Construction Articles

A Tiny House for College Students

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Nearly 85% of college graduates move back home after they finish school. George Hemminger, who runs the YouTube channel Survive and Thrive in the New Economy, has a small solution for these “boomerang kids”: build a tiny house.

Portable Table Saw

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Mel Koresh contacted me recently to share an invention he has developed and he thought tiny house builders might be interested in. I am going to let Mel explain it to you. I’ve been a siding contractor for 11 years here in Michigan (Pro-Tech Siding Contractors) and working as a … Read more

Things to Think About

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Di has been responding with a lot of comments on the Tiny House Blog and I thought she had some great ideas of things to think about when looking into downsizing or designing a tiny house. I asked Di to do a guest post and following are her suggestions and ideas.

DIMENSION:

  • Think of the present and future. Try a one-story building.
  • Adjust the height, width and length of a building. An 8′ ceiling may be sufficient.
  • Measure and rearrange interior items. It’s easy to edit a floor plan in MS Paint.
  • A twin bed is 3′ x 6.25′. A double bed is 4′ x 6.25′.
  • Most under-counter appliances are 2′ x 2′.
  • Some stoves/fridges are more narrow.
  • Some fridges/dishwashers are small enough to fit under a kitchen sink.
  • Rather than a porch/deck, store a portable screenhouse and lawn chair in the trunk of your car.

Photo Credits: ProtoHaus

LIGHTING:

  • Rather than rely on lighting, provide adequate daylight.
  • Try windows east, west, north and south.
  • For longer-lasting daylight, try skylights.
  • Use windows/skylights where needed, such as over the bathroom, kitchen counter, bed/couch.
  • For spaciousness, try recessed lighting and deep window sills.
  • Rather than drapes, try a small curtain at the top of a window.
  • For curtains, recycle your favorite fabrics – they’re easy to make, clean and change.
  • Mini blinds are more versatile than shades.

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The Borderless House

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Both Sylvia from the Netherlands and Kai from Germany sent me this cool little movie that is worth taking a few minutes to watch. Kai who has built a tiny Tumbleweed home translates it for us. I’ve found a short film (actually an Ad from Hornbach Germany, a building supplies … Read more

Mobile Solar SolMan

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This is a post I wrote for the Tumbleweed blog back a year or so, but I felt the information would be good to have here on the Tiny House Blog too.

Adding Solar to your tiny house can be a daunting task if you are not up to date on all the latest technology and how it works together.

A couple of weeks ago we had a “Meeting of the Tiny Minds” and Bill Kastrinos of Tortoise Shell Homes told Jay, Stephen, Michael and I about this great solar solution that was out there.

What if there was a simple solution to this and all you had to do was plug and play? SoleMan a company based in Willits, California has come up with just that kind of solution.

They call their system the “one small, easy to move, all in one integrated unit, ready to point towards the sun at your best location, and deliver up to 1200 watts of AC power, and 12 volts DC power, and even charge all your Ni-Mh smaller batteries.”

This little unit is on heavy duty bicycle wheels so you can have your Tumbleweed home in the shade and easily roll your solar unit where it gets the most sun.

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Phase II: Wall and Roof Framing

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Todd Miller from the Oregon Cottage Company is building another cottage and is sharing with us a series of the steps involved in building a tiny cottage on wheels. You can view Phase I: Subfloor Sandwich System here. Phase II is on wall and roof framing.

Anchoring:
I Begin this phase of construction by making sure I have enough hold down hardware to anchor my wall sill plates to the trailer frame. I use anchor bolts not only tie the sill plate to the subfloor system but to also insure that the system is tied to the trailers frame. I use 5/8” Galvanized through bolts with 2”x2”x ¼” thick steel square washers on the sill plates and 5/8” galvanized cut washers with lock nuts on the underside of the trailer. Since the bolts will be penetrating through both sides of ¼” tube steel I make sure I have a sharp bit with a spare sitting in my bit box. I also recommend another option of using HDU or PHD simpson ties in unison with the through bolts. Then I set my 2×4 wall sill plates and nail them down with 3” nails.

Making sure I hit the 2×4 spacers below the ¾” plywood. Then I locate the anchor bolts. I locate my anchor bolts within 12” of each corner and space them no greater than 36” apart from each other where the sills make contact with the subfloor system. This is the first step in insuring that the wall system will be secured to the trailer frame. The other hold down hardware will include strapping and will be touched upon latter in the next construction phase.

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Phase I: Subfloor Sandwich System

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Todd Miller from the Oregon Cottage Company is building another cottage and is going to be sharing with us a series of the steps involved in building a tiny cottage on wheels. This is the first in the series and I hope I can assemble his information in an easy to understand way. This first phase is about assembling the subfloor sandwich system. I will turn it over to Todd now:

Once you have a design set, received your lumber, windows, doors, fasteners and updated and provided your proper tool maintenance you will be ready to get your hands dirty.

Custom 10,000 lb GVWR Frame

I call this first phase of construction a “sandwich system” because of the way the materials are stacked to get you to the wall framing phase of the project.

Simply put, the “Sandwich” is 3 ½” rigid board insulation layered between two sheets of ¾” T&G plywood.

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Insuring Your Tiny House on Wheels

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Tarsha Downing who is building a tiny house and keeps us updated on facebook and also her personal blog is coming right along with her build. As Tarsha invests more and more into her home she was wondering what other owners with tiny houses on wheels have done for insurance? … Read more

Arogel Insulation in a Tiny House?

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Erik sent me an email asking if anyone had considered Arogel insulation for a tiny house? I personally had not heard of it before so with Eriks help did a little investigation. If you are not familiar with it I’ll give you a small overview and than you can decide if this might be an option when you build your own tiny house.

Here is a brief description: Nicknamed “frozen smoke,” aerogel is extremely lightweight material, with a density only 3 times that of air. Only a small fraction of a volume of aerogel is the material itself. Most of the volume is filled with air. This makes aerogel an excellent insulator. (Aerogel provides nearly 40 times the insulation of fiberglass insulation.)

It is very expensive so has not made a big move into the building industry. NASA and other high tech companies have used it extensively up to this point.

A company called Themoblock is one company trying to bring it to main stream construction. Thermablok material is available both in sealed strips for stud insulation, and in bulk roll form.

Thermablok’s thin 1/4″ (6.35mm) profile allows it to fit between framing and sheathing without altering standard construction. It is applied in strips with a peel-and-stick adhesive backing or staples. It can be customized to fit on headers, rim joists, corners, rafters, window flashing and other hard to insulate areas. This makes ThermaBlok aerogel insulation an effectively universal solution for enhanced insulation value in any building partition.

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Rough House Plans – Camping Cabin

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Michael Janzen is in the process of completing three new plans to add to his growing collection. He has a sneak peek of one of them over at his website Tiny House Design. Called the “Camping Cabin” it is still in a rough stage but completed enough for one of … Read more

Building a Shed – Fine Homebuilding

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I am in the process of creating a small photo ebook to go along with the Sonoma Shanty plans and one of the resources I found to help in your construction education is located on the Fine Homebulding site called “How to Build a Shed.” This is an excellent video … Read more