Framing a tiny house is much like framing a normal house just on a smaller scale. The only real difference is securing the house for transportation. The walls must be attached securely to the trailer and strapping or bracing must be installed to prevent the house from shifting. The extent of these measures will depend on what you have planned for your tiny house. Since we didn’t plan on moving frequently, and would only travel at relatively low speeds, less extreme measures could be taken. Some of the builds we came across in our research were designed to be towed around all over the place much like a travel trailer. In these cases, we saw extensive strapping all the way around the house or even cables attaching the roof to the trailer. Knowing how you plan on using the trailer will help you to determine how much strapping and other reinforcements you will need.
Don't be discouraged if you don't have a shop to build your tiny house in. We didn't even have a flat surface to build our walls on so we used the deck of the trailer.
Once the walls are erected bracing them well is important so they don't shift. Make sure to brace in all directions; something we forgot to do! Watch the video for more details.
Note the short lengths of 2x4"s used to prevent the wall sliding off the trailer as the walls are raised.
Make sure to have enough people to raise the walls safely. We got excited after building the first piece of wall and recklessly tried to raise it. As a result, the 200+lb. framing fell on my wife, Aimee's, foot and we had to make a trip to the emergency room.
We bolted the walls to the trailer and used several different types of strapping to prevent shifting.
Here the framing completed and under tarps for the rain!
I cover the framing process in greater detail in this video
My Website: CanadianRenegade.com
