SB: Re: Pier loads for bale wall

["akraven" <akraven@alaska.net>]

Hi Bill

       Thanks for the info it matches quite well with another lister who posted to me. I did leave alot of info out of the post originally that would have helped. Ooops.  My original plan was a 24x36' two story house with the perimeter poles being telephone poles directly buried on concrete pads and extending to the roofline. The interior beams would rest on concrete piers and these would support milled timbers. The timbers and pole tied together with beams would support the structure and the bales would be infill. Bale size will probably be 2 string but I am still hunting for the best deals. This year is the beginning and next year the actual SB infill. I was planning an elevated wood platform floor.  I live in Alaska with heavy snow load,seismic risk and fairly good winds at times. Roof slope should be 6/12 and metal so I should dump some of the load naturally. I have moderate shelter from the wind. I am thinking that the outside (telephone poles) will provide quite a bit of lateral/shear support being buried deeply. I originally looked at 8' spacing and then dabated going to 12' and that was where the problem started. I was concerned about the loads and spans and thought I should do a more detailed calculation and look where I ended up : )     By the way my ground type is considered average. Of course like any owner builder I am looking to save money but never at the risk of having an unsafe,short lasting house. I want a house I can be proud of and not a liability. Any other thought you or anybody else can offer I am all ears. Thanks again Jeff

PS Spring has sprung bigtime up here and the building bug has bit big time.

----- Original Message -----

From: Bill Hunt

To: akraven

Cc: strawbale@crest.org

Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 12:55 AM

Subject: Re: Pier loads for bale wall

 

-----Original Message-----
From: akraven <akraven@alaska.net>
To: strawbale@crest.org <strawbale@crest.org>
Date: Thursday, April 19, 2001 1:55 PM
Subject: SB: Pier loads for bale wall

I was calculating loads for a pier foundation and came across the figure of 25# / sqft / course of bales. So for a 36' X 10' wall  (360 sq ft) we are looking at a load of 63,000#.  360x25x7=63000#. Is this the correct way to calculate this? If so thats makes an even more tremendous load than I suspected. The number of peirs needed to safely hold this, an possibly to add a second floor, is very large.  Am I calculating this correctly? Thanks Jeff

 

Hi Jeff-  This is one reason those code people always want you to hire an engineer :-).  It seems to me quite a bit more information would be needed to give you a real answer here, such as type of piers you are thinking about, type of foundation, wind load, snow load, roof slope, roof material, siesmic zone.... It seems the enignoid types are all busy, along with the rest of the list these (spring) days ;-). 

 

Now, yesterday I couldn't spell carpinter, and today I are one...

but it seems to me your 25 pound/sq. ft/ course figure would be for a square foot of floor space, not vertical wall space. You're multiplying by 10' high, *and* multiplying by 7 courses high.  Are these two string bales, or 3 string?  I think the 25#/sq ft is high, too, if thats for a square foot of floor area, per course.  2 string bales around here are about 50 pounds, and 40"x18" (hieght is factored in by the number of courses, the way you're doing it).  That's around 50#/5 sq. ft, or 10#/sq. ft.  36'x18"wide, divided by 12"/ft, gives 54 sq ft under the bale wall.  54sq ft x 10#/sq ft/course x 7courses (7 courses??)=3780 pounds of bales.  That sounds more in the ballpark.  7 courses of 2 string bales would be more like 8.2 feet high, actually.  I'm not sure how many courses you were planning on there.

 

Is this sitting on a raised wood floor attached to a pole frame?  Or sitting on a concrete slab, with posts holding up a second story and roof?  Questions, questions...

 

Cheers- WasatchBill