Furring Strips & Siding Sourcing

I feel like I have been building non-stop for the past few weeks and have just finally found time to catch up on blog posts since I am now in a waiting game for my siding and roofing materials. I recently wrote a blog post for TinyHomes.com about Building and Self Care which talks about how I have been feeling lately. (And if you are a tiny house builder, I am sure you can relate!) Since then, I have managed to get a Thai massage, go for a hike, ride my bike. pick strawberries at Sauvie Island, and start a work-trade arrangement with Shakti House where I can take aerial yoga classes again!

Most recently, I installed furring strips aka battens for my rainscreen siding system and to hold the Roxul in place since we just temporarily tacked it in with cap nails. Usually, you install these strips vertically to allow water to drain out the bottom and air to enter the bottom and exit out the top creating a drying convection current. I read that it does not matter what kind of wood is used to make these strips, cedar or pressure treated plywood as well as Doug Fir are fine since the goal of the system is to keep everything dry and prevent trapped water which leads to mold and rot. Since I have planned open joint cedar siding on two of my walls, I thought it would be better to invest in cedar ($.36/lin.ft. vs. $.25/lin.ft. for fir) for those furring strips. I purchased Doug Fir for the other two walls where I had planned to install corrugated metal siding since it would provide better wall coverage and prevent more moisture intrusion. I experimented with running the furring strips diagonal on the front wall since I will be running the siding vertical. Horizontal strips would be more ideal but they would trap water. Vertical strips may work since the pieces of corrugated have a 24" coverage which lines up with my studs.

I also installed Doug Fir strips on my roof for under the standing seam roofing which I have heard can be done although they recommend to have a solid continuous substrate to prevent oil canning. I am going to wait to see how the roof installation goes before adding any extra layers to the roof system. For the roof, I needed 4" minimum screws since I have 2" of Roxul up there. Most hardware stores stock up to 3 1/2" so it was a little tricky to source the longer screws. I finally found 4" and 5" lag screws at Tacoma Screw which are a bit overkill for the application, but my metal roof panels will only be attached to the furring strips so they need to have a secure attachment to the rafters. I used 3 1/2" screws for the wall furring strips since the Roxul there is only 1 1/4". The screws secure the furring strips to the studs and sandwich the Roxul in between. Then the siding just has to be nailed into the furring strips.

I picked up some corrugated metal siding from Aurora Mills Architectural Salvage today which has a beautiful rust patina on one side. I learned that the patina usually only develops on roof slopes, not walls, so while my original plan was to start with new silver colored material and see how it aged, this will be a better option to get that effect. I paid $1.50 a foot which was a good price considering salvaged material tends to be more expensive since you pay for the character and new material would have had to be special ordered at $2.50 a foot.

I will hopefully be picking up my reclaimed cedar siding tomorrow evening so that this weekend I can get to work trimming out my windows, installing corner and fascia boards and then start siding!

For more photos, check out my flickr!

Roxul Comfortboard IS: Exterior Insulation Wrap

Since I designed my tiny house to have stud framing instead of using SIP panels and wanted to have an exterior insulation wrap as a thermal break, I had assumed I would use rigid foam board to do so. Rigid foam is commonly used as exterior insulation in the U.S. and is easy to find in addition to being lightweight and having a high R-value per inch (polyiso has around R-6.5 per inch). However, after talking to an architect who I met via volunteering at a solar winery tour and who used Roxul for exterior insulation on his own home, I decided to research the product more to see if it might be a better option for my build.

I learned that Roxul is the leading company making mineral wool insulation. It accounts for around 75% of the insulation installed in Europe and around 50% of the insulation installed in Canada, but only around 5% of what is installed in the U.S. Part of this is because not many people know about it here and assume that it will be similar to fiberglass insulation, especially in batt form. However, I learned that mineral wool is much different than fiberglass. You can read a convincing argument about using mineral wool insulation here.

Mineral wool is made from spun molten rock and has many environmental benefits including the use of natural and recycled materials. It repels water, continues to insulate when wet (just like wool socks), is fire resistant, breathable and sound absorbent. It has an R-value of 4.6 per inch which is comparable to R-4 EPS and an R-5 XPS rigid insulation. The cost is similar to foam. I paid $23 for each 4'x8' 1 1/4" sheet. The tricky part was sourcing it since only a few places in town will have it in stock occasionally. Luckily my architect friend, Corey, connected me with Brett, a Roxul rep who was working on a project in Ashland, OR and needed to source a little more for his project. He connected me with a company in Tacoma, WA via Service Partners in Portland who had just enough material for my walls. He also had some 2" board available so I decided to use that for my roof. All together with the cost of material and shipping ($80), it was just over $600 for the exterior insulation wrap.

