Tiny House: Windward vs Leeward Sides

The side of the tiny house that faces the tow hitch should be considered the windward side. The side that faces away from the tow hitch should be considered the leeward side. This is because when you tow the tiny house down a highway, the tow hitch side will face directly into the apparent wind and the other side will face away from the apparent wind.

Identifying these sides of the house is more than an academic exercise, it is a functional exercise. The siding on the windward side needs to be much more secure because it will frequently be faced with very high wind speeds! 

The siding on the windward side needs to be fabricated out of solid planks that run the full width of the tiny house. There should be no butt joints on this side as these joints are weaker in high winds. 

Windward side

The leeward side is much more forgiving. There will be very little direct wind on this side and butt joints are allowed. 

This side is sided by all the left over off cuts from the windward side. These pieces are simply set and fitted to one another, making them reach and fit the length needed.

You want to stagger the butt joints though, that way they blend in and disappear into the wall. If you set all the but joints in a single column, it will be very noticeable and will be considered rather unsightly.

Siding Above the Windows

Planking on bare and straight walls is easy to do. Planking around windows or roof peaks are not as easy to do.

Once you reach this point, you have finished the easy work; now begins the more tedious work.

Planking next to the windows requires factoring in the thickness of the trim. I plan to use a 3 inch trim piece next to the siding, and a 5 inch trim piece over it to cover the sides of the siding. The windows need a 3 inch gap between them and the siding, so the gap between the window and edge of the house adds up to 6 inches. This means:

The space between the window and edge of the house - 6 inches = Length of the siding board

After measuring and cutting, these two rows of planks are set and screwed onto the tiny house, covering the ugly siding with these lovely siding planks!

Once the planks next to the windows are complete, it is time to plank into the peak of the roof. Each of these planks will need to be beveled to keep the 3 inch gap necessary for the siding to fit into.

Each plank is set on the hooks and 3 inches are marked perpendicular to the edge of the roof line. Then the plank is removed and cut along these lines, then reinstalled and screwed into the side of the tiny house.

Once you reach the top plank, it will be cut into a triangle shape which will not offer any place to hang the hooks for the next plank. At this point, you are done!

Right Tools for the Job

Fiber cement siding is very easy to work with, as long as you have the right tools for the job. The cheapest and easiest way to cut the siding is with a handheld circular saw.

The most notable difference between a regular circular saw blade and a fiber cement circular saw blade is the number of teeth. A fiber cement circular saw blade will have very few teeth, which may make you think it will cut slowly. Truth is it will slip through fiber cement boards like a hot knife through warm butter!

This saw blade will cut quickly and easily, but it will kick up a lot of dust! Be sure to wear a mask or respirator while you are cutting. It also helps to work outside and stand upwind to the saw while cutting so all the dust will be carried away from you.

Starting the Siding

Shiplap siding is very simple to install, all you need to do is start the process correctly! If there is any discrepancy you are doomed from the start, so take your time to make sure it is perfect!

The first thing you need to do is install the starter strip. A starter strip is merely a ripped section of fiber cement board that is set at the bottom of the first plank. It should be around 2 inches wide and run the length of the wall discontinuously. If the starter strip is continuous, water running down the wall between the siding and wrapping will become trapped between the siding and starter strip. By installing segmented pieces, water is able to drain out through the gaps at the bottom of the wall.

I installed two strips with a nice gap between them and a nice gap near the corners. With these two strips in place, the first plank can be installed.

The first plank is the most important to get straight. On a trailer, there is little that is level. The trailer is probably not on level ground, so a bubble level is pretty much useless. Instead, a fixed known reference point must be used. In our case, the trailer is known to be perfectly flat.

Since the trailer is flat, I can feel safe about using its front edge as a reference point to level the first plank. I set the first plank to overhang the top lip of the trailer by 1/2 of an inch. I propped the plank against the tiny house wall and measured the overhang on the trailer by the prescribed distance. I then verified that it was the same on the other side. Once everything was 1/2 inch of overhang, I screwed it into the tiny house.

With the first plank attached, I then proceeded to set and attach the planks one after another all the way up the front of the house.

With the first plank set properly, all the other planks went on smoothly and easily. As you can see, the planks all went on straight and even, using the simple tool I fabricated out of a metal strap.

Fiber Cement Siding Tools

Fiber cement siding is very easy to install in a shiplap pattern (called lapstrake on boats). This pattern of siding works very well to shed rain water and keep the house dry. Shiplap needs to be installed from the bottom to top, and progress proceeds quickly.

They do sell tooling to install the planks evenly, but these tools cost around $50 to $80 for a set.

These tools are great, and make installation quick and easy. Shiplap siding needs to be even and consistent. If the amount of overlap varies, the siding will look crooked, uneven, and ugly. These tools also let you install the siding alone!

If you don't have any tools, you need two people to install the siding. Each person needs to hold the plank, measure the overlap, and secure the plank. If there are any variations between the amount that overlaps, the job will look sloppy and the end result will look unsightly.

Tools are set to a specific amount of overlap, and simply slip on to the lower plank and hold the next plank in perfect place. A single worker simply sets the plank on the tools and screw it to the wall. Each plank will go on exactly the same as the previous plank with no variation. The result is a very even job that looks professionally finished. All of a sudden, an expensive tool sounds worthwhile!

It's a small price to pay for a high quality result that will last for years to come. The truth is, you can make your own set of tools for a fraction of the price.

I purchased a pair of metal straps which I bent into an "S" shape for $0.92 per metal strap. While the expensive tools are adjustable, allowing you to vary the amount of overlap, these tools are fixed in their size. 

I wanted 6 inches of exposed plank, so I need 2.25 inches of overlap. To manufacture this, I clamped both strips into a vise and beat them into shape with a hammer. I made sure that the bends occurred at the same position on both by forcing the bend to occur at the edge of vise jaw. Both tools were verified for symmetry, and measured to make sure that the length of the body was 2.25 inches.

Installing the siding was very simple, all I had to do was set the tools on the top of the current plank, and then rest the new plank in the tools. The tools held the plank in place while I screwed the plank into the studs.

Some tricks to using these inexpensive tools are:

• Put the tool on the edge of the plank before you tighten the screws all the way, this makes it much easier to get the tool between the plank and the wrapping.
• Tighten the plank once the tool is in place.
• Place the tool half way on and halfway off the edge of the plank to facilitate removal after the new plank is installed.
• Alternate the side you use the tools on with each plank to avoid manifestations of any discrepancy in the lengths of the tools you created.
  • If the tools are off but just a little bit, the planks will not lie evenly and the problem will compound as the siding goes on the house. For example, if the tools are off by 1/16 of an inch, this means that at the 16th plank, the planks will be off by a full inch! 
  • If you alternated the side you use the tools on, the planks would only be off by 1/16 of an inch on each plank, and the 16th plank will still only be off by 1/16 of an inch. 
  • From a distance, 1/16 of an inch discrepancy is very hard to detect, so if your tools are made even better than that, any discrepancy will be even less notable and the end result will be a professional looking job.