Before work can begin in earnest, a dedication seems in order. This is the “tongue plate” – a flat piece of sheet steel that spans the arms of what’s called the tongue, namely the yoke that connects the hitch receiver to the trailer body itself.
FRHT is hereby official.
Much later, I decided I didn’t much care for the name “fritt” or the other odd sounds people would make as they tried to simply pronounce FRHT as a word. I’ve since come to refer to the project as “HomeBox”, though M still calls it “Fritt” — DBS 2019-10-11.
In prior homes, whenever I had the walls open for renovation, repair, or other improvements, I would frequently write on the exposed bones of the house little blessings, mantras, manifestations, etc.. These would of course get covered up by drywall, flooring, etc., but I’d know they were there and they become part of the energy of the home.
This home is no different. Here, Melissa, armed with a paint pen, performs perfect penmanship perched precariously on a pine platform.
Here are all the things that were written. Each located about the floor plan quite intentionally.
“Welcome Friends” is where the door will go.
“Happy healthy safe and strong” (thanks, Lorelei), is in the kitchen.
The others are located appropriate to their message
It turned out that some layout changed were required long after these blessings were laid in, putting some distance between the specific sentiments and the locations they were intended to imbue. This is okay — the sentiments are really imbued into the whole structure, not just the specific location of inscription. DBS 2019-10-11.
And now, dedication and blessings applied, it’s time to get to work for real. I am *still* waiting for the mobile welder to fix the tail light, but I realized that I can get most of the floor deck done except the corner by the tail light while I wait. And so I shall. Step 1 is affixing a 2×4 skirt all around the frame with #14 self-drilling screws, driving them through the wood and right into the steel frame of the trailer chassis. This is not as easy as you might think. Yeah, they are “self drilling”. Yeah, it’s a big deal to drill into steel. Shown here, the Very First Screw driven, marking the legitimate commencement of construction.
Here you can see the threaded coupler welded to the side of the chassis. A 5/8″ diameter rod will be threaded into this and special high-strength hold-down brackets will be threaded on to the rods, tying the framing studs to the chassis in 8 places, two on each side of the chassis. Those are the primary means by which the house stays attached to the trailer.
Secondarily, the sheathing plywood will extend down to the skirt and be screwed to it.
Tertiarily, the sole plates of the walls (a scrap of 2×4 is positioned thus, for reference) will also be screwed down to the skirt joist.
Of course the sole plate will have a hole drilled in it to allow the rod to pass through to the brackets which will be mounted above them.
Oh! Some good news! Remember a while back I was concerned that this side marker light wire was going to interfere with the skirt joist lumber? Well, it turns out the 2×4 lumber I was instructed to install clears the bracket by at least a finger’s width, meaning there is no interference and, should it become necessary to service that wire, it is totally reachable, even after siding is installed. Yay!
Skirt joist installed pretty much all around. Next up, install XPS foam board in each of those bays, on top of the flashing (bright sheet metal).
Of course, there are wires and other things casually strung about the space which must be accommodated. Behold, the notch at the top of the foam board.
Some of the cross-members (shown here just to the left of the “walls” caption) are actually Z shapped. This means the left edge of the XPS foam board has to tuck under it. That’s not a big problem for the first board, but it takes TWO boards to fill the depth of the bay.
Okay, no problem, right? Just lay a second board atop the first. Except XPS doesn’t slide. And it compresses, but only a little. And sometimes the Z member is a little bit angled such that there is 2.9 inches of clearance for 3.0 inches of XPS board. Which won’t slide on itself and it won’t compress enough to shove it under… certainly not when the friction keeps it from sliding. Hmf. What to do?
This is a view from BENEATH the trailer. There’s just under 2 feet of clearance. My finger points to a gap between the screw and the flashing. This was the first part of my two factor approach to dealing with the 2.9 inch clearance for a 3.0 inch non-sliding stack of XPS boards. Loosen the screw 0.2 inches to make some room, then tighten it up afta. Sounds like a good plan, right?
It wasn’t enough.
So… what can I use that will lubricate the XPS boards such that they will slide past each other under the lip of the Z bracket under a little compression? It has to be something that won’t degrade the foam (no oils or petroleum-based lubricants) and won’t encourage mold (no water). Hm. I know! My old standby dry lubricant: bar soap! 99.44% perfect for making rigid dry things slide more easily and is chemically quite gentle to whatever it touches.
You can use this for old wood-on-wood drawer slides, too, if you happen to have antique furniture in your world.
So, after crawling around beneath the trailer to loosen the screws holding the flashing, lubing up the edges of the XPS boards so they’ll slide under the Z bracket, after measuring and cutting and accommodating the wires, etc., I got all of two bays fully insulated. That’s actually two 4×8 sheets of XPS, each cut more or less in half and stacked two thickenesses high. Actual dimensions of the bays are 21 and 24″ wide x 91″ long. Happily, the XPS is relatively easy to trim by scoring and snapping. Unhappily, if you get it wrong by less than an inch or so, it’s not easy to trim (neatly) by small amounts. One winds up shdredding the edge a bit. It’s no big deal, really, but it is messy.
Did you notice it’s night in this picture? Yep. Taken about 9pm. Weekday evening work is going to be largely done in the dark, since, well, it’s dark in the evening and is getting darker sooner, given the position of the wheel of the year.
No problem, I have weather proof work lights. I try to aim them such that they do not impinge on my neighbors’ windows.
Just two bays tonight? Yep. Some time was spent moving plywood that had been stored on the trailer out of the way. Some time spent fussing with the XPS boards trying to make them fit. Some time was spent thinking about how else to make them fit (loosening screws below, using soap). Some time was spent crawling below to loosen (then tighten) the screws. Some time was spent finding a nut driver that fit the screw heads… then more time to tidy up. Slow and steady. I told you my goal was two years, right? Two years, a couple of hours at a time, plus some weekends.