The Subfloor’s Complete!

I did not expect the subfloor to take a month, but I also didn’t expect it not to 😛 I don’t have my timeline totally figured out yet and I was getting used to building. Hopefully I’ll be able to move faster with the walls because I won’t be drilling into METAL. I’m still waiting for an email back from the engineer before I get started on the framing though.

Here’s the pictures from the last three sheets (and days) of the subfloor:

Glue for the biggest piece.

Mum’s been a great help, but she’s not so great at drilling straight 😛

Dylan helped me get the last two pieces on!

Yay! My bathroom has a subfloor!

And finally, the last screw is in!

Dylan and I actually ran out of screws on the last few pieces 😦 Probably because we’re impatient and melted a ton of screws!

Out of 400, we melted almost 150 screws – 38%! That’s horrible! But they’re cheaper than drill bits. I picked up some more today and finished the last 25 screws this evening. I also got a whole new set of bug bites to go with all my old ones 😛

Soon, I’ll post a breakdown of how much I spent for the first few categories, and I’ll work on the subfloor part of my steps list to share.

Sunshine, Screws, and Sickness

The past couple days while it’s been raining, I’ve been working on my framing plans. I finally finished them, with the help of my favourite fluff ball:

Then this morning, the sun came out and I woke up with a cold. I am achy and sniffly, but I went out this afternoon, dried out the trailer, and got started. I finished all of the screws for the 3rd and 4th pieces:

Mum was kind enough to come out and help move the patio stones around. Then after I took a break, Dylan helped me put the fifth piece on! I love making progress 🙂

All secured while the glue cures.

Unfortunately, the rain has turned my lovely floor into a black mess, for some unknown reason.

I’ve seen other tiny house builds with black subfloors, but they never said why. I’m glad I went with plywood instead of OSB though, because OSB swells when it gets wet and doesn’t go back, whereas plywood does. Plywood is also lighter.

Now it’s time for some much needed sleep.

Work Before Work

Before my evening shift, I finished the screws for the second piece and Mum helped me put on the fourth piece 🙂

She’s not very good at the screws though:

The one on the right is hers.

Halfway there:

It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow. There is a ridiculous amount of rain in the forecast for the next month.

I have a lot of ordering to do: wood for framing, windows, and roofing.

Smiles and Sore Arms

I had Wednesday and Thursday off and both days were sunny 🙂 On Wednesday, Mum helped me finish the last three pieces.

6th piece!

So much floor!

7th piece!

All done dry-fitting 🙂

I was so happy to get all the pieces cut and out of the garage, and then we had to take them all off to start screwing them down. As soon as you get good at one thing, it’s done and you have to learn something new. But I’m kind of glad to move onto something different.

I wanted to be able to practice on metal before I went and tried to put holes in my trailer. Luckily, I had a little piece of scrap metal that was in the trailer when it arrived. Mum and I practiced on that with the new impact driver.

Practice holes through plywood into the metal.

All the way through.

I vacuumed out the area for the first piece and my mum marked the crossmembers on the edges. Then it was time for glue: We started on the first piece around 8 o’clock. You shouldn’t reposition after 30 minutes, so Mum and I wanted to get the piece secured and flat as soon as possible. But then it took over 30 minutes to put just the first screw in!

As we took the pieces off, we marked around them with chalk so we can put them back in the exact same place.

We weighed down the plywood with one of the patio stones and worked on getting the rest of the screws in. Mum tried to pre-drill a hole but broke two bits. I only finished half of the screws before it was too late to keep annoying the neighbours with power tools.

Done for the night.

The first piece is one of the smaller pieces and it took over 2 hours to do half the screws! I was hoping to get two pieces down on Wednesday, and then get the rest done on Thursday before the rain today. The screws take so long though.

On Thursday, Dylan was around to help 🙂 We went and picked up another impact driver on clearance so I didn’t have to do all the screws by myself. Some screws went in more easily than others; some you just had to give up on and come back to.

All done the first piece.

There’s about 30 screws in that piece, 6 inches apart around the edges and 12 inches apart in the center. It doesn’t bend anymore when you walk on it! We put on the 2nd piece, weighed it down with concrete in the middle, screwed down the edges, then started on the 3rd piece. By the time we finished the edges, our hands were hurting pretty bad. We also went through a lot of screws. We snapped one, and melted and wore down the tips on a bunch of others.

Any ideas on how to fix that? It snapped after it was partway through the metal.

Pieces 2 and 3!

I’m super happy I got any screws in the skinniest edge. And when the impact driver finally kicks in and you make it through the metal, it’s awesome. The pieces still need more screws in the middle, but we had to pack up and tarp the trailer before dark. 4th try with the tarp and it still leaks: I’ve been pushing water off it all day, my body hurts, and my arms are sunburned, but it’s worth it 🙂 And I couldn’t do it without Mum and Dylan ❤

Moving Along

We’re getting speedier 🙂 We put 3 pieces on today! They’re not screwed down yet though.

3rd piece.

4th piece.

5th piece!

It’s not perfect, but it’s working 🙂 Every piece we put down opens up more of the future house; it’s exciting! I am worried about screwing the sheets down though. The crossmembers are so skinny, and I’ve never drilled into metal before, eek!

I don’t know how people build so fast and work full-time. I’m only working part-time right now.

When you look at pictures of other builds, it seems to go so quickly. The first picture would be of an empty trailer, then the second of insulation, then the third of a finished sub-floor. But it’s a slow process when you’re new to building. Measuring is time-consuming. And Dylan and I are easily distracted by ice cream on hot days 😛

The piece of wood we cut out for the porch makes a good table top for the colourful tools:

It’s supposed to rain a lot tomorrow, so I’ll be indoors working on framing plans and such things. And I still need to decide whether I’m using screws or ring shank nails for framing and/or sheathing…