C = Concrete. After the hard packed gravel, you pour about 18 inches of concrete into the hole, set the culvert section (we did this because we got a great amount for free) or construction tube into the concrete, in the middle and work to level the pipe. We left our pipe out of the ground about 3 foot. I also made rebar "hooks" (bent at the end 90degrees) with about 4 inch of a hook and set 2-3 down inside the already laid concrete pad and up to about 5-6 inches of the top of the pipe. D = Hard packed dirt. Packed atop the concrete slab and up along the culvert, even with the ground on the outter portion and piled a bit higher near the culvert. Now we poured the rest of the concrete, filling the tube even with the top and level.E = Culvert or construction tube.I hope this helps :)

[StressMan79]

How thick were your pads?
What kind of reinforcement did you use in them?
what kind of reinforcement did you use in the posts (besides the L-bar)?
What was the spacing of these?
They would work EXCELLENT for a stick built house, but I don't know about using them on a log house, since the 10x or so dead weight component, at least without a bunch of reinforcement/bigger pads.
Thanks for the great picture!
-Peter

[gen2600]

1. Overall width including the concrete and packed gravel is approx 24", not counting the column.
2. No other reinforcement other then those talked about.
3. Spacing was 8' - 10' in most areas as the house was 16x20.
I know this design can hold a small cabin, increasing the density of the pads to accomodate more dense weight. The person who actually showed this method to my mother and I had used this method in Fairbanks and surrounding areas since before I was born for small cabins ranging from 12-20' x 16-20'.
One of the cabins was moved off of it's foundation to another post on pad of similar design about 20 miles away and remains there today (it's about 32 years old).
Haha, that picture is terrible but hopefully gets the idea out.