Chapter 1

Site Preparations

This first chapter discusses the early phase of the project including the capping of your foundation at your site.

Back at your site, working with your general contractor, you will obtain permits and approvals.

1.1.1 Permits And Approvals
Your “Build plans” from Yankee Barn Homes are generally sufficient to apply for your building permit. The sooner you apply, the better. Permits can be a quick formality or involve much time and effort. It all depends on your state and local regulations and building officials.
One of the first things to decide is who will be responsible for obtaining the permits and approvals, you or your general contractor. If you want to have your general contractor get the necessary approvals for the Yankee Barn frame and shell, make sure it is part of his written agreement with you. Since he is not purchasing these materials, he may assume someone else is taking that responsibility.
There is a wide variety of regulations which can affect your homebuilding plans. The more varied regulations have to do with local land-use controls such as zoning and public policy issues such as energy conservation. The more uniform regulations are those which apply to the structure itself, since most states have adopted variations on one of the model building codes. States give localities the right to enact stricter regulations, so there can be variations within an individual state.

Depending on your locale, you will need several types of permits:

1. Zoning – Your lot must be legal, meeting proper land use and setback requirements for a building permit to be issued
2. Septic – Unless you will hookup to a municipal sewer system, you will be required to do a “perk” or percolation test to see how well the soil drains, hire a licensed designer to design your septic system, and have the design approved by your state or county. Generally a “site plan” is prepared at this time; a surveyor prepares a map of the site with contour lines shown, and locates the house, drive, and septic system.
3. Building Permit – The design of your home must meet local building codes. Yankee Barn Homes endeavors to have our designs meet the building requirements of the International Residential Code, which is the basis for the building code used by many states.
However, various states have made changes to the model code or use a different model code as the basis of their local building code. It is your responsibility to submit plans and construction details to your local building official for review, approval, and issuance of a building permit, and to notify Yankee Barn Homes of any special requirements. Yankee Barn will design your home following the current state wide accepted building codes. In addition, there may be specific local requirements layered on top of the statewide requirements, such as areas with high wind, heavy snow loads, or in earthquake zones.
4. Other – Depending on your location, you may need other permits to build your driveway, hook up to utilities, build during certain times of the year, meet special private community design covenants, etc.

Sealed Plans & Engineering
Many locales require that the plans have an engineer’s or architect’s seal valid in your state. If you need a set of structural plans or calculations, such as heat loss, gravity loads, or lateral analysis for wind or seismic with an architect’s or Professional Engineer (PE) seal, Yankee Barn Homes can arrange for this. Additional work by Yankee Barn Homes will be charged at hourly rates. Charges by an outside professional for reviewing and sealing the plans will be billed to you at Yankee Barn’s cost. We can arrange for any of the above, but we do require advance notice.

Engineer of Record
Some areas with more restrictive building codes, such as California, may require you to have an engineer to deal with the seismic design or high lateral loads. In such instances, we have found that the process goes more smoothly if you retain a local engineer to act as “Engineer of Record.” He/she would provide the design building load parameters for the area, design the foundation, energy compliance permit, mechanical plans, and site plan, and provide the permit package review as “Engineer of Record” and provide any special plans.
Yankee Barn works with several engineers who are quite familiar with our system and working with us. You and your engineer of record may find it more affordable to pay one of these engineers and Yankee Barn for providing calculations for gravity loads on our joists, rafters, and beams, as well as lateral load calculations and shear panel designs.

On-site Inspections
In most parts of the country, building code enforcement officials periodically inspect your house while construction is underway. They will be looking to see that all the work conforms with the requirements of the building code. You must not let work proceed beyond a point where the inspections can be made, so it is best to schedule the inspections soon after completion of each phase.
If an inspector finds that something is not done to his or her satisfaction, that portion of the work will have to be redone and then re-inspected. Who pays the tab depends upon your agreement with your contractor(s). It is a good idea to make meeting the requirements of code approvals the contractor’s responsibility.
If your building official requires a change in the Yankee Barn plans to meet code prior to starting your Yankee Barn, we will waive the change order fee and only charge or credit you for the materials and labor added or deleted from your Yankee Barn. On rare occasion, a building official will require that something be changed after it is built.

1.1.2 Graded Beams

Yankee Barn uses KD Doug fir, #1,, mostly clear of heart center for all timber fframing. This grade meet most local requirements for grading of structural beams.

1.1.3 Excavation and Site Preparation
The trees are cut, and the big equipment begins to arrive. The excavating contractor builds your rough driveway, digs the cellar hole, does the rough grading, and brings underground water, sewer, gas and other utilities to the site. If you have a septic system, it will be installed sometime between now and when you are ready to do finish sitework.
The excavator needs your site plan and foundation plan with their detailed information on building locations and elevations. The key elevation is the top of the foundation compared to some benchmark on your site. How high the foundation is determines how your house looks as it sits on the site, how well water will drain away from your house, and how much soil will have to be trucked in or out of your site. Using your site plan and the elevations shown on it, the excavator will dig trenches for the footings which form a base for your basement walls, masonry chimney, and weight bearing posts. As part of the site preparation process, the excavator can also trench for all underground utilities, including electricity, gas, telephone, cable television, water, and sewer. Though trenching can wait, electricity (which can be brought in above ground) is essential for on-site carpentry including assembly of the Yankee Barn.