Installation was easy. We used a utility knife with a long blade with the guide of a T-square (sometimes) to slice through the material after marking our measurements. Then we pressed cap nails part way into the Roxul before picking in up and placing it on the wall so they were ready to be tacked in. Not many nails were necessary since the battens for the rainscreen are meant to hold the Roxul in place. We used full pieces whenever possible and took care not to damage the edges during install since the material is somewhat fragile. In retrospect, I probably should have had all of the windows trimmed out since the window face is now flush with the Roxul and will look a little odd with the layers of furring strips and then trim. I will probably end up cutting back the Roxul a little to make window frame boxes when I get the cedar this next week. Oh material sourcing!

*A note about fender flashing. I needed to make a decision about my fender flashing before installing the Roxul. This is something I had been putting off since I had not found a great solution. I decided to cut up some of the L flashing I had left over from the walls and piece it together around the fender starting with the lower pieces and lapping the upper ones so that water can freely flow down to the ground. I used the screws with the rubber gaskets left over from the undercarriage to attach the pieces to the sheathing and then used Fast Flash to cover the connection. I left a small gap between the flashing and the fender where I applied a bead of Dow 791 medium-modulus silicone caulk which creates a flexible building joint and should be a good choice in this application. (Ideally I would have applied this before the flashing went down but I had to wait to get it until after the weekend when Atlas Supply was open again.) Only time will tell.

For more photos, check out my flickr!

Window Install

My new fiberglass windows from Milgard had been ready for me to pick up since May 23rd, but I was not ready for them until after this past weekend of Prosoco R-Guard application. On Wednesday, I excitedly drove to the Milgard manufacturing plant in Tualatin to pick them up. Luckily all five fit in my Subaru!

I was impressed by the amount of packaging they had, although I had called the day before to ensure they would be ready and inquired about packaging needs so maybe they added more for me. I did check them over while we installed them to ensure that they were in good condition and they all were so I should be good to go. Milgard has a lifetime warranty on their windows which will be great if I have any problems with them.

My friend, Nicole, who I met though the AmeriCorps program working for Habitat for Humanity, took time out of her evening to venture out to site to help me get them all installed so I wouldn't have to worry about them being stored on site. I was very grateful to have her experienced help and agility on ladders to carefully hand up the windows, shim them and temporarily screw them into place. All five windows took about 2 1/2 hours to install and then it was burrito time!

My friend Anne, came out on Friday to install the backer rod around the windows on the inside. We realized that although the gap around the window was only 1/8", we needed more than 3/8" backer rod to fill the gap since it was deeper behind. I ran to the local ACE store for some 1/2" and 5/8" backer rod while Anne used up the 3/8" I had bought from Parr Lumber.

When I returned, we continued to install several layers of backer rod so that we would use less of the caulk. Finally, we caulked around all of the window edges with the Prosoco AirDam product. This product could have also been used behind the window flanges as they were installed but Tom said that was overkill and it would have been messy so I chose not to. I did install more Fast Flash over the top and side flanges after removing the screws although it was also not necessary. I think it's a good method to have some redundancy in building though. More photos can be found on my flickr!

Prosoco R-Guard: The Raincoat

With the wall and roof framing in place, we were ready to install the air and water resistive barrier. Since my build buddy Lina had secured a donation of the Prosoco R-Guard liquid applied system (thanks to Tom Schneider of Building Envelope Innovations) for her house and had enough extra for mine, I decided to use it as well. I was a little nervous about using a new system that was different than I have used in the past, but had previously heard about liquid applied WRB systems when I worked for a company who specialized in passive houses. So I did some more research and talked to my Roxul rep to see how the exterior insulation wrap would interact with the R-Guard. He said it would be an awesome building system especially with the addition of the rainscreen siding I have planned. More about the rainscreen and Roxul in future posts.

With the decision made, it was time to get to work! I had an awesome work crew out to help and we started by applying the pink Joint & Seam filler to all of the plywood seams. This is instead of the tape typically used. Then we applied the red Fast Flash around the window and door rough openings in the same places you would with the sticky membrane tape, except much easier. Both of these were applied with standard caulk guns and hard tubes or a sausage gun with a sausage like tube. The sausage gun is what the pros use but it was not too difficult to figure out and it creates much less waste! After a bead or squiggle of caulk went down, we spread it out evenly with a flat plastic spreader tool. 

