Starting the Floor
Another beautiful day! Harvesting the last of the green beans and starting the floor. Have a wonderful Wednesday my friends!
Evening Post:
One step forward, side step then onward and upward!
Additional Thoughts
Once the skids were in place and leveled, I began building the floor in 8'x8' sections because I thought they'd be easy to handle. I wanted to protect the floor from moisture, rodents and our cold winter temperatures. So I laid plastic down over the skids as a vapor barrier. I planned to build a floor section and staple foil radiant barrier to one side. Then flip the section over and set it on the plastic-covered skid, so the foil faced down. The trouble was, I couldn't lift those sections up and over by myself. So I decided I needed a wall jack. Figuring out how to build an inexpensive wall jack was an adventure that took up most of the day, but that's what this project was all about: adventure! After all my running around, an easier solution appeared, so I didn't need the wall jacks quite yet, but you'll learn more about that in the next post.
Later I added fiberglass batt insulation to the cavities and OSB sheathing to seal it all in.
So far, the cottage floors have stayed mostly warm throughout the winters. I installed hardware wire over the openings between skids. Still, rodents have dug their way under the cottage, and I can hear them scurrying around at times. There is only one spot where I think they made their way all the way to the batt insulation. I think this because it's the one cold spot in the floor. I don't think they like the foil radiant barrier and choose not to eat through it. And as long as they stay out of the batt insulation above the foil, I don't care if they are down there.
Of course, if they do manage to make their way into the insulation layer, there's not much I can do about it at this point. I could have built the cottage on piers and made it high enough for a crawl space underneath, but I feel like that would have given wildlife better opportunities to move in. In retrospect, I am happy with how this worked out.