steel building house revisited

brianlanning · 2006-10-04T22:02:07+00:00

Hi Everyone. I posted a while back about the 5000sqft basement and gota lot of good answers. I have a few more now But first somebackground and an update.We're sort of in a blue-sky brainstorming out-of-the-box thinking modenow. We have nine kids and have decided that traditional houses justaren't cutting it for us. The space is used inefficiently and thelayout is totally wrong for our needs.When I say steel building, I mean a large factory made steel buildingshell with steel paneling on the outside and inside with 6" ofinsulation between them. We'll have some windows and doors to start,but will probably add more later.We decided against the basement (yea!). We'll probably build some sortof concrete tornado room or something instead. Haven't given it muchthought yet.The size is now probably 50x80.The idea is to get into the house as cheaply as possible up front, thenhave a lot of flexability and options to partition the space later. Bydoing it this way, we can pay cash for everything and add rooms orfeatures as we have the money. No mortgage. And we would end up withan industrial loft type house with a lot of space and with our unusualrequirements for a house.So I have a few new questions.First, instead of the basement I'm thinking we'll opt for an 18-20 footeve height. The idea is that we'll have really high ceilings now, andadd a free-standing second floor later inside the shell. I figurewe'll start with some normal 1st floor type rooms, but make theceilings in these rooms out of appropriate floor joists for a secondfloor, so like 2x6s or 2x8s, at the normal 8 or 9 feet off the ground.Later, I would just climb up there, put in a staircase, throw down someplywood, flooring, and whatever else to make a second floor. I thinkI'll have to treat these like load bearing walls. I can't transfer theweight of the second floor to the shell. So they'll have to befree-standing. Would I need a footer under the slab under all thesewalls? I'd like to have the...

Oct 04, 2006 122 Replies

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Actually, I checked with the county planner and building boss, He said that aside from a state mandated septic tank permit and a final elec. inspection when the power is connected there are no other inspections, permits, nothing. I gues it's a build what you want and take your chances type of County.

Here in Pinellas Co Florida, we have Inspectors, inspecting inspections, planning dept's , zoneing etc. I guess this freedom plus the mountains has helped prompt me to move half way back after 20 plus years in the sunshine/property insurance state.

My Idea is a post and beam center structure 24x40x12 wall height with 2 stick frame 12x40x 10 "leanto's" if you will on either side for bedrooms, and baths. A post and beam front porch with the same roof line as the lean to's will complete that floor. A full cellar/workshop below. I'm thinking a 10 foot ceiling height there.

For simplicity, I was considering, 8" posts with 2x6 stud walls external so the post and beams show through on ther inside 2x4 stud on the inside. I figure the 2x6 will give me more insulation.

This will go in the middle of 69 acres on top of a rolling hill.

I'm very open to suggestions about anything here. I have a bunch of things I did to my currant house such as dog doors in the wall, mud rooms, laundry next to masterbedrrom, shoe kicks etc.

Thanks,

Bill

Bob Morris> > I looked around and found this guy,

steel building house revisited

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