DIY Network

Cantilever Prefab: Georgia Build From "Assembly Required" episode DASR-210

In Ellijay, Ga., developer John Abercrombie hopes to build a house with a great view. Just one problem, his site is on a floor plain. John's build crew has to construct a prefab pedestal home in order to make his risky lot into a home site. He hired Logangate homes to design a house that cantilevers. A cantilever is a projecting structure that is counterbalanced or supported at one end, like a diving board or bridge. They are great for building on sites that have been deemed difficult to build on.

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	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C
	Figure D
	Figure E

Cantilever Prefab Construction

The first step for the crew is setting the trusses onto the pedestal foundation. It's something the crew has never done before, and these are no ordinary trusses (figure A). The cantilever trusses are pre-built specifically for the Logangate Homes at the Stark Truss factory. These trusses are extra large. They're 32 inches high and 42 inches long and can cantilever 10 feet beyond the foundation.

The team takes it slow and steady. The wooded lot does not make it easy to maneuver the 300-pound oversized trusses. After only a few hours, the crew has assembled the most critical part of the structure.

Once the trusses are set (figure B), the floor is in place and the pedestal home build is underway. The crew is eager to get started on setting the wall panels.

The pedestal home is panelized. The wall panels, roof panels and rafters are all prefabricated at the Logangate Plant, allowing for easy on-site assembly. However, getting the panels to the site is not so easy. The truck is too big to make it down to the wooded lot, so the crew has to load the panels onto smaller trucks and a forklift in order to get them on site. One by one the crew connects the exterior wall panels and begins to form the home shell. When it comes to what Rob calls the "mama panels," it's a different story. Everyone has to pitch in to raise the 1000 pound, 17-foot tall gable window wall (figure C).

On Day three, weather makes the site a little muddy, but that doesn't hold the crew up. The prefab lettering system helps keep the ball rolling and the prefab puzzle takes shape (figure D). Over the next three days the crew has to deal with 20-degree weather, frozen glue guns and improvising with a crane. By the end of the week, the crew has managed to overcome the odds and complete the pedestal home shell.

Thanks to the cantilevered design and the pedestal foundation, developer John Abercrombie and his crew created a home where most traditional houses couldn't exist (figure E).