Wood and screws...
...and drills and drivers.
Pic: Makeshift saw-horses out of folding stools, the tools of our trade!
We're building our #tinyhome by hand, in all the terms that covers, splinters and all. Our build will be off grid once we're up and running and in the location that our lorry is currently based, we have no power supply so hand tools it is. While there will be a small generator as part of our power system, right now, it's all about elbow grease and bloody-mindedness... so nothing new there then!
The strategy was always to start from the ground up, layering the 10mm rubber matting as our initial insulation on top of our aluminium plate floor, battening out the framework using 25mm x 50mm timber for this, and filling with 50mm insulation. We have topped the floor with 18mm OSB. With the lack of other storage space and knowing our lengths of timber we made the decision to build in sections, so starting from the back - the bedroom - we built the floor then started on the walls before moving onto the next section and repeating the process, rubber matting, battening, insulation, floor boards. Again, owing to limited space, this has meant regular shifting around of the rest of the wood, insulation and other stuff we have in the lorry, which as you can imagine, we've got pretty good at this after sectioning off the bedroom, shower & toilet, living room & kitchen area, and utility / garage area.
Pic: It's like a giant game of tetras! Bedroom battened out at the back, then acting as holding space for the insulation on top of the 26 sheets of hardwood plywood as well as the 7 sheets of OSB!
The great thing about this stage of the build has been the crazy amount of change we see each time we finish a day at the truck. Each weekend that we gained another wall, another room or finished another roof section just kept making the space feel bigger and bigger, maybe we'd gotten used to opening the door to a relatively blank box, even being piled up with building materials it still felt just like a bit of an empty shell; so seeing those walls take shape and being able to walk into different rooms really started to make it all a little more 'real'.
Those 'Wow' moments provide a massive boost along the way, especially whilst we were still in winter/early spring at this point, and there comes a definite point where you are defeated by the lack of light other than that of a head torch to work in. To pack up and head home with a very visual difference to how the weekend started off has been so important.
We knew that with the main structure taking shape, we would need to get some windows sorted out for when the weather improved. We had a few recommendations for a caravan centre in Wales so managed to take an afternoon off to head over and go shopping in their warehouse! Successful trip as we came back with 5 windows for £400! All brand new, all double glazed caravan windows, and while in hindsight - yes, who doesn't love the joy of hindsight - we could have gone bigger on a couple of the windows, we had at that point to actually break through the walls and so didn't want to jeopardise any structural integrity of the main lorry walls with massive great big-ass windows.
We worked with the windows we'd got to either place them where they fitted within the sized spacings of our walls, or to adjust any extra/off-set battens according to the window, so they would be fully supported in the walls by each rooms framework. It was then, the moment of truth in order to drill that elusive first hole in the wall. Armed with a drill, hacksaw blades and a set of rasps; we set to it, discovering that the GRP walls were a further 15mm thick and mostly wood, so a lot better than it could have been. Those power tools would have been a welcome edition at this point though, as drilling endless pilot holes and cutting the rest out with a hacksaw blade was never-ending!
We got 2 windows in that first weekend. It was dry and sunny and it was one of the longest weekends we had spent solidly at the truck. There were disagreements, lots of BBC Radio 2, lukewarm cups of tea in flasks and pastrami sandwiches to keep us going. It wasn't always enough. The prospect of filing down just 'another few millimetres' with rasps so that one last corner just fitted, went on and on. The trepidation of leaving that evening with silicone and holding screws keeping that truck water tight with one window in was a very long night hoping that it wouldn't rain! Thankfully, come first thing the next morning the window was still in place, no dew or damp had made its way through into the truck and the window was firmly stuck in place, which could only mean it was onto the next one.
Pic: A monkey up a ladder, looking back through a window hole
So, that is windows coming along nicely; floors, walls and roof all making good progress, what next?!
We had successfully managed to work from 'back to front' building up the main structure of the rooms, to which getting the windows in then had us going 'front to back' for the next stage. No bad thing though, as the more walls that went up, we were gradually making our way through our stores of timber meaning that the endless game of Tetras was getting a little easier each time we moved rooms.
Once the windows were in place, we got on with the insulating of each room and got the plywood coverings up as we went. This was a massive transformation in the build again, another layer of visuals, more recognisable space and layout of rooms and something wonderful to come back to after a few days. Plus the smell of wood drying out was great too. Like all timber mills, the wood often isn't dry, it was raining pretty heavily when we collected our wood and since then it had been kept in a cold lorry. So as the weather improved and with the structure taking more shape and allowing more air movement, it all began to dry out nicely.
Pic: Windows in both utility room and kitchen, the back wall having been battened out and the last section of the roller door track having been cut off. The bays became great for shuffling around the various building materials and meant that we still had plenty of room to manoeuvre indoors.
Pic: Makeshift saw-horses out of folding stools, the tools of our trade!
