Pulling a Tiny House 180
No plan is perfect on the first try. Many of you have seen the designs I have posted over the last few weeks, all these plans were based on a 20-foot trailer that I was planning on having custom built. As fate would have it my dad and his wife are looking to get rid of an old FEMA trailer and sell the property it sits on. So it now appears as though I will be able to salvage and reuse a 28 foot FEMA trailer instead of a 20-foot tiny house trailer. This is great as I will be able to learn a thing or 2 about building on a trailer when it comes time to demo, plus the money I will be saving is pretty nice too. It’s not all daisies and roses however as there are pros and cons to this new direction.
Cons:
The biggest concern I have with using this trailer as a tiny house foundation is weight limitations. The Gross Vehicle Weight for the FEMA is merely 7900lbs, while the planned 20-foot trailer was rated for 10000 GVW. This means I am going to have to get creative with the design and materials I use to construct to house. Although the FEMA trailer is 28 feet long I may end up only building interior space on 20-24 feet and use the remaining for a light weight porch. I will also more than likely need to reinforce the trailer frame with some steel.
Formaldehyde, not something I want to be surrounded by. A lot of the former FEMA trailers were built with parts made with formaldehyde, which in short term stays is probably fine, but not so good for long term living. This means that most of the building components, walls, paneling, cabinets will not be salvageable.
Pros (Besides the obvious money saved)
Reuse of parts and appliances. The trailer has a refrigerator, oven, stove and microwave in good condition that should easily be reused in any new design. I am hoping to be able to salvage as much of the plumbing as well. (fresh water lines any way, as I have mentioned before I am not a big fan of handling anything dookie related.) I am still planning on using a tank-less water heater, but if need be I can use the RV water heater. I should also be able to reuse the RV electrical system, which will save me time figuring the electrical system from scratch.
I know I won’t get much, but I should be able to get a few bucks recycling the aluminum and various other metals I come across during demolition. As long as I get enough for a post demolition case of beer I will be happy.
In the end the biggest problem that needs to be solved is the weight. Quite frankly I feel as though if I keep it in mind in the design stage the weight will not be a major problem as I am not planning on dragging the tiny house cross country. Once the house is finished it will have about a 100 foot move to its permanent home outside the Rusted Nail Shop.
Blogs that I have come across of people who have built on a salvaged travel trailer
