We spend a lot of time writing about building our tiny houses, but in truth, we spend just as much time talking about what we are going to put in them, over beers, on the lot, etc.  Well, some of us anyway.  Jay has managed to get super minimal, but I have found something even he might covet.  A great collapsing kettle and the matching coffee maker.  Super cool. The SlickBoil and SlickDrip by Cuissential seem like a good fit for any compact space. I have one on the way, so updates to follow on just how good they really are.

Recognizing that Boneyard Studios is a construction site—one that must balance busy building days with a desire to answer questions for the inquisitive passerby—we kicked off a (totally free) open house series back in December 2012 allowing us to give Boneyard Studios fans a  tour of the lot that is both safe and informative. To date, we’ve held six open houses with a total of over 450 people in attendance. Our hour-long open houses are generally held on the morning of the first Sunday of the month, and feature the following run-of-show:

• Casual meet-and-greet: A few minutes upon arrival to chat with other guests and learn more about what draws others to tiny houses.
  
• Welcome and Q&A: To kick things off, we generally talk briefly about the history of Boneyard Studios, introduce ourselves and our respective houses, and answer a handful of frequently-asked questions.
• Tiny house tours: For the bulk of the hour, we retreat to our individual houses and encourage folks to visit each one. While inside, we answer questions about each house’s architectural, sustainable, and functional features, and anything else that may arise.

Beyond being a great way to tour the tiny house showcase, the open houses are a wonderful opportunity to network with other tiny house enthusiasts who may be able to support you in your own tiny house adventure. Interested in joining us for an upcoming open house (the next one is currently scheduled for Saturday, May 11 at 11am)? Register here!

Recent open house on the lot

Siding

The Matchbox’s shou sugi ban charred siding is a little more than halfway complete, with the facade and south elevations fully-sided. Learn more about why I’m using charred siding here, how the wood gets burned here, and check out a video of the process here..

The Matchbox with a nearly-complete facade.

From left to right: Lee’s Pera House, Elaine’s Lusby, and Jay’s Matchbox.

Inside: Trim & Baseboard

Tony and I spent a good portion of the winter working on the inside—first plastering the walls with an all-natural earthen plaster that (a) allows the house to breathe by absorbing and releasing excess moisture and (b) looks wonderful, then installing floors and cabinets, and finally finishing the rough edges of the Matchbox with trim and baseboard. Lots of photos below:

Applying earthen plaster to the walls.

Troweling the plaster.

Dried plaster finish.

Kitchen cabinets and finished walls.

Completed floors and walls.

A blurry shot of the interior, with floors and cabinets and trim.

A blurry shot of the interior, with door trim, window trim, and baseboard.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be focusing on finishing up siding, building the gutter and rain catchment system, and helping Tony get started on furniture. As always, let me know if you’d like to come out and help (there’s still a small amount of burning to be done), and for more in-depth posts about design choices (and updates on my next adventure, a three-month cross-country scooter trip starting in May), head on over to my personal blog.

In short, indoor air quality might be thought of as a product of a) product off gassing, b) combustion appliance functioning, c) moisture levels, and d) natural and mechanical ventilation.  Let’s start with the least frequently discussed.

1. Chemical off gassing/breakdown

Any product in the home that off gasses as it ages will contribute negatively to indoor air quality. While not chemically sensitive, I’ve developed a few personal rules for clean air and clean dust.

• No unnaturally scented products (cleaners, air fresheners, soaps, candles). Use only natural products for cleaning, and stay away from anything artificially scented.
• Use only no-VOC paint and wood treatment.  No-VOC paint can now be commonly found at major paint stores. Much more difficult to locate are all-natural oils for wood finishing such as tung oil, Rubio Monocoat, or my favorite, AFM Naturals oil wax finish.
• Use formaldehyde-free plywood: it’s now very easy to find formaldehyde free plywood (such as Purebond) for any interior construction, thus avoiding any formaldehyde off gassing.
• No off the shelf furniture or mattresses with chemical foams. Furniture cushions and mattresses are almost always made of polyurethane foam, which is highly flammable, and are mandated to use a variety of flame retardants, which end up in household dust, and include penta-BDE’s (for furniture before 2005) and chlorinated tris, TCEP, TDCIPP and other chemicals listed as carcinogens.  There are volumes of information available on this (NPR, Scientific American, the My Toxic Couch video, etc) but the simple solution (while we work for new standards) is to not have manufactured furniture and mattresses with treated polyurethane foam in your tiny home (or any home).  Even if you can get untreated polyurethane foam, it’s still made up of a slew of chemicals identified as carcinogenic, and when it’s being sat and slept on daily, the foam oxidizes (the Oecotextiles blog is particularly informative here).  To sum up:

