Ticking Away

She's really starting to come together.  The rafters are nicely lined up like so many ribs on a whale.  Notice the stubby rafter tails.  I'm not able to have much of an overhang running the length of the trailer due to the 8'6" road width restriction.  With the trailer being 14' in length, I decided to install a pair of fly rafters on either end to support a one foot overhang, which extends the trailer length to 16' overall.  By doing this I'll have a little overhang protecting the door opening and window above the loft and I'll be making use of the full length of plywood sheets.    

Now that the framing phase is more-or-less complete, there are dozens of details to tick away at.  I need to figure out how to cut plywood to sheet the triangle of space on the gable end walls.  I'll also have to figure out how to finish the rafter ends before I put plywood on the roof.  Should I cut bird blocking or make a soffit?  And then there are mysterious siding and window details that need to be determined to keep the home building progress rolling along.

Today I set to figuring out how to frame around the wheel wells.  I was worrying over it, but it actually went together pretty smoothly.  So far I'm glad I decided not to have fenders installed on my trailer.  In my opinion, the fender openings have been a weak point in the design of many micro houses that I've observed.  The factory-installed fenders appear to create conduits for moisture, vermin, insects, and air to work on the structure.  There are probably some clever solutions that I just haven't seen yet.  With my design, I will have to fabricate a fender at some point.  I'm still not clear on the details of that, but after Nate showed me how to work sheet metal into desirable shapes for the undercarriage, I feel confident that I can do something similar for the wheel wells.

I may be finding my stride with the construction process.  Whereas before I was obsessing over decisions and overly concerned about putting things together with perfection, these days I've been approaching building with a little more calm and acceptance of a certain amount of error in the process.  The solutions to the framing problems I've encountered have mostly been intuitive.  I hope this continues to be the case!

I've been steadily nailing off my sheeting when I feel like beating metal spikes into wood with a manly mallet.  Sinking nails can be a pretty satisfying activity.  These days the art of swingin' a hammer is giving way to the efficiency of pneumatic nail guns.  With the meager size of my mansion though, I could indulge my old school tendencies.  You can see by the photo, it isn't always smooth sailing.  Sometimes I was inexplicably off, leading me to pull mangled, half-sunken spikes with embarrassing frequency.  Look at that total airball that I imprinted into the plywood for all to see.  And look at that blood blister on my finger!  It was hot and I got sloppy.   Other times the pounding never stopped.  I was like a machine I tell you...a machine!  I thank middle school table tennis tournaments for the hand-eye coordination.  

I decided not to glue my sheeting to the studs at this point in time.  I'm using 8d galvanized nails at about 6" on the edges and 8" in the field.  If I feel like the walls need more rigidity in the future, I might run some sort of construction adhesive or thickened epoxy down the inside of the studs at a later date.  A lot of folks are "screwing and gluing" their walls.  I have a tough time with that because I like the notion that I can deconstruct the materials if I need to.  Maybe it won't pan out but I'm an idealist.  

The quality of fasteners seems to vary a lot.  Initially I bought my 8d nails from the hardware store in bulk.  I went with "common" rather than "box" nails because I reasoned the former were thicker and would both bend less going in and provide more shear strength.  It didn't work out so well for some reason.  I bent a lot of them, used them up, and returned for more.  The second time around I went contractor-style and purchased a 50lb box of 8d galvanized "box" nails, which I bicycled home with great difficulty (not recommended).  These went in easier and I wasted very few.  I felt manlier too!  I even took my shirt off at one point and got into it (that is until the neighbor complained of the glare coming off my chest).  Galvanized probably aren't necessary.  I was thinking holding power and rust protection.  

A shout out to the humble impact driver.  What a work horse!  I now sleep with mine under my pillow.  These little guys make a terrible noise but are capable of great torque with minimal effort.  Screws are much more expensive than nails and, as I understand, they provide better holding power than nails but less shear strength.  I decided to frame with a robust 3" coated deck screw.  I'm glad I did because with the number of mistakes I make, I can use my impact driver to quickly assemble and disassemble framing without inflicting the sort of damage that sinking and removing nails can cause.  For the lonely carpenter, an impact driver can also act as a third hand.  By starting a screw in the material, and then placing the piece with one hand and screwing it in with the other, I'm able to work through those awkward moments when another humanoid is unavailable to help.