A WELL PREPARED DRIVEWAY WITH GOOD CLEARANCE FOR PACKAGES ON THE FORK LIFT.

For efficiency in the barn raising, allow at least 25' completely cleared around your foundation for construction equipment to maneuver properly. Also keep in mind thatit will be necessary to drive to all sides of the home in order to set wall and roof panels. If all sides are not accessable,a crane may be necessary for some wall panels. In most cases, a crane is the most efficient and safe way to install the roof panels.

Now is the time to plan the delivery of your Yankee Barn package. Your Yankee Barn will arrive on two or more 60' tractor trailers. These are highway type rigs, so they need good access to your site, or an alternative unloading location.

With proper planning, truck access is normally not a problem. Potential access problems are roads that are too steep,have sharp curves, muddy or soft ground, or insufficient room to turn around and get back out. The trucks need 13' 6" height clearance.

UNLOADING FROM THE ROAD BECAUSE OF A SHARP TURN IN THE DRIVWAY NOT NEGOTIABLE BY THE TRUCK AND TRAILER

If access to the site is not possible due to sharp turns in the drive or no space to turn around, the trucks can park on the road and your forklift could shuttle the bundles to the site. Be sure the driveway is wide enough to accommodate a forklift carrying 20' wide packages (See picture above).
If you cannot get close enough to your site to shuttle with a forklift due to a long drive or an inadequate access road, you can unload at a different location and truck the packages into the site on a smaller 20' stake body truck. This requires two forklifts , one to load the stake body truck, and one to unload at the site. It might be best to unload at a local lumber company that has a forklift available or use a truck with its own boom crane.
If access is questionable it is wise to have a fall-back plan. Be prepared if you need to borrow a bulldozer from your excavator to smooth out a corner.

HINT: Some of the lolly columns in the basement will be carrying 10 tons. Use heavy duty lollies with 3⁄8" steel caps.

HINT: Each trailer load will take a minimum of 600 – 800 sq. ft. of space on the ground to store.

SITE SHOWING SOME STORAGE SPACE FOR COMPONENT PACKAGES. OTHERS WERE STORED AT A TURN-AROUND A SHORT DISTANCE AWAY.

At your site you will need enough level ground to store the bundles. Because some sites do not allow enough storage room, if requested, we can split deliver your Yankee Barn, with the frame and wall panels arriving first, and the roof panels and finishing materials arriving on a later truck.

1.1.4 The Foundation
A Yankee Barn can be built on any type of permanent foundation. We have found regional variations due to local costs, traditions, and environmental conditions. Poured concrete foundations are the most common among barn builders, but our customers have also used concrete block, slab on grade, and pilings. Whatever the design, it is important that your local foundation contractor’s engineer base your foundation plan upon the perimeter dimensions and footing locations provided on your final plans. The foundation must be designed in accordance with both local code requirements and site conditions. If required by the engineer, we can provide loading information for your particular house design. As with all construction it is important that footings be installed on well drained, original or compacted soil. Clay or muddy soils may require a special foundation design.
Level and Square
The completed foundation wall should be level and square. This means that the top of the foundation should be level within a quarter of an inch and that the shape should be that of a perfect rectangle. A surveyor’s transit must be used to check for level, but a simple comparison of the diagonal measurements of your foundation will confirm whether it is a true rectangle. If the diagonal measurements are equal, then the foundation is square. If the top of the foundation is not level, adjustments will have to be made to the sill as it is placed on the foundation. Yankee Barns are designed to accommodate foundations which are slightly imperfect in shape, but major skewness or bows in the walls will cause problems.

1.1.5 First Floor System or the “Deck”
We will send you a first floor deck layout with your Build plans (this “deck” should not be confused with the exterior decks). The deck is made from conventional materials which you will buy locally. It consists of girders (normally three LVL (laminated veneer lumber beams), joists (normally 2 x 10), and a plywood subfloor. Your plan will show where solid blocking is needed under the structural posts of the house. Normally pieces of the 2 x 10 joists are used as blocking. Because of the weight of the Yankee Barn, it is important that each structural post be supported.

A pressure treated first plate is required by Building Codes. YBH suggests a second plate of KD Spruce on top of the "green plate".
The deck should be installed before the Yankee Barn package is delivered, and it is very important that the deck dimensions be exact in order for the frame and walls to fit properly. Don’t let the deck “grow” during construction, and be sure it is square and level.

Now you are ready for the delivery of your Yankee Barn package.