Moving toward sustainability
Despite the soaking, I regrouped and moved ahead with building the 5th wall.
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.
A bit of glue and screws later, it was 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.
I ran out of time to install it, so that will have to wait for next time.
We got a strong rainstorm yesterday, and my worst fear was realized. I’d neglected to tie down one side of the tarp, so the wind must’ve picked it up and flipped it (the tarp) over the side of the house, exposing everything.
Then it rained long and hard, soaking the walls and floor. As far as I know, two “compartments” in the floor got water in them, maybe more.
I repositioned the tarp and tied it down, but noticed it is full of holes. It is disintegrating from being out in the sun for so long.
The only thing to do is wait for the rain to stop and let the surface dry out. Eventually those compartments in the floor will mold (the insulation seems to be very good at resisting mold), so I’ll have to open up them up from the bottom and take out the insulation so I can dry everything out.
Next steps? Plow ahead! I’d been afraid of getting the floor wet since I laid it down and now I don’t have to worry about it!
This weekend I plan on squaring the walls and bolting them down (using the brackets I made) next.
Bam!
This is what it looks like “inside” – wow, a real room!
I threw the tarp over the whole thing and now it is a nice little space.
The third wall is complete – all the studs are in and the three windows (yes, three!) are framed out.
This weekend I got about a third of the wall framing completed, including a window!
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:
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:
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.
A tiny home’s air quality is affected by pollutants more than a larger home, simply because there is much less air inside a tiny home.
My goal is to build the tiny home as air-tight as I can, to minimize the amount of air that leaks in or out. This also means that planning for a means to bring fresh outside air inside the house is very important.
The trade-off is every hole cut in the wall reduces energy efficiency.
On one hand, we have the exhaust fan with louvers that close when the fan is turned off.
This fan’s only insulation is the louver, which doesn’t form an airtight seal. In hot or cold climates, this is not sufficient insulation.
According to the Department of Energy’s “Whole House Fact Sheet” (pdf), one option is to manually cover the opening(s):
Since standard fan louvers do not insulate or seal tightly, a cover should be constructed to airseal and insulate this hole …. The cover may be installed from the attic side (if attic access is easily available) or from the house side. Covers for both sides could be included in excessively hot or cold climates. Homeowners must remember to remove cover(s) before operating the fan and to replace cover(s) during seasons when the fan is not in use.
I can see that getting real old, real quick.
No solution, yet. Just something to think about.
The deck-height is starting to become a nuisance.
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?
Say hello to my little friend!
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lots of rain, lately.
I discovered that the floor had been getting a bit of rain, so there’s a possibility that the insulation is wet. I’ll have to cut open the aluminum under-barrier later and take a look, but it will make sense to get the roof up first so I only have to do this one time.