A Lesson On Subfloors, And An Alternative For Drywall

           The Title Sounds Boring But Really It's Not

If I had to resort to anything but the real thing we need to do the first layer of the subfloor, I have wondered what should/could we use?

It needs to be airtight, somewhat waterproof, free of course since we are doing all of this with no budget what so ever so I have pondered.

Could I use metal? Where could I get it? How would I apply it? Should it be flat? or corrugated? Would it keep the bugs out? Would it make the floor noisy? Would the floor sweat if there was a fast warm up as the temperatures dropped, and would that cause dampness and then mold. Well, darn, yes it would. The only way to avoid that is to use cement. That is out of the question for this build. Time and money we do not have.

So I have searched a bit and it seems, no it is not a good idea. But I can use pallets, it seems we will need to do a bit more nail pulling than I expected

Insulation does go over the layer and then an additional sheeting of chip board could be the top of the subfloor.

If you look at the two pictures below the first one you can see the many layers that go into the sub floor. The flooring I am talking about changing out the wood is the one that is now grey in the second picture. That is what holds the insulation in place. under the floor. Even thought this is a temporary house, we still need to figure out how to stay warm. Insulating the floor is rather important. So, there are the stringers, they are usually 2" by 6", then there is the layer that holds the insulation, then there is the insulation, and then there is the upper subfloor layer. You can leave it at that or do what we plan on doing and add a layer of variegated stained boards out of pallets.

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These sheets are at least $9.99 per sheet. We need I estimated 23 more sheets, if I can glean all of that we will save $239.76 on the floor. We will have to use good plywood or something strong for the floor, I believe, if we put down the chipboard we can then piece a lovely floor in with pallet boards if we run them through a table saw, to make them even and then stain them randomly before we nail them down. Once down, a good sanding and a few coats of polyurethane and we will have a lovely floor.  Gleaning has been the way we have been procuring the materials for the build. It is our only option and we have been jumping on as much of the offerings on craigslist as well as all the other places to find free leftovers both from old builds that are being torn down, to even one piece by one piece offerings from friends and friends of friends.

Pallets of course are free for the taking all over Spokane if you take the time to gather them. Yes, they do have to be torn apart.

We are neither too proud to glean and sweat by lifting and toting nor to embarrassed to accept help at this stage. We must have this Huge Tiny House built by fall or we will indeed be living in a tent all winter. I'm not so sure I can manage that, although my husband seems to be made of ice in the winter and runs around sleeveless. Of course he IS native Alaskan American so this is all easy peasy for him to imagine. I am looking forward to this change, I have not lived out in the woods and we will be doing just that. I will whine here on this blog for dramatic interest but deep down even though this has all come about because of a series of uncontrollable situations, from medical/health costs to theft, from economy losses to five different moves for our store, playing catchup sometimes is not enough.  At least we have the nerve to pull it off. Someone said to me, you can't do that, they of course said a few other choice things all of which made us think just watch, better yet give us a hand, we will do it, we will prove it is possible for anyone to do it and we will be able to apply what we have learned to helping others rebuild in the same way. This journey may be the answer to our unhomed problems right now but we will be able to help the next person down the road when it is there turn to need housing.

I'm telling you right now it will be adorable too. As an artist, I can take anything even seriously ugly and make it sing with beauty. As an example, we were given quite a few solid core doors. So many my husband was shaking his head as to what in the world would we do with them. Well below you can see a picture of one of the walls. We have enough doors to cover most of the walls on the interior. We plan on cutting the doors into two sizes. On the bottom we will make wainscoting by cutting the bottom of the doors off. Where there are holes for door knobs, we will fill and putty and sand until those disappear. On the top of the wall we will again, using the doors trim a section to cover the top. This is an old style of wall cladding these raised panels but I like the look and with the doors being at least an inch thick they will add a remarkable amount of insulation on the walls. Top and bottom we will have thin shelves for storage and decoration.  In-between we will layer pallet pieces in a staggered pattern. All will be painted and then sanded back to look shabby chic. I am the first person to admit that I am a bit hard on things so if we incorporate the scuffed and kicked up look throughout this Huge Tiny House, it will not be obvious. The windows we have already gleaned. Enough to put throughout the walls for good lighting.  

I'm sure whatever we use, whatever we find, we will get the job done. Don't hesitate to offer us your leftovers. We will jump for joy if we are offered whatever you have to give.