I recently bought and dismantled a 14 ft. RV trailer for tiny house parts. I thought you avaricious do-it-yourselfers might find the story interesting.

It was a pretty moldy RV, with some appliances inside and an undamaged trailer frame. My goals were to get those two things out of it, and when all was done, I was about 80% successful in doing so.

RV exterior

Costs:

• Purchase price: $300
• Licensing: $23 (it had current tabs)
• Work gloves, dust masks: $10
• Sawzall demolition blade: $7
• Contractor trash bags (for loose debris and fiberglass): $12
• Diesel fuel for the project, towing it home and delivering recyclables: $55
• Local landfill fee (plywood, broken glass, fiberglass) $99

Working Interior

Labor:

• Towing home: 5 hours
• Teardown, recycling, cleanup: 13 hours
• Total costs/labor: $506 and 18 hours

Not bad.

Here’s what I ended up with:

• RV range/oven
• A small sink
• Hand pump faucet for fresh water
• Polyethylene fresh water tank
• A small 120v refrigerator
• 2 new 5 gal propane tanks
• 5 aluminum frame louver windows (others were broken during demolition)
• 2 leveling jacks
• Recycling of aluminum and copper: a check for $125!
• A 14 ft x 7 ft trailer frame (see notes below)

After walls knocked down

So, was it worth it?

It was messy work, especially tearing the floor structure off the frame. And the floor structure was the moldiest part. Hauling was hard work. All the recyclable landfill waste fit into my truck, but I have a fairly huge old Ford. The weight of all that wood/glass/etc. was 1660lbs.

Recycling the metals was a little more fun. I had 149lbs of ‘clean’

Aluminum and 41 lbs of ‘dirty’ aluminum (that I couldn’t get the screws/staples out of.)

And 15 lbs of copper pipe and wire. They weighed it all, then printed me a check. If you are going to reclaim metals, check with your local recycler first. Sort everything out before you pull up. If it is mixed, they may not take it OR they may give you the lowest rate possible.

Aluminum

The louver windows are going to my friend, Charlie, to use in his camper restoring project.

RV appliances are sometimes usable for tiny houses — sometimes not.

Many are not built for day-to-day use. The ones I got are OK though, but required a good bit of cleaning. I had to repaint the metal top of the range, because it had rust spots.

I am an electrician, and I chose to dispose of all old electrical outlets, switches, wire, light fixtures, etc. They just didn’t seem to be in great condition. There is definitely a safety concern with using old electrical equipment.

The trailer frame is OK. I realized that I will have to add quite a few things to make it usable for a tiny house: new fenders, more steel cross-members, and a complete rewiring. This won’t cost me much, because I am a welder, and have shop space to do it in. But for some, this may be a deal-killer. If you hired someone to do all the aforementioned improvements, it could cost as much as a new trailer frame. Still, if reclaiming materials is your goal, this might be acceptable.

The trailer frame

Well, there you have it. A very moldy RV is getting reborn in various ways, notably as a tiny house foundation!

Abel Zyl Zimmerman
Zyl Vardos
Olympia, WA
Zylvardos.com

Truck loaded for landfill

Tom Bennett recently sent me to WorldHaus a company that has come up with an affordable home for the masses (outside the U.S.). And by affordable they mean $1,500 per house. It’s called the WorldHaus; it is a 220 square foot home built of interlocking compressed earth-bricks, steel and polystyrene roof panels, and concrete.

The bulk of the materials are assembled on site and the house can be built in 10 days. They provide solid, weather-tight housing for about half the price of a normal brick-and-mortar home.

Read more: http://worldhaus.com/
http://www.businessinsider.com/worldhaus-cheap-house-2012-

http://letheatredemoncerveau.blogspot.com/2012/02/worldhaus-for-families-in-need.html

Kelly is unofficially calling the two building designs ModPods. She and Pam were inspired by some similar structures they came across while traveling by motorcycle on Orcas Island, Wash.

“I nearly went off the road on my bike when I saw these tiny houses,” Kelly said.

