Simple off grid Cabin that anyone can build & afford

[Music] everybody needs someplace to get away to an off-grid cabin a tiny house somewhere out of the way and out of the stream of what's going on today in the world a little cabin like this doesn't need to be expensive and it doesn't need to be complicated in this video my wife brooke and i are going to show you guys how to build a small efficient very simple very affordable getaway cabin [Music] first thing you need to do is choose a site brooke and i have a section of our property that overlooks a big field without any obstructions in the view no houses or barns or anything else a long view to the north so we've chosen this spot with a fantastic view and we're gonna butt the cabin right up tight against this big red pine now this red pine is probably 20 inches across at the bottom but it's only about a 20-foot tree it's real stumpy and thick so we're not worried that it's ever going to be a problem blowing over on the building first thing is to clear the site get all the branches out of the way in the area that the cabin's going to go and get that area nice and cleaned out now brooke and i have been building cabins for 20-some years and we always pick a spot that feels right that's the criteria it's got to be a place that you like to be it's got to be a place that you feel inspired to build something that's basically all we go on just look for a good spot where a cabin looks like it belongs there [Music] now that we've got all those branches caught up moved out of the way thrown into trash piles and cut into flavor wood we're to the point now we can pick a corner we're gonna pick where the uphill corner goes that's closest to the tree then we're gonna figure everything out from that point and then we're gonna start digging in our foundation pads and when it comes to a foundation our whole intention with this project is to show you the cheapest simplest way we could think of to put in a foundation [Music] now the bigger the building the better the foundation has to be when you get into a small building like this it doesn't need much of anything for a foundation and it's a light enough building that it can be adjusted to compensate for any movement in the ground so there is no reason to do a real foundation for a cabin this size and that cuts a lot of the cost out of it i spent most of my 20s and early 30s as a cement contractor i know a thing or two about foundations this is probably the least expensive way i could think of to get a building out of the ground but it's only for a small building now we're going to use concrete footing pads these are for a pole barn type construction it's just a round concrete cookie you can buy at lowe's or home depot they're about 45-50 pounds a piece they cost about 1.75 each we're going to put one of these pads at each corner where a corner post from the cabin is going to go down to the ground we're also going to put one mid span between one corner and the next we're also going to put an additional block right in the very center of the cabinet in case we want to stiffen the floor later with some center floor support now this cabin is going to be 10 foot by 12 foot with a single pitched roof the back wall is going to be a total of six feet high and the front wall is going to be a total of eight feet high so brook is laying out the top and bottom plates for the back wall right now getting a jump on the framing while i finish up the foundation then after that she's going to cut the studs that go in that back wall [Music] hmm [Music] by the time we have all the concrete pads in the ground and everything's packed in and ready to go we've got about 20 into the foundation not bad not bad [Music] [Music] and just like that we're ready to start building the floor now this floor is going to be built out of two by sixes rough sawn two by six as we bought from the amish now these are two inches wide and a full six inches deep and they're plenty stout for a small floor like this [Music] now building a floor like this is just a matter of building a simple box this cabin is going to be 10 foot by 12 foot so to build the actual box of the floor we're going to use two 12 foot two by sixes and two that are ten foot minus four inches and they're going to go inside on the ends so all together our total dimensions are going to be 10 by 12. once we've got the box tacked together we're just going to pull it up level on some temporary supports and from this point we can do our layout and drop in our floor joists one at a time [Music] you'll notice once we get it settled down in i just put one nail in and i walk away to get the next four joists put a nail in her side we're ready to set the next one in we'll nail all this up once it's all together once the frame of the floor is built we're going to make sure it's good and level and then we're going to take and measure down to the existing concrete pads and cut the legs that are going to support this cabin for that we're using a pressure treated six by six i'll show you more on that [Music] later [Music] do [Music] do [Music] now that all our floor joists are in place we're going to finish nailing them off we're using a it's like it's a 24 penny galvanized spike it's like a four and a half inch nail because this rough cut lumber is so much thicker than store-bought lumber you need a bigger nail not to mention the galvanized i like to use galvanized whenever i can just for the the grabbing power of the galvanized nail [Music] when we're done nailing in the joists we're gonna put the