Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[SPIKER]

For your washout issues it will probably be too wet to fix with the tractor for a few days. There are some MATS made of stuff like Coconut Husk that has SEED built/weaved into it for steep areas and trouble washout spots. There should be some available in the local nursery as plain (no seeds) so you can add your own. Straw can also be sewn into mats (rolls) that can be used.

One NEW home close to here had similar problems he "FIXED" is about 5 or 6 times and it would washout on him till he used some of the woven rolled straw mats.

Mark

 

[pclausen]

Appreciate the advice on how to fix the washout area. Lot's of great ideas! I like the idea of the coconut husk mats. I think the Landscaping supply shop I got the seed and fertilizer from carries those or something very similar. But yeah, its way to wet do do anything about right now, let alone drive on it. Its supposed to rain most of tomorrow as well, and then 50/50 change all the way until Sunday. Hopefully there will be a 2 day break or something where I can apply some fixes. I knew that area was going to be trouble as it concentrates all the runoff from the uphill side of the house as far back as to where the well is.

There is also quite a sink hole on one side of there the septic tank is buried. Of course the guy from the power company came out today and marked the power line for the phone company to trench the phone line. So there are deep boot marks now in the seeded area in front of the house where the power line runs. Verizon better not think of trenching until after the ground is dry, or they will really mess things up. It sure would have been nice if they could have gotten the phone line buried earlier, but sometimes things just don't work out as well as you hope for.

 

[ededic]

Pete,

Been lurking on this thread as I don't have as much to offer. I have learned a lot. Thanks for sharing.

 

[mjncad]

Thanks man, I appreciate that. Now that I look back on it, it took a lot of time, 1 tablesaw (which is currently in Peter's shop), 3 routers, power miter box, DA sander, and a finish nail gun to get it right. That is nothing compared to the credenza that he and I built. I actually had to develop a spreadsheet with a list of the cuts to be made and in what order. Reason being that it is clad in formica both inside and out. That one took 2 weekends down at Peter's shop but turned out quite nicely, as expected.
-Stu

I'd love to see that credenza. How about starting a thread on it with a link from this thread so we can easily find it?

Peter I would let the rest the grass establish itself and then do a repair also. What I would consider now that you know what the run off path is going to be is to stake in some straw bales along the route to prevent further damage. I'm afraid if you get out there with the tractor now you will just create more work.

MarkV

I agree that straw bales would be a good way to slow the erosion until the grass takes hold. Just be sure to put stakes behind them for extra holding power. I believe the rolled tube like straw gizmos are called wattles and I see them used in ditches here that have a fairly steep slope. Unlike straw bales, wattles are flexible and conform to the contours of the ditch, etc.

 

[J F]

I'd love to see that credenza. How about starting a thread on it with a link from this thread so we can easily find it?

I'm with mjn, Stu, I would love to see the work (of course, I'm a carpentry "slutttt" ), very nice job on the speaker work. :thumbsup:

 

[kc5dlo]

How much of that erosion was due to the down spouts not being connected to the drains?

 

[jinman]

Pete, you are gonna have a VERY green spot out near your dust fence. Of course, that's good. It will stop a big washout there in the future.


I think it's amazing that you got only that one spot of erosion and it seems to be limited. Good job! Let it all germinate and green up and then come back and fix the problem areas. Maybe fill them in with sand and replant or just buy some sod squares to lay in there and do double duty of growing grass and slowing erosion.

 

[pclausen]

I'm with mjn, Stu, I would love to see the work (of course, I'm a carpentry "slutttt" ), very nice job on the speaker work. :thumbsup:

Stu and I built that credenza back in 2007. I don't know that we need to start a new thread for it, but I do have a few pics showing how it was put together.

And what it looks like "in service"

 

[J F]

Very cool, nice work guys.:thumbsup:

 

[FairfaxStu]

Very cool, nice work guys.:thumbsup:

Thanks for the kind words. This is by far the most difficult "cabinet" build I ever did. Figuring out the assembly order and when and where to put the formica on was a pain in the arse. If you look closely, you will see that on some pieces the formica extends into the dado joints. That makes it really time consuming as you are constantly adjusting the dado head cutter on the tablesaw for most of the cuts. As I recall, we used 4 sheets of cabinet grade birch, and 4 or 5 sheets of black formica. We probably went through all of the plywood scraps just making test dado and rabbit cuts so that we had perfect joints on the finished product. We also went through a bunch of contact cement and router bits. In the end, it was worth the ~200 hours Peter and I spent on it.
-Stu