Finally the Foundation

Hey everybody, sorry to be gone so long, but I promise to catch you up. This post will encompass the deck preparation. First I needed to bring the joists of the frame up to an even height. I needed something that I wouldn't have to worry about rotting so I chose Azak, a PVC material. I had to plane it down to thickness and notch it out to fit. I attached it to the metal frame with self tapping screws, making sure to seal them to the frame with caulk.

Then I fitted a plywood layer to the frame, leaving a slight gap at the sides to accommodate a bed liner finish to seal the edges.

I was again dealing with size issues and had to make it out of 4 pieces gleaned from 2 sheets of plywood. I fit them together with a tongue and groove that I milled into the wood, making sure to have the seams over a metal part of the trailer. This will help prevent water from getting to the seams.

I then laid out the floor joist. I tacked them in place temporarily so I could flip the whole thing over and secure the plywood permanently from below.

Katie then helped seal the plywood by first painting a coat of bed liner, then filling all the voids with paintable caulk, and then applying a second coat of bed liner making sure to seal the edges.

I then attached the floor system to the trailer with 4 carriage bolts in each trailer joist. We then hoisted the whole trailer up into a rack that I made to give access to the under side. The idea was to flip it all the way over, but the welded on light boxes were in the way, so it ended up propped and looking like a medieval trebuchet.

This gave us great access to really seal up the bottom of the trailer. We caulked any seam or void, sprayed bed liner in all the irregular places and rolled it on thick in the field. This was an incredible amount of work, but now I feel confident that the trailer will not rot out from underneath us. I fully intend for this thing to last 50 years.

We then ran all the rough wiring. This is the first time I have ever done this and it had me tearing my hair out. I am praying that it all works because all the wires are sealed up in there but good. Next was two layer of rigid foam insulation sealing between the layers with caulk. At this stage we realized that the opening of the doors was much higher than the floor. To prevent the circulation from being cut off in your legs when sitting in the doorway we decided to raise the floor 2 1/2 inches. Before you scream, "what about the weight!" it only adds about 25 pounds. I only raised the cabin area, not the galley, which affords a great surface to attach the galley bulkhead to.

We filled this layer with some pink fiberglass insulation we had left over from insulating the crawl space at our house.

I finished the deck with tongue and groove plywood lapping over the edge and sanding flush to make a perfect edge to attach the sides to. Now the foundation is complete. Stay tuned to see the walls raised and the roof put on.