How to Build a House With Spruce
- 1). Plan and put in your foundation. When building with spruce, your flooring joists cannot expand to as great a distance as with other woods, most notably Douglas fir. To compensate, you can build your house on a concrete slab foundation or use a system of masonry piers to support the building. If you use piers, they will have to go below the frost line and be located relatively close together to support the spruce frame.
- 2). A one-story ranch house can easily be built with spruce framing members. Designing the layout of a ranch house will be an involved task that creates unlimited possibilities. Unfortunately, the parts of the country where spruce is most readily available have colder climates, so building up may be more practical. In these cases, you might consider a salt box or Cape Cod-style house. These structures are very possible with spruce.
- 3). Build your roof with trusses. This way, you can span a greater area and get more pitch into your roof. If you go with the traditional rafters, you will have to put each rafter closer together and perhaps even use larger-sized timbers.
- 4). Use spruce boards for interior and exterior trim. This is a great idea, especially if spruce wood is readily available where you live. Spruce has a nice, light color that can enhance any living space. A natural finish will look good, but you can also paint the spruce boards. Spruce planking can also make an unique exterior siding, which can be painted or treated with a clear sealer.
- 5). You also have the option of building a small outbuilding (toolshed, workshop or garage) using the cordwood method of construction. This is a unique way of using the butt ends of spruce logs. In this type of construction, circular pieces of logs are placed in a wooden form and a concrete mixture is used as a mortar to hold the wall together and give it extra strength. A cordwood wall has a striking appearance that is not for everybody, but because of the ease and inexpensive cost, it is a viable building technique in certain situations.
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