Construction Progress Report – Framed Eaves
It was a bit hot this past weekend but I got to spend a couple days working on the house. I had planned to put more boards on the roof but realized that I needed to first finish the eaves. They took a bit of time to build but I think they look pretty good, so even though I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped I’m still happy with my progress. I came up with the 16×16 diamond window in both eaves on-the-fly and plan to make little opening windows for ventilation.
I also realized the side windows were too high and needed to be lowered so I threw a temporary support in, unscrewed a couple pallets, cut them up and reframed. I only got one window lowered before I called it a day on Sunday.
Next Steps:
- Lower other side window.
- Finish putting boards on roof.
- Finish filling in pallet boards on sides so I have something to screw the milled pallet boards onto.
- Finish roof (roofing felt and shingles (The jury is still out on the final roofing material)).
- Mill up a bunch of pallet boards for the siding.
- Wrap it up with house-wrap.
- Screw on the milled pallet board siding.
- Install the windows I got free off craigslist.
- Mill up pallet boards for trim around the windows and door.
- Build the door from pallet wood, and install.
- Seal the exterior with some kind natural free finish. (I’m open to suggestions.)
At that point I’ll be ready to move to working inside the house. My plan is to get all this done before the rain starts. At my current slow pace I think it’s possible. Here are a few more photos.
[...] Tiny Free House Update Posted August 10th, 2009 by Michael Janzen and filed in Tiny Free House Tags: framed, free house, pallet house, pallet wood, pallets, Tiny Free House, tiny house View commentsComments I spent the weekend up at the family farm and was able to finish framing the eaves on my Tiny Free House. The front of the house is now ready for milled pallet boards which will really seal it up but first I need to do some prep work around the other sides of the house and finish the roof. I also discovered that I needed to bring the side windows down about 8 inches because the side eaves extended down lower than I imagined. In a normal house this might seem like a disaster since it would require the removal of a wall that’s holding up a roof but with a pallet house that’s screwed together I just threw in a temporary support and unscrewed a couple of pallets, cut them up and reframed. I was also able to build a stronger support over the wheels with a couple scavenged 4×4 posts and small 4×6 segments. I’ve posted a few more photos on the Tiny Free House blog. [...]
Looking good Michael, your moving forward and that is the important thing :-)
I am so excited so se your work. I am copying your work to some extent. But I am in the gathering state. I have got 50 pallets, some 2×3 wood and tomorrow I hope the trailer on blocket.se is still there, they were for free :D
I think I have to take some more holiday when I got enough lamber.
OMG, I have just stumbled on to your site and I am so impressed.
I have been dreaming about building a back yard studio for free……. well almost free.
Most of my wood has been collected from construction dumpsters. Living in a big city is a bit challenging in regards to collecting as many of the dumpsters on construction sites have security guards or they are behind a security fence.
Never thought of using pallets, but I am now.
Are you using a plan or making it up as you go?
Looks awesome, much nicer than the pallet shack my friends and I made a few years ago.Good luck.
Hi, here’s a tip for some good free wood. I used to work in the glass trade here in Canada for years. The large cases of glass comes in from Japan and Germany etc. are usually made of hardwoods and the base and top pieces are usually mahogany as this wood is plentiful in Asia. Usually this bottom piece is about 8 inches wide, 2 or 3 inches thick and can be up to 10 and 12 feet long. and the best part the long bottom and top does not have nail holes in the face only on the edges where the straps are nailed on to hold the cases together. Lovely wood, not as fine as Honduran but still nice.
Thanks Carey… good thinking. I’ll need some more consistent hardwood when I do the floors and other interior bits.
Hi Michael,
Love what you are doing. I built a pallet cabin I lived in for about 5 years. I used carpet to insulate the roof. Carpet is easy to get, the carpet dealers have dumpsters in the back and are usually more than happy to let you take carpet pieces. I put down a couple of layers under the scavenged corrugated metal.
I also built a sunroom off the front using scavenged sliding glass doors.
Good Luck!
Hahahaha, great design of house! I’m amazed with it, because it has a wheel. You can bring it anywhere. FABULOUS!
I absolutely love this idea! For years I’ve wished there was something useful that could be done with old wooden pallets. It’s such an awful waste to just toss them. I’m going to try to draft my hubby to start building a tiny house.
I go to tinyhousedesign.com quite often and haven’t seen any updates on your house for a while. Are you going to continue it now what summer is here? I’m still looking into building tumbleweed size house and know where I can get all the pallets I need to build a house like this and would really like to see you complete yours.
Also, I noticed on your youtube channel that you are making plans for a tiny home, any chance you’ll make plans for a tiny pallet house like your making here?
Hi Stan,
Yes my intention is continue on it this summer and through the fall. The next couple weekends look pretty bad though. But it’s always on my mind.
I don’t know if I’ll do a 2D/3D plan for it. I did post how to build a pallet house a while back on http://tinypallethouse.com. But now that I’ve got the framing up I’m thinking I would have done it a bit differently. Instead of using the standard pallets in the walls and replying on the fasteners (and plywood) to hold the walls together I would look for more long pallets and use the 2x4s in them to build the walls and roof. The short 2x4s would be good for lots of other things and the pallet slates are great for siding etc.
If you have the cash I would also suggest buying 2x4s and/or plywood. These two things would make the main structure much more sturdy and safe. Then use pallet wood for siding, interior sheathing, etc. It would be much faster to build this way too.