New cabin plans

[noodle874]

I am planning on building a new cabin with a friend of mine. This will be for hunting and fishing but also to bring up the wives and kids. We are near Hancock in Delaware county. The plans are to build a stick built cabin on a 8ft walk out basement with a garage door.2-3 bedroom with a loft open floor plan.So far, we had a perk test done and the engineer told us we had to get a septic with leeching field.The cost is $10,000. Does this sound right? Any advice/suggestions/insight/2cents would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[growalot]

 

I am planning on building a new cabin with a friend of mine.

You sir are a brave man....

[thphm]

Yep sounds the price pretty close, Big difference in the ground from the Sand Pit L.I. and the Catskill mountians. 10 times harder to dig a hole for the leaching field , you could hit anything from rocks to boulders and a Lot of the soil for it has to be trucked in.

[WingNut]

What were you considering without municipal utilities?

10K is fair, considering you'll have the septic tank itself (500-750 gal average, if I recall), diverted box, pipe, fittings, bedding and excavation.  

[First-light]

I needed the same thing in Steuben county when I built my place. This was 7 years ago and it cost me $6,500. 

[noodle874]

I have nothing to compare it to so I just wanted to see if that price seemed out of line. anyone have any tips or tricks or do's and don'ts that they had with their own cabin experience?

[noodle874]

Thanks firstlight that's helpful.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Look into the Arch system for the leech field., especially if the sand or stone has to be trucked in a long way. It can save on the costs, even though it may require more excavation.

 

http://www.ads-pipe.com/en/product.asp?page=arc_chambers

[noodle874]

Omg and wing thanks for the replies. Any thoughts on block foundation vs poured. Any recommended masons/ well guys? Any and all info is appreciated.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Block will be cheaper but the Concrete will have a higher resale. If you plan on finishing the basement, the poured can have  a foam forming system that stays in place and allows for easier finishing.

 

Depending on the manufactures in the area and access to your site, you could also look into precast concrete foundations.

[noodle874]

Thanks Culver. Def gonna check into precast as well.

[noodle874]

I just noticed your comment on the arch system.I will check that out and mention it to my septic guy. Thanks a lot.

[virgil]

I just had a septic system done in Otsego county a month ago. The cost was $6500 plus $450 for the engineers drawings.

[jrm]

Omg and wing thanks for the replies. Any thoughts on block foundation vs poured. Any recommended masons/ well guys? Any and all info is appreciated.

I'm not too far from you - over by Stamford. Built a log home cabin not that long ago (actually, still building some parts of it.)

Block vs poured... I am an old school guy. I like poured. I saw pricing on the new technology foundation which was about the same and still decided to go poured.

Check out Ben Reynolds Construction in Walton. He did all my concrete work for my (foundation and garage pad). Good work and reasonable pricing.

Jonathan LaFever (LaFever Excavating in Bovina) did my excavation work on the home and dug/put in the septic. Great work, reliable and fair pricing.

Bill Boyle Excavating does a lot of work in the area (excavating, septic, foundations, etc.). He quoted on some things for me (reasonable pricing), but I haven't worked with him a neighbor has. They were very happy with his work.

The $10k for a septic system sounds reasonable. Size and particular soil conditions are both factors. Are you in the catskill watershed? Doesn't sound like you are because that seems to jack up the cost when DEP is involved.

Things to watch out for?

Always build bigger than you need to. Most people never say "if only I had 100 sq ft less space."

Account for storage space. "Things" tend to accumulate.

If you are in the watershed, watch out for the DEP. They can make building/construction a real nightmare. I actually believe their goal is to prevent any construction. The good news is that anything required by the DEP which is over and above normal building practices is fully reimbursable. You just have to know how to work within their system. In addition to my "extra" building/engineering/design costs, they had to reimburse me for over $20k in legal fees for the lawyer I had fighting them through the process.

Since you are building on your own, I won't bother you with thing to watch out for with home builders. I will warn you to add 20-50% onto your current budget for things you haven't planned on.

