Chilcotin Modular Cabin “Zombie Cabin”

zombie_facebookChilcotin Modular Cabin: A Remote Build with Significant Barriers to Construction

For years I’ve been wanting to push the boundaries of what we build, build something different, build something really remote, build something really cool.

Pushing the boundaries of design, location and material choices I’ve had a particular interest in RUST. Rusty Weathered Corten Steel siding that is.

Inspired by a recent article I saw on Inhabitat.com  about a pair of Weathered steel and reclaimed wood-clad cabins on a Navajo reservation I made a post on our Facebook page “Please Lord, help me find a client that wants Corten Steel on their building!” I put it out there into the universe to see what we could find.

Just 4 days later I received an email from one of our recent clients who had referred one of her friends to us. It was the perfect project; an incredibly remote property in the heart of the Chilcotin Valley. The family had owned the 5 acre property for over 30 years but it has three major barriers to construction the last of which turned the families existing cabin into a pile of smoking ashes. 

4 Barriers to Construction:

  1. Remote Location: Heading west from Williams lake the building site is over an hour up into the mountains of the Chilcotin Valley. Traditional construction methods would be time-consuming and expensive.
  2. Drunken Vandals: For years the local wildlife has been smashing windows, stealing doors and generally doing the best to destroy their existing cabin. Any new Cabin would need to be a Vandal Proof Hardened Facility. One that could be locked up and left safely.
  3. Pesky Pack Rats: Once the vandals removed all the doors and windows from their old cabin the pack rats had a free run, they love to nest in the insulation and hoard just about anything they could get their little paws on. Future buildings would need to be rodent-proof.
  4. Flaming Forrest Fire: Probably the most dangerous of all the barriers to construction is forest fires. In the summer of 2015 a raging forest fire ravaged the 5 acre property and the cabin had no chance of survival. The new cabin would need to be able to withstand the tough climate and take on any future inferno.

Over the last while, we’ve been working hard with the clients to design their new family cabin that can survive the trifecta of issues that plague it’s potential construction.

Introducing the Chilcotin Zombie Cabin!

The Zombie cabin is designed for 4 season use throughout the year. this 12′ x 36′ (432 Sq/Ft Modular Cabin will have 1 dedicated bedroom with queen bed, flex room with a queen sized murphy bed / couch combo and a main living room / kitchen.

The best way to save on your remote construction project is not to build remotely. The Chilcotin Modular Cabin will be pre-built in our North Vancouver, BC Modular Building Factory and certified to the CSA Standard A-277 for Factory Built Buildings. Once completed it will be trucked to the cabin site 600 Kilometers North of Vancouver where it will be placed on to precast block foundations and bolted tight to the ground. 

The way to solve the majority of the remaining construction barriers was to go with a 100% metal, non-flammable exterior. Clad in a mixture of Corrugated and Standing Seam Corten steel siding this building will blend into the surrounding hillside and not draw attention to itself.

When the family leaves the cabin they will close the steel shutters on each window and lock them from the inside, raise the drawbridge style deck into it’s locked position to secure the facade of the building and leave their cabin secure.

With the secured facade the vandals will be deterred; forest fires which are now grass fires because all the trees already burned down should roll on by without affecting the all-steel building; and with all that steel the pack rats will no longer have any way to get into the building.

With our off-site construction methods, creative materials selections and unique building design we were able to address all the clients needs and design a building that will stand the test of time. 

If you have an unique or challenging building project you’d like us to review please contact.

Westcoast Outbuildings
Geoff Baker
1-855-910-7433 Ext 1.
Email Sales

 

 



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