Building underneath house

[craigss21]

We have just finished building a house which is on a slope.

I want to build in underneath the house with verticle battens and I am new all of this so need as much guidance as possible. My questions are:

1. I think I will run about 2 or 3 beams from one verticle post to the other under the house and will then attach the upright battens to this. How do I attach the horizontal wooden beams between the metal verticle posts? I have no idea how you would do that, if I drill into the post holding the house will this affect them?

2. What sort of wood should I use? I will obviously be subject to the wheather and I will need to be able to paint them the same colour as our house.

Any help would be greatley appreciated.

[addo]

So, you're wanting to enclose the underhouse area with vertical timber - sort of like pickets? A bit like people do with old Queenslanders sometimes?

If the house is on metal poles, you should be able to drill into them for the horizontal battening, no probs. Guessing you'd want a horizontal batten around 90×35mm in treated pine if the poles are 2400 or so apart? There's a range of self-drilling galvanised fasteners that will work - if you counterbore the hole first with a 19mm Speed-Bor, the fastener won't stick out proud. Allow one batten per 900mm.

For the actual pickets, I personally would use cypress. Treated pine may be cheaper. Either will need pre-priming and back/edges painting before erection. Don't underestimate the time this takes! Cypress would need screwing on, where treated pine could be nailgunned up.

Hope this helps.