Comments on: 16×20 Vermont Cottage

By: John

John — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:24:15 +0000

Hi;
I too plan to build the Vermont cottage, I like the simplicity of the post and beam. Like many insulation is an issue for me. I plan to use foam sheet insulation with straping over that followed by the exterior siding. This will make for the post and beam with the original siding viewed from the inside and then the same (2nd) siding on the outside over the foam sheets. This is the same thing the first day cottage does. All electrical will be on the outside of the walls. I wanted to keep the post and beam look on the inside. The window frames, door frames will have to be adjusted for the additional wall width, the roof over hang will be reduced too. Other than that, no big alterations in design are needed.

By: robin yates

robin yates — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:14:01 +0000

nice design.I live in the tropics and am thinking of building something similar. The question of proper insulation, for walls and roof obviously worries me. Any ideas please ?

By: Glen

Glen — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:50:04 +0000

Great looking cabin, Zoeybug. Wish mine was going up as quickly!

By: zoeybug

zoeybug — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:03:39 +0000

Ours are being built on a pier foundation as well. And one of them is built now! I posted some picture on my website.

Still haven’t figured out what we’ll do for insulation.

By: Glen

Glen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:20:08 +0000

Mine arrived last Wednesday. Plan to start building on our land in the Blue Ridge mountains west of Charlottesville in the next couple weeks.

Zoeybu, I bet our kits were shipped out on the same flatbed. What kind of foundation are you planning to put yours on? I’m planning to put mine on a post-and-pier foundation.

By: zoeybu

zoeybu — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:34:05 +0000

We did end up ordering two of these to use as camping cottages. The kits arrive next Thursday, very exciting!

By: frank

frank — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:02:18 +0000

Wind will blow through the cracks in the b&b siding. Fibreglass insulation isn’t very effective at all if air is moving through it carrying the heat away. Wind can also force rain water into the insulation.

I’d go with either housewrap by itself (not that expensive and pretty easy to install), or one of housewrap/felt over sheathing.

By: Glen

Glen — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:19:36 +0000

Thanks for the replies. At the moment I plan to not install any sheathing or house-wrap. Does this sound reasonable? How important is the wrap?

I will probably go for fiberglass wall insulation, and will consider spray-on insulation for the roof as suggested above.

By: zoeybug

zoeybug — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:46:42 +0000

We just bought two of these for our land in central Ohio, and will put them on our little pond for a family camp.

Since it is a kit, we’ve been thinking about adding plywood sheathing, and definitely want to add insulation for winter use. I would think that you could add fiberglass insulation without having sheathing or house wrap?

By: frank

frank — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:13:06 +0000

You could probably ask them to install housewrap or felt for you.

For the roof I would use spray foam directly on the underside of the metal roofing. If you want to do it yourself, one of the 600 board-feet kits would give you about 2 inches depth.

I’d be a bit hesitant to use the spray foam directly on the board and batten without some kind of wrap installed. Without wrap, it would be more difficult to replace a board if you had woodpecker or porcupine damage.