I don’t know what it is like in your neck of the woods but it sure seemed to have gotten really cold...really fast around here. Winter has a way of sneaking up on you and catching you with your pants down. Not literally but figuratively. You know like things freeze that you really don’t want frozen. No I’m not talking about those beers in the garage or your dogs water bowl. I’m talking about your water pipes on your house. You know the ones that like to explode when they freeze and cost you a lot of money. Yep, things just got serious. Sorry, I just had to go there.
Around here we can often see temps down below the freezing point 32F and occasionally down to 0F and sometimes the negatives. So ya it gets really cold in the winter and yet in the summer it gets really hot, 100F +. We have a definate 4 seasons around here which i like.
Just hold tight with me for the next few moments and I will explain...Well, I will attempt to explain.
Flashback
Currently I am helping some family members get back on their feet. They needed to escape their “Hell Hole” just to keep things short. Sometimes the best thing to do is just get away from the people and places that are keeping you down and keeping you from being happy.
Anyway, those that follow me know that this last summer I purchased a Camp Trailer at a local Auction for an incredibly cheap price. This trailer was slightly used and everything works, I couldn’t ask for a better deal. I’m just going to go ahead and call it an official Score!!!
Look at that bad boy!!! Looks really nice being towed by the truck too.... This trailer has been serving as a temporary place for them to sleep and has provided them their own little space. I added a 30amp RV plug to the side of the garage so they have electricity and plumbed the...I’m just going to call it the crapper tank, into my sewer system on my house. Plus fresh water, this place has full hookups.
“Hello! Enough about the old DIY stuff, whatcha got goin on now!! Dang, quit beating around the bush and talking about crapper tanks and stuff!! Let’s get to the good stuff dang it!!”
Am I arguing with myself?? UHHH.... Anyway the trailer is all tucked next to the house with a door to the garage basically in front of the door to the trailer. This trailer is 4 seasons trailer which means it is insulated to withstand all types of weather. 100F to freezing it is suppose to handle it all. Yet there still are precautions that need to me made during the winter. A large majority of the cold comes from the bottom and that is where all be pipes are at. So I need to “Skirt” the trailer. This means enclosing the vacant space under the trailer with some form of insulation to hold the heat in and keep the cold out.
Great, how much is this going to cost me!! I lucked out on how easy it was to connect to the house sewer system and the trailer purchase price. Can I just score one more score?.....Please!?!? Just one more!!!
Materials
Some people use hay bales, some people buy custom insulating skirt that snap onto the outside of the trailer and some use insulating foam sheets. The hay makes a huge mess when it gets wet, and it ends up stinking really bad. Plus them things are fricken heavy!l and not fun to move around.
Now buying one of those custome trailer skirts is totally out of the question. Why...why you ask? One simple answer, Money. Those babies are expeeeennnsive. Then next is the foam insulation from the store. At $20 for a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet that is only 1.5 inches thick. I figure I need roughly 8 of them, that’s $160.
Not bad, but I can do better than that!! How about FREE. Yep that is right, Materials for FREE!!
“Splatts shoots he scores!!! And the crowd goes wild!!!”...
Maybe not, but that is what I feel like sometimes when I find what I need for free. This is how I scored the free material and as the slogan goes...
If It’s Free...
Its Me
Using Your Resources
It just so happens that at work they are tearing off the old roof of the shop and installing a new one. Trust me it is about time. Everytime it rains we get nice fishing ponds inside the shop and sometimes an occasional office would get a little extra water for their fake plants.
This shop has about 2 acres in roof area. So ...umm...yeah....it’s kind of big. The roofing material consists of 3 inch thick foam insulating sheets, that are 4 foot by 8 foot long. Then the sheets of insulation are sealed up and connected together with some special tape, then a rubber membrane is later over the top and it is sealed up too. Then the whole thing is covered in rocks. Rocks that is right...rocks. Don’t ask me why it is done like that, I don’t know, it just is.
I don’t need the membrane or the rocks, it’s the foam insulating sheets that I am after. Buuuut...I’ve got another idea for the membrane so I’m going to grab a chunk of that too. Other guys at work have been hauling this stuff off by the trailer loads to insulate their personal shops and garages. The roofing company is super happy that we are taking so much of it. All I wanted it for was to