The third step was rolling on the orange Cat 5 with paint rollers on the walls. This replaces conventional housewraps. We also applied the Joint & Seam and Cat 5 to the roof after some more hesitation about not using a conventional ice and water shield and then talking to Tom.

By the end of the day, my house looked like an orange piece of modern art! Thanks to all of my wonderful helpers :)

For more photos, check out my flickr!

Wall Raising

"Standing" in my door opening

I decided to use conventional wood stud construction to frame my house. It is what I am familiar with although I am interested in other methods like steel studs or SIPs (structural insulated panels). My build buddy, Lina, decided to design her house with SIPs and so I was able to learn more about them at her wall raising.

Raising the first wall!

I designed my house around dimensional lumber sizes so that I could reduce the amount of waste which has proved successful since it has been difficult to find scrap pieces of wood on site! Since my design is for a shed or skillion roof, one of my long walls is taller than the other. I used 2"x4"x8's for the short wall cut to stud length at 92 1/4" (some people use 92 5/8") so that the plywood sheathing would span from the bottom plate to the middle of the double top plate. Then I will rip another piece of plywood for the top once I have the rafters and blocking in place. I had originally designed this wall to be 9' from bottom of bottom plate to top of rafters so that I could use a single piece of 4'x9' plywood but then I learned that 9' sheets of plywood are actually not standard, need to be special ordered and cost twice as much as 8' sheets. I didn't want to lose a whole foot on that side so I compromised with the more conventional framing method. 

Raising the tall wall!

For the tall wall, I used 2"x4"x10's for the studs and had to trim off some of the ends since they were a little more than 10' long. I decided to go with an advanced framing method where I have the studs spaced at 24" on center vs. the 16" OC studs. This method minimizes the amount of lumber necessary and keeps the weight lower. Had I built this house on a fixed foundation, I would have used even less lumber due to wheel well considerations. I decided to put double studs on each side of the wheel wells to support the header hanger for the 2x6 spanning the 5' distance. Had the trailer been designed with 48" behind the wheel wells instead of 46", these extra pieces of lumber would have lined up with the layout. I also should have put full double studs in the corners for the tension ties since a single stud did not push the hanger in far enough to avoid drilling into the rear lights. (I originally wanted to have a 2 stud corner, one for the end of each adjacent wall to reduce thermal bridging.) I could probably have put the tension ties somewhere else with a double stud like at the wheel wells but I think code requires them within 1' of the corner. A friend suggested adding a 2x4 block to fur out the corner so that is what we decided to do. I am unsure of what this does structurally but I think that my sheathing will help.

Wheel header detail

Other considerations I had for my framing layout were the locations and sizes of my windows and door. I ordered two of my windows to be 48"x18" and three of them to be 24"x30" so that they would fall on my framing layout. However, I realized that I probably should have ordered them to be 22 1/2" and 46 1/2" wide as rough openings to account for the 1 1/2" total thickness of the studs on each side. But, since they are in bearing walls, I designed them to have insulated headers, trimmer studs and cripple studs under the sill edges in the center. As long as the framing layout landed on one of those members, I could not have really reduced the amount of lumber used. I learned from a structural engineer after framing that I could have used header hangers for the windows as well which makes sense. (He also said that the wheel well header hangers were overkill.) Had the windows had 22 1/2" and 46 1/2" wide rough openings, I could have used the studs as the vertical edges and a single flat 2x4 on top and bottom of the opening. This is very light framing and I worry that it would not be enough for a mobile structure to keep windows in place and from cracking. Since I put a lot of time, energy and money into my new windows, I did not want to test this method out. When I draw up new versions of my plans, I plan to try out both designs and see which one is more ideal.

Window framing

I still have not found a used door that I like and cannot justify spending over $500 for a new door so after I learned that standard entry doors are 32"x6'8", I made my RO 34" wide and 82 5/8" high until I find a door to fit.

