Every spring the building projects start. I am always looking, trying to see what kinds of foundations are going in and how the builders are dealing with frost and heat loss.
I think frost movement is the greater concern. Fortunately, insulation can correct both problems, usually at the same time in the same installation.
Holes are getting dug all over New England and foam insulation is landing in those holes. All this is good stuff.
There are other ways to place a building on the ground up here in the great Northeast other than just digging holes.
Mobile homes — er, manufactured housing — have been installed on blocks for years with little concern for movement. In fact, many mobile homes can tolerate a little ride around on a frost heave. And there is usually enough heat loss underneath them to help keep frost from moving things, if the building is adequately skirted.
The only real concern I have with this practice is wind. If a mobile home is not well anchored, it can move. The technical term for this is wind uplift. This does not happen much here in Maine.
If you stop and think about it, most old homes are not tied down to their foundations, either. Anyone who has had to replace a rotted sill can attest to this fact.
And fortunately, most older homes do not move.
Current building practice has builders tying the house to a foundation.
I have an old shed that appears to be built on some old pallets. It is trying to become one with the earth again. Half of the wildlife in the neighborhood live under this shed.
And I have been planning to rebuild it for about five years now. This could be the year.
We have a lot of wind where I live and the building has not yet moved. It leans from the wind, but it has not uplifted. I suppose the holes underneath it are small enough that the wind cannot get underneath it and create much force even though it is slowly rotting away from ground contact.
The plan is to place a new base under the shed and tie the foundation to the ground. Some well-placed treated posts will be installed under the building perimeter. They will be wrapped in two protective barriers. The first one will be a wrap of Ice & Water Shield. This is usually used for roofing, but it is an excellent water barrier that will help keep the preservative treatment in the wood.
The second barrier will be plain old polyethylene plastic. A couple wraps of 6-mil poly will help protect the treatment but also will help prevent ice from grabbing the post and moving it.
While I am at it, I think a ring of foam around the post, about 6 inches under the soil, will help insulate the post. This will be a two-foot-square piece that has the post penetrating the middle where it goes into the ground. It can then be covered with soil to prevent any weathering. It is probably wiser to cover a four-foot square, but I will wait until I get there and check out the soils. Foam is cheap, and this is a small shed.
A new floor will be next. It will have to be about a foot off the ground. It seems prudent to insulate the floor since the shed might warrant winter use.
We can insulate it with some foam, but we will need to cover the bottom of the floor structure with some treated plywood to keep the critters out. They would love to burrow in the foam and nest in there any time of year.
All this being done will protect the building from further deterioration. It also will keep the building from moving in the wind.
And most important, I can see where everyone is going when they go under the building.
Questions for Tom Gocze should be mailed to The Home Page, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329. A library of reference material and a home-project blog are at www.bangordailynews.com/thehomepage.html.