Hiding a steel truss with landscaping

Def. talk to someone who is knowledgeable about native plants. For example, flamboyants, I've heard, have very invasive roots that spread far beyond the tree's canopy, and if these trees are planted near cisterns or septic tanks the roots will cause damage. These trees, therefore, should be planted FAR away from cisterns and septic tanks. Not sure if this is entirely true, but that's what I've heard....so it would be worth it to consult with an expert. (tu)

What about vines?
Instead of steel trusses, think about concrete. Such as pre-cast parking garage floor sections. You would only need two of them to cover 20ft x 80ft placed on three column/walls. No maintence issues like steel. Instant house floor upon installation.
But getting some in or to the island could be another issue.

Will that pre-cast garage floor come with plumbing? I think you are over thinking it a bit much. When you dig then pour the cistern you will have a large flat area at street level. Then you build a house on it.

Will that pre-cast garage floor come with plumbing? I think you are over thinking it a bit much. When you dig then pour the cistern you will have a large flat area at street level. Then you build a house on it.

And what comes with plumbing? The cistern doesn't, the steel trusses do not, the pilings do not. What about electric wiring?

I just bring it up as an alternative to steel trusses. And if your having the labor intensive-to-build steel work fabricated in Florida and shipped over, it might be a wash or cheaper to obtain the pre-cast concrete floor sections instead.
Oh and if you do go with the steel trusses, you might want to investigate having them hot-dip galvinized prior to shipping them.

Will that pre-cast garage floor come with plumbing? I think you are over thinking it a bit much. When you dig then pour the cistern you will have a large flat area at street level. Then you build a house on it.

That would be a cistern 20ft x 80ft with an average depth of 15ft. with the lowest wall at 10 feet high and 20 feet on the high side.
Would 179,532 gallons be enough to live on?

That's why you build it so you can put it inside the slab. What good is a house with no bath room.

dntw8up, and others recommending the local plants:
- I hear you, and am with you. I looked back at my photos of the lot, and it's possible that there are more trees there than I realized. 95% of it looks like 1-2" diameter trunks, so I'm not yet sure just what it is. On my next trip I'll be able to map out the vegetation on the lot. I will have done my homework and will be able to identify things much better. Yup, I get it: anything that has managed to live without someone watering it must be a real gem of a plant.

Hi Limetime2:
- how are those Hollywood showers (woohoo!... I'll have to swing by your place!)?
- I took in all of your suggestions with great pleasure... feel free to rattle on as long as you'd like.
- yup... my whole house might be an "overhang" in some sense. The first hurricane will be mighty scary.

Engrmp - made me laugh. Thanks! I needed that.

Don't get me started rattling... I'm not sure about the rules on here... there might be a word limit. 🙂

It is tempting to think about the plants and landscaping, isn't it? I just love all the tropicals here on island that thrive in our weather. There are books and books on the topic, but once on island I can recommend a great guy (expert) for you to talk to that really knows plants and really knows soil. There are several soil types here on island and some plants like certain soils, and refuse to grow in others. It will be important for you to know which is which. For example, I've tried to plant several avocado and several mango trees on my property but my soil is heavy caliche (sp) and they grow till they hit caliche and then they give up and die. I've wasted hundreds of dollars trying to get an avocado tree to grow. Its really sad and I've dug (ok ok... had someone dig) HUGE holes to put these trees in - still died. You can't mess with mother nature! So... I buy my avocados and mangoes and I plant flowering trees. (My LIME trees do great though! Perfect to pick a fresh lime for cocktail hour!)

Beware of those 2" trees on your property... they are probably tan tan or some other evil stickery weed tree and there are probably jack spaniels in them. No fun to whack around in. Jack spaniels are evil wasps. Note: Tan Tan will live anywhere with or without water and it is definitely not worth keeping! Invasive... it will take over your property. 😀

Good luck on that house design. I'm sure you are having fun thinking about it and all the options and potential problems.

Have a good night.

IslandJoan,
Yup, root systems can cause major problems. They usually have to go to drip line at least, so, yes I have to watch out. It will be interesting to look at houses with big trees and look for foundation problems.

aschultz, heepajeep, I'm not avoiding you, I just didn't see your posts until now (I'm on travel at the moment, and I think my laptop is still adjusting to this new internet connection). You're both making good points, and I appreciate your thoughts:
- precast garage floors might be really inexpensive (like the ISO container ideas), because you sure see a lot of them around. Interesting idea.
- the cistern seems like a natural structure to use to support the house. But, I think it's "only" going to be about 10x8x40ft so it'd only support a fraction of the house (and only if I make it 12-14 ft high as opposed to 8 ft high). It seems that that would be better than nothing, but since a major portion of the house will be supported by something other than the cistern, I worry that the house will try to move independent of the cistern (which will stress the cistern joint). I might be wrong, and this will definitely be considered.

Hi limetime2, thanks for the warning about the tan tans... and jack spaniels... I'm not a fan of wasps. And, I have an acre of land, so I want a meandering path through my lot with various planting areas on the edges of the path. So, I'll have to come to some understanding with the wasps - if they're willing to share the land peacefully, then they can stay; otherwise we're going to have words! BTW, since you like Hollywood showers, I'm thinking that you must like Hollywood parties also (OMG)!

