Tiny House Caulking

Caulk is merely the sealant that will keep air and water from slipping between the cracks in the tiny house. If you did not use any caulk, the tiny house would be much draftier and leaky. 

This caulk is made to fill voids and seal up the outside of your house. It can be painted easily, allowing it to be covered up and forgotten as the exterior is finished. 

Application is very simply using a caulk gun to extrude the contents onto the walls and seal everything up. It is a good idea to apply the caulk right before you apply the trim boards so that the caulk is still wet when the trim is applied. This will further promote a good seal by sealing to the trim board as well as the rest of the house. 

On the windward side of the tiny house, it is imperative that you seal up everything very well as this side of the tiny house will be exposed to very strong winds when being towed down a road. Sealing up everything will prevent wind damage from occurring as you tow your tiny home down the road.  

Trim Setup

The trim on the tiny house will be 5 inch boards that will overlap the lapstrake siding. To make the trim fit well, first we need to setup the underplaying components. 

For the 5 inch trim to lay flat, it needs to be raised to the level of the siding. To do this, a lower layer needs to be placed in the gap between the siding and the edges. This thin board is the thickness of the siding, and provides a flush surface for the 5 inch trim boards. 

As you can imagine, this means that all the trim work needs to be done twice. Once for the 3 inch and once for the 5 inch. 

The trim needs to line every window and door, as well as finish off the edges of the siding. It is rather time consuming, but it is not the most difficult job in the process. Perfection is not needed as all of these boards will be covered by the 5 inch, all you need to do is make everything become flush. 

Final Trim Boards

The 5 inch trim boards need to be of a cosmetic quality. They need to fit flush and well because they will be the final cosmetic result. 

The 5 inch trim boards overlay the 3 inch trim boards and overlap onto the tiny house siding. These boards cover any discrepancies in the fit of the siding and hide any irregularities or imperfections. 

Before the 5 inch boards are installed, it is imperative that you caulk the seams to avoid intrusion of water between the siding and the trim. The caulk should be applied right before the 5 inch trim board is installed so that it adheres to the trim board as well. 

On the windward side, it is very important to fully caulk the edge between the trim board and siding. If gaps are present, high winds can get under the boards and cause wind damage to the tiny house. By filling everything with caulk, the wind is shunted away and the structural integrity is maintained. 

It is also important to order the trim boards properly. The front board needs to overlap the side board so that the leading edge of the side board is hidden in the wind shadow of the front board. When installing the trim board, have an offcut to gauge the placement of the trim boards. This will prevent any mistakes that could be made while you are attaching the boards. 

With your depth set, screw the trim boards in and counter sink the screws so that they can be covered with putty at a later point.  

With the front board attached, caulk can be applied to the side and the side trim board can be attached behind the front trim board. The 5 inch trim boards cover over the edges of the lap siding and make everything look uniform and complete. 

Trimming the Roof

The rafters of the roof were installed full length with no regards for the size of the roof. This resulted in very long overhangs which have served to bump my head repeatedly over the course of the construction process. Today is the day these pesky overhanging 2x4s get cut to size! 

The overhang needs to be within the legal limits of width for the trailer, which is 8.5 feet. As long as I stay within the width of the fenders, I know I'm legal! 

The roof with the loft was easy to trim, I added a thin strip of plywood to the rafters to give the roof an eve. This section was easy to cut as the roof line was marked by the end of the plywood strip. All I needed to do was cut the rafters with a handsaw.  

The next section to cut is the roof over the great room, which has a much steeper pitch and plywood extending a long ways beyond the edge of the roof. I marked where I want the roof to be cut with a marker and then strung a rope across the roof to generate a straight line. I traced the rope with a sharpie and then used this line as my guide for the circular saw. 

Cutting the plywood was rather straight forward, all I had to do was hold the saw firmly and cut straight along the line. The pitch of the roof was transferred to the skillsaw, allowing the blade to cut along the angle with a vertical end to the roof. The saw was also set to only cut through the plywood, not the rafters as well.

The rafters now have a slight notching in them indicating to me where to cut with the handsaw.

After cutting all the rafters, my arms were tired and I needed a rest. At least the tiny house is looking more like a house and less like a jumble of wood. 

Underlaying Trim

The first layer of trim is the 3 inch boards that flank the lapstrake siding. These boards will bring the cosmetic layer flush to the top of the siding, allowing the 5 inch boards to cover the siding without any obstructions.

The 3 inch boards are simply fitted as close as possible to the siding's edge with little regard for perfection. The gaps will be filled with caulk and this mess will be covered by the 5 inch trim board. The 3 inch boards simply bring the 5 inch  board up to the level of the siding so that there is no interference and the trim boards can go on effortlessly and cleanly.

The trim that lines the roof is very important because it tacks the tar paper in place wrapping over the edge of the roof. The shingles will cover this area and provide extra water protection.

Battens were added on the roof to hold the tar paper in place and avoid any tears. If the tar paper were left free over the roof, it could rip off in strong winds and negate any of the benefits of tacking the tar paper under the trim.