joist hangers in now joist hangers come in an inch and a half and this is two inch lumber so i've taken our joist hangers and kind of re-manufactured them to fit a good solid two by six i think you can buy them in two inches but i just picked these up locally and that's what they had so i had to make them fit that's not a problem now this is super easy work that anybody can do and if you start late in the day and you work slow maybe that's as far as you'll get it's the end of day one [Music] what a beautiful morning day two today what we're going to do is we're going to build the legs that are going to hold up the cabin and while i'm building the legs brook is cutting studs for the wall trying to get ahead of us so we're ready to go when we get to that point i'm gonna take this six by six and i'm gonna score it two inches deep on two sides for a total of six inches and then i'm gonna take the chips out and that's going to uh you're gonna see it'll fit right in there make a good solid leg and then later on i'll really lock it in well [Music] [Music] now here's an old trick from the concrete world when you're nailing to get something that's not that solid stick a sludge hammer on the other side of it that'll give you a good solid nailing surface each one of these corner posts are going to be fit in there at the exact length that they need to be now this old handsaw belonged to my grandpa and for this project i cleaned it up took all of the bends out of it which is a bit of a tedious process then i sharpened every tooth with a triangle file and a saw vise once the teeth were all sharpened i took a saw set and i set every one of the teeth my grandpa always loved to build stuff i think he'd be really happy to see his old saw working on this cabin [Music] [Music] now in the floor we're going to use r13 insulation four inch insulation why would we do that well it's because it's what we've got so brooke is nailing in some little furring strips that are gonna hold in a quarter inch plywood floor we're gonna put the insulation on top of that and then we're gonna put our subfloor over top of that at that point we'll be ready to start putting up some walls i hope you guys have really got the impression so far that this is well within anybody's reach you don't need to know much of anything to build something like this it's very very simple it's a very freeing thing too people are supposed to build their own structures you're supposed to build your own house it's kind of in our dna nowadays there's this impression that only professionals should do stuff like this well i don't think that's the case i think i think human beings are just creative by design and building stuff especially building stuff for yourself it's just something i think everybody should do should give it a shot see how it feels i always thought it felt like the right thing to [Music] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] about this time in the process my brother stopped by to offer some words of encouragement i mean if you guys weren't going so slow i'd probably stay and help but we had this this pace is just killing me now this is a very unconventional floor we're using an r13 insulation with a craft face which is kind of a vapor barrier face this should be six inch r19 insulation but this is what we have and it was free the flooring is a treated plywood flooring and we're putting the treated side down because it's almost like a wet green treat and we're probably going to paint this floor [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] looking out at that view to the northeast you can get a good idea why we picked the spot what a nice view [Music] now here's the top and bottom plate that brooke laid out earlier in this video we're going to take the bottom plate put it where it goes and the top plate where it goes and we're gonna put the six foot back wall studs where they go build the box nail everything in place sheet it and stand it up which is basically all you need to know for building a wall if there's a window that goes in the wall there's a little bit more to it but not much this is basically wall building 101 every house you've ever walked into that was stick framed was built kind of like this [Music] [Music] now this t-111 sighting is meant to be an all-in-one solution it's a plywood sheeting with what appears to be a board face on it it it's kind of a one step process you put it up in the building is done if that's the look that you want we're using these punches to set the nails in the recessed areas and just like that the wall's done and it's almost stood up now once you get a wall stood up there's not much to do just make sure it's flush to the areas it's supposed to be flush to this one goes the entire length of the cabin so we just tap it to make sure it's flush we make sure that it's plumb set a brace nail the bottom off pretty simple now once we're done nailing off that back wall we start on the front wall and then this front wall there is one complicated area the large picture window in the middle take a look at any book on building and it will show you how to frame in a window opening and once you see it it's quite self-explanatory [Music] one thing to mention here is when standing a wall you always push up make sure you don't push out away from you there's always a chance you could slide a wall right off the end of whatever it is you're building it on lift straight up [Music] we know that the floor is totally level if we make the front wall and the back wall completely plumb then we're ready to