Category: Construction

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Working on the 3rd Wall

Sorry for the lack of updates!

I’ve been working on the third wall — the 20′ long one that runs the entire length of the house.

As of now, I have the studs all cut (will have to go back later and cut the headers and cripples for the windows).

Last weekend, I assembled the “outline” of the wall: the first and last stud, the top and sole plates.

English: Diagram illustrating parts of a Wall ...
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)

The biggest challenge was getting the sole plate around the wheel well and spare tire hitch. I messed up and mis-cut the wood for the wheel well, but the spare tire hitch went well.

The next step is to cut the wood for the cross-beams between studs, then install them and the remaining studs.

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First Walls Going Up

I powered through and got the first two walls raised! There’s no going back now.

To start, I needed to trim part of the wall that hung over the wheel well. I’d measured it a little long and it needed to be flush. The Japanese saw worked nicely here.

Trimming wood with a Japanese saw
Trimming wood with a Japanese saw

For the first (long) wall, I attached a couple of 2x4s, one at each end, with a single screw so it would hinge and prop up the wall when I raised it. This allowed me to raise the wall by myself.

Ready to raise the first wall
Ready to raise the first wall

After I got the wall up and reasonably plumb, I clamped the bottom.

The wall upright and clamped
The wall upright and clamped

Next I worked on the adjacent wall, so as to provide stability. I needed to cover everything with a tarp (the next week is predicted rain every day), and I was concerned that a single wall would be easily knocked down by wind or the weight of the water on the tarp.

I quickly assembled the second wall, starting with the footplate. I went to look for a 4x4x8 in my wood pile for the header and realized I hadn’t bought any in that size. GRR!!! No problem. I used a 2×4 temporarily to anchor the top of the studs. I screwed in just 1 or 2 screws in each stud and didn’t use glue.

With that, I threw the tarp over everything and tied it down as best I could. By this time it was 1:30 am; I went late because I didn’t feel like I could leave it with only one wall.

The two walls tarped up
The two walls tarped up. Phone ran low on power so flash didn’t work 🙁

Whew! The next wall is the longest one in the build. It should go faster because I’m more confident and know what to expect.

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Cutting more wood

It is raining so I’m spending the time prepping wood. Besides ripping it to the correct length, I’m drilling pocket holes on each end so it will be ready to go.

 

Sawdust from pocket hole prep
Sawdust from pocket hole prep
Prepping wood for studs
Prepping wood for studs

 

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Attaching the House to the Trailer

From my own research, this is a “controversial” topic: some folks say it is required and others say not to bother.

Someone is *wrong* on the internet!

Does it make sense to attach the house to the trailer? The weight of the house should be enough to keep it on the trailer as in, will it blow off while you’re driving down the road? No. If I’m worried about tipping over, then the house is destroyed anyway.

Tumbleweed suggests welding threaded rods onto the trailer that are then passed up through the subfloor, sole plate of the wall and a HDU5 holdown. I decided to not go this route, because I would have had to strip the paint from the trailer and I didn’t like the position of where I’d have to place the rods (too close to the interior of the house).

So what to do?

It turns out that my trailer has stake pockets for adding a railing. So my idea is to create a bracket that will clip to the bottom of the bracket and hold a threaded rod.

The completed bracket with rod
The completed bracket with rod
[envira-gallery id=”90″]

Here’s a video of me welding the plate and then grinding and polishing it.