Preparing for the Problems of Deep Snow

Many vacationers dream of an ideal winter retreat—an isolated cabin in a snow- covered landscape. If you share the dream and plan to build your own cabin in snow country, you must meet several mundane requirements to ensure that your dream cottage will remain both us able and comfortable throughout a long, severe winter.

To begin with, you must e able to reach your cabin through deep snow. Do not place a building far from a plowed road unless you plan to get to it by snow shoe or with a snowmobile. Site the house carefully. Hilltops tend to be too windy for winter comfort; idyllic-looking sheltered valleys are generally reservoirs of deep snow and cold air. The best location for a cabin is a south-facing slope, which gets light and warmth from the low winter sun. Fortunately, prevailing winter winds in most snowy parts of North America come from the north or northwest, so that setting your main door and windows toward the sun also keeps them on the downwind side.

The foundation of a snow-country cab in must of course rest below the frost line. Continuous masonry-block foundation walls are the warmest type of substructure, and you can insulate them from the outside with packed snow. Insulated walls and , if your budget permits, double-glazed insulating glass for windows, are desirable; drapes or shutters inside the windows help to con serve heat and stop drafts after dark. You can both add to comfort and save on fuel costs by shielding the area outside the main entrance of the cabin with an en closed entryway—a small antechamber that keeps cold winds away from the door and can double as a mud room or a woodshed.

The roof of a snow-country cabin may need thick rafters and special bracing to support the snow, or a steep pitch to shed it. A roof steep enough to shed snow has an obvious ad vantage but it has disadvantages, too. A steep roof requires far more roofing material to cover a given floor area, and much of the high space underneath may be wasted. Furthermore, a steep roof may require metal strapping or fasteners to tie it down against strong winds that would flow over a lower roof.

To protect your roof from an overload of snow, clear it after heavy snowfalls with a roof rake—a long-handled scraper, available from hardware stores or home made by nailing and bracing a 2-foot 1-by-6 across the end of a long pole.

96 A cabin ready for winter’s worst. Sited on a south-facing slope with its principal windows and door away from the winter winds and toward the sun, this cabin takes maximum advantage of whatever warmth and shelter nature can offer. Evergreen trees behind and beside the cabin act as windbreaks, but none are close enough to topple onto the roof. Trees have been cleared from the downwind, south side of the cabin to allow the sun to warm it; one deciduous tree re mains, blocking little sun in winter but offering shade in summer. Similarly, the cabin’s overhanging eaves block the rays of a high, hot summer sun but let in those of a low winter sun.

The eaves are extended at one point to shelter an enclosed entryway and the steps leading up to it. The roof of the cabin is covered with metal panels, which shed snow readily. A supply of fire wood is stored on a sheltered part of the deck, in a spot that's convenient to a side door. A raised boardwalk leads from the front steps to the deck and on out to the driveway; the open deck of the boardwalk itself seldom needs to be shoveled, as it's usually blown clear of snow by the wind.

A snow fence prevents blowing snow from drifting onto the cabin’s driveway. Snow deposited by an early winter storm has been plowed off the driveway and pushed as far back as possible, to make space for banks of snow that will be plowed after later storms.

97 A roof for heavy snows. The slope of the roof at far left—that is, the rate at which it rises, ex pressed both as an angle and in inches of vertical rise for every 12” of horizontal run—is a steep 34°, or 8” in 12, a prudent choice for snow country. If this roof is covered with metal panels, it will shed snow. A root of the same slope, covered with asphalt shingles, will hold some snow and needs flashing to keep melting snow from leaking through. The flashing should extend 8 to 10” above the line of the walls and lap under the two lowest courses of shingles.

A clear path over snow and mud. The sections of this raised boardwalk can be separated and stored when the ground dries in spring, then reassembled before the first heavy snow. For the walkway sections, make open boxes of 2- by-6s, each 6’ long and 3’ wide, with the long boards nailed to the ends of the short ones. Cover the tops of the boxes with 1-by-6 planking, spaced 1/4” apart for drainage. For each H-shaped support, use 6-foot 2-by-4 uprights 3’ apart, with a pair of 2-by-4 crosspieces bolted between them 2½’ from the bottom. Nail diagonal 1-by-4 braces across the bottom half of the H.