• Mattresses: Some bed manufacturers will make you a foam bed without fire retardants with a doctors prescription, but then the fire hazard remains.  One natural (but pricey) alternative is 100% natural Talalay or Dunlop latex foam, which is a renewable resource (rubber trees), mold resistant, not highly flammable, with no off gassing, and lasts for 40+ years.  Manufactured mattresses made with 100% latex must have a fire retardent layer added (typically wool, which is naturally flame retardent).  Make sure there are not other chemical foams added- it’s very common to see a 10” mattress with 2” latex and 8” of polyurethane foam.  The cheapest deal I found was a 6” full size soft latex mattress from Miracle Sleep- it’s one of the more comfortable beds I’ve slept on. There is at least one other economical natural sleep option: futon mattresses made with cotton, but note that the cotton is usually treated with boric acid to meet fire codes.
• Sofas: Any upholsterer will sell you non-treated polyurethane foam for cushions (this is typically their default foam unless they are working for commercial clients).  Making your own sofa + cushions (even with polyurethane) still beats a purchased couch in terms fire retardent chemicals.  But note that the fire hazard of untreated polyurethane still remain, so read up and weigh the cost/benefits.  Another option is 100% latex foam- all foam in couches prior to the 1960′s was natural latex until cheaper polyurethane came along (and now they are difficult to find latex sofa cushions- foamsource.com has them).  But note that without a natural or chemical resistant barrier natural latex can also be a fire hazard.  Other economical and safe options for seating: wood bench, leather, wool, futons.

• Use certified cabinet fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard: these can potentially be loaded with chemicals that can offgas, so it deserves careful research.  It appears IKEA cabinets are now CA Carb2 compliant (one of the most stringent standards, as seemingly verified here).
• Insulation: Fiberglass, cellulose, rockwool insulation appear to be relatively harmless (though they have relatively low R-values per inch).  Most debate centers around use of sprayed-in urethane foams (see this discussion on Green Building Advisor).  Officially these foams are ‘stable when cured’, but there are doubts.  In the case of SIPS panels using foam insulation, the foam is mixed and sprayed and cured offsite (when most of the off gassing occurs).  The foam is sandwiched between relatively impermeable, formaldehyde-free OSB, and is structurally rigid and does not break down readily when fully cured and left intact.  While there is still some uncertainty about foam offgassing, there is no question that ensuring adequate ventilation levels is good practice, which could mitigate any off-gassing once the foam is cured (see below).

2. Combustion appliances

Non-combustion appliances such as electric space heaters, water heaters, cooktops should not have any indoor air quality impacts. However, for off-grid living (or any cook that can’t bear the thought of an electric cooktop), LP or natural gas appliances may be required.  Burning gas for heat or cooking releases moisture when LP combusts, and also requires oxygen from within the home if not provided with an outdoor supply line. Here are some recommendations:

• Gas Cooktops: use only indoor rated cooktops (no camp stoves, etc), but note that these require makeup air.
• Gas Heaters: use the Dickinson closed loop marine heater commonly found in many tiny homes. The vent pipe on these is double walled, which allows fresh air from outside to enter, and exhaust to exit.
• Hot Water Heaters: use only indoor rated heaters (some of the smaller/cheaper units are made for camping use only). Any indoor units will require makeup air from the living space.

Note that all combustion appliances should really be tested for incomplete combustion (carbon monoxide) and proper venting (drafting) where applicable. Pressure diagnostics are also recommended when there are combustion appliances.  Typically this involves a ‘worse case depressurization test’ — for example, if the bath fan and gas-fired hot water heater are both running, the pull of the bath fan may backdraft combustion gases from the water heater into the house, etc.  A BPI or RESNET trained energy auditor will be able to perform these tests and make appropriate recommendations.