The two offices are 10×12 (120 square feet), are 15 feet high on the back end and 12 feet high on the front end. The roofs were designed to accommodate solar panels (to be installed soon) and are situated for solar gain through the sliding glass doors in the winter. When the farm staff began to move into the first office, they didn’t have heat, so they covered the existing walls with cob for insulation. On the day I was there it was unseasonably warm outside, but at least 20 degrees cooler in the finished office – even up in the loft. The loft (accessed by a ladder) is large enough to stand up in and will be used for a working and lounging space. Downstairs in the finished office is a small bathroom, a sink, a desk and some storage space. Kelly would like to install a small kitchenette by Avanti in the second office.

The structures were built by the local Boy Scouts and volunteers over a couple of months, but Kelly said the structures are designed to be built in about four days and for around $15,000. HabeRae will build each unit for approximately $27,000. Each of the buildings are on a slab foundation.

In addition to the two offices, the Urban Roots staff also built an experimental greenhouse/storage shed out of old wood pallets covered with cob and a tin roof. A bunny named Dandelion lives in a cage in front of the cob structure. Dandelion will be joined soon by a goat, some bees, a few chickens and a pond full of frogs. Urban Roots receives most of their supplies from donations, Habitat for Humanity, Craigslist and they depend on volunteers affectionately named Worker Bees.

The farm sits behind a former hotel on 4th Street that HabeRae Homes converted into one-bedroom apartments called 14 on 4th.

The pallet/cob interior of the storage shed

Photos by Christina Nellemann

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

I find the idea of a vacation home made from 12 ft concrete pipe and buried in the ground for insulation very interesting. I was inspired, so I started by creating a the bedroom area for kids. It is made of one pipe split in two layers with low ceilings which are very kid friendly.

The tree house-like upper and lower levels feel very fun for the younger ones.

The Vacation home is made of 4 pipes on end. All of the fixtures are from a Fifth Wheel RV.

For Tiny homes stripping an old RV is a low cost method for obtaining materials. I’m into RV’s. I’m designing 12V swamp coolers, portable compact wind generators etc that would be great for small vacation homes.

Take a look at my stuff on www.snowbirdhq.com
Thank you! Tom Overy 775-291-0347

I had the opportunity of touring Jay’s Vardo before he sold it and it is a high quality little unit. It reminds me a bit of a teardrop trailer in a vardo format. If you are unsure of your building skills this little project would be a great way to learn the basic carpentry skills and come out with a wonderful little project you could show off to your friends and family. With that confidence you could move on to build a larger tiny house.

Tumbleweed estimates the cost to build the Vardo to be around $2,500 (minus the optional heater). The vardo can be placed on a small trailer and towed or put on the back of a pickup such as the Ford F-150.

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company is making a special offer this month and is giving away the plans for free if you purchase Jay’s Small House Book.

The plans include 14 pages:

• Elevation Drawings: The exterior view from all 4 sides is included showing you heights relative to the truck bed, window and door openings, and finish materials.
• Floor Plans: Floor plans are included for both the storage area, and the sleeping area.
• Roof Plan: Shown from above, you see the overhang of the roof compared to the truck and structure.
• Wall Framing: Two pages of wall framing show you how to frame each wall, front, back and sides so that you have the rounded roof and slight angle of side walls. Additionally, floor framing is included.
• Door Detail: The Vardo requires a custom made door, and the door detail gives you the dimensions, and types of wood to use.
• Section Drawings: These drawings cut the Vardo in half both the long way and the short way. They show you where to insulate, what types of wood studs to use, how to properly insulate, which materials to use, how to secure the structure to the truck, and much more.
• Basic Components: Suggestions on specific windows for the structure and the door including the manufacturer and glass type. Also included is a heater suggestion.

In summer 2011, Carla, a gypsy engineer, found an unusual property at an online auction: a drainage ditch. Downtown Boise, none the less! Dimensions: 270 feet long – but only 15 feet wide. City Hall told her that she could build a shed, as long as the sides touching her neighbor’s property line would not exceed 7 feet and the overall size be under 200 square feet.

