I want to build a tower 50 feet in the air.

Because I live near a river, I want to make sure I'm safe in the event of a major flood. I plan to build a tower and want the floor of my tower 50 feet off the ground. I will not attach it to the house in case the house is destroyed by the flood. The tower will be free standing in the back yard. I plan to make the top a small room 12 x

15 feet with a gable roof. Inside will be all the things necessary for survival. There will be cots, blankets, clothing, canned food, a small refrigerator, propane cook stove, cooking supplies, a portable toilet, a generator, first aid supplies, and anything else I can think we may need. There will also be a tank filled with 500 gallons of fresh water, plumbed to a sink.

I plan to build the frame this week, but I have run into a snag. For the four posts, I wanted to buy four 53 foot treated 4x4 posts. (3 feet goes in the ground). I had a feeling they did not sell them that long, but I thought I could buy two 28 footers (for each post), and nail some of those truss plates on them to attach them together. But it turns out that the longest ones they have at the lumber yard are 16 foot. This means that I have to attach three 16 foot and one 5 foot

4x4's together for each post with truss plates.

So, my question is this: After I nail the truss plates on all four posts, and stick them in the holes I dug in the ground, how do I keep the posts from tipping when I put my ladder against them to nail on the 2x6 floor joists? I have a feeling they will lean, and then I can't nail these joists because the pole will be leaning. I have to take two 30 foot ladders and tie them together to get to the top, and that means there will be a lot of weight against the posts with the weight of the ladders and my 270lbs body weight, plus tools and boards that I take up with me.

I was thinking of buying a 100 foot clothesline rope and tying it to the top of the post and tying the other end to the bumper of my car, but I'd have to go to the top of the post first to tie the rope. That sort of defeats the whole purpose.

Anyone have any ideas?

Arney

Reply to
ArneyRobinson
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Diet.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

Ask the guy that told you to expect the flood to hold the ends up from where he sits.

Chip C Toronto

Reply to
Chip C

Move to Georgia

Reply to
Metspitzer

This sounds so unworkable that I suspect this is a troll. 4 posts appears to me insufficient to support what amounts practically to a 180 square foot house 50 feet up. So much stuff on a tower having 4 legs going only 3 feet into the ground sounds to me like a 25 MPH wind, maybe even a 20 MPH one, can blow it down. I would also wonder about this thing continuing to stand if a flooding river reaches these posts.

Does your tower design have crossbeams in some sort of triangular / angled pattern to keep the tower from bending, twisting or slanting? (Keep in mind that most radio towers have 3 spines rather than 4.)

Then there are FAA regulations. IIRC, if your tower (including what it supports, including radio antennas and lightning rods) protrudes more than 10 feet above prevailing rooftops / treetops, then it is subject to FAA regulations. It appears to me that you will need to apply for a permit. And, it is probably your job to determine what lighting is required (choose among suitable lighting units named by mfr and model # that have the necessary approval). Along with a similar need for an uninterruptable power source for the lights. Along with some advanced lightning protection (passing along AC power but blocking 10's or 100-plus kilovolts of an incompletely-shorted-to- ground lightning strike). One keyphrase for something you may need: "ring rransformer". That is basically an air core transformer made of 2 coils of wire, with sufficient number of turns and wire thickness and overall size to work at 60 Hz. They are not efficient, but they do the job that they are intended to do.

Furthermore, you have to comply with your local building code including a possible carpentry code in itself. You likely need to get a building permit and to get the whole thing approved by a building inspector who will probably be hostile to such a thing.

One more thing - your homeowners' insurance will almost certainly need this tower to be declared, especially if its distance from your home or publicly accessible walkways or anything else where an impact could result in a claim is close to or less than its height (including the height of the 180 square foot house on top). That will almost certainly require a severe change in terms of your insurance policy, likely including and also not limited to a large premium increase. Otherwise, you are at high risk of having your policy cancelled or your insurance company finding a way to either refuse a claim or successfully sue you to get it back.

And why 50 feet? All the newsworthy river floods that I ever hear about involve floods less than 20 feet above "flood stage"! Something like 99% of the newsworthy river flooding problems I hear about involve flooding no more than 12 feet "above flood stage"!

Reply to
Don Klipstein

50ft isnt much you better go 75, do it right the first time.
Reply to
ransley

Think bamboo. You might need 6 or 8 instead of 4 though.

Reply to
Larry Fishel

I think it is a troll, as well- why else mention the 3-foot depth of the posts in the ground? Read a few books about engineering and flowing water first. First stiff wind or wind-driven water surge will lay the thing over. 8 pounds per gallon, 65 lbs per cubic foot (or thereabouts) packs a lot of kinetic energy. Foot-deep flowing water can knock over a strong man, if it is moving fast enough. Add in floating debris, and the problem gets even worse. Debris either acts as a missile, or it build up against the structure and increases the sail area, loading the structure even more. Remember, floods also usually come with high winds, other than maybe spring snow melts.

Unless they have a reinforced concrete structure on a solid foundation, with an upper floor well above flood stage, only fools try to ride out an active flood. Even in the coastal areas with raised houses, they still get the hell out. The blowout panels and raised utility balconies are just to reduce the damage if the house doesn't get swept away. And their dozens of pilings go as deep as they can realistically shove them into the ground.

Reply to
aemeijers

Don't nail, screw it.

Reply to
LSMFT

Some cut.

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Reply to
Dean Hoffman

Assemble it laying horizontally on the ground then tilt it up into the vertical position.

Reply to
Larry W

It might just work... as a self launching houseboat.

;-{

Reply to
uncle K

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0(H L Mencken)

I watched them do that on a water tower. It was assembled "around" the base column. Then lifted up and fastened.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

A. Rent a crane

B. Stick in the first 16 footers, install cross ties, afix plates, lean ladder, haul up and afix next 16 footers. Et cetera

C. Forget the whole thing.

Reply to
dadiOH

As per subject, he wants it 50 feet in the air, not 50 feet tall. Suggest investing in lots of helium-filled balloons.

Reply to
Jules Richardson

=3D=3D I'll go with the TROLLER label on this posting. =3D=3D

Reply to
Roy

in the event of a flood, it would be better for the rest of us if you just stayed in your house.

Reply to
Steve Barker

[...]

Does "God" know what you're up to? Remember what happened to those folks that were working on the Tower of Babel.

Reply to
Higgs Boson

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