Not by the Hair of my Chinny Chin Chin!!

No big bad wolf at work here but...I did promise at the beginning of this journey that I would post all issues related to building this house whether good or bad. Well, that being said we had a minor set back...um...the wall fell down. Or I should say we pulled it down trying to get it square. We attached a winch to one of the walls and a tree to try and straighten it just a little bit and that's when it happened. Unfortunately, my dad was by the wall when it fell on top of him. It was a scary moment. I had to take apart some of the wall to get him out. Basically, his arm got pinned in between the trailer frame and the wall and something cut a laceration on the top of his head. We scrambled to the emergency room. You can see the pictures I took while in the emergency room. They put some staples in his head and x-rayed his arm but luckily there was no fracture just some major swelling.

In the emergency room.

It's hard to tell from this picture but his elbow is pretty swollen.

Pallet wall fall down go boom :(

Looks pretty scary huh?!

Needless to say we called it a day. But he came out with me the next day with the role of 'supervisor.' He still helped me lift a few things which was pretty awesome considering what had just happened. He's pretty tough to say the least and I am just glad he is okay. It could have been a lot worse.

Official rant:

Just want to say that if there are any readers out there that thought the pallets were not strong enough and not a building material, you are still wrong. Even though the wall fell these walls will be very strong! The pallets turned out fine after the fall. What failed was the bottom plate of the stud wall. I was planning on going back later to add some long carriage bolts through the stud wall all the way through the trailer frame. So when I do that it will be very very strong. Then I am also going to tie in wire cables through the trailer frame up through the walls and over the rafters and back down through the other wall and the other side of the trailer frame.Once I tighten those cables down that thing won't be going anywhere! It's a similar system used to tie down mobile homes while traveling or to increase stability due to high winds.(There... rant over!)





So now back to work repairing from the fall.

Back up and running! Adding sheathing.

So that day I had my friend Curtis come help me lift the OSB panels for the first row on each side. This is actually the hardest part to do if I would have had to put the first row of panels up by myself. I have a trick for the other higher rows.

Thanks Curtis!

One of the 2x6s broke when the wall fell so now I am replacing that. Luckily I am getting these 16' 2x6s for free! They are not cheap at the store. So these next few pictures are me putting up the 2x6s all the way around the top of the house.

Getting the 2x6s back up. At least I have a ladder this time!

Done with adding all of the 2x6s... now for the trimming. And I have a reciprocal saw!

Have to cut the excess 2x4s that are sticking out of the top.

All 2x4s trimmed.

You can see the pitch of the roof clearly now. It drops about a foot from back to front. I tried to maximize head room for the sleeping loft so the roof is about as high as I could legally have it to be road worthy.

 Now I had to add top plates around the top of the studs for added stability and holding part of the rafters.

Added 2x6 top plate.

Top plate on front.

Back wall top plates.

The rafters were a little tricky to do by myself but with wood clamps and a ladder it makes it possible. It's just a lot of up and down the ladder and back and forth to each side. But each rafter is on a 24" center.

First rafter in!

Close up of outside of the top of stud walls.

Close up on the inside of the stud wall where the rafters attach to the 2x6 and the top plate.

More rafters in!

Done with rafters!

 Multiple views on what I have completed so far in the next four pictures.

Back to one man sheathing.

 Like I said the sheathing for the next two rows on the walls are going to be easier than doing the first row. When the first row is complete I can nail in a 2x4 that sticks half way up the piece of sheathing and simply slip in the new sheet of OSB behind the 2x4 and on top of the first row. Once I get it up there I can let go of the OSB and straighten it up and screw it in!

This 2x4 is the other hand for applying the sheathing.

Two rows of OSB complete on one side.

Two rows of OSB complete on the other side.

Temporary diagonal supports on the front corners.

 I put these supports in to try and stabilize it a bit more. It seemed a little shaky but as I added more OSB panels it just got sturdier and sturdier.

Starting third row of OSB.

 The third row of OSB was a little more challenging because I had to cut the angle of the roof. Plus it was very windy that day so when you are 10' up on a ladder holding a large section of sheathing it is somewhat tricky to stay balanced when the wood is acting like a sail! But I got it eventually. It also helped to pre-drill in the screws on the ground so I didn't have to fight that up on the ladder.