Rafter framing

The rafters line up with the studs so I did not really need a double top plate but I decided it would be a good idea on my two long walls since they bear the roof load and because my house is mobile. Since I had designed the wall system the way I did, the angle of the roof pitch ended up being approximately 4:12. Since my roof only has one slope, the exact pitch was less of a concern. To make the rafters, we put a 2x4x8 on edge spanning the two long walls. With squares, we marked the end plumb cuts at the outside edge of the stud framing. (I did not design an overhang since I am wrapping the exterior with insulation to create a thermal break.) Again, since I had planned for minimal waste, they were just barely long enough. I cut the plumb lines and then marked the seat cuts for the birds mouths perpendicular to the plumb cut. Those were the only two cuts I needed to make for the short wall side but I had to make another plumb cut to line up with the inside of the tall wall. With this first piece as a template, I used it to measure and cut the remaining 9 rafters so that it could also be used as a backup piece if necessary (and it was). We installed them in place with Timber-Tite screws which was much faster than using the hurricane ties.

Timber-Tite screw

I framed the end walls in place with a single top plate since they are non load bearing and that is what I have seen in my research. I started by cutting the bottom plate to length and screwing it into the subfloor and floor box. Then I figured out the angle for the top plate and studs with scrap pieces. It ended up being 18 degrees. I measured and cut the top plate and two end studs. Then I installed these to create the outside frame. I needed three other studs per wall so I held them in place while I plumbed and marked the cut line. I learned that starting with the taller studs and working down to the smaller ones is beneficial if you accidentally cut one a little too short. Once these were all cut and installed, I added blocking at the 8' line so the top of the plywood sheathing would have something to tie into. It was a time intensive process but I was able to do it all by myself.

Framing in the rain

A note about fasteners. Screws take much longer to frame with than nails. Screws are usually used in mobile structures since they have more grip to stay in place over time. I used ones which required Phillips bits and would never do this again since they strip the screws easily and I have destroyed about 5 bits so far. Better screws to use are those with square or star drive heads. I would also like to more research into ring shank nails since I have used them for flooring and they are kind of like a nail/screw hybrid. I will likely be using them for my siding.

For more photos, check out my flickr!

Floor Box: The Boots

Figuring out how to build a light, well-sealed, energy efficient floor for a tiny house on wheels can be quite challenging. I knew I wanted to inset the floor into the trailer frame instead of placing it on top so I would have more head room since I designed my house to have a loft. I think this is also a more secure connection to the trailer although my walls are mostly independent of the floor system (the subfloor will probably be toe-nailed to the the bottom plates) since they will be bolted to the angle iron flange.

I originally thought I would build a floor box out of 2x6's with rigid foam as insulation (lightweight and high R-value) and a thermal break from the trailer and the metal pan undercarriage, but then considered another system using fiberglass reinforced panels glued to several layers of foam and then covered with the subfloor. My build buddy Lina had seen a similar system recently and wanted to try it out as a lighter weight, lower cost alternative so I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, we could not find a glue that would stick to both the foam and the fiberglass panels (we tried out the foamboard adhesive and liquid nails). I even called the panel manufacturer to ask about what adhesives would stick and he told me I would need to call the adhesive manufacturer which was not very helpful. In this process, we also learned that having the ribs underneath the trailer spaced at exactly 24" on center would have been very helpful since sheet goods typically come in 4'x8' pieces and having them break on the ribs would be great!

After that experiment, I decided to build a modified floor box. I built two square frames out of 2x6s and bolted them together in the middle. I used 8' pieces of lumber since they are typically more straight than 16' pieces of lumber. I screwed in three parallel and flat 2x4s to the bottom of each frame box so that my undercarriage could have something in the middle to screw into. I did this instead of adding more traditional 2x6 floor joists so that I would have a thermal break from the trailer and undercarriage. After we put the wood frame together, we flipped it over and attached the two 43"x15'7" 26 gauge galvanized aluminum "galvalum" sheets to the frame with sheet metal screws that had neoprene gaskets. I thought the gaskets were a great idea to prevent water from getting in those holes. It probably would have been a good idea to run a bead of silicone on the framing prior to screwing as another layer of waterproofing but that would have been difficult with only two people and a long awkward sheet of metal. I can easily replace the screws as needed since we made sure they would all be visible. We did liberally apply silicone between the seam overlap down the center.

I purchased the galvalum from REM Steel after a tip from Kevin, one of the founders of Green Anchors where I am building. I chose this material because it is lighter and more durable than galvanized steel. It also comes in rolls that I can fit in my car! I had thought about having metal pans built which would have been heavier since they would have been 22-24 gauge. They also would have been several times more expensive ($450) than the galvalum which was just under $100 for the 2 pieces I needed. And I would have needed a truck to haul them to site. Having a truck would be great to have for this build but I am making my Subaru work out fine. And many places will deliver for free or not much money if you order enough materials. That is why I am using new framing lumber instead of searching Craigslist for free or cheap stuff. I think it would be a fun project to use Craigslist to build an entire house so maybe I will have to trade in my car for a truck next year and make it happen!