To assemble the boardwalk, bolt walkway sections together between the uprights, resting their bottoms on the crosspieces Bolt 2-by-4 handrails to the tops of the uprights and 1-by-4 diagonal braces from one H to the next. Attach one end of the boardwalk to the cabin and install a flight of steps or build a ramp at the other end.

Picking the right rafters. The chart above gives the correct lumber sizes for rafters in snow regions. The five main vertical columns list common roof slopes in” per foot (for example, 7” of rise in each 12” of run); each of these columns is subdivided for rafter spans of 9, 12 and 15’ (assuming 16” spacing). The horizontal rows list ground-snow loads—the expected maximum weights of ac cumulated snow on flat surfaces—in pounds per square foot. You can get this figure for your area from the local office of the Federal Housing Administration or from a local architect or structural engineer.

To use the chart, first find the vertical column for your roof slope and rafter span, then read down that column to the horizontal row for the snow load in your area. If the exact slope, span and load for your cabin do not appear on the chart, use the next lower figure for slope, the next higher for span and load.

97b A Chart of Rafter Sizes

A Doorway Sheltered from Snow and Wind

98a 1 Extending the rafters. To roof an enclosed entryway and the steps leading up to it, extend several rafters of the main roof. Set a 2-by-6 alongside one of these rafters, with its end against the house wall and its top aligned with the top of the rafter; use a level to draw a vertical line on the 2-by-6 at the point where you plan to build the outside wall of the entryway. Take the 2-by-6 down and , using a framing square, draw a line 3½” long, running at a right angle from the first line to the bottom edge of the 2-by-6 . Cut the board at the lines and use it as a template to cut a 2-by-6 for each of the rafters you will extend. Nail on the two extensions at opposite ends of the entryway.

98b 2 Bracing the extended rafters. Brace the end extensions temporarily with horizontal struts nailed to them and resting against the cabin wall. If necessary, use shims between the wall and the ends of the struts to adjust the alignment of the extensions. Hang a plumb bob from the ends of the extensions to locate foundation piers for the entryway. Pour the footings of the piers at the same depth as the footings of the cabin and install two wooden or masonry piers spanned by a girder of tripled 2-by-8s or 2-by-10s.

3 Hanging the joists. Under the door of the cabin, fasten a 2-by-8 joist plate to the wall with its bottom edge level with the top of the entryway girder; use ¾” lag bolts 5” long, screwed through siding and sheathing into the header joist or end joist of the cabin (if necessary, remove a section of siding to fit the plate flat against the wall). Drop a plumb bob from the extended rafters to mark the girder and the plate for joists and , at the marks, nail joist hangers to the plate and anchors to the girder. Fasten 2-by-8 joists to the hangers and anchors.

Cover the joists with ¾” exterior-grade plywood for a solid floor, or with decking of 2-by-6s separated by 1/4” spaces. Fasten steps to hangers on the end joist, resting the bottom of the steps on a shallow concrete footing.

99 4 Framing the outside wall. Assemble a frame of studs and plates on the ground. First cut 2-by-4 top and sole plates to the length of the outside wall and mark them for studs at the rafter spacing. Because part of the sole plate will rest on the entryway floor and part on the slightly lower girder, the studs above it must be of unequal lengths. Cut the plate in two at the point where the floor ends; cut the studs to fit between the top plate and the two sections of sole plate.

With a helper, lift the wall frame into position. Nail the sole plate to the girder and through the entryway floor into the joists. Toenail the end rafters to the top plate, remove the struts and install the remaining rafters.

5 Framing the end walls. Nail sole plates to the floor at the ends of the entryway and cut studs to fit beneath the sloping rafters, notching them as illustrated, Frame the door by the method shown.