It’s been a few weeks, and my trailer has arrived. It’s of course taken longer than
expected, with truck repairs and holidays getting in the way of prompt
initiation of work. I ended up opting for a design used by
another tiny home builder who had purchased a trailer from the same
dealer. (By the way, not only does my sister know my tiny home compatriot and trailer designer, Colin, but
he also built his house at another friend’s shop. Very helpful guy)
I wasn’t exactly sure how it would turn out, and hoped for
the best. It’s sturdy and clean
looking. The drop axles may make
it hard to take the trailer over big bumps, but lower the bed by about 4 inches,
which will allow me to sit up in my loft bed. Otherwise, it’s a pretty standard flatbed with extensions on
the side.
| tada!
My
friends at Vital Systems Natural
Building & Design are generously letting me occupy a covered space in their yard for the duration of
the build, so here's the trailer at the shop, loaded down with materials for the framing and sheathing. I can't thank them enough for a roof over my head, with electricity to boot. Makes my life a lot easier.
|
But the question at hand (Do 3.5 inches matter?) really
comes down to the age-old battle between the simple, affordable, and lean options, or
complex, more time consuming/expensive, but potentially improved options. My three constraints are weight, size, and budget, all of which leave room for a great deal of creativity.
Since I know about 20 builders and plumbers and
electricians, added to the natural building guys, everyone, including my
cousins, is now giving me great additional design ideas, better
material suggestions, and more storage space options. All
of which entail more $$ and/or time, but could really add to the functionality of the
home. The question of the
week is, do 3.5 inches in floor height and about 10 fewer joists make a big
difference in the long run? The
max height of the house is 13.5 feet, so every inch in floor height takes an
inch away from the loft head room.
Every extra piece of wood adds to the total weight of the house, also a
limited resource.
Here’s the logistics:
I laid out a sub floor to support my joists for the real floor on top of
the trailer ribs (see picture below).
The only reason to add a floor above the current trailer bed is to
make room for floor insulation. This is actually
important to do, even in the milder climes of the California Coast Range.
HOWEVER, as Tony from Vital Systems pointed out, there’s
room under those flat boards to create a sub floor cavity for insulation. The draw back: complex, and could take me a few days
to work it out, and includes a lot more drilling into the frame. The benefit: I get 3.5 more inches in height to play with, and the trailer’s
a bit lighter. Not much, but
some.
After bolting down the “sub floor” to the angle iron, I’m
not so excited about putting 50 more holes in even thicker steel of the trailer
frame. Framing out the floor on top of the trailer bed would take me a day. The other option, who knows, with all the special cuts and crawling around under the trailer. Then there's the plumbing to think about. Would there still be room for it? ARGH, decisions.