I left a 1/2" galvalum overhang from the wood frame since I wanted to put a 1/2" strip of rigid foam between the wood and trailer frames for a thermal break and I wanted it to protect the foam. I plan to silicone the seam and check on it periodically to ensure it stays sealed to prevent water from getting in the floor. With the help of Rory, our neighbor who is a metal worker, we flipped the floor box over again (galvalum down) and set it in the trailer. I had allowed some wiggle room since the trailer and frame were not quite square and it fit easily.

Then, we cut pieces of 1/2" foam for the perimeter and realized I should have left some more wiggle room between the framing and trailer since the foam was more like 5/8" than 1/2". But with pry bars and creative clamps, we made it happen! Since I had Rob drill 5/8" horizontal holes in the trailer for bolting the floor box, I used a spade bit through the predrilled holes to drill through the wood frame and then inserted 1/2" carriage bolts with locking washers. Next, we added a layer of 2" foam between the flat 2x4s, then we cut and installed 2 layers of 1" foam. (Lina and I had to do some foam trading for various reasons and we wanted to use what we had, otherwise this would have been a single 2" layer.) 

For the top layer, we installed another flat 2x4 in line with where the subfloor sheets would break so they would have some wood to tie into and so hopefully the floor will not be squeaky due to the foam layers (although many wood framed floors are squeaky due to joist hangers and little or no glue). Then we cut 4 pieces of 1 1/2" foam and set them inside the wood frame. Finally, we cut 4 sheets of Edge Gold subfloor to length and used liquid nails and 2" screws to glue and screw the sheets to the framing. We started with the sheet with the cut off tongue in the front and worked to the back of the trailer, leaving 1/8" gaps for expansion and contraction. Due to these gaps, we needed to cut off 3/8" from the back end which was the approximately depth of the groove. I am glad I chose to go with a 16' trailer and kept the floor between the wheel wells so we did not have any odd cuts to make.

The last steps were to cut more pieces of 1/2" foam to fit between the subfloor and trailer since the subfloor extends past the 2x6 framing by about 2 1/2". This foam continues the thermal break between wood and trailer frames. It also eliminates the need to rip down the 2x6s to 5" to match the height of the tube steel which I thought was unnecessary work. And then to use some Great Stuff to seal up the perimeter.

This weekend, we will build and raise walls!

For more photos, check out my flickr!

Getting Ready to Build!

This week I wrote a blog post for Tinyhomes.com about the decisions tiny house builders have to make regarding buying new or used, borrowing or finding tools and materials. You can read about it here!

You never know when you might find a new already built compost toilet with seat, lid, Separett insert, funnel and pee jug at the Habitat ReStore for $10! All I need now is a square kitty litter bucket and maybe a bottom with wheels to easily roll it out of my wet bath when I shower.

I found this chair for $5 at the ReBuilding Center a few months ago. It is identical to one I saw and adored in Vermont last fall and folds to the width of the side rails which will be perfect for my little house!

This past week, I have been getting ready to build with trips to buy tools and materials as well as contacting lumber companies to get a framing package put together so I can have it dropped off at my build site next week. I picked up my trailer yesterday and moved it to the build site in St. Johns with the help of Kevin who let me borrow his truck and Matt who drove it. These are two of the people who founded Green Anchors which is a community of people who are making use of an old shipping yard to work on projects that in their words "contribute to the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the community" which I think is awesome! Kevin is a welder who I hope will share his skills with me for some of my interior components as well as to fabricate my metal pan and other flashing details. Another guy on site designs solar systems so I am also excited to get to know him as well. And there are other people working on projects I am looking forward to meeting. I am planning to get started on my floor next week and will have another post about that soon!

My trailer at the build site!

For more photos, check out my flickr!

Windows: The Eyes and More

Windows serve several purposes in homes. They provide views outside and inside, let natural light brighten a space, enable ventilation if operable and allow for passive solar heating. The materials and craftsmanship of windows influence the character of the home. Homes built in the early 1900's usually had wood framed windows with single pane glass. In the middle of the century, aluminum windows became popular. Then vinyl was introduced as a lower cost option. Now fiberglass framed double or triple pane windows with special coatings and gas fillings are the most energy efficient windows made. 

