Tiny House vs. RV Why?

[2bits]

Speaking of that, I would love an underground house. CD have you seen the one on Buckner Blvd? Pretty cool.

[cuyeda]

How about making a home out of a shipping container. Don't know your criteria for affordable housing. Just something to ponder.

Shipping container homes

[eamarquardt]

When is the last time you have seen a home being built with let in wind bracing. Where a 2x4 ( or 1x4) was diagonally cut into the wall studs to provide triangulization to eleminate sway in the length of the wall. This practice died in the 40's thanks to the availability of plywood, but you know what...... its is still a very viable and strong method of combatting wind shear.

True, but here in earthquake country I like the fact that many of my walls are sheathed in plywood rather than just a few "let in" diagonals. Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when I'm being shaken to my knees (this has happened!).

Cheers,

Gus

[bobhenry]

Gus :

Ya might as well put in the rest of the paragraph.


" Scarfed in joints allow little if any movement between wood members but they are time consuming and time is money so slap on some osb or plywood and nail the hell out of it. I love reading construction specs where you are instructed to nail the sheathing to the studs at 2" on center so now you have 40 to 50 little wedges in line driven into a 1 1/2 inch wide wall stud. I do not have an architectural engineering degree but I thing Abe Lincon was able to split trees into rails with fewer wedges than that. With the products and fasteners we have available today ( look thru a simpson hanger catalogue sometime) we should be able to build a modest road worthy tiny house , it just takes a look backwards at what our forefathers did and re-learn the benefits of different wood species and re-learn wood jointery and a large dose of old fashion common sense might just come in handy too. "
.

However I did take your advice and after installing the let in wind bracing I DID install the rough sawn cedar sheet goods as the sheathing. So I guess I got the best of both , old world, and new world craftsmanship.

[eamarquardt]

However I did take your advice and after installing the let in wind bracing I DID install the rough sawn cedar sheet goods as the sheathing.

I don't recall giving any advice in my post! I merely expressed my thought that I LIKE sheathing as it keeps my house from shaking apart when the "earth moves under my feet".

Why did you take the time to install "let in diagonals" when you sheathed the structure with plywood? I believe in overkill in moderation but that seems like excessive overkill.

However, if you're having fun, have fun!!!!! That's the whole point in doing this. Get what YOU want and have fun along the way.

Cheers,

Gus

[crttaz]

slowcowboy, an ISO shipping container 3/4 buried into the side of a hill is easy to heat, plumbing not so easy.

Set up a wind generator, along with solar panels and even a water generator is near a stream and you'd have plenty of power.

Also great place to hise when a twister comes knocking on the prairie!

[Cliffmeister2000]

I saw a video a year ago about an architectural student who built a pretty amazing "small house". He put it on wheels to get "mobile home" status, because many of the things he did would not have been to code in a fixed home. I wish I could find that video now. It was pretty awesome. As I recall, it was a Canadian effort.

We have a 2,134 Sq Ft home, and we use less than 1/2 of it. We have a combination living room / dining room and 2 bedrooms we don't use. A 3rd bedroom is an office, and it could easily be moved into the master bedroom. The lost art in home-building is functional space, which is what tiny homes are all about! RVs try to re-create big home living in a small space, rather than making the space uber-functional.

Our pioneer ancestors used the house to cook, eat and sleep. They didn't need a bunch of space. If we lived in small spaces, we might spend more time outside!

[crttaz]

A small base camp container and a TT to move about as needed.

slow, I've barely been east of the mighty Miss, was just tossing out ideas.

My personal worst mistake ever, selling my mobile home (12x60) and buying a house. Sure it had a garage but the MH had all the room I needed.

[wilberweb]

I like both. Small homes, RV's, travel trailers, teardrops.With so many folks loosing there homes they can build a small home and put it behind there in-laws, and have a place that doesn't look like there camping.
it feels more like a home. not that campers and trailers cant feel like a home. if you know what I mean.

-Larry

[Cliffmeister2000]

When my grandparents were old and couldn't support themselves, my Father put up a huge tent in the back yard, and they lived in it for a couple of years. The tent might have been as big as 15' x 20', but I was very little, and my mind tends to make things from my childhood larger as I grow older.

[wilberweb]

A lot of hard times for some people.
The small portable homes are fully off the grid with wind power solar.
toilets that are no wast. You can set these tiny homes any where.
the ones that you tow are especially convenient. They look like a home so they can kind of blend in the back yard. Also they can be a guest home or art studio lots of uses. Its more confertable then a tent. I have camped in a tent its real cold in the winter. So in a lot of ways the tiny home is better.
Just my opinion.


-Larry

[logman7777]

Small House (500 sq ft) built to Code + specs , Petter diesel Genset, some solar panels 12 volt well pump and a big A** Pole Barn.. RV's are for travelling and houses are for Living IMHO..

[bobhenry]

Somebody mention rv insulation. The donar carcus for my tiny caboose house had about 1/2" of yellow spun fiberglass and a sheet of 1/2" insulboard laid in over an alumimum water and rock guard. What is the "R" value of that combo ?




That's one reason I am building my own little house

[loaderman]

For me in comes down to-
How portable does it need to be?

Moving far or often - trailer, can build with r20 foam insulation
Fairly permanent, maybe getting around codes - tiny house on wheels.

The only thing is the tiny house will probably be 3-5inches or so narrower because of the walls, not much but may make a difference in a small space.

[accrete]

Older thread but thought i'd put my 2 bits in : )

Short version: For my wife and i an RV because we wanted the option of placement in established resorts/parks that a "Tiny Home" would not be allowed when i did my research.

Long version:
My wife and i were getting tired of the 3 bedroom farmhouse on the acre of land...
The nest was empty thanks to the US Air Force taking good care of our two adult kids...
I spent many a day on the tinyhouse blog and similar sites dreaming of downsizing...

Then my wife caught the fever.

I started asking around the area at some of the local rv resorts as to what was allowed as we did not want to own land or traditional home and wanted to let "Good Sam" do the yardwork ; )

So after two years of research we purchased a nice 2006 (in fall of 2011) DRV Mobile Suite.

This is a shot off the web of our same interior on our 38 footer:



It has all the conveniences of our last home except no yard to maintain and the _view_ can be changed anytime we choose.

It is certainly built better than our old turn-of-the-century farm house. Steel frame/chassis and 3.5" walls with dual pane windows, central air, heat, vac, LED lighting, washer/dryer, etc... Power expense during the WET! Oregon Coast winter was ~15 lbs propane and ~800 KW of electricity for the coldest months... summer months have run Zero propane and ~200 KW electricity. WE LOVE the cozy comfort of the tiny interior, though by "Tiny House" standards it is palatial at 38ft long and full wall slides of both sides making the interior space a measured 14' wide.

New our unit sold for ~127K... we bought it from the original dealer for ~35K in pristine condition as the retired couple who owned it wanted a motor-home in trade. I could not have built such a quality "Tiny House" for this amount with the beauty of traditional hickory wood, corian counters, tile floors, etc for the same amount of $$ and then felt it was at all safe to tow down the road at ~18K lbs!! ( < We pay a buck a mile to a local when needed to move it...but we currently are enjoying seeing the flag of the 6th hole on the golf green out our kitchen windows : )

So there's my long version of why an RV for my wife and i.

Happy Trails,
Thom