Hey Ya’ll,
After about a year of working nights and weekends, the exterior of the tinyhouse is almost done. Its been a very long road to get here, filled with all sorts of unexpected pitfalls and set backs. It provides a bit of relief knowing that the house is now safe from the elements and could be lived in if necessity required.
One of the last steps in getting the outside of the house ready was staining the exterior of the house. For this I used a product called Penofin. Which is primarily a Brazilian rosewood oil blend. Its a bit more expensive but is a great product for protecting the beautiful cypress that Garry Norton from theTimbershop.com provided.
I was very thankful to have the help of my friend Dom and Wolfgang in staining the house this weekend. It went much faster than I expected and came out very well. Here are some pictures of the day.
This is what it looked like in its unstained form. It took about 6 days of sanding to get the house to the point where it was ready for stain. I sanded the house in 3 passes. One pass at 80 grit, then filled in the holes from the fasteners. Then another pass at 180. Then I washed the house and gave it one more pass to touch things up. Then another wash and then on to stain.
Right before we began to apply stain.
The Difference between the two surfaces is striking.
Here we go, Thanks again to Dom and Wolfgang (wolfgangkahler.com)
The finished product came out quite nicely and should be protected for 2-5 years according the the makers of the stain.
There are still a few things to wrap up on the outside of the house. I have to install the ridge-cap for the roof and a few other pieces but its mostly done now.
Next step: insulation.
February 5, 2013 at 7:54 am
Hey Zac! It’s a relief to hear it’s taken you quite some time with your siding as well – I thought I was the only one! : ) when you only get to work here and there on it it does take a long time….mine is still going up – hopefully to finish this month and get insulation in within the month.
I just treated the front face of my house (the locust part) with Cabot timber oil. After that, I did briefly think about sanding the whole house and sealing the cedar too (right now I just have a protectant on it so it will still grey naturally) – but that just seems like so much work to sand a whole house! What are you doing for insulation?
it’s looking great!
February 5, 2013 at 12:14 pm
Lee! Glad to hear from you. Siding is such an important part to take your time on. its the character and the protection for the house. Youre doing cedar right? I so wish that I would have been able to bring my little house up there, but I had too many obligations here to do anything.
How did you like the Cabot stuff? I wound up going with the Penofin because of its UV resistance and life span. Cabot had a much better color though. Id love the look of weathered cedar. I think its going to look great on your house.
Your house has come so far from where it sat down here in Charleston. Its looking great!
For insulation, I am using 2 inch polyiso panels that I got as overages from an industrial project. I got them trough insulationdepot.com and they gave me a great deal on them. got enough to do two tiny houses for a fraction of the cost of doing spray in. If you know anyone down south building a tiny house, i have enough to do another in leftovers!
Cheers,
Z
February 5, 2013 at 8:37 am
Loving the little octagon windows!
April 22, 2013 at 2:46 pm
Hi Zach,
Just wondering the difference between the Australian oil and this new oil, and why you applied the Australian stuff only to sand it off? Thanks!
-Eric
April 22, 2013 at 3:08 pm
Well the Australian oil was my first choice but after more research I found that Penofin has greater penetration and a longer life according to the manufacturer. I also like that its a compound of rosewood oil which is more resistant to UV fading. In addition to that it also have antimildew properties. In the end it made more sense and I changed at the last minute. As far as having to sand that stuff off of some boards, I had been coating the backs of the boards before they went up and in some cases the wrong face got oiled. So when they when up, the oiled side was out and would not have matched the new coat. So I was forced to sand the coating off, but in the end it wasnt a huge deal because the whole house got sanded to make everything flat and to impart some shape to the sharper edges of the house. Truthfully, sanding has been my favorite part so far.
Zach