I spent the last two days working in the Tiny Free House and got the other window lowered about 8 inches to clear the eaves and finished adding pallet boards to the roof. It was very slow going screwing all those boards to the trusses. I used an extension ladder from the outside for the lower boards and did the peak from the inside by coming up through the framing.
My next step is to cover the roof with roofing felt to protect the house from the rain and start on the siding on my next trip… unless my father-in-law scores form scrap sheet metal for me. He mentioned he knew a couple guys with sheet metal shops that often have shingle size scrap pieces of metal. Seems to me some galvanized scrap sheet metal would make some very nice shingles… nicer than #10 cans and still very free.
The photos above are how it looked after I cleaned up my mess on Sunday afternoon. The last photo below is how it looked at the end of Saturday. As you can see I use an extension ladder on the exterior and screwed the boards on as high as I could reach safely.
Sunday morning, working from the inside on the orange ladder, I popped my head and shoulders up from the inside boarded up the peak boards. It was a bit tricky and I was standing on the top of the 6-foot ladder. I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to get the roofing felt and shingles up there without actually getting up on the roof. I think I’ll be OK as long as I stay on the rafters. I guess we’ll see :-)
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Dang it! We’re all on edge around here to see how this thing’s gonna turn out!
You could say we don’t lead very exciting lives…but hopefully, everythings fine and if it’s as hot there as it is in Bako, we don’t blame you for a slowdown in progress.
Have certainly enjoyed your descriptions of the project so far, though. All the best!
Thanks… me too :-)
Actually this weekend is going to be spent patching my big leaky flat roof again before the real rains start. (advice: never choose a flat roof, they always leak!)
I do need to get up to the free house at least two or three more times before that happens too to close it in a bit… especially the roof. I don’t want it to get soaked this winter.
I posted about your ventures. I’m curious, what do you plan on doing for HVAC?
No conventional AC… too expensive to operate and maintain.
John Wells at http://www.thefieldlab.org/ has developed a simple low voltage swamp cooler he calls the Pepino and it can be built from cheap stuff. http://www.flickr.com/photos/texasdesertlife/sets/72157605888462649/
nice 10 times cheaper than jay schafer ‘s tinyhouses less expencsive.
Don’t know if your done with the roof, but the thought occurred to me that old license plates might be a great way to get a cheap but interesting roof material, and they are galvanized and painted in most cases. A trip to a junk yard or DMV would yield several roofs
Thanks Chad… great idea. I’ll have to do some digging into what becomes of license plates here in California.
The only thing that might be a trouble is that pallet wood hard wood (fur) which is heavy, so the end product could be really heavy, so you might want to think of siding that is lightweight and interior wall material that is lightweight. I do like the pallet Idea but those suckers are heavy we just scored some for a projecta around our house. I do hear you on price though I think there are ways to make it cheaper even with new materials than the tumbleweed houses
Kitty you are absolutely right… hardwood is denser and heavier and the tiny free house will be heavier than a comparable pine and plywood house. If you have a small budget or can scavenge plywood and fur/pine lumber by all means build with that.
There are many different weights of pallets out there..I don’t know if there would be a lot of difference in strength but you can most certainly find lighter weight pallets as well as the heavy ones. It all depends on where you find your pallets..if everything the store brings in is heavy then the pallets will tend to be more skookum; if there are products which don’t weigh a lot but are bulky..potato chips, pillows, that sort of thing; the pallets seem to be made with lighter wood, at least they are a lot lighter to lift.
Sometimes you just need to sort a little to find what you are looking for (but leave the pile at least as neat as you found it!)
Michael,
just wanted to check in and ask where to look on your blog to see if you posted the pics of the furniture-no rush I know you are a busy guy.I can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX,that’s my pager#, just put in your contact# and I’ll call you back.”Not
only am I old school I’m an old guy” I’d love to chat about how the old guys use to do it with reusing everything they could. Keep up your work. Look forward to talking with you. Ed Friedman
Hi Ed… yes I should be posting tonight. Thanks again!
This is a _very_ nice job! I am impressed.
Your pallet playhouse looks great. Thanks for the link.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Pallet-Playhouse/
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Looks great – some advice on framing: always overlap, so you never see a straight line – there will be some extra waste on wood, but the structure will be more rigid
the suspence is killing me!
Michael,
Great job so far! Have you considered posting on Craigslist for left over roofing materials? Or checking with roofing companies for leftover materials? Just a thought.
Take care,
Lauren
:-) Sorry. Now that the weather is ind of drying out I should be getting back to it… well as soon as my sprained foot is healed.
Hello,
Love the what you’re doing. Just a thought for roofing materials. In Australia when Coloured Zincalume (tin) roofs and fences get delivered to a site they throw away the top sheet as it can get scratched (called the cover sheet here) I have a whole shed (including roof) built out of it my father in law is a concreter and he collected them from new building sites for us. Not sure if that’s an option where you are.
Have you thought about giving everything a good coating of boiled linseed oil? We added stain to boiled linseed oil and used spruce deck boards. They look like redwood or cedar boards because of the stain and they should weather very well due to the linseed oil. Here it is about $30CAD for a gallon and we apply it with a dry brush or cloth.
That’s a great idea. I’ll keep that in the back of my mind while trolling craigslist for free stuff.
Dude, you GOTTA finish this! It will be magnificent! To say nothing of free. Let ‘er rip – three people in town here have passed away because they have been holding their breath waiting for the completion of the tiny free house. You owe it to their memories…
how much does it cost to get a new roof?
Well I’m working on finding a free roof :-)
You might try asking at a local offset print shop for old printing plates. We found old plates on an old shed of ours when we were patching the roof.
Excellent idea Becky. Thanks!
This was a perfect posting
Use laminate flooring as a generally free building material, loads of over ordered mismatched stuff out there for the taking away, of course as flooring, but try as clapboard! Paint for weatherproofing. Use a wide masonery chisel and a 4 lb hammer to prise the pallets apart, quick and easy giving 50 foot of planks per pallet, put together lighter!
was wondering how things were goin?
I’m just in a holding pattern waiting for time to go up and work on it. Next step is to finish the siding and wrap with house wrap.