Update on progress: Overhangs, strapping, sheathing, and bird blocks.

It's been a long time since my last post, partly because of winter putting a damper on construction, and then afterwards once spring arrived, I was extremely busy trying to make up for lost time.
Here are two recent photos of the tiny house, which has been moved to a friend's driveway a few miles away to make it more convenient for LH to work on the inside, as I continue the outer shell.

Borrowed scaffolding is an absolute godsend!

The biggest news, perhaps, is that it no longer needs a tarp, as I have completed the sheathing, housewrap, and roof membrane, thereby making it waterproof. It was a glorious event to remove that huge tarp for the last time, fold it up, and retire it to the barn. (I would have burned it in a pagan ritual if it hadn't cost $330). I have also installed most of the metal roofing on the port side, and the cedar siding on one dormer cheekwall.
The color of the stained siding and the metal roofing look great together! LH has done a fantastic job of color selections.

Now, to go back in time and try to catch up on the construction sequence.

After the 1/2" roof sheathing was installed, I realized I had forgotten to build extensions to create an overhang on the bow and stern, so I cut open a portion of the roof (it's always fun to cut open something you just installed!) and added transverse 2x4's, which are cantilevered over the endwalls, attached to the nearest inside rafter, and have barge (or fly) rafters attached to their ends.

I then installed metal strapping (Simpson Coil Strapping CS-14) around the perimeter to help hold the house together while it's bouncing down the road. I didn't think this would be difficult, but the strapping was heavy and didn't like the idea of staying flat or straight, so I ended up using clamps to hold it in position for nailing.

Then came the 3/8" wall sheathing, which was interesting to do (mostly) singlehanded.  Using clamps, I tried to devise ways to help hold the sheets of plywood in position while they were attached.

Blocks of wood clamped to the trailer to hold the bottom row of plywood.

Blocks clamped to hold the upper row of plywood.

Since the framing wasn't always routine, I drew the location of each stud onto the plywood to help with fastener application.

For maximum rigidity, I chose to glue the sheathing to the framing members with construction adhesive, and used screws instead of nails to attach the sheathing.

Proof of the screw's superior pulling and holding strength. I first used a nail gun to install 3" framing nails, and then came back and added screws afterwards, which pulled the plywood tighter against the framing, thereby leaving the nail protruding.

One thing that bugged me was the bulging of the plywood where it passed over the 1/8" thick coil strapping, a detail not mentioned in the plans. This could be avoided by placing the strapping into 1/8" recesses cut into the framing. I resolved it later by leaving a gap in the 1/4" thick furring strips where they pass over the strapping, as shown below.

Cutting the curve for the fenders was fun. From an arbitrary level line a couple of feet above the fender, I made vertical measurements down to the fender every 2", from the beginning of the fender to its flat top.

Best notepad around.

 I used these numbers to plot a curve onto the plywood, and then fine tuned it by trial and error.

The magic jigsaw, cutting all by itself.

After the initial cut, I placed the plywood against the fender and scribed the curve onto the plywood.

The finished product.

To mark the location of notches for the rafter tails, I placed a sheet of plywood as high as it would go up under the rafter tails, leveled and clamped it, hung a square on the edge, and scribed a plumb line on each side of the rafter tail.

Cut just wide of the lines to allow for wiggle room.

I cut just on the outside of the lines to allow extra room for maneuvering the large, relatively heavy sheets. The width of the gaps became progressively more generous each time I hoisted the plywood overhead, only to find that it wouldn't quite fit.






 I made cheap and easy bird blocks by cutting 2x4's to fit between rafters, notching them to allow ventilation, and nailing on aluminum vents (cut in half) to keep out critters.

outside face

inside face

screwed into place between rafters.

The fully sheathed tiny house!

Coming soon: Dormer window installation, nailers, Tyvek, roofing membrane, and more!