The Ultimate Big Blue Tarp

Once the foundation slab was poured, the septic drainage system and well installed, the driveway contoured and backfill in place around the foundation walls, it was our job to finish the remaining work. We began with framing the daylight basement wall (provides better insulation than an exposed concrete wall) and the basement bearing wall and installing a supporting beam over the family room where there would be no bearing wall. We did preplan a pocket in the foundation wall to support the beam. We had help from my husband's oldest son for this work. We used treated lumber for the mudsill and a strip of thin blue foam called “sill-seal” between the concrete and the mudsill. Any large bumps in the concrete were smoothed off with a hand grinder (a job easy enough for me to do). It was tricky to get the mudsill squared off so that we would have a square foundation to support the logs.

We made the decision to hang joists below the mudsill rather than put them on top of the mudsill. For that reason, we had a 9 foot wall on the foundation instead of 8'. If we were to do it again, we would probably use the raised joists. The lowest 2-3 rows of logs take the greatest beating on your house as they get a lot of splash in the rainy season. It would probably be better to have rock work or (easily replaceable) log siding over the joist area and keep the logs a little higher off the ground. We used BCI joists and a laminated support beam which worked well. We used OSB for the flooring, much to my husband's regret. Next time he would use marine decking without hesitation. We were able to protect the flooring from getting ruined, but it was stressful anytime it got wet.

This brings us to the story of the Ultimate Incredible Big Blue Tarp. By the time the flooring was in place and it was time to start putting up logs, fall was upon us along with unpredictable weather. We knew it would be awhile before we could get a roof on, so we devised a way to protect the flooring as well as the logs while they were going up. That way was to find about the biggest tarp we could get our hands on and rig up a very simple framing structure to place it over. Let me tell you something about tarps. They have two great desires in life, as a friend of mine once put it. They alternate between wanting to be a sail or a swimming pool. So as time went on, we were continually beefing up the structure: adding ropes (with weights) over the top to subdue its sailing tendency; adding additional peaks and ropes underneath to reduce its capacity to become a swimming pool. When winter came, we found the 6' level came in particular handy for tapping snow off the tarp from underneath. One time it held as much as 5 inches of snow without collapsing. We developed this love-hate relationship with the thing. We hated all the work in maintaining it, but we loved its ability to protect our building materials and even to shelter us from wind and cold. With a propane heater running, we could create tolerable working conditions all winter long.

Our nearest disaster was a night when we were sleeping in our travel trailer on the site, and my step-son was sleeping in the basement. He came out to report to us that water was pouring into the basement from above. A strong wind had pulled the tarp part way off at the same time as a high intensity, short duration rainfall. We got the tarp back on, pulling against the wind. Then we ran the shop-vac until about 2:00am until most of the water was off the OSB flooring. This explains the preference for marine decking now even if it costs a little more.