I sure am glad I thought of this 2x4 idea! It was a windy day!

Complete!

Starting third row of the other side.

Done!

The roof was pretty easy because I didn't have to cut but only one piece. I guess the hardest thing was getting the panels on the roof. But really it was just time consuming drilling in all the screws into each rafter. And if there were any seams where the sheathing met and there was not a rafter underneath I went back and added some extra 2x4 rafters to make the seams stronger.

Now for the roof!

Lookin' good!

Roof sheathing complete!

With the roof complete the whole house really feels a lot more sturdy. No more shakiness! The whole house just rocks a little on the axle springs which is what it's supposed to do.

The last thing I got done this time was the roofing felt. I was going to purchase some roofing material made by a company called Grace ($75/roll) but it was just too expensive compared to roofing felt ($17/ roll). I also thought I could use house wrap on the roof but on the roll of house wrap it says not to do that. It doesn't give a reason why but I guess it just won't hold up as well as felt. I don't know. I also smashed the crap out of my index finger on my left hand! Not a good finger to smash when you are a guitar player and you have a performance in a week! But hopefully it should be better by then.

Roofing felt on + one smashed finger with the hammer. Ouch!

Finished the felt just before the rain!

The next thing to do will be to put the sheathing on the back wall and then house wrap the walls. Hopefully, there will be no set backs this time but you never know! I also have some interesting news about the land and farm situation...or should I say lands and farms!! But I'll get into all of that soon enough!  Tune back in next time to find out!

Wish me luck!

Pallets...The Building Blocks of Life?

In this past month I have gotten a lot done. I wanted to be further along but there is always something that is unforeseen. I got the trailer moved to its new building location(in my friend Keith's yard), the second layer of OSB on the floor, and the pallet walls up. The moving and the second layer of sub-floor was the easy part. Unfortunately, the pallets(unless all are the same size and thickness) are not the 'building blocks of life' I was hoping for.

Trailer in its new location!

Just so you know: I upload my photos in order of appearance. These sliding glass doors came into my life (for free) via craigslist!! Now I have a front door! Just need to build a frame for it and it needs a new lock.

 Roughly most pallets are about the same length and height. What I didn't factor in was the thickness of each pallet. Which is probably the most important factor to consider. I would say the width is the second most important and the length the third. If all of the pallets are not the same thickness then at least one side of the wall will not be flush, so that when you apply the sheathing, the wall would be very curvy and lumpy. So when you are out treasure hunting for pallets it is important to find a place that has a lump sum at there disposal. If you go to the same source for your pallets they are most likely going to get the same type of pallet for their shipments. I'm not saying this is always the case, but it is what happened in mine. My main sources for pallets are a furniture warehouse and local microbrewery. The furniture warehouse just has a big sign by the pallets saying 'free' so that was an easy pickup. The microbrewery has many stacks for their  pallets. So I went in to talk to their shipping guy and he explained that each stack of pallets has a different function. One stack has pallets that were no longer used and were scheduled for pickup. Apparently, some guy goes around and picks up pallets, fixes them and resells them. The other stacks were for different shipping items (some for kegs and others for cases and bottles). This is a perfect example of why you should go in and ask about the pallets before you take them assuming they are free. Because even when it seems like they are free I assure you they are not. And if you get caught taking some pallets you thought were free. Then you could go to jail just like you would if you shoplifted in a supermarket. So use some common sense if you embark on pallet treasure hunting!

The first wall is made from pallets from the furniture warehouse. All of these are made from pine and are all the same thickness (5"). Pine is very easy to drill a screw through. So if you see pallets that are lighter in color it is likely that these will be easier to work with. I didn't know this before I started but I definitely know now. Most of the darker pallets are made from hardwoods and being that they are very durable also means that they are very difficult to drill through especially if your drill is not the best one you could buy!

First three pallets up!

Up!

Up!

And away!

 Now we are getting somewhere!

As you can see from the pictures I decided to put 2x4x10s in between each vertical row of pallets. I found some cool brackets at Lowes to help attach the studs to the bottom wall plate. This really helped because I am doing this one pallet at a time, not an entire wall section and then lifting them into place like traditional construction. If you have ever researched pallet sheds or houses then you are familiar with the I-Beam Pallet House design. Designed for refugees in Haiti (which never really took off), it is a cheap way to build that is actually quite durable. When the exterior wall is applied and the cavity of the pallet is filled with some sort of insulation it is considered to be just as good if not better than normal construction practices. They say that all the pallets that are thrown away in the United States every year could house the refugees of the world!! And they are free for the taking and are everywhere! You don't notice them until you are looking for them!

