joshua tree workshop 2018

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

SAVE a FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS while building your tiny house....

This is a topic I'll be talking about at my Wilmington, NC Tiny House-Building Workshop on April 26th- 28th- HOW TO SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS while building your tiny house, cabin, or travel trailer. We'll put some of these tips into action as we build a tiny guest house as well! There are a TON of tips I talk about, but let me drop one simple one on you by means of a question. First though, I want you to look at this photo....


Now ask yourself, "Did I notice that the floors are mere plywood?". Looks pretty darn decent doesn't it.
     By using plywood, and skipping a second layer of flooring (where applicable), you eliminate one step of work in the path towards your tiny house, the large chunk of time required to lay a tongue and groove floor is done away with (and the need for specialty tools), AND you're only buying plywood for the task.
     Now granted, you're going to have to buy better grade plywood than what you might have otherwise hid under a layer of fancy flooring, but you're saving a large wad of cash, time, and with a simple swabbin' of polyurethane, or some other protectant, these floors still look great! If you're worried about seeing seams, keep in mind that area rugs and furniture may be taking up half of the floor, visually, anyway.


I also love that the walls you see in this photo are structural, but with the addition of thick blocking, also become storage shelves- an age old trick.

Coming up, I'll also have alternate flooring techniques- ALSO money saving! A decent portion of these ideas are in the book "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks", but I've come up with a few new ones since that book was printed.


-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen