Posts

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Racing the rain: Main Beam & Rafters

One of the largest headaches was dealing with inclement weather without a roof. There is no way to really keep the water out with a tarp, without a beam and rafters!

So here I’m getting the beam put up. This is a nice large 18′ (5.5m) 2×6 beam. It was heavy, but I was able to lift it up into the loft.

Main beam ready to be hoisted into position

I then had to build a support post to hold it level. A few scrap 2x4s worked nicely.

View of main beam support post

Nailed everything down on the front.

View of main beam attached to wall

Finally added the rafters and the beam was secure! To test it, I hung from the beam and it didn’t move a bit.

Main Room’s rafters
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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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A disagreement, threats and why written contracts are important

It has been about 9 months since the last entry. In that time, I’ve had to move the Tiny House from its build site.

What happened was there was a disagreement from the management (or overlord) about my continuing to rent the space. I had agreement until after mid 2016, but the problem was it was verbal (some what via email, but a crucial part was done in person).

Eventually, the overlord made threats (“get it out now or we’ll burn it to the ground”), we (using the law) blocked, and both parties agreed that I’d vacate on a specific date. That date arrived, I packed up everything and took off, never to set foot there again.

During this ordeal, I received support and advice from several friends, for whom I am eternally grateful.

All of this would have been avoided (or required much less energy) if I had a written contract that specified the terms of housing the Tiny House. The saw goes, “Experience is mistakes one learns from.” I certainly have a lot of experience now. 🙂

During the move, I noticed one of the short walls was wobbling terribly, as it was only supported on one side. I braced it with a spare 2×4 and it stopped wobbling. Once we got on the freeway, Tiny performed beautifully with no problems. I speed up to 65 mph and took it to its new temporary home.

Epilogue

This turned out to be the best thing to happen to Tiny, which I will elucidate in a future post.

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Loft walls

Time to work on the loft’s walls. I’m deviating from the original plans in order to provide more room in the loft. Originally, the roof was going to slope down to meet the loft floor, creating a tight space along the sides.

To fix this, I’m installing dormers—short walls to open up the loft and make it more roomy. The added benefit is the loft will have 5 windows instead of 1!

You can see an example of a dormer on the second floor here:

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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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We are Back, Baby!

We are back, baby!
We are back, baby!

It has been long, too long for sure.

Running out of funds cascaded through my situation, and I’ve only just now been able to crawl out far enough to poke my head above water. With the new year comes a chance to restart.

I purchased some wood for the loft about a month ago; sadly twenty of my 2x4s were stolen. At least they left the loft rafters and floorboards! I’ll take this as a lesson-learned: use the wood ASAP; don’t leave it lying around!

 

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Out of Money

English: Finnish spruce plywood
Plywood (Photo: Wikipedia)

So, with the next phase of building approaching, it is time to get more wood, notably the plywood for the walls and roof.

In addition, I’ll need:

  • a bunch more 2x4s for the rafters, loft walls and interior walls,
  • some 4x4s for the loft beams,
  • floorboards for the loft,
  • 6x6s for the last wall, and
  • an 18 foot 2×6 for the roof beam.

I’m guesstimating this will all run me about $500ish + about $50-75 for the truck rental.

Taking a look at my Tiny Home piggybank, I’m out of money. I should have enough money in the bank at the end of the month.

In the meantime, I still need to plumb and square the remaining walls, so I’m not completely dead in the water.

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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.