set our rafters on [Music] now i cut that notch out with a skill saw but i only go right to the corner of the cut and then i finish that cut with a handsaw that way you don't weaken the rafter [Music] once you have one rafter made you can use it as a template to make all the additional rafters [Music] [Music] now once the raptors are on you can at least tarp off the roof area and at least keep your sight somewhat dry in case there's bad weather [Music] now the end walls are a whole different setup when it comes to this style of a building i'm going to put a bottom plate on but there won't be a top plate to the wall and each one of these studs is going to be put in one at a time they're going to be custom cut to fit in they're going to act as a support for that rafter that's on the very end of the wall and of course they're going to act as wall studs custom fit everyone now if you're into the nuts and bolts of how this works i lay the bottom plate out for a two foot on center standard layout and then on the top when i put my stud up against that rafter i make sure i'm exactly the same distance from the corner top and bottom and then i mark that stud cut a chunk out to fit right into that space pre-drill the holes because you're not dealing with a lot of wood here and then nail it off to the rafter it's pretty simple once you do it once you actually physically go through the process of building one of these you get how it works [Music] then i'm going to throw in some trimmers and tack in a window sill plate and have a 4x4 window on this wall because why not i'll lift up that piece of t-111 siding and get it right where it needs to go and brook will mark the inside of the window opening and the line at the top of the rafter then i can take this piece make all the custom cuts and set it right in place [Music] once the one wall is up we lay the plate on the other side nail it all down then take out the door opening so much better this will also help us to keep it clean because you can get all the dust and dirt swept directly out you don't need a vacuum or anything there's a close-up shot of cutting that individual stud and pre-drilling the holes where the nails go through it i put that up goes right into place i've already marked it and did the layout throw in the nails it's good to go last night we had about an inch of rain all at once within about an hour so brooke and i ran up made a mad dash and got this place plasticed off because we'd like to get it stained today you don't want to stain wet wood so we put plastic around the whole building put a tarp over the roof [Music] [Music] so i use the sawzall here to cut the extra plywood out of the main window opening once this is all cut away we'll be ready to install our big picture window when we get to that point process now that's a nice view whole front walls window yeah that's pretty nice it is stove it's going to go in the corner window here window there nothing but window nothing but windows that's awesome now the roof is going to be 1x4 rough cut 16 inches on center and then metal roofing over top of that what we want to do today is we'd like to get this roof completely done and brooke wants to get the cabin completely stained and then we're totally dried in we're going to be able to beat the weather and be ready for winter i think we're on day four day five at this point but as long as we get the tin on the roof we're ready to go now when it comes to tin i mark out all of the holes so they line up with the one by four roof skip sheeting i want a two inch overhang and then i want to be right in the middle of that one by four so my first hole is always four inches from the bottom once i've got all the holes marked i pre-drill every single hole this doesn't take very long just make sure that all of the roof metal is lined up together brooke is finishing up the staining process now the black she's using is it's a charcoal stain and it's it's a different concept i wasn't quite sure about it but once it was done i thought it looked pretty cool you'll see it considering the time of day and how much light we have left i think it might be overly ambitious to get the roof metal on today but we can get all the skip sheeting that's the 1x4 roofing material we can get all that nailed into place and the ends all cut to the right length if we could manage to get that part of the project done today then by tomorrow we could put the metal on while i'm filming the building process brooke is also filming the building process when you're done watching this video if you want to see more pop over to her channel girl in the woods and check out her version of the beginning of this build i'll leave the link in the description now on the roof here you can see i'm cutting these little blocks and they go in between the skip sheeting that keeps the squirrels out squirrels like to get into anything people build best to keep them out one thing you learn building anything building always takes longer than you think [Music] so this is what we're going to have to leave off for today in this part one of a several part series on building an inexpensive simple getaway cabin that anyone can build and anyone can afford thank you guys so much for watching bush radical we'll see on the next one [Music] you

Channel: Bushradical

Views: 6,223,699

Rating: 4.9088035 out of 5

Keywords: cabin, off grid, tiny house, off grid cabin, tiny cabin, cottage, build a cabin, cabin in the woods

Id: bOOXmfkXpkM

Length: 28min 38sec (1718 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020