Fred & Glenda Lackey
Framing started today with 115 kiln-dried Douglas Fir 2x4x12’s. Bought almost every decent board they had.
The first section of the right all (the front) was torture. Also got to play with a shiny new Dewalt framing nailer. Love that thing!
Bolted down the sole plates today. This foundation isn’t going anywhere… ever. Every 16″ is a 5/8″ x 7″ zinc-plated hex bolt. These bolts run through the sill plate, through the subfloor, the foundation, and through the 4″ angle iron lip on either side of the trailer.
When it comes time to build the walls, each sill plate will be unbolted and become part of the wall. Each 9’6″ stud will land in between the bolts. And, finally, the walls will be lifted up 28.25″ onto the subfloor and bolted back into position one last time.
Two 2x12x12 headers prepped and curing for the weekend.
I must admit, I feel a bit dirty admitting this, however, Ryobi creates a nice tool. While it is certainly more DIY-ish than a Dewalt or Milwaukee, this is now the second tool I have been forced to buy from them and I have zero regrets.
This past weekend I picked up the Ryobi 18-Volt ONE+ Power Caulk and Adhesive Gun to tackle the aluminum flashing of the tiny house. Construction adhesive is some thick stuff and I was about to blow through eight tubes of the stuff. My nightmares from this stuff were enough for me to sneak through Home Depot with the ugly green box under my arm.
After laying down 160′ of adhesive, I can honestly say that Ryobi’s lil’ caulk gun is money well spent. And considering how often one needs to use it, my guess is it will last as long as I do.
Foundation is done!
First, we skinned the top of the trailer (belly of the foundation) with 20″ strips of aluminum flashing using construction adhesive. By overlapping each strip by 2″ we created an “escape route” for any water that may find its way into the house but yet sealed it enough so varmints won’t be able to get in. Also, the overlapping pattern is set to allow air to flow over the skin when the house is being towed.
The foundation structure is made of kiln-dried 2×4″ Doug Fir prime dimensional lumber. Not much to say about it other than, it’s the good stuff.
We chose to go with battens of formaldehyde free / vapor retardant Owens Corning fiberglass insulation. The combination of this with the air gap created by the raised floor should be more than sufficient.
Finally, we chose T&G Dryply Plywood for the subfloor. It has a water-repellant coating on the top. It’s not as heavy as ground contact (GC) ply, but it should add a slight bit of protection should any moisture find its way from a spilled glass of something down the road.
The trailer is ready for the foundation!
We added over 40 gussets along the sides of the trailer. They are probably overkill, but I’d like to be a bit anal with this build. Once they were ready, we drilled a series of 3/4″ holes down each side to anchor the foundation to the trailer.
Small side note: this part sucked! By hole #2 I was ready to go buy a plasma cutter and melt the holes! I realize you’re supposed to go “low and slow” while drilling metal, however such is not possible with a hand-held drill. Sure, you can take your time with the drilling, however, conventional drill bit sets have such a huge jump in sizes after 1/4″. While I did end up switching to a step bit, it still took forever. In the end, I decided to burn through five or six step bits to get through the holes as quickly as possible. It worked, but I was sick from the fumes for a good two days.