Since I have a background in energy efficiency, I decided to go with fiberglass windows for my tiny house. I chose Milgard because they have a local manufacturing plant, are based on the west coast, and have awesome customer service from what I have heard. Milgard makes all different types of windows including wood, aluminum, vinyl and fiberglass all with new technology like SunCoatMAX for improved energy efficiency. I looked into the Essence Series which is a fiberglass clad wood window so you have the warm feeling of wood inside and the durability of fiberglass on the outside. Ultimately, I decided that if I wanted wood windows, I would also want to upgrade the hardware from standard white or clay handles to satin nickel or oil-rubbed bronze for aesthetics. However, the cost of doing so was around $200 per handle! I also thought about the WoodClad series to have that natural wood feel inside from the veneer but have a more durable mainly fiberglass framed window. When I saw the window in person, I did not really like the veneer finish compared to the solid wood of the Essence Series. I finally chose the Ultra Series which is an all fiberglass framed window for its strength and durability.

The Ultra Series fiberglass windows are great since they are made of glass fibers, they expand and contract at the same rate as the glass they frame. This means lower stress on seals and greater durability which I think makes them ideal for tiny homes that are mobile. Milgard is also the only window company that offers a full lifetime warranty for parts, labor and glass breakage for this window series. (Other companies offer a limited warranty of 20 years for glass seals and 10 years for manufacturing defects.) I can see how considering this type of warranty could seem excessive depending on how long you plan to live in the home and you may find that salvaging windows is a more cost effective solution. However, new windows that are more energy efficient will reduce heating and cooling bills over time as well as provide more thermal comfort inside. Higher upfront cost products with low operating costs can actually be less expensive over the long term which is something to consider.

Cost, aesthetics and energy efficiency are also considerations when deciding on the type of operating style. Picture windows are the least expensive since they have no moving parts and are also most energy efficient since they are fixed (but do not allow for ventilation). Slider windows are the least expensive operable window, then single hung, double hung, casement and awning. Awning windows are most expensive due to their moving parts, but they are the most energy efficient of the operable windows and can be left open in the rain without too much concern of rain being driven inside. I decided to go with all awning windows, three 24"x30" RO (rough opening) and two 48"x18" RO since I plan to do a 24" OC wall system. I opted for the standard clay colored hardware with a white frame which I plan to paint (another benefit of fiberglass over vinyl). You can choose one of Milgard's color options but again, that will add on about another $100 per window. Since I do not have money in my budget for that and am unsure of what color I want the frames, I just decided to order white. In the end, I paid almost $2,000 for 5 new windows or about $400 each.

Diana from Windows Only was awesome to work with in answering my questions and getting my windows ordered. She is really into tiny homes, travel trailers and is considering building a tiny house herself! I did do price comparison quotes with other companies and found that the cost per window only varied about $30 from the low end to high end of the spectrum. Customer service was really the deciding factor of who I chose to order from and no one came close to helping me as much as Diana did. I highly recommend her and Windows Only!

Resources

Monthly blog posts from tiny house designers, builders, dwellers, enthusiasts - TinyHomes.com
Tiny House Workshops and Consulting - PAD & Niche
Tiny House Builder in Portland - Shelter Wise
Tiny House Blog
Tiny House Talk
Tiny House Listings
Tiny House Map
Tiny House Swoon

Trailer: The Foundation

I found out last week that my trailer construction had been completed a week early so Lina and I decided to take a field trip out to Iron Eagle to see our trailers and to get some measurements. It was a perfect sunny and warm morning so we took our time looking over all the trailer details and doing some figuring. We both decided to have some 1/2" holes drilled in the angle iron flanges at about every 24" for bolting the walls down. I held off on having holes drilled in the corners and on either side of the wheel wells since I will be using HTT Tension Ties and need to wait to drill the holes until the walls are up so I know their exact location. Since Lina had her trailer built last year, Rob has made some finish modifications which we were curious to hear about. (Mostly I was jealous that mine was not as shiny as Lina's!) Rob is now using a phenolic modified primer and a polyurethane top coat finish which is supposed to be more durable. However, he has used the other process for 20 years and those trailers are still great. I think his interest in evolving trailer design for tiny homes is awesome and am excited to see how things change in the future. Lina and I told him about our blogs so hopefully he will enjoy following along on our build process and find it helpful. I hope you all find my build posts interesting as well. Without further ado, here are some photos!

For more photos, check out my flickr!