Oh!...a final tip:  leave the Phillip's head screws on the shelf for Grandpa to use.  Go with star drive.  They strip out less and take much less energy to push into the material.  They are simply a joy to use, again and again and again.

Big Sticks Into Smaller Sticks

I've been framing my home in recent days.  Cutting big sticks into smaller sticks and attaching them is fairly straightforward and satisfying.  It's fun to see my Google Sketchup design pop into a tangible, 3-D shelter.  The wind is already being cut by my walls and the rain is diverted by my temporary roof leaving the area below dry and protected.  Shelter is a lovely thing!

Nate is examining my unconventional framing plan.  Studs are placed 24" on center and I avoided king and trimmer studs as much as possible to continue trimming weight.  I used Simpson Header Hangers to support window openings.  Nate's pa pointed out that I ended up sacrificing some lateral stability by not using full length studs around some of the window openings.  I'll get by, but if I did it again I probably wouldn't frame in this manner.  It took too long, and the measurements didn't even come out very accurate in the end, and I probably didn't save all that much weight.  This unknown question of weight is a bit of pain.  Perhaps it is worth it to get the 10,000 pound trailer or to build much smaller.  I'll let you know when I weigh this thing on a truck scale at some point.  My concern over weight could be all for not, though cutting weight also means shaving materials and cost.  

I also made the mistake of not starting with full length plates that spanned the wheel wells.  Full plates would have made measurements more consistent, accurate, and fast.  Cutting the unnecessary parts out later would have been a breeze.  

Even for the two of us (as meaty as we are) the walls were awkward and heavy to raise.  I assembled each frame on the leveled trailer deck with screws, sheeted it and tipped it up.  You can see the temporary bracing we employed to keep from being squished while we made adjustments.  A huge thank you to Nate for assisting me with the wall raising, leveling and plumbing everything.  How lucky I am to have such awesome friends!  

 The other three walls made the deck too crowded to tip up the final wall safely.  We each took a shot of whiskey (not) and heaved the frame onto the trailer and commenced sheeting it upright.

 In all its glory...maybe I'll just use these tarps as my permanent siding.  I need to keep the kiln dried lumber reasonably dry.  Getting it wet can mean pesky warping and cracking.  Plywood can de-laminate if it gets soaked and then cooked by the sun.  Also keeping water off the insulated floor is critical as it would be tough at this point to drive out moisture from the sealed space below the deck. 

Rafters intimidated me initially--with the angles, overhangs, and bird's mouth cuts--but they actually went pretty smoothly.  Perhaps I got lucky?  I used Google Sketchup to model them and transferred dimensions from screen to board using a carpenter's square.  My roof pitch is an odd 7.25:12, meaning 7.25" of rise for 12" of run.  This provides me with three feet of headroom off the mattress in the loft .  My success was probably mostly due to Nate, who helped demystify the process.  He was also instrumental in helping me square, plumb, and level the walls, which helps the whole structure come together tightly (well...mostly tight).  Looking forward to nice weather this weekend to unwrap everything to sheet the roof and nail off all the plywood.

My house is bloody tall!  If I did it again, I might go with a little longer trailer with a lowered storage/sleeping loft.  Also, Nate's pa showed off his truck bed camper to me recently and we discussed how campers, as well as boats, are engineered to be both strong and light.  I wish I knew more about the construction methods of these types of shelters.  Using traditional framing on a trailer seems a little excessive sometimes.  Framing with 2x3's instead of 2x4's may be a good compromise.  Lots of considerations for a mere mortal.  Building simple and cheaply is important for an amateur builder with little supervision such as myself.  I like the idea that I can keep modifying the structure as I learn more and improve my skills, all without too much monetary investment.  As it is, I think I've gotten a little carried away in the size and cost of the house, however, forward momentum is also good.