Category: Construction

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Lofts

[I did this work the weekend before Thanksgiving]

I did the lofts over a weekend. This was scary because I had to work around any bad weather. Until I get the rafters up, a tarp will not protect the lofts. The reason is the same as to why the bottom floor got ruined. The middle will fill up with water. With nowhere to go, it will get heavier and heavier until it shreds the tarp and soaks everything.

Things went VERY quickly. I was amazed at how much progress I made in just a few days. No rain yet.

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CS 14 Strapping Installed

We got the CS 14 strapping installed all the way around the house and it is looking great.

CS 14 installed
CS 14 installed

As with many things in his project, it involved some compromise and flexibility. When I laid out the blocking (the wood between the studs), I neglected to get them exactly lined up with one another, so when it came time to install the CS 14, it was obvious it wasn’t going to match.

As with everything else that “went wrong,” I had to remind myself that any job worth doing is worth doing poorly.

Coming to the master bedroom’s window, I had to cut the CS 14 to make it work.

CS 14 on master bedroom window
CS 14 on master bedroom window

It turns out that tin snips don’t work, but an angle grinder does the job nicely. So with that out of the way, it is time to work on the loft.

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Shoring up the frame

Tiny homes are a little different from conventional construction in that the house needs to handle movement, such as when driving down the road. To help with this, we add some steel to the wood.

Lil’ Helper

The kiddo wanted to help, so the key to keeping him interested and engaged is to give him a task he can complete, along with the opportunity to use power tools. 😄 I asked him to install corner brackets on the door frame and he had a blast.

Give a kid a power tool...
Give a kid a power tool…

CS-14 Strap

I got a spool of 14 gauge steel strapping to wrap around the house.

CS Strap
CS Strap

It will provide stability to keep the studs from moving around when we’re bouncing around the highway. Or weathering a Cat-5 Hurricane (well, maybe not that part).

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Fifth Wall Installed and Plumbed Some Walls

With the fifth wall built, it was time to install it. It didn’t take very long.

Looking towards the front of the house
Panorama of front of the house

Looking from outside you can see the porch:

View of fifth wall
Looking at the Porch with the 5th wall installed

I moved the stairs over here because climbing through the wall was not very easy. Who’da thunk it?

Trying to walk on the porch (really a hole with one rafter across it) is not very easy. I’m thinking I need to install the trap door and flame-throwers sooner, so the porch will be usable.

Plumb-Bob Squarepants

I took the opportunity to square up and plumb two of the walls (the long one and the bedroom one). What this means is I measure a wall corner-to-corner diagonally, and then measure the other diagonal. They should be the same if the wall is square.

To plumb the wall, I check it with a level to make sure it is straight up-and-down. As a sanity check I also verified the angle between the wall and the floor, although with the floor being buckled and warped a bit from all the rain, I didn’t worry about it being perfect.

Next up is to square and plumb the second-longest wall, then start building the first-floor ceiling/loft floor. And the sixth wall.

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5th Wall Built

Despite the soaking, I regrouped and moved ahead with building the 5th wall.

Overhead view
Walls 4 and 5 location

Assembly went fairly quickly, however I’m starting to run out of wood(!). I had to scrounge around a bit to find the wood for the crossbeams.

Wall 5 ready to be assembled
Wall 5 ready to be assembled

A bit of glue and screws later, it was assembled:

Wall 5 assembled
Wall 5 assembled

Then I made sure it was square (measuring diagonally from corner to corner) and then nailed on some scraps to keep it that way until I could install it.

Wall 5 standing upright
Wall 5 standing upright

I ran out of time to install it, so that will have to wait for next time.

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First Window

This weekend I got about a third of the wall framing completed, including a window!

First Window Detail
First Window Detail

The square in the upper-left corner is the tiny (24-inch) window. The actual glass won’t go in for a while, until after the wall is raised, the plywood attached, and the water barrier installed. Still it is nice to have a tangible feature completed.

Notice in a ‘typical’ home, there are studs above the window, called King (or Cripple) Studs:

Diagram illustrating parts of a Wall ...
Parts of a Wall Panel. 1. Cripple 2. Window Header 3. Top Plate / Upper Wall Plate 4. Window Sill 5. Stud 6. Sill Plate / Sole Plate / Bottom Plate (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Their function is to help transfer the load around the window. Tiny Home doesn’t have these because a) it is too short, and b) there isn’t as much load on top.

You can see here how little space I have to work with:

View of completed first third
View of completed first third

The base of the wall is on the right and the wall itself fills the entire floor. The American Flag box contains lots of drinking water, most of which I drank and later evaporated.

I’ll try to drop in a few studs a day and we’ll see if we can’t get this puppy knocked out by the end of the week.

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I ain’t no monkey

The deck-height is starting to become a nuisance.

Detail of the deck height
Detail of the deck height

As you can see, the trailer is jacked up and levelled on cinderblock. On top of the trailer is the subfloor, then the floor. Now that I’m working on the third wall, I have to scramble over it to get onto the deck. This rapidly became annoying as I had to climb up to measure the distance between studs, jump down (carefully!), go cut the blocker, climb back up and then glue and screw it in.

Rinse, repeat.

So, what do I do when I have an itch? Scratch it!

Remember that wood from the trailer?

Boards removed previously from trailer
Boards removed previously from trailer

Say hello to my little friend!

New Stairs
New Stairs
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Working on that big ol’ wall…hello, Mr. Sun! Ahh!!!

Got cracking on the big wall that runs the entire length of the house–20 feet long.

It turned out I was no match for my most fearsome nemesis:

100º temperature
Hell called; they want their heat back

I started adding in studs, spacing them out with blockers  as required, however after a few hours I started getting dizzy and nauseous, so I called it a day.

Overheated
Overheated

Now before you ask, yes, I was drinking water: I downed a 32 litre bottle in no time. The issue was I wasn’t drinking enough water, and I probably should’ve taken some salt.