I am about one year into building a house on a hill close to the street. When they dig down 10ft to make a pad for a normal size cistern all that dirt can make it very level for the next floor. If you want the full basement for strength then add an apartment on the same level as the cistern. Then all that dirt would give you a nice yard.

aschultz, you sound very sane, so I'm assuming that your building experience is going better than most... so, how has it been?

I see what you're saying about the bottom level. I've been putting off the whole subject of the 2nd level:
- because I'll probably be in my early 60s when I arrive, and the thought of all those steps is not appealing.
- but, I do see lots of people using the top or bottom level of a house to rent
- but, my wife doesn't like the idea of having renters around (I can't wait til it's only me around... will she kick me to the curb!?!?!?)
- but, while I'm building the house, that's the best time to put in the 2nd level if we ever contemplate using it
- but, it's going to add cost that might break the bank
You can probably see why I've put this subject off...
- but the truss might be just as expensive... that's why I'll also look into this option once I get the cost and issues associated with the truss.

But, also, in my case:
- when they dig down 5 ft for the cistern, they are digging at the setback line, which is already 10 ft below road level.
- so I would need two levels (or one and a half) above the cistern to get to the level that my house would be at.

Things are going very smoth with building. Infact I think it wil be what l do when we get down there. Your lot sounds very steep, the 10ft set back puts you 10ft below the road. Thats much diferent then mine, I had 20 level feet but with the set back half of the house sits on the cisturn and apartment. It will not ever be used for that but its there. It is nice to get some living space out of that large investment for water.

aschultz, yes it seems like your 20 ft of level land made a huge difference...your solution seems pretty well suited. How close are you to completion? Is there enough concrete on the island these days? What did you decide for walls? How about windows/shutters?

It'll be interesting to see if my truss design holds up over time. A few architects have told me that I'm doomed... not worth trying to build on. They might be right... but, I have to follow through until I run into a real hard wall.

heepajeep, I've been driving into LA, from the north, to get to my hotel.... looking at lots of buildings on steep hills. I saw a 7 story hotel (I think) where I-10 runs into Pacific Coast Highway around Malibu. There are two concrete posts supporting a 24" steel i-beam... and that is holding up half of this hotel!

We are getting ready to pour the 8 inch slab for the first floor. That is also the cap to the cistern and ceiling for apartment. Concrete is $150 a yard and they seem to have lots of it. The first slab was 29 yards three trucks and they ripped up the road for miles bringing it to me. That's not my fault right? The apartment is 8 inch poured walls with half of it built in the mountain. With the 24 inch foundation its my pool house and bomb shelter. The next floor will be block with normal rafter ceiling. For shutters we put in the hardware for garage door type for the first floor. I might do accordion on the next floor. I have not gotten to far on windows yet.

Wow, $150/yard is MUCH better than the $500/yard I was reading during BongoBongo period of time. Yup, a 24" foundation ought to last for a few thousand years and be good for 1000 knot winds... sounds like your covered! It must be fun to see it coming together.

Are you doing any radiant barrier on the roof?

Lifetime2, I loved your post! My house is in the Rain Forest and I have a a Mahogany, Turpentine and Flamboyant (I cannot wait to see it next week!) as well as a Mango, Papaya, Sour-sop (sp?), Orange and Tangerine. I had guessed cutting down Mahogany's was against the law. People have warned me about how the dropping pods might scare the heck out of me. And I guess their droppings are ruining my freshly painted roof! I am a city girl with a black thumb with no interest of making it "green". so my property needs to be able to take care if itself more or less. But, I love the trees around my house and now I really want bananas and plantains thanks to you! I suppose I can find some on island relatively easily?

EngRMP, I have enjoyed your posts. I am not an engineer myself, but my business requires me to work with mechanical engineers every day. All of your messages have made me think and, some have made me laugh - not at you but at the sophistication and then the quick responses . . . I did not expect that. This really is a great forum. I am pretty sure you can ask anything here and get a responsible response. Good luck with your house construction!

We are going to use the liquid stuff that is very popular on stx. Then cover with the galvanized steel. You must redo the liquid all the time but it works. The bad part with the steel is it seems like there are only about three colors Blue, green and red.

Thanks SunOrSki, I'm just trying to add my 2 cents. I agree - these forums are an excellent way of sharing information. BTW, my wife feels sorry for you - she shares your pain of having to be around engineers for hours on end (her advice is to put up with their obnoxiousness... they're good at fixing things).

Wow! Tangerines and Oranges too! It'll be fun to try to get all of these fruit trees to grow... and then to try to harvest the fruits before the critters get to them.

I'm with you SunOrSki - I'm hoping that I can buy or trade with locals for cuttings or seedlings of the various trees. I haven't really explored the rain forest yet... I'll have to do that on my next trip.

aschultz,
By putting steel over the liquid, do you eliminate the periodic need to redo the liquid? Else, do you periodically have to remove the steel to redo the liquid?

I kind of like those blue roofs, against the lush green backgrounds, and competing with the blue Caribbean waters. But if it doesn't match the rest of your colors... then it just doesn't match. It's always something, isn't it... impossible to get everything to work the way you'd like. Well, if the roof color is the worst of your building problems, I'd say you're doing really well.

The steel roof is good for 25 years, you would not ever redo the liquid. I just wanted the liquid to protect the wood from drying out. I am leaning towards the blue as well I guess you just work with it. Maybe with a tan house but my wife gets to pick that. We are also going to use acrylic stucco with the color in it so no need for painting the house.