Building my tiny house: framing the walls

What was just a flat trailer is now looking more like a tiny house! Sorry for the delay, the framing of the wall was finished back in December 2023, but I just now have found time for this blog post.

Framing tiny house walls is a lot like framing regular house walls: lots of 2x4s and lots of framing nails.

The A-Team started with the “front wall” that includes the front door. We were able to follow the blueprints fairly closely. Before nailing everything together, we measured each piece of lumber we needed. For the footplate, we measured where we needed to drill holes for tie down rods, pipes, and electric wire. I’m quite fond of the drill press, so that easily became my job.

The most time consuming parts were building the headers above the wheel well and the windows. Once we had it all nailed together, it took all three of us (Doug, Phil, and me) to raise the wall up. It was heavy. While Doug and Phil held it up, I ran around and added the tie down rod extensions I made and added a nut and washer to keep it down. I also added a piece of weather resistant seal sill above the wheel well because this was the only part of the house where the metal of the trailer directly touches the framing of the wall.

It took a day to build most of the front wall and the short side wall where the kitchen sink will be. This allowed us to provide some strength to the structure while we waited for another day.

Doug and I then worked on the short wall underneath the gooseneck. This closes in the bathroom. This was definitely the easiest wall because it’s shorter and it’s consistent throughout (no windows or doors). The only hard part was getting it to fit underneath the floor that jutted out on top of the gooseneck. Luckily, we have a good persuader (aka a big hammer).

Then, we were minus a Doug due to a trip. Phil and I decided to tackle the top of the front wall that’s on the gooseneck. Things were going so well: we were measuring, cutting, and nailing things together. Unfortunately, while putting up the wall, one of the studs was not nailed in. It fell on my head. Ouch is an understatement.

Sidebar: Phil has hit me on the head with wood three times. The first time was when we were building cornhole sets a few years ago. He was “holding” onto a cornhole board while I was sitting on the driveway, and it fell on my head. The second time was during my tiny house. He was carrying a long 2×4 and smacked me in the head. Luckily, that didn’t hurt too much. This third time was definitely the worst, and I had a goose egg for a few days. Luckily, no blood, no concussions. Conclusion: I need a hard hat.

We tried again to finish that part of the wall, but then the nail gun stopped working. Doug has owned this nail gun for almost as long as I’ve been alive. It was acting finicky throughout this process, but it finally became a hassle. Phil and I decided to give Doug an early Christmas present: a shiny new framing nail gun!

Even though we weren’t able to finish the wall, Phil and I were able to cut as much lumber as we could for the studs we were confident were the right size. This turned out great because it finishing the other walls was basically like putting together IKEA furniture…sort of.

When Doug came back, we had a lot of renewed energy and motivation. We finished the wall on top of the gooseneck and also the smaller wall at the back of the gooseneck.

On another day, we started the back wall. This was a little easier but also a little harder. It was easier because it was almost a reflection of the front wall, so measurements were easier to validate. It was harder because we had less space. We decided to build this wall in smaller chunks.

The very last piece was the rest of the back wall on top of the gooseneck.

Luckily, we took one more day to finish the wall, and added the extra header along the top of the walls as a bonus.

Framing the walls has definitely been the most impactful project for the tiny house because it gave the house shape. It’s so much easier to picture the space with the walls up. Next up is framing the roof! See y’all then.

Watch the framing of the wall in action: