Proper relation of water supply and sewage disposal. But remember that underground water table may not slope the same as the surface. Ask your Forest Ranger.
CESSPOOL WELL WATER TABLE ROCK
CABIN FOUNDATIONS
Foundations are the backbone of your cabin. From the structural standpoint they are probably the most important part of the building. So, just because they are going to be hidden, don’t skimp or hurry through with them because you want to get started quickly on the cabin itself. If the basic framework is out of line, the whole house will sag and tilt at odd angles. As one cabin expert says, “Wear out your spirit level and try-square—don’t save them for another job.”
One of the simplest foundations for the amateur builder is made by resting the sills on supports made of two large somewhat flat boulders. If your cabin site is on solid rock, then all that is necessary is to bed the bottom boulder securely on the rock. But if the terrain is ordinary earth, you should dig down past the “forest floor” of black humus until you reach rock, sand, gravel or other solid ground below the frost line. Then you pour concrete piers to the grade level and seat your boulders thereon, as shown in [Fig. 3]. Do not use any mortar between the two boulders. Dampness will creep up past the first boulder, but if it is not bonded to the top boulder with mortar, the dampness will stop there and not reach the post supports or sill timbers of your cabin. Of course the concrete piers themselves, if built above grade, are perfectly good supports for the sills. But the boulders have more of a cabin “look.”
Fig. 3
FLAT TOP BOULDERS CONCRETE PIER FOOTING