Off grid remote home or cabin construction can take many forms from standard frame to earth or straw bale construction. We chose a rather simple pole building to create our remote home. Follow along in the series as you learn what works, and avoid things that we learned the hard way in your construction plans. Here are more details on the pole part of the building process.
Continuing with more construction details, we’ll cover details about creating your pole based foundation. An advantage of this type construction is that the need for heavy equipment is minimal. The heavy equipment is, however, replaced with the need for a couple strong backs for the manual labor. Well, OK, that’s what I signed up for when I decided to add to the 12′ x16′ cabin that came with the property.
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We probably saved about 25-30% on the total cost of our construction project because we did a pole building with a framed wood floor. This allowed us to build our home with only two on-site truck deliveries. One delivery for the poles, lumber, and Quickcrete, the other was for the roof trusses.
The existing cabin was rather crowded when we went from being weekend visitors to full timers. Before we made the move, I spent a handful of weekends, out at the property constructing a storage shed that was 12′x16′. This shed would hold the majority of our earthly possessions while I worked on the home expansion. A side benefit of the storage shed project was that it provided me, the desk jockey engineer, a chance to practice building, and getting my hammer technique down.
The Storage Shed
Storage Shed construction
String it out
Precision in placing the poles for my 20′x30′ building project was going to be very important, as I learned from the shed project. Half of the building would have a second story. The new building would have its outside wall 6″ away from the existing cabin, which I’ll refer to as the kitchen. The plan was to build the addition, then remove a window from the kitchen and frame in a connecting doorway when done.
I set up my strings as indicated in the illustration above. I remember checking and rechecking my measurements. Getting both diagonal measurements to be the same is at the heart of creating your rectangular building! I must have spent 2 or 3 days on this until committing my measurements to the shovel.
It was amazing to find out that the ground that appeared nearly level, really had a drop of about 2.5 feet across the 20 foot dimension. This was not a problem, because every 6×6 treated pole that I ordered was 4-5 feet longer than we needed. The old saying, “measure twice, cut once”, was my guide on ordering lumber, since its nearly impossible to “add” lumber once its cut!
Pole holes
Digging the holes by hand took a few days. I’d start each hole with a post hole digger, then use a garden shovel to increase the diameter of each hole. There were 10 holes in all, and the goal was to have each hole close to 4 feet deep and 20 inches in diameter. Most of them made it that deep, a couple only hit 3 feet before hitting rock.
Next step was aligning and securing all the poles in position. This was more than a one person job. You see, some of the poles were 26 feet long, and very heavy. My friend Zendal and his wife were instrumental in helping place 2 or 3 of the tall poles.
Hand mixing concrete
When I placed my order for lumber, poles and other materials that were delivered on the first truck, it included a cubic yard of ready mix concrete called Quickcrete. I was shocked somewhat when stacking the bags because there were something like 40 or 48 bags. Mixing 2 or 3 bags at a time was very tiring. I forget, but it must have taken 2 days or so to pour all the concrete in the holes to anchor the poles. For this job, a single cement truck can carry about 10 cubic yards, so that is overkill. I would suggest, renting one of those small concrete mixers if that is an option.
- Again, you, having the luxury of my mistakes paving your way, here’s what I would do if I did it again. I would see about getting a truck full of sand and small gravel delivered to my site. Then I’d rent a mixer, to make up some normal concrete for the poles. With the leftover materials, you would then have many options. I would create forms and a cement pad or sidewalk in heavily traveled areas to help keep mud season in check near the house.
Next time we’ll run through an outline of how to calculate load distributions for floors, roofs, and the total load on a pole. I’ll share the key book that I used in my design.
Have you ever built something that wasn’t true and square? Tell us your best construction tips in the comments!
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Did you consider using an Alaskan saw mill to cut timbers for the major poles or did your property not have suitable trees?