How To Frame a Cabin or Tiny House

Today is the first of three days that it took us to frame the off grid cabin walls.

It took two of us just three days to frame all the walls, doors, windows and even start to Tyvek the cabin.

In fact, we built our entire off grid cabin in just 15 days.

Click the calendar below to see the exact build schedule.

That’s from the start of clearing/leveling the land on May 1^st to making the cabin weather tight on May 15^th.

Our cabin is built using regular dimensional lumber and we made every effort to build it according to our residential building codes.

Meaning, it’s built just like a regular home on the grid but with a few special changes that allow for solar, water harvesting, and propane heating.

All our 2′ x 4′ (interior and exterior) walls were constructed 16″ on center however, we really beefed up some the end wall of our main living area.

We used 2′ x  6’s instead of 2′ x 4’s and we’ll detail exactly why further down and in some upcoming posts.

You’ll also discover that our unique truss design is one that most builders have never seen before.

It’s a rare technique that I’m extremely happy my dad decided to incorporate and one we’ve seen several folks use after we’ve shared it here.

Stay tuned for more about that roof design coming up in our Ultimate Roof & Rafter Guide.

In our last post we had just completed the floor joists, putting down the sub floor and building the front deck.

Today let’s get started with the framing!

Our cabin is built using regular dimensional lumber and we made every effort to build it according to our residential building codes.

All our 2′ x 4′ (interior and exterior) walls were constructed 16″ on center however, we really beefed up some the end wall of our main living area.

We used 2′ x  6’s instead of 2′ x 4’s and we’ll detail exactly why further down and in some upcoming posts.

You’ll also discover that our unique truss design is one that most builders have never seen before.

It’s a rare technique that I’m extremely happy my dad decided to incorporate and one we’ve seen several folks use after we’ve shared it here.

Stay tuned for more about that roof design coming up in our Ultimate Roof & Rafter Guide.

Here’s a quick run down of the basics of framing to get you oriented if it’s a first time for you.

None of this is difficult and it was my first time building anything.

Headers run horizontally across the top of door and window rough openings. These support the weight of floor joists, ceiling joists, and rafters. Each header has a king stud nailed to either end with a cripple nailed under each end. If the header is longer than 5 feet then the cripple must be doubled up. Standard height of door and window headers is 6′ 10 7/8″. Of course this can vary depending on your design.

Framing Corners

Remember when framing corners to allow for a nailing surface on both side of the corner for your drywall. Here are a few different methods for framing in that nailing surface.

  

Framing Intersecting Interior Walls

Like the corner, when you frame an intersecting wall remember to allow for a nailing surface on both side of your corner.

Here is one of our favorite YouTube builders Shannon from HouseImprovments giving a complete run down on framing.

You can see the complete floor plan design in this post but below is a quick reminder if you haven’t seen it.

TIP: We used a free app on the iPad called Roomle to draw up a 2D and a 3D rendering of the cabin.

You can see our complete floor plan post here.

You can see the complete floor plan design in this post but below is a quick reminder if you haven’t seen it.

TIP: We used a free app on the iPad called Roomle to draw up a 2D and a 3D rendering of the cabin.

Our first end wall is 16’ long and has one window for the bathroom. This exterior end wall is build with 2’X4′ 16″o.c.
However, the opposing end wall will be constructed with 16″ o.c. 2′ x 6″ instead of the standard 16″ o.c. 2′ x 4’s as the living room will have a cathedral ceiling. This outside end wall will need to support the full weight of two floors as well as the roof and it’s winter load.

TIP: The ONLY way we were able to frame this cabin in 3 days and build it completely in 15 days came down to…

1. We had a clear plan from the start.
2. The Dewalt cordless nail gun

This easily shaved of an entire week off the build which would have been spent hammering and recuperating from sore forearms.

If I could recommend one tool to make your life a lot easier this would be it hands down!

Wall bracing is required while we frame to not only keep the wall up and steady with just two people but it allows us to finely plumb and square the wall before nailing it down.

Wall bracing is required to not only keep the wall up while framing the second wall but it allows you to finely plumb and square the wall before nailing it down.

Another must have in order to build this cabin in such short order was this DeWalt double bevel sliding compound miter saw.

It was fast to cut through even the largest of our lumber, was quiet, ran off our Champion 3250 Watt generator and ensured every cut was perfectly square.

UPDATE: We’ve since updated our generator to the Generac GP3000i and it is a massive improvement! You can read the reviews on the GP3000i here and see the latest prices as well.

 

TIP: Always ensure that the wall are both square and plum using a large framing square in the corners as well as a long (preferably 4′) level.

The back wall will be 20’ long in total but we built in two sections for ease of lifting.

We built the front wall (20’) in two 10′ sections as well for ease of lifting.

The front wall framing will have an opening for a kitchen window, the front door, and two living room windows.

We went with two living room windows for a few reasons.

On, it was MUCH cheaper to buy two windows than one large one.

Both windows still allow the same amount of light in and provide just as good a view than one large one.

Second, we wanted to be able to open the front windows (especially near the wood stove) and Home Depot didn’t have a window large enough that slides open.

We’ll give you all the window and door sizes, as well as a full cost write up in a future post once we have them all installed.

Tomorrow we’ll finish up the back wall, put up some more plywood sheathing to continue closing in the cabin and also get a head start on the upper floor joists.

Remember the living room (the walls that aren’t framed yet) will have a cathedral ceiling above so there sill be no floor joist above them.

If you’ve enjoyed this post do us a solid and share it with the buttons you see on the side. Your the reason it gets out there :)

We also always make a Pinterest photo for those avid pinners out there!