2x4 bracket

Each stud and each outer 2x4 of every pallet got one of these to attach to the bottom wall plate.

I extended the bottom wall plate out past the end of the trailer to allow for future aesthetic features and the power closet cavity.

 The first wall is not complete but I wanted to go ahead and start on the second wall to secure both sides so they wouldn't fall over. The second wall comes from the microbrewery. These pallets are all made from hardwoods but all are 4.5" thick and the same height and length. Now the other wall was 5" thick and this one is 4.5" thick...does this matter? you must be thinking! No, not unless you are OCD and can't get past that it's not perfect! As long as each section of wall is the same thickness then the sheathing will lay flush with the outer wall. So to the naked eye you can't even tell.

Galvanized strapping on bottom plate and each stud for added stability.

Pallet castle!

 On the back of the trailer were the two sections of each wall where the pallets had to be modified. Basically I measured what was left to complete each side of the wall and cut the pallet. I didn't cut it exactly. I cut it to leave an overhang so I could go back and cut the overlap so it would be perfectly flush with the stud. Cause pallets are not perfect- meaning they are hardly ever square! So if you measured what was needed to complete the wall and cut that precise measurement then when you put the pallet up there it could be short of where you measured it. Then you would have just wasted a pallet! Needless to say I got lucky in this instance!

End modified pallet section (left).

Right.  Notice pallet planks overhanging.  They will be cut off later.

Then the back wall was added with two 2x4s put together to fill the gap in between the two wall sections.

Something I haven't mentioned yet was the extensive use of wood clamps! These things are a necessity when building with pallets. Remember how I said pallets are hardly ever square? Well you can get them there if you secure the pallet to the bottom plate and to the bottom of one stud. Then take the clamp and attach it to the top of the pallet and the stud. Squeeze them together then secure with 3" galvanized screws. Without those clamps it would be almost impossible to get it as square as possible.

Now I have to add more studs and get these walls more straight!

In most pallets there are three 2x4s holding together the planks on each side. Two on the outside and one in the middle. The two on the outside are screwed to the vertical studs which hold up each vertical wall section. The one in the middle will have a short 2x4 cut and screwed to it to prep for rafters, and more places for sheathing to be attached to. If you notice in the picture above there are only 7 visible studs popping out above the pallets. In the picture below there are now 12 studs on one side and 13 on the other. Huh? Yes, I will explain this later. But it is what it is!

So I added more studs to the center piece of each pallet now I have to get the walls straight and figure out the pitch for the roof.

Needless to say, I didn't think these two things would be related but it turns out they were. I was going to pop a chalk line, cut the studs, and add a top plate, but these walls had other plans. So I have to say that in regular construction they do all of the walls on the ground and then lift them into place. Well, they also have multiple people working on it so they can lift it into place with a group effort. Well, I am doing this all on my own so there has to be a change in how this is put together. I did try to pop a chalk line only to find out that the walls need to be perfectly straight before the chalk line could be straight. Then I figured if I could measure each stud the correct height and then cut it I would have the correct pitch for the roof on every stud on both sides of the house right!? Wrong!

This is were the 12 studs on one side and the 13 studs on the other side comes in. So here is another example of TRY TO FIND ALL THE SAME SIZE PALLETS! The pallets on the left side of the house are  slightly less wide than the pallets on the right side of the house. So when you think you are going to connect the rafters to the studs on both sides of the house only to find out that they are not directly across from one another, you have a predicament to say the least. So since staring over was not an option I sat on the front porch and thought and looked at the house for about an hour until I figured out what I could do! See the picture below? The 2x6 nearly at the top of the studs is what had to be done! I had to connect these 2x6s at the exact pitch of the roof which at the same time would straighten all of the studs! I think these 2x6s, which came in 16' lengths, were a gift from above! I just happened to find an old pile of wood in Keith's backyard that was just wasting away but not too bad to use. Keith said it was there before he moved there and that he didn't want it! The recycle angels were looking down on me! But how could one person put up a 2x6x16 up 10' in the air by himself without a tall enough ladder!?

