I’ve fallen behind!  Our progress is moving faster than my blogging.  (Not too surprising when my days are packed building the tiny house, working full-time, and also trying to keep up on the everyday to-do’s.)

And so, I now return to you with… a finished tiny house floor!

But, let’s back up to the place we left off.  Last I wrote, we had finished the “skeleton” of the floor by attaching the rim joists and fitting all the floor joists.  We then had to add in the insulation “guts”, then lay down the subfloor.  Piece of cake (what an interesting idiom that is…), right?  Should take a few hours…  HA!  Details, details, details.  Over the last couple of weekends we’ve been cracking away at this.  Let’s start with some photos:

Securing the floor joists

Keeping it tidy after installing the wires to hold the insulation a bit above the trailer pan to create an airspace

Birding break!

Cutting the floor insulation to size

Note our full PPE

This insulation did NOT make me happy

I have to admit, I am not excited about this insulation as it’s not particularly environmentally friendly (it’s basically styrofoam) – not ideal!  I was cringing and unhappy the entire time we were installing it.  But, when you build your house on wheels, weight and a mobile foundation are major considerations.  This R-Tech insulation is extremely light and won’t shift when the house is in transit.  And, if any water or insects should weasel their way into our trailer, it won’t affect this insulation.  All very important for our house. And so, sigh, we felt it was the best choice.  I am much more looking forward to the sheep’s wool with which we plan to insulate the roof.  Woolly roof!  The insulation for the walls remains in the realm of the brain-busting decision stage.

First layer of insulation down!

Blocking

It’s taking shape!

We installed blocking along the floor joists for the future subfloor attachment points for stabilization and strength.  Holy nail gun, Batman!  I’m not sure if this thing is a tool or a weapon.

And, our final step was to attach the subfloor.  We decided we felt it was more important to use adhesive to attach the subfloor to the trailer than it was to place a thin bit of insulating material between the two.  This does mean we’ll have a narrow bit of floor around the edge of our house that will directly contact the metal of the trailer – not awesome for a well-insulated house.  But, this overlap of subfloor on metal is minimal and will mostly be beneath enclosed cabinets, closets, and storage, so we aren’t too concerned about its effects on heating and cooling our house.  This was one of the many things for which we had to weigh pros and cons between the various building and design options.

And, with that we’ve hit our first major milestone!  We’ve got a floor!  And, what better way to commemorate the completion of a floor, but with a dance on it!