Hey All, Just wanted to post an interesting documentary that I watched. I think it could have very practical application. Please find a couple of links below to pique your interest. TINY Tumbleweed Tiny House Company - Welcome to our website ! All the best. TE
Yeah, the price shocked me as well. I can see where that could run in the teens to lower twenty's to build something like that. I think the real price comes in when these people use reclaimed materials and super high-end trendy tech. I think the concept is about right for 1 - 3 people if needed. I have to say that the documentary has made me realize I can do a whole lot more than I have been doing with my 1200sqft house.
Less an 2 grand, insulated and finished inside No bath or kitchen - yet-- but has a nice sleeping loft. Set up for direct vent kero heater. Small is good.
Have you ever used 2X6 Plates with 2X4 Studs, alternating between inside and outside walls, to enhance the Insulation quality of the walls? If you make the studs on 12" Centers, you can build a FULL Second Story, that will hold an Alaskan ShowLoad. Doubles the occupational Sq Ft ...... ..... Very nice, so far....
No, Bruce, I just used 2x4 studs. Its a 'garden' shed for the tax man and can be lived in - in a pinch. I built the floor one weekend and had the crew over to put up the walls and roof the next weekend. During the week, some SOB from the Muni tax office came in and measured the floor and had the data on the on-line tax records even before the walls went up..
BEFORE If you can read a tape measure, and can afford a few power tools, a square and level, you can do anything with a little time. I just built a 1,ooo sq.ft garage in 5 days with 2 unskilled laborers, Stucco'd the entire outside of my house with just my wife and I, built a barn and re-modeled the entire inside of our old house. YouTube videos can walk you through step by step on pretty much anything you want to build. A word of Caution! Once you finish your first project the fever kicks in and soon your off to the races. BEFORE DURING AFTER A lot of the stuff we did in our remodel project, I had never done before, What one man can do, another can too!! Good luck and remember to wear gloves and eye protection when working with power tool!! I just took 5 stiches in my index finger from a Sidegrinder.
I love the idea of a tiny house and could see myself in one. From a prepping standpoint, you have the advantage of energy efficiency, ease of upkeep, easy to conceal, and easy to replace if something happens to it. The big negative is no space to store anything. You would still need a decent size garage or shed to store your preps. That structure may need to be climate controlled depending on what you have in there...it would take away from the purpose of having a tiny house in the first place.
FWIW, if I ever need to build again I will build a metal building, then I would insulate it with foam, then I would lay in 4 inches of carbon steel fiber and rebar reinforced concrete wall against the foam. To do this I would have a framed up studd wall. In this I would have the room to have the four inch concrete and 2 inches of foam board. The foam boad is layed in in 12 inch strips and the concrete is added in 6 inch layers between the two foam sets. When finished with the cement I would dry wall the studd walls. This would give you by layers. 1. Metal outer sheath 2. Foam insulation 3. Reinforced concrete 4. Foam insulation 5. Studd walls 6. Drywall The good thing about this is that it can all be done with hand tools one step at a time. And yes I have completed such a set up, or pretty close for my outer most wall was also reinforced concrete.
Knowing that you don't often do things without a reason, why insulation on both sides of the concrete? The same total thickness will do the same thing as a single layer totaling both thicknesses so far as heat transfer is concerned.
This mimics the form foam construction and allows a "do as can" time line without the waste of wood forms. It also bypasses some of the problems with condensation and corrison problems. The metal is insulated from the concrete, the concrete is insulated from the inside walls and the studds are protected from concrete rot (my experience is that even with treated wood you will have problems with wood next to concrete).
Look into Cob or Earthbag, extremely insulated and bulletproof! Cheap too! They can be built for a frction of what this article is claiming. For the same money you can build the house, put 5-6k watts of solar and a septic system in.
Have afriend that built a home in Fla with moving form/frames. Fill it with concrete, come back the next day and step it up one level, The outside of the home looked like Cedar Shakes.
I really don't know squat about construction and couldn't cut the end of a 2x4 square if my life depended on it. I like the idea of sea containers with the basic structure already built and squared up. It would certainly be resistant to punctures from most pistol bullets, though just about any CF rifle would shoot right through. One advantage of a metal building is that they are resistant to those newfangled radar devices that allow government people to "look" inside your house and tell what you are doing and where you are inside the structure. As for a non-metal construction material, some of the neighbors in the general vicinity my remote property are building with this stuff... Earth Friendly Building Materials--ICF Blocks - EF Block ICF Blocks A five foot long block 10 or 12 inches high weighs about 40 pounds, as much as a standard cinder block. The material is made from ground styrofoam/concrete mixture and has an insulation value of around R38. It is fire retardant and bugs won't eat it. It can be sculpted to taste. Blocks are stacked, sealed with a special adhesive and reinforced using rebar with concrete poured in the center. One old fart in the area has been working with this stuff building a large house and he's got to be pushing 80. He's not a big man either. He hired one of the other neighbors to help with the roof trusses, but he's pretty much been doing most of it on his own.