3. Moisture

In addition to combustion appliances, bathroom use is a significant contributor to moisture levels. All baths should have a simple bath fan that operates during and after showering. Buildup of moisture can quickly lead to significant mold and mildew problems, negatively impacting air quality.

4. Ventilation

Every building needs a natural rate of air exchanges per hour (ACH), currently .35 (essentially, 35% of the cubic air is brought in/exhausted each hour, though this rate varies depending on occupancy).  This allows for adequate moisture control, oxygen levels, and dissipation of any remaining household pollutants.

Ideally each building should have a simple blower door test (by a BPI or RESNET auditor) to determine air exchange.  Typically, larger older buildings are naturally leaky, and can achieve adequate ventilation rates without trying. Others, among them tiny homes, are potentially much tighter and require careful attention to air exchange.  Most simply, ventilation may be achieved by keeping a window permanently cracked open, but this has drawbacks in terms of safety, noise, weather, and energy efficiency.  Perhaps the best solution is to install an energy recovery ventilator (ERV), which essentially is a bath fan with a heat exchanger, allowing cool/warm inside air to stay cool/warm, all while bringing in fresh outside air at a pre-set rate.  Lee and Matt found one of the smallest and highest rated ERVs on the market, the Panasonic FV-04VE1, and we’re putting them in several of the tiny homes on the lot.  It is adjustable so you can do a simple calculation of house air space and ensure proper ventilation requirements are being met.  The more we all think about it, the more we believe an ERV should be standard equipment on every tiny house– in addition to a CO, smoke and propane alarm.

The final setup.  From left to right on the Boneyard lot is the Pera house, Elaine’s Lusby, the Matchbox, and the Minim house.

All the Boneyard Studios houses in place

Video of house moving

Telling the story of our tiny house community idea – Spring 2012

Because those are a lot of C’s to cover, I’m going to concentrate on the creating community aspect in this post.  The community building is what inspires me, and it also is something I know a lot of tiny house enthusiasts struggle with when first embarking on their projects: how do you find like-minded people and supporters where you live?  So, I thought I’d share my story with you.

When I decided to take on this project in DC, it wasn’t because of an intense desire to build a tiny house. Yes, I had caught the tiny house bug as many do and spent hours gazing at pictures on blogs and in books.  But what really inspired me was the creative challenge of doing this project in an urban space, especially on the East Coast.  For a while it seemed overwhelmingly difficult, and I thought I would need to move back to the Pacific Northwest before I completed a project like this – after all, that’s where all the tiny house builders seemed to be.

In early 2010, when I first learned about tiny houses on wheels, I started googling “tiny houses and DC” every so often to try and find anyone in the area who was interested in them.  I found Steve who had built one in Florida and now lived in DC (luckily he worked near me and ended up offering me great advice in the early stages of planning).  But for months I couldn’t find anyone else.  Then one day in October of 2010, while sitting on a bus from NYC to DC and feeling optimistic about life, I told myself that I was going to build a tiny house on wheels even if it seemed impossible to do so in DC.  As someone who dreams up many ideas without implementing most, it’s important for me to fully commit to an idea or a project.  Those words, no matter how quietly said to myself on that bus, were still a commitment to this endeavor.  As the mountaineer W.H. Murray said,

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back.  Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.

And something certainly moved.  Excited about the commitment I had made to myself, I once again googled “tiny houses and DC” when I got home that night and, Surprise!, a blog post had been put up earlier that day about two women building tiny houses in DC.  I couldn’t believe it…excited yet disappointed as well because the women (understandably) didn’t want to share their contact information or go public with their projects.  But then a serendipitous moment : the following weekend I met the blog writer at a community bike workshop, and she put me in touch with the two tiny house women.  From that point on I knew my endeavor would be possible.

That summer I participated in a Tumbleweed tiny house workshop and started hosting regular meetups at my apartment with people I had met there.  Twenty of us or so would get together to discuss tiny houses.  Several months later I met Brian, and we started brainstorming and planning the Boneyard Studios project.  We held a showcase with Wangari Gardens in the Spring, where we met Jay, and since then we’ve held monthly open houses and volunteer work days on the Boneyard Studios lot while building our tiny houses.

