pole and beam house

[spongetone]

I am going to start construction of a pole and timber frame house soon, and need information on the concrete footers for the poles to set on. They will be quite large poles, about 3000 lbs. each, and the 15 poles of that size will support the entire two story structure. It will be difficult to figure the exact weight of the house, so would 500,000 lbs. be a good guestimate? The soil is rock and clay for the most part, so assuming all that, what thickness and size do the footers need to be, should these be steel reinforced, what type of concrete should I use, etc.? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[ishvaaag]

"Clay and Rock" have two very different soil behaviours. Hence if rock is a feasible foundation go for rock depth. If not, either you provide a foundation rigid enough to avoid passing the standing differential settlements to your building or it suffers itself the effects... if big enough, damaging. To avoid this may mean quite rigid beams-on-the-ground linking whatever your footings.

Then, designing properly a foundation requires knowledge of the design of the building and then what the loads are by some standing code. Your 250 tons might even be blown by non tornado winds, that is, you may have even have poles attempting to lift the foundation. See that the variations are many and providing you with any sizing can't account for all the things that need be accounted for, and so might induce in you confidence in something that when properly considered shouldn't be relied upon.

Of course, making your foundations sturdy enough is just a close answer that you may be seeking. But all above said and many more things need be considered. For example, if you place directly a pole within a scarce footing whilst forgetting reinforcement you may have the footing cracked ... wet wood is used to cut stone blocks loose. Use then an anchored joint, calculated, or propietary solutions ... etc.

 

[jheidt2543]

I wouldn't guestimate the foundation loads, compute the live and dead loadings based on your local building code and engineering principles!