No problem. Well, one problem: a 15 foot wide property with a drainage canal running through it for half a year does not have much dry land to build on.

The solution: build a bridge and put a small building on that. Two days and $500 later, this small house was built. It’s 7 feet wide, 7 feet high and 14.5 feet long.

Since Carla only uses it infrequently, going there to paint a few times per year, some of its features had to be unusual, like a wide but high window that could be flipped up while nobody was there, securing the cabin – as it would be near impossible to enter when locked from within, due to its height over the water.

And yes, there is nothing better on a hot dry Boise summer day than sitting on your own front porch with your feet in the water.

Due to negative and mean comments I have decided to remove all comments  and not allow them on this post.

The Bonsai has not been built yet, but there is a lot of interest and hopefully it will soon go from a concept to home. Rachel shared some information about it with me and I thought I would pass it on to you. Maybe you will be the first person to build this cool tiny house.

The Bonsai 104/150 square feet (with a loft). Though Manadala specializes in building round homes, they are excited about this design.  If the building is not used for a residence, but used for a studio, it may not require a building permit. We suggest you contact the building department for details. On many levels this home is more accessible to more people.

So if you would like to be the first and have the Bonsai built for you contact them via their website http://mandalahomes.com/.

I have been a follower for many years now and wanted to take the next step and contribute. Around the same time I stumbled across your blog, I began experimenting with shipping pallets. Being a carpenter by trade, I already possessed the skills to build, but pallets are a whole different ball game. When building with pallets, one cannot just draw up plans and expect everything to work. Pallets need to be looked at as building blocks, like Legos for example. Drawing up plans is still a good idea, but the dimensions and structural integrity of pallets needs to be the main factor in design.

Before, I started building; I needed to find sources to obtain my pallets. The most common pallet can be found behind almost every store and it measures 4ft by 45 inches. It consists of 3 parallel 2x4s with 1x planks running perpendicular. These pallets are normally reused over and over and are riddled with nails. The wood is grade “d” lumber at best and is hard to drive a nail into. However, there are treasures out there; I have found many mahogany pallets and oak pallets. With some dedication, the wood can be reclaimed.

There are also pallets that I call, “one time use pallets.” These have all different dimensions that are based on the product that is being shipped. For instance, Motorcycles, Tractors, wood stoves, windows, furniture…etc, all have unique pallets. A lot of these pallets are constructed out of premium 2x4s and 2x6s, all held together with screws and bolts. This lumber can be reclaimed much easier and even hardware can be reused. At a local glass company I can gather 8ft x 12ft pallets, all made out of southern yellow pine. NOTE: Always get permission before taking pallets, some have deposit costs attached to them.

After collecting a dozen truck loads, I had enough pallets to begin experimenting. I took an inventory of what I had and recorded the individual dimensions of each pallet. I also took note of which direction the 2x4s ran, being that they are the main support. I had seen a couple people attempt to build chairs out of pallets online, so I started with that. The first one I built was just to get an idea of what I could do with the least amount of work. The next involved a little more effort and the third was actually built by deconstructing pallets and reusing the wood.

From what I learned in making chairs, I took my new knowledge and attempted to build a small structure. At a Harley Davidson dealership I found a 4 ft x 8 ft pallet made of 2 x 6s and heavy 1 x 6s. I used this as my base. I covered it with a sheet of plywood and leveled it on top of cinderblocks. Then I began to frame the walls. For the back wall I used another 4 ft x 8 ft pallet made of 2 x 4s. I cut a 4 ft x 45 inch pallet in half and stacked this on top. The front walls were constructed out of two 2 ft x 6 ft pallets with a door opening between them. The side walls were made of heavy duty 3 ft x 3 ft pallets that had 4 x 4s holding them together.

