Erik Krieg

nothing built yet, just planning and wanted some idea on sizing.

100 linear ft is what i had read somewhere but 100ft per what, per 500sq ft of living area/greenhouse?  

at some point you exhaust the ability for heat transfer between the tube and the air once the soil around the tube hits close to the same temp as the incoming air.  I imagine this depends on the temp differential and the length of tube - I just dont know what the actual calcs would be.

These tubes would not be under the house, just in a run up to the house.

earthtubes, the geothermal air temp exchange system.  has anyone seen calcs for how many feet of underground tubing is required to change the temp inside a small cabin?  obviously it depends on the insulation in the cabin but i was wondering how many 4'' tubes would theoretically be required for keeping the inside of a 600sqft heavily insulated cabin at a reasonable 75deg temp year round (or close to it)  Winter temps here are in teens sometimes, summertime can be up to 100.

I would be interested in installing a couple tubes maybe 10ft apart as once they heat or cool the surrounding soil in the heat exchange then they dont work anymore until the earth re-establishes the ground temp around the tube.

ok thanks.

getting extra dirt isn't an issue, i primarily don't want to bother the roots of all the trees.

working on my design for my little cabin and i have a good area in the woods.  i dont want to cut any trees down if i can help it, was wondering if just excavating the topsoil off of the foundation area, building the stone foundation and then backfilling 24'' up the foundation wall would be sufficient.  see attached pic.  there are a number of old Appalachian log homes that seem to be just on stacked stones pretty much level with the mineral soil

code here requires 24'' of cover of any footing.  

thanks!

if you do go log home i am interested in trying the butt and pass method but with squared off logs.  as the previous poster said, the sap wood isnt nearly as rot resistant.  the butt and pass pinned with epoxy coated or galvanized rebar should last a really long time.

i would want a full overhang all the way around 24'' or even better a trussed out 36-48'' overhang or wrap around porch on any wooden structure around here.   my house is painted cypress and the sides that don't have overhangs get beaten by the weather and need to be repainted every couple of years.  my siding covered by the front porch roof looks brand new.

bugs are no joke either, termites around here will demolish any wood in contact with the ground, carpenter ants can get up inside the house, powderpost beetles will even eat dry lumber.  Although i think you can treat wood with a borax solution to keep these things at bay and it is not a terrible chemical for us but you need to keep the wood dry or the borax washes out.

just a couple observations.

no doubt some need to be touched up a bit.  i do have a hammerdrill and feathers/wedges that i have used to take off odd corners.  also a big sledgehammer and rockhammer.  my point was i dont want to spend the time to make all rectangular rocks.  both because i dont have the time and i like the irregular look.

my intent is to shape them as little as possible.  they are bluestone (granite or basalt?) and were blasted out of the ground originally or broken up with a hoeram so most are surprisingly squared and angular.

primarily I was wondering if the stones should be resting on stone or resting on mortar.  IE, if there is a slightly angular piece and i fill the gap with a smaller rock to "steady" the larger rock should there be an inch of mortar between them or should the rocks be touching and just use mortar as a gap filler.  or even i have have 2 flat rocks, do i put a thin layer of mortar, maybe 1/2'' between them just as space filler and wack the top to set them directly stone to stone?  it seems mortar provides little strength.

i plan on using the large stones pretty much as they are and making obscenely thick walls.  24'' stone thick walls are total overkill for anything short of a castle but it would be way easier.  The smaller stones can be used as facing on either side of the 24'' and infilled with the cuts/chips off the larger ones i think.

appreciate it but i think these rocks are better suited for conventional stone construction.  gabions tend to be smaller rocks that can be dropped in from above.  some of these rocks are likely 600-700lbs.  the majority are likely 2-300.  I can move them with my backhoe but i dont think gabions are what i am looking for

just some advice about how to lay "random pattern" stone with mortar.

thanks!

stone and log homes have been built in the Appalachians for centuries and there are still some standing.

keeping rain off of the structure is the most important thing i think, even though you don't traditionally see large overhangs on historical appalacian cabins it seems like there would be more left standing if they had used them.

noah bradley on youtube talks a lot about trad appalacian log cabins and gives out a fair amount of into gratis.

i worry about straw bale in any area that is high moisture/rain or humidity.  maybe unwarranted and I really dont know much about that type of constrution but i have seen how gross straw gets when its wet even for short periods of time.

I got about 200T of bluestone when they were building a highway locally, ranges from rip-rap size (6-9'') to 24''x24''.  

interested in building a stone "cabin" about 16x16 or so.  similar to the attached pic

i am not a mason nor do i aspire to be so i am not looking to shape the stone much at all.  Each piece has a decent face already I am just wondering about stacking the stone and the mortar.  

I was thinking a rubble trench foundation about 30'' deep and wide would be sufficient and then to stack the stones above grade with mortar filling the gaps.  Am I right to think the stone should be sitting on stone and not really "sitting" on a lot of mortar?  ie, the compressive strength of stone on stone is great but the compressive strength of stone on mortar is mortar... so only maybe 700PSI.  not that it matter much for such a small structure but i was just wondering best practices...

thanks all.  frost depth for footings here is 24'' but it really never freezes below 12''

i had thought about a rubble trench but there is no way to drain it as there is no downhill from where i want to build, its all pretty flat.  

i am going to be making a log cabin so the weight is not small but i think you are likely right about just filling in my piers holes with rubble and stacking a large rock or two on top is likely sufficient.