sugar house building permit

Fred
That is why I have recommended to some that they use sonotubes and go down below the frost line for supports for the arch. Sure beats having to worry about being level all the time.
Keith

After using my sugarhouse for 3 seasons I have removed a temporary wood floor and am going concrete. From fall of 04 on I had my evap. footers down over 4 ft and laid concrete blocks up but then I ran short of time and decided to put wood in for a few years. The joists rested on the concrete blocks for the evap but the rest was tied to the perimeter with joist ties/hangers. The evap never needed re-leveling (03 was very different, I had a partial platform supported over a pit with less than ideal support and did re-level daily as needed) but I did not dare use my blower because of the wood floor and the sparks blown out of the firebox the 1 time I tried the blower. Being the procrastinator i am and doing everything in the construction alone I am again crowding the concrete deadline because I do not want to use caicium in my mix to protect against freezing (caicium eats rebar). I therefor may end up with part concrete and part wood for the 07 season but would then resume concrete work after the season to be fully ready for 08. (of course It has nothing to do with working in my blueberries/on my rental apartments, doing portable custom sawing, doing logging, or having a full time job) I have designed my floor with a 5" deep pit down the center, slightly narrower than the firebox width. It is level under the firebox but slopes down 1/8"/ft towards each end. One end will supply the blower with fresh air and will be covered with steel plate to form an air chase, and an elec conduit goes from the outer wall into this for blower control and any other curcuit I may want to add. This conduit goes under the floor from one side (panel box side) into the trench. The trench from the firebox end out will be blocked or closed off to keep the air from blowing right thru but will be pulled out to remove any ash not bolwn up the stack. The slope is for when I hose the floor down to drain outside. I had considered putting a floor drain in but decided this would more easily maintained. If anything ever gets washed out that should not be left on the ground I can scoop it up and bury it in a safe place. Brookledge, As far as getting perfect support, bedrock is the best you can ever get.

As a contractor and sugar maker I pondered this also.. Turns ou in Vermont you need no permit for a ag building, however some towns require you file a building plan, (a filled out permit app fee but there is no denial or grace period) Best of luck with this and start local go from there..

P.S. if anyone has current use or forestry questions in NH or VT let me know..

The rumour in our town is that your suppose to file a $10 building permit for any building. We have put up quite a few without the permit and nobody has squauked yet. Just as long as the appraiser counts your buildings and the town gets thier tax money...all is well!!

I just have to throw in my $.02 worth on this subject. This past spring I wanted to put up approx. a 1 1/2 car size garage for making syrup in. I had to go to the county for the permit. Because of the way it was zoned I had to have a residence to live in on the 40. I have a house a mile down the road but that didn't count. I was told to get a waiver of any kind would cost and would take time, the same was for rezoing too. To make a long story short I ended up with a building that looks like a house and meets the required square footage plus, as well as everything else they wanted. But it will house my sugaring equipment. Minumum square footage for the county was 500 sq. ft. I ended up with 750 sq.ft. I could of just put it up with out the permits but that's not in me to do it, and they would of caught up to me sooner or later. It's nicer than I would of put up to begin with, but it cost alot more too.The old saying is "you can't fight city hall" is correct. Through all the hoops I had to jump I just kept repeating to the county officials " I JUST WANT TO MAKE MAPLE SYRUP'

funny story- When my father and I were building a sugarhouse 30 years ago, some people asked him if he would give permission for them to take walks on his property. He gladly said no problem, next day he was visited by the building inspector, he was good about it, told us how he found out and said I really dont want to but.......
People.....

I have just recently gone through this process of obtaining a builing permit in ny state. I applied on friday of last week and recieved my "paper permit" on the following saturday. I think that two key ingredients to my succesfull permit were as follows: I am apparently zoned agrigulture and have adequate space 30FT min on either side of my building on my property.

When I expanded my saphouse, was building an addition on my house at the time, I asked our building inspector if I needed a permit for the saphouse too. He replied," as long as it does'nt look like I can pull my truck in it, no". Well the front of my saphouse looks like the bow of a ship. He could pull his truck in cause it's wide enough, just does'nt look it. There's almost always someway to get around the rules in the mountains!

If you are building an AGriculture Building on Ag zoned land, I believe that the constitution provides that you can't be charged for building a new or changing an exsiting building. Not real sure where it is found but that is what a zoning inspector told me.
Ron

We had to get a "permit by rule" to put our sugarhouse where it is. We took pictures and put up silt fencing, etc. Otherwise there was no problem. There was just one place that we could put it on 20 acres, and that is the place where all the tubing runs to, and it's close to the road. Serendipity.