We're building our #tinyhome by hand, in all the terms that covers, splinters and all. Our build will be off grid once we're up and running and in the location that our lorry is currently based, we have no power supply so hand tools it is. While there will be a small generator as part of our power system, right now, it's all about elbow grease and bloody-mindedness... so nothing new there then!
The strategy was always to start from the ground up, layering the 10mm rubber matting as our initial insulation on top of our aluminium plate floor, battening out the framework using 25mm x 50mm timber for this, and filling with 50mm insulation. We have topped the floor with 18mm OSB. With the lack of other storage space and knowing our lengths of timber we made the decision to build in sections, so starting from the back - the bedroom - we built the floor then started on the walls before moving onto the next section and repeating the process, rubber matting, battening, insulation, floor boards. Again, owing to limited space, this has meant regular shifting around of the rest of the wood, insulation and other stuff we have in the lorry, which as you can imagine, we've got pretty good at this after sectioning off the bedroom, shower & toilet, living room & kitchen area, and utility / garage area.
Pic: It's like a giant game of tetras! Bedroom battened out at the back, then acting as holding space for the insulation on top of the 26 sheets of hardwood plywood as well as the 7 sheets of OSB!
The great thing about this stage of the build has been the crazy amount of change we see each time we finish a day at the truck. Each weekend that we gained another wall, another room or finished another roof section just kept making the space feel bigger and bigger, maybe we'd gotten used to opening the door to a relatively blank box, even being piled up with building materials it still felt just like a bit of an empty shell; so seeing those walls take shape and being able to walk into different rooms really started to make it all a little more 'real'.
Those 'Wow' moments provide a massive boost along the way, especially whilst we were still in winter/early spring at this point, and there comes a definite point where you are defeated by the lack of light other than that of a head torch to work in. To pack up and head home with a very visual difference to how the weekend started off has been so important.
We knew that with the main structure taking shape, we would need to get some windows sorted out for when the weather improved. We had a few recommendations for a caravan centre in Wales so managed to take an afternoon off to head over and go shopping in their warehouse! Successful trip as we came back with 5 windows for £400! All brand new, all double glazed caravan windows, and while in hindsight - yes, who doesn't love the joy of hindsight - we could have gone bigger on a couple of the windows, we had at that point to actually break through the walls and so didn't want to jeopardise any structural integrity of the main lorry walls with massive great big-ass windows.
Pic: Drilling pilot holes for the windows to be cut out. This process takes an unsurprisingly long time, my weedy arms were not impressed!
We worked with the windows we'd got to either place them where they fitted within the sized spacings of our walls, or to adjust any extra/off-set battens according to the window, so they would be fully supported in the walls by each rooms framework. It was then, the moment of truth in order to drill that elusive first hole in the wall. Armed with a drill, hacksaw blades and a set of rasps; we set to it, discovering that the GRP walls were a further 15mm thick and mostly wood, so a lot better than it could have been. Those power tools would have been a welcome edition at this point though, as drilling endless pilot holes and cutting the rest out with a hacksaw blade was never-ending!
We got 2 windows in that first weekend. It was dry and sunny and it was one of the longest weekends we had spent solidly at the truck. There were disagreements, lots of BBC Radio 2, lukewarm cups of tea in flasks and pastrami sandwiches to keep us going. It wasn't always enough. The prospect of filing down just 'another few millimetres' with rasps so that one last corner just fitted, went on and on. The trepidation of leaving that evening with silicone and holding screws keeping that truck water tight with one window in was a very long night hoping that it wouldn't rain! Thankfully, come first thing the next morning the window was still in place, no dew or damp had made its way through into the truck and the window was firmly stuck in place, which could only mean it was onto the next one.
Pic: A monkey up a ladder, looking back through a window hole
So, that is windows coming along nicely; floors, walls and roof all making good progress, what next?!
We had successfully managed to work from 'back to front' building up the main structure of the rooms, to which getting the windows in then had us going 'front to back' for the next stage. No bad thing though, as the more walls that went up, we were gradually making our way through our stores of timber meaning that the endless game of Tetras was getting a little easier each time we moved rooms.
Once the windows were in place, we got on with the insulating of each room and got the plywood coverings up as we went. This was a massive transformation in the build again, another layer of visuals, more recognisable space and layout of rooms and something wonderful to come back to after a few days. Plus the smell of wood drying out was great too. Like all timber mills, the wood often isn't dry, it was raining pretty heavily when we collected our wood and since then it had been kept in a cold lorry. So as the weather improved and with the structure taking more shape and allowing more air movement, it all began to dry out nicely.
Pic: Windows in both utility room and kitchen, the back wall having been battened out and the last section of the roller door track having been cut off. The bays became great for shuffling around the various building materials and meant that we still had plenty of room to manoeuvre indoors.
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