Check with the town about permits. They usually require that construction companies have insurance and are licensed. Doing it yourself, you will want to find out in advance what special procedures that might entail. You also need to know the inspection schedule. I find that many of the "regular" contractors know the local inspectors, which makes the process easier. Not know you or your work, the inspector may be more suspect. You will need a licensed electrician (and probably a licensed plumber) for at least some work.

If you are hooking to electric look at your distances before you decide on a building location. NYSEG gives you so many feet along the road where they will extend their poles. After that, you pay by the foot. There is also a certain distance from the road that they will bring their line to your panel. After that you pay by the foot. These are all overhead lines. If you want underground lines, you pay them (high cost) or do it your self. I had the excavator dig an electric/phone line trench when they did the foundation. I'm about 250ft from the road and didn't want overhead lines across the property. The trench cost almost nothing because I did it with the foundation. The lines weren't as cheap, but that's the price of wire these days.

If you want to contact me directly, PM me.

Edited November 11, 2014 by jrm

[thphm]

One thing that has not been mentioned but a problem in the Catskills and more so in the watershed area it is Water, spring can and do pop up anywhere.So that being said I would go for pored cement and very important a good French Drain system ( required by most towns now ) and a good waterproofing on the outside.

Just had 2 houses down the road that had to have the ground around there basements dug up , drains put in and waterproofed.Big Bucks afterwood.

The above mentioned companies do good work.I have used some of them in the past.

[noodle874]

jrm I am extremely grateful for the wealth of info you just provided me. Thanks for taking the time to go into detail. You brought up a few things I hadn't considered. I may be leaning on you with more questions if that's ok.

[noodle874]

Omg, I had thought of that regardless of what type of foundation we go with. Sealant applied with a French drain around the house. Good call. I need to find out if I'm in the watershed area. I've never been aware of this but I need to be sure obviously. Thanks

[noodle874]

This cabin will not be a full time residence. Has anyone set their place up to make things easier when it's time to go home? I've heard putting quick connect fittings on the plumbing so the system can be easily blown out. I've heard putting the water tank on the second floor to drain it easier. Anything to help with the septic in this regard? The norweco singular system is what the engineer is recommending. Anyone have one? Thoughts?

[philoshop]

All good stuff above!

My background in both home-building and architecture would suggest that you look closely at 'needs' vs 'wants'.

What will it take to make you happy with the project? What does your friend have in mind for that goal?

All due respect to jrm's advice above, which is excellent, more space does not necessarily mean 'better'. Quality and utility of the space is what will count.

[noodle874]

Virgil, what type of system did you go with?

Philo, I want a mud room but my wife needs it. Lol

[philoshop]

Wants vs needs. Agreement is a wonderful thing. Insert big-grin smiley.

 

If you have any gravity working in your favor for the septic system, use it. If local reg's call for an aerator type of system, get your checkbook out. (The EPA would really like to see everyone get there checkbooks out in this case, just so you know what to expect in the future).

A gravity-fed shallow system can be made to work just about anywhere and it's about as inexpensive as you can get. Technically it's called a 'gravel-less chamber absorption system'. The Infiltrator Quick-4 Plus EQ-24 Low Profile is what I used for my house. 16" deep trenches kept me out of the clay, and they work fine.

 

FWIW, I'd recommend going a step bigger on the septic system than the minimum.

[letinmfly]

If you're land is in the watershed you can expect to pay close to double that estimate for the septic system. 

[burmjohn]

So on the tech side of things since I'm a geek. I have a camera system setup, I can check it remotely and also emails me motion pics. Also suggest internet capable thermostats. You can get other sensors too like water. You can monitor the temps in the place and crank it up on the ride up so its nice and warm or cold for when you get there. When you have the pex done have them do a nice manifold with a dedicated drain. Would take all of 1 min to drain the whole house.

[noodle874]

Philo, a gravity system was ruled out by the engineer due to the heavy clay. I was then told I needed a aeration system (Norweco 500 gal) with pump and leeching field. Rough estimate was "no more than $10,000"

[noodle874]

Letin, I checked the map, thankfully I'm not in the watershed. I was worried cause I am steps away from the main stem of the delaware river