As the tarp on the roof turns to shreds, the siding slowly comes to life on the tiny house. The top may look like Hell, but the sides are receiving new life as the work progresses from the bottom up.
Once all the siding is finished and the trim work installed, the roof will go on and the tiny house will be transformed from a dilapidated shamble into a tiny home!
These little hooks were manufactured out of metal straps that cost $0.92 instead of paying $50 to $80 for mass manufactured tools.
The concept is simple, slide the hook onto the top of the last plank installed and rest the next plank in the hooks that hang out. The new plank is now level, straight, and held in place while you are free to move around and screw it into the studs.
You don't have to measure and hold each plank as you try to get a uniform result, instead you simply rest the plank and get to work. It is a good idea to audit your work periodically and measure the amount of plank displayed to make sure you are within the tolerable limits of your job.
When you are shopping for tools for your project, don't be swayed to purchase the most expensive tool for the job and focus more on making the right tool for the right price for the job!
Butt joints are a nifty trick that lets you plank a row that is longer than the longest board you have available. Siding planks tend to come in twelve foot sections. On regular houses, a single wall could be much longer than twelve feet and butt joints are necessary. On tiny houses, butt joints are used for different reasons.
Due to windows, doors, and other features on the side of a tiny house, there are rarely sections where a twelve foot plank will not reach. Instead, butt joints are utilized to use off cut siding planks. For example:
The windward side is seven feet wide.
Three inches on each side is needed for trim space, so each plank needs to be six feet and six inches long.
If you cut a twelve foot plank at the six foot six inch mark, you now have a perfectly good plank that measures five foot six inches left over as an off cut. Instead of throwing these off cuts out, you can reuse them on the leeward side.
If you use a plank that is five foot six inches long, you need an additional piece that is one foot long. Connecting them with a butt joint will fill in the necessary length and give the tiny house the appearance you are looking for.
Butt joints are merely edge setting two planks next to each other close enough that they appear to blend together. The corners on the lower end of the butt joint are weaker and can be lifted by strong winds (which is why they should only be used on the leeward side and never on the windward side).
To guarantee a tight butt joint, be certain to only use "primed edge" sides for the butt joint. The siding planks come coated in primer, and the edges that have primer on them are perfectly square and flat. Edges that you cut with a hand saw may be off by a few degrees. While it may look straight enough in your hand, they will result in an open looking butt joint that will draw a lot of attention.
By placing two "primed edges" next to each other, you are sure to have a very tight butt joint that will blend into the house and not be noticed.
Butt joints also allow water to penetrate the siding, which is why it is a good idea to place extra tar paper under each butt joint. A tar paper shingle will help shed any water that works its way in between the butt joint.
Carefully staggering butt joints on the leeward side of the tiny house will allow you to reuse off cut sections of siding that would otherwise be lost as waste. Reusing your materials will help reduce the cost of materials by reducing the amount of waste you generate. Reducing your costs and wastes is a big part of tiny house living, so why not start this philosophy during the construction process?
The leeward side of the tiny house has a much steeper roof and much shorter walls. The walls are only 6 feet high, yet the roof reaches 13 feet! This means that the majority of the leeward wall is going have angled ends to the siding planks.
The plank above the window is the last piece that has straight ends, all the planks above this one will have beveled ends to accommodate the pitch in the roof. From a visual point of view, it is best to make this plank a continuous one with no butt joints. This plank will receive considerable visual attention and a butt joint will draw the eye to the blemish instead of blending in with the rest of the wall. The butt joints are visible in the lower planks, but they blend in with the rest of the wall below the window.
The planks are all set, measured, and cut to maintain a three inch gap between the end of the plank and the roof line. I also avoided butt joints in the pitched part as they would only add complexity to the beveling process of the siding installation.
The siding proceeded quickly and with no hard labor. The only added complexity to siding this part as compared to the lower (square) part was the additional trips up and down the ladders. These trips up and down simply add steps to the installation and steps take time. On cold fall days, daylight is a limited resource so time is of the essence. Once the sun sets, the temperature drops and working conditions become unbearable (for me at least). To reduce working times, having all of your tools set up and materials right by the house keeps the amount of walking under control and helps increase efficiency which decreases installation time.
Siding is not rocket science, it just requires repeatable and consistent working. This will produce a uniform looking job that will last for years.
The battens that hold the wrapping in place need to be removed as you install the new siding. You may be tempted to just install the siding over the battens, but this will lead to long term problems.
Siding installed over the battens will look undulated. The battens would be high spots and the gaps between would be low spots. The result is a wave look to the walls that is only remedied by removing the siding, removing the battens, and installing new siding once again.
Removing battens is very easy. All you need to do is rip it off! The batten will bend easily and snap off at the next screw that holds it in. Be sure to remove the screws as they will also lead to the same wavy look you are trying to avoid.
You don't want to remove all the battens before you begin because the battens do help hold the paper in place until you reach there with the siding.
You can see the torn batten showing at the top of the picture. The dark black lines were where the freshly removed battens were covering the tar paper. The tar paper under the battens was shielded from the sun and never faded.
Removing battens is very easy and can be done incrementally as the siding goes on the tiny house. As the siding reaches the next set of screws, the battens are simply snapped shorter and the screws removed. Then the tar paper was instantly covered by the siding planks, tucking them away behind the siding forever removed from sight.
