Next Bigger Tiny House, The Platform.

I have been living in a 100 sq ft tiny house for over a year now and I am loving it.  I heat the space with a 8000 btu heater for about a dollar a day all winter long.

The biggest problem has been fighting with the harbor freight solar panels and the cloudy winter to have enough power to run my fridge. If you go with these 100 watt kits, do yourself a favor and water proof the connections with heat shrink tubing. In the process of changing over the connections to standard solar mc4 waterproof connectors, wiring them up to a solar concentrator and convering my battery and inverter over to 24v.

But I just do not have enough space to live comfortably with all my stuff and be able to get to my art or electric supplies to do projects.  So I am adding another, slightly larger 300 sq ft space right next to the current tiny house. I am going to use a similar construction method, but want the walls to be 9 inches thick and the ceiling to go from 2 feet at the wall  to 3 feet thick as it reaches the peak.

Going to put shelves into the current tiny house and a work table and use this space to work on projects. Will connect the two houses with decks.

I built the 12'x16' platform out of 2x12 boards around the perimeter, with floor trusses that are 2x10 across the 12', with notched 2x4's that are 16' long that are at 90 degres to the floor trusses.  I did this to cross brace everything and so that there would be a thermal break so that the floor is not directly connected to the outside of the house envelop, except through 1.5" squares every couple of feet.

I used metal joist supports on each 2x10 and 2x4, both ends. Because everything was treated I had to use corrosion resistant supports and screws and heavily galvanized joist hanger nails. I painted everything metal that was exposed with rustolem heave rust spray paint. I painted the wood frame to help keep the preservative in the wood and not leach out.  I used lag bolts and corner braces.  Each post is lag bolted in place.  I have a tiny little 12v impact that is fantastical powerful and very light and drove

A friend used a tractor with a digger arm to hold up the frame for me while I ran around putting 4x4's in each corner.  We got it fairly level, but I am planning on fine tuning this one last time before I put the walls and roof in place.

I put 1" R-6.5 foam board underneath to hold the insulation inside the floor trusses, these are screwed up to the trusses with metal screws with large washers to distribute the load. I then taped the seams between 4'x8' foam boards with aluminum coated plastic tape to be air tight.

Once the foam was in place I put another 4x4 in the middle of each side, and in the very middle.  I am planning on digging under each 4x4 and putting in a concrete footer.

I put 9" thick R-30 insulation along the 2x10 boards, under the 2x4's, and saw that I could put another few of inches of insulation in, so I got another roll and pulled the layers apart to make 3" layers and ran in 90 degrees across the first layer of insulation, along the 2x4's.

I added little supports in the middle of each  truss, between the 2x4's to give extra bracing to the floor. Just blocks of 2x4 with a little cut off piece of reclaimed pallet wood to space it right.  I also had to cut 2x4's to fit across the center of the deck where the ends of the flooring met. They were not tongue and groove there, so I had to support them along their whole length down the middle. These 2x4's were about 23" long, were put so their wide side was down, and held up to the bottom of the floor with little chunks of the reclaimed pallet boards to maintain the thermal break.

I missed square by an half an inch, but it was too tough at this point to move things, so I am just planning on using some finishing boards on each end and just trimming the edge of the flooring to fake it.

Future plans for the platform. 

This paragraph is done!  This weekend I am going to build a temporary structure to hold a plastic sheet and a tarp overhead to give me a dry, warm work space to build the wall and roof trusses for the new house. I picked up a 30,000 btu propane heater, and will install this so that I can get it warm first thing in the morning or keep it warm if I work in the evenings after work.  Also build on a set of steps so I can get onto the deck without rolling around on the platform like a worm.

Tape the edges of the foam under the platform to keep out insects.

Install another 16' 2x12 under the length of the middle to brace the entire middle of every floor joist. This way the joists will only be spanning 6 feet.

Install corner bracing underneath the platform on the corners.

Install bracing for each post. Just a couple of 2x4's on each side that goes up to the bottom of the platform.

Put a plastic sheet under the whole platform on the ground to keep moisture from getting under the floor.

Line the ground under the platform with pallets for storage.

Run a  treated 2x4 along the bottom of each side to anchor the bottom .

Figure out how to create doors to get into space under building.  Perhaps have spaces to store different dimension lumber.

Use borox chemicals on everything outside of the platform to fight termites.

Use rigid mineral wool insulation from the outside of the platform to the ground. This will resist insects, especially if it is treated with borox.

Put concrete supports under each 4x4.  I am thinking lift up each side with a jack and bury them about half way under ground, then lower them into place. The middle support could just be on a concrete pad. Note to self, next time put them on these supports as I install the 4x4's.