Recent open house at Boneyard Studios. Photo courtesy of Josh at myclosetgarden.com

I understand the desire of many folks building tiny houses to be private.  After all, tiny houses exist in a grey area of zoning code, and most people who build them do so as a way of designing a life free from many of the pressures of modern-day society.  Many are in rural or suburban areas.   Yet we’ve found the interest in tiny houses in urban areas to be tremendous, and I see a huge gap in the tiny house movement for physical community spaces and showcases.  Sure, we’ve got a great online community with hundreds of tiny house blogs where people share information about their projects virtually.  And there is a great community that comes together for workshops (like Jay’s, Deek’s and Dee’s in addition to fairs like the one that we’ll be presenting at this summer – join us!).  But, if you’re like me, and have wanted to meet people in your area who are interested in tiny houses, it’s not as easy to find a community.

There is a lack of opportunity to actually see a tiny house or help out with one before one embarks on the adventure of building, and I know how important it is to be able to step foot inside a tiny house and learn from others about mistakes or innovations they’ve made.  For this reason, we have made it part of our mission to try and be as open with the public as possible about what we’re doing.

Meetup group volunteers help me with installing siding on my house. Photo by Jay Austin.

In addition to the meetup group I organize where you can sign up for a volunteer workday or come to a quarterly meetup event to talk about tiny houses in the DC area, we also host monthly open houses on the lot.  This is a great opportunity to tour the tiny houses, learn about our motivations for building, and talk to our builders and architects about the details of a tiny house project.  While we love to have visitors, we also want people to respect the neighbors and our space which is why we have implemented a more formal visiting process through the monthly open houses and meetups.

Tiny house enthusiasts treat cedar siding

I understand the reluctance of most tiny house owners to open up their projects as it is a lot of effort, time, and can be risky.  On the other hand, our goal is to create community and a space for others to learn about tiny houses and other creative uses of land in urban spaces through the events we organize.  We hope to meet you at one of them soon. And, of course, please email me if you’re interested in discussing anything related to collaboration around creative use of urban space.

~ Lee

Presenting at Boneyard Studios Open House. Photo courtesy of Josh at MyClosetGarden.com

Sicily began designing her home this summer, was donated an 8×16 trailer in early September, and has been working on gathering materials and building her subfloor ever since. Having heard about Boneyard Studios and wanting to see our project for herself, Sicily’s family brought her up to DC for a visit this Friday.

Sicily (center) and her family.

While showing the family around the lot and touring our still-in-progress tiny homes, the Boneyard crew answered questions, provided tips, and learned a little more about Sicily’s own building plans for La Petite Maison, all the while growing increasingly impressed by Sicily’s intelligence, maturity, and resourcefulness. We’re looking forward to following Sicily’s progress in the coming months—if you’d like to do the same, be sure to check out her blog and videos. And, if you’d like to support a twelve-year-old in her humble quest for independence and simple, sustainable living, please consider sending a few dollars her way, or contacting her family to donate tools or building supplies.

Update: Sicily lost her father in a car accident in mid-February.  She still would like to finish her tiny house. If you’d like to help support her project and her family, please consider contributing to the Memorial Fund set up for her father, Dane, via PayPal to danekolbeckmemorial@gmail.com

Sicily, many thanks for coming by Boneyard Studios, and best of luck with your tiny house build!

Sicily trying out the Boneyard Studios flamethrower on some window trim.

• August: prepping the trailer/building a floor (+ video)
• September: the Matchbox gets walls! (+ video)
• November: insulation installation

And just last week, with the Matchbox’s insulation in, drywall up, and rain screen nearly complete, attention has turned to siding, for which I’ll be using the ancient Japanese technique of shou sugi ban to char the western red cedar boards, giving them an insect-, rot-, and fire-resistant benefit that also just looks really cool. Check out some of the photos below!

For full-length, rambling updates on the Matchbox, I’m also posting over at my personal blog, but I’ll be trying to post here more regularly moving forward.