See 2x6 up at the top?!

Extremely carefully that's how! The pallet had to become my ladder and again the wood clamps had to become my best friend! Basically one end was hoisted up a drilled in place on the lowest pitch angle for the roof and then the other end was lifted on top of a wood clamp to temporarily hold it in place. Then I had to cut another 2x6 and attach it to the highest end of the roof a screw that into place. So if I had the highest angle and the lowest angle in place then where the two 2x6s met in the middle would be the correct angle for the roof. The highest angle is 10' and the lowest angle is 9'1". I attached the 2x6s together with a flat galvanized connecting plate. You buy those the same place where the hangers are sold at Lowes. Then each stud had to be attached to the 2x6s. I had to drill pilot holes and then put screws in. Just imagine me climbing the pallets holding on for dear life, drilling a pilot hole, changing out to a philips head bit, screwing the screw in all while up 8 ' of of the ground. It was not easy! Imagine doing construction while climbing a rock wall. It was not fun and I am very sore not to mention I threw my arm out from drilling so much!

I was laying down resting and thought this was a cool view!

My pathetic step ladder!

The 2x6 for the other side is done!

Planks cut!

 I also started on the first piece of OSB for the siding and cut a 2x6 for the front wall which connects to the 2x6s on the side walls. I can already tell how much more sturdy it is getting! My dad comes to help this week and he will bring a taller ladder, a reciprocal saw, and an extra pair of hands which will come in handy for the OSB siding.

So next will be cutting the excess studs off of the top so you can see the roof pitch, installing the roof rafters and top plates, and the siding and roofing material. After that will be to wrap the walls and roof in house wrap and some sort of roofing felt. If we can get that far I will be truly excited! If we are really productive then we will probably install the front door and maybe a window!

 Until next time! Wish me luck!

Goin' With the Flo'

Now that the repaired trailer successfully made it back to my house. I can now start installing the frame for the floor and sub-floor. Before I left my parents house, over the Mardi Gras holidays, I needed to run some lumber through my dads table saw. The wood that needs to go inside of the c-channel steel needed to be cut at a 7 degree angle and then run through a router to get the correct curve that is inside of the steel in order to sit flush. The top lighter colored wood are 2x6s that I had to buy from Lowes, and the bottom darker 2x4s came from an old church in Alexandria, La, that my dad is renovating (Yay free stuff!). This step was pretty easy and only took part of a day to install everything. First, I dry fitted some of the wood to make sure everything fit and then applied liquid nail to the backside of the wood to help keep the wood in place. It all fit very snug but the extra adhesive didn't hurt.

Wood inside the frame (drivers side)

Wood inside the frame (passenger side). Some of the wood needed to be clamped because some were slightly warped.

Watch those trailer light wires. Make sure they don't get crimped!

Fit nice and snug!

 Next came time to hang the floor joists. I thought this was only going to take a day to do but it took about two instead. Turns out that hanging floor joists is probably a two man job! Oh well, I made it work. To make the floor joists sit flush with the top of the steel frame I had to cut about a quarter inch notch on each side of each joist. If I got it perfectly cut the joist would fit snug into the frame and would then be easy to install the hangers. I got it snug about 60% of the time I guess. The other 40% required me to hold the joist on my shoulder and hold the drill, hanger, and screw all at the same time to get it hung up there. It was a balancing act and sometimes frustrating but I eventually got it. Also don't let your wood sit for too long because some of them could start to warp very quickly. And I remember when I bought the wood I checked every piece to make sure nothing was warped, but inevitably some pieces just did it anyway.

Making some progress!

Most of the joists are in now.

View from the back. See the small rafter between the first and second joist?  The second one was warped bad and I had to pull them together with that rafter. It was a battle!

Now for the front porch!

