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Foundation for a 110 square foot stacked wood house

 
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As the winter has set in, fishing season is over and a stay at home order has me thinking about projects for the spring. I have been wanting to build a little guest cabin on my property for years now. I would like to build a round house with stacked wood walls. I have a great deal of White Cedar that I have been saving for posts and beans as well as the walls. I think I have everything figured out but the foundation.  I was originally going to just sink sonotubes but the area is full of roots and big rocks. It is going to be a bit of a nightmare to get them all in and lined up for a round house.  I have now been thinking about a floating slab on grade but cement work is not something I know a lot about.  I am in zone 5 in Ontario Canada. Please let me know your thoughts.

Regards
Brayden
 
pollinator
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Location: Western central Illinois, Zone 6a
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Sounds like we are somewhat in the same boat. I'm looking to do something similar, and can recommend the cordwood building books by Rob Roy. A floating slab would be an option. My aunt and uncle in Ohio bought a home that was built with Cordwood on a floating slab. Another option would be rubble trench.
Both of these options would require drainage and frost consideration.

One method I've been considering is to use a pier/pile/sonotube style feet for the frame and then a rubble trench to carry the cordwood and build it in a way that would take settling into account.
 
Brayden Plummer
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts.  I guess I need to just try to put some post holes down and see what happens.
 
steward
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One idea would be to dig post holes wherever you can and then plan the shape of the building from there.  Square, parallelogram, octagon, etc
 
pollinator
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Steel screw-piles? No digging, likely to go right through roots... LARGE rocks/bedrock would not be optimal..
 
Brayden Plummer
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I have thought about the screw piles.  However as you mentioned the rocks may be an issue.  I will try a couple and see how it goes in the spring. I am still kicking around the floating pad idea.
 
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