Building My Tiny House: Framing the Floor

It’s been a few weeks, but the tiny house floor has been framed and is half-insulated!

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Framing the floor with the lumber was actually really easy to do. Just cut the wood to size and nail together. However, there were a bunch of little steps in between to ensure I have the BEST floor for my tiny house.

My trailer, from Tiny House Basics, is a trailer designed for tiny homes. The joists in the trailer are built that way so the trailer can act as the subfloor. However, when I worked with Summit Tiny Homes on my design, we discovered it was much easier to run water pipes and electrical through wooden joists. Thus, we decided to build a lumber frame on top of the metal frame that came with the trailer.

The beginning

The first trip to Home Depot was getting the lumber, glue, and metal brackets. The original specs that I gave to Summit Tiny Homes was a little off than the trailer I got, so we had to recalculate how much lumber we’d need, and how many of each size.

We wanted to glue the wooden frame to the trailer and then use metal brackets attached to the wood and the trailer to tighten that gap and ensure the wood adhered to the trailer. Ideally, this would help to ensure a solid foundation that wouldn’t move or squeak.

Like I mentioned before, creating the wooden frame was super easy. I was in charge of cutting the lumber to size. Doug had the *brilliant* idea to cut notches in the wood to more easily run water pipe and electrical through the floor. He was in charge of the table saw to make those happen. Although I did give it a go at least once to say I did it. 🙂

We then put the wood on the trailer to see how it would all work together, which concluded day 1.

Day 2: Nailing it all together

Day 2 was all about nailing the frame together. We wanted to make sure all the boards were straight before nailing them. Doug has a nail gun that is powered by an air compressor. This thing is a beast and was way too terrifying for me to use, so Doug did most of the power tool work here.

There were a few areas where the boards were pretty twisted, so I got to use this huge wrench to help align the board while Doug nailed the pieces together.

Day 3: Adding metal brackets and insulation

I cut the metal brackets I got from Home Depot in half, and Phil used the drill press to make the holes a little bit bigger. Doug and Phil went ahead and drilled the metal brackets into the metal part of the trailer. This was to prep for the glue day, so that once we did add glue, all we’d have to do was screw the wood side into the bracket to tighten the seal.

There were areas of the trailer where the wooden frame went across an open space in the trailer frame. Before gluing everything together, we got a piece of 2″ foam board insulation to add to those areas. The foam board is pretty stiff, so it would have been much harder to add these after the frame was glued down.

Day 4: Rinse and repeat on the gooseneck

Doug had to go to Arkansas for a few weeks, which meant I was missing a big part of my A-Team! The rest of us had to focus more on wine duties while he was out. I luckily got to fit in a day of small tasks for the tiny house.

I added the rest of the insulation into the sides of the trailer. I’m pretty weary of the table saw, so I used a regular old hand saw. It suuuuucked, and it was so hot outside. It took forever, and I was a hot and sweaty mess. I also cut the rest of the metal brackets and used the drill press to make the holes bigger. I then climbed on top of the gooseneck and screwed the metal brackets into the trailer.

Day 5: Drain holes and gluing the frame down

When Doug came back from his trip, we got down to figuring out where the drain holes should go. Many hours were spent ensuring the shower drain was in the right place before we drilled anything. There are so many more things that you have to account for than you initially think!

Once we were confident on that, we drilled holes for the drains for the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, shower, and toilet.

We were finally ready to glue the sucker down! Phil and I held up the frame while Doug added the glue. Once that was done, we went back and screwed in the top of the metal brackets into the wooden frame. Success!

Day 6: Adding the rest of the insulation

All that we had to do now was put in the rest of the foam board insulation into the trailer part of the subfloor. The trailer is exactly 4″ high, so I was able to use two layers of the 2″ foam board.

Preston helped me and Doug fit the rest of the insulation. Luckily, Doug used the table saw to cut the board to width, and then I used the hand saw to cut the sheets to length. We were a well-oiled A-Team machine. Once the insulation was in, we had to drill matching holes where the drains would be. I got to revisit underneath the trailer to do this. Let’s just say it was MUCH easier to do this than attaching the belly pan!

Up next

Next on the list is plumbing rough-in, which I’m in the middle of right now. I’m using PEX, and it’s been way easier than I could hope for. I can’t wait to show you the progress!