I added some reclaimed 2 x 4s to finish the rough framing. The roof was made of three 5 ft x 45 inch pallets, and then covered with plywood. The roofing is actually made of sheet metal from a newspaper printing facility. A raw piece can be seen in front of the door opening on the ground. I constructed a door out of reclaimed 2 x 4s and added a recycled window. From a demo job at work, I got a truck load of foot wide pine floor boards. They were already stained and had a nice weathered look to them. I nailed these to the frame as siding. Since pallets aren’t perfectly square, neither was my structure, so some custom skill saw rips were needed to make the siding work.

I then attached some more 5 ft x 45inch pallets as a second foundation to the back and leveled them on cinderblocks. Using more reclaimed lumber I built another frame. Then roofed with more pine floor boards. At this point, I decided to make my structure into a chicken coop. This new section would act as a covered run for my chickens. I built a larger run out of more reclaimed 2 x 4s and wrapped everything in chicken wire.

Other than some hardware and two sheets of plywood, the entire structure was made of recycled materials. This was last spring’s project and since then I have been collecting more raw materials. This spring I am going to attempt to make an 8 ft x 8ft structure out of mostly pallets. As soon as I have something made, I plan on showing it to all of you at tinyhouseblog.com. If you have any questions or want to talk pallets, feel free to contact me at artcalderone@hotmail.com.

Thanks,
Doug Calderone
Pootatuck Pallet Projects
Sandy Hook, Connecticut

Since 2009 I have been designing and building two tiny houses for my own use. The Bunkhouse and the Hermit DeLuxe as seen in past posts on tinyhouseblog.com. http://tinyhouseblog.com/tag/the-hermit-deluxe/ and http://tinyhouseblog.com/stick-built/the-little-bunkhouse-in-the-woods-plans/ The Bunkhouse is complete with two twin beds, a 4 ft wide 2 ft deep closet and a 4 ft wide writing desk with a view out a window all in 64 sq ft.

Based on the Bunkhouse design, I am building and very near complete the Hermit DeLuxe a 160 sq ft tiny home on wheels. The Hermit DeLuxe sleeping arrangements has two bunks above the workbench and bathroom with a ladder access to three foot tall loft and a twin bed loft arrangement with a desk below on the other end of the Hermit DeLuxe.

Because I am nearing 50 years old and overweight I can forsee problems with these sleeping arrangements. In light of these problems I am planing to build a 24 ft – 30 ft caravan style tiny house on wheels in the future with readily accessible sleeping compartment based on my past designs.

These drawings are just the last 64 sq ft of a unfinished design called the Captain’s Getaway. I favor designs based on built-in furniture and using every inch of space like in wooden sailboats.

The Captain’s Bunk features a readily accessible full size twin bed with amble storage above and below. A 3 ft wide 2 ft deep closet and a 3 ft wide writing desk with window. A design very similar to the Bunkhouse with storage above instead of the upper bunk. The drawings are based on a seven foot finished height in the center and 64 sq ft (8ft x 8ft).

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

From The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again by by J.R.R. Tolkien

For the lovers of that hole in the ground, take a look at these little, wooden houses with the quintessential round door made very familiar by the Lord of the Rings books and movies. Wooden Wonders, in Unity, Maine, custom designs and builds these little wooden structures that can be used as playhouses, saunas, writing nooks, guest cottages, yoga or meditation rooms or maybe even a tiny house.

The structures can be integrated into your own landscaping and flower boxes can be added onto the back. The structures can be customized with different colors, additional materials, windows, dormers, interior shelving and other decorative features. Wooden Wonders also features a “heavy duty” package with double doors that allows for storing a lawn tracker or an ATV.

The Shed and the Cottage are the two largest Wooden Wonders. The Shed has the signature front as well as a squared rear “addition” to allow for more usable space for your storage or other utility needs. Choose from 10′, 12′ and 14′ front widths, each standard with a 3′ wide rear door. Base prices range from $3,695 on the 10′ wide to $7,995 on the largest 14′ wide option. The Cottage has the same basic layout as the Shed but with a finished interior and has the option of an insulation package. Base prices range from $5,545 on the smaller 12′ wide model to $14,995 on the 16′ wide  model.

Photos courtesy of Wooden Wonders

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]