The porch measures 4x8 and is covered with 8' treated decking. At first I was going to install the full 8' board across the width of the trailer but I would have had to put in more rafters in between the joists and I didn't feel like doing that. It seemed like more work. So I decided to cut pieces to lay them horizontally with an 8' piece on the front to kind of cap everything off. I think it made for a nice look. At this step in the process I dry fitted everything first before I screwed the boards to the joists. I had to get all of the gaps in between the decking correct and make sure it all looked even and flush. I took many steps back and took a long look to make sure it was pleasing to the eye. I mean, it is the front of the house and the first thing people are going to see. You don't want to invite the first person to your house and have them tell you something doesn't look straight, what a bummer that would be! I wasn't worried about the back of the porch being perfectly even because it will eventually be trimmed in and you won't be able see it anyway. But all in all I think the porch is a success and I can't wait to give it a nice dark wood stain like you would see on a sailboat or something.

The front porch is now complete!

Side porch view

Now finally for the first layer of OSB sub-floor.

To cover the entire trailer I only had to buy 5 4x8 sheets of OSB. It all fit very nicely and I only had to cut an inch and a half off of the piece laying next to the front porch. I got it all flush and was ready to screw these suckers in! It took two half days to complete this! While most of the floor joists are wood and it was easy to screw the OSB into them. The other joists were steel cross pieces of the trailer frame and it took some time to drill through the steel. All around the sides of the trailer I screwed in 1/4" hex screws to attach it to the wood that was running on the inside of the steel frame. That was pretty easy and I thought I could put in self-tapping wood to steel screws for the other spots. Oh no, that was not the case! While the self-tapping screws attached to the angle iron joists fairly easily, it was a way different story going through the c-channel joists. The steel on those guys are much thicker and the screws would not even come close to tapping themselves. So I had to drill through them and bolt the OSB down. While this worked for a little while it became harder and harder to drill through the steel. And then all of a sudden-Snap! My drill bit snapped in half! And then another one and another one! Three bits in a row. I thought I had all titanium bits and that would do just fine but apparently, after some research, Cobalt bits are better to use for steel. They can still break, but if you are careful they can work. Turns out that right when the bit is about to penetrate the other side of the steel is the most likely time that the bit will snap. It gets snagged on a few of the last shards of steel sticking out the other side. So if your drill starts to get stuck just back it out and slowly work your way through.

All of the OSB is now attached to the frame!

Success!

The next step is to now move the trailer to my friend Keith's house to finish building the house. I was planning on finishing it at my house but my landlord wants it gone. So thankfully Keith saves the day again! I also gave myself a deadline for getting this thing livable...June 1st! I told my landlord everything I was planning on doing and told him I would be out of the house by then. It is kind of scary to think about all I have to do between now and then but it is very exciting!

This is the first layer of OSB for the sub-floor and originally all I was planning on doing. But as I walk on the floor now I feel it needs to be stronger. I was researching online and I found a contractor that said you could glue down another layer of OSB and it should be a lot stronger. Then when I put the wood floors in everything should feel nice and solid.

Most tiny house builders put in the floor insulation at this time as well. And I am sure some of you might be wondering why I skipped this step. Well, one reason is I left the insulation I had at my parents place. My dad will bring it for me when the Easter holiday gets here. Second, the trailer, when even with the ground, sits about 3 feet high from the ground. So there will be plenty of room underneath to get the insulation, plumbing, electrical, or gas lines in. And then one day when I am done under there I will completely enclose it with something, probably aluminium sheets, but I'm not exactly sure about that yet. And because the trailer sits so high from the ground I now have to change part of my original interior design that I had revealed in a previous post. I can no longer use the sliding glass door that was going to be the bathroom door and wall. The door itself measures 6'8"h and when you add 2x4s under and over it to frame it in and not to mention the floor joists for the loft on top of that, that leaves little room up in the sleeping loft. To be street legal the house can only be 13'5" tall. So if I use the sliding glass door it would only leave like 2' up in the loft and while that might be enough for me to lay down it will definitely not be enough room for me to sit up. So the sliding door will now be used as the front door to my hoop greenhouse on the farm!

Turns out that taking out that door opened up new interior design possibilities. So now I will have to go back and draw up some new plans from the same program I used last time. But from the rough sketches I drew up at 3 in the morning just the other night, it will make the space even more fantastic! All will be revealed in due time. The only thing I can think of to describe what it will look like is these three things: Swedish IKEA design, a cube house, and a yacht all wrapped up into one!

So I will leave it at that until next time! The next step will be to haul the trailer to Keith's, double up the OSB, and start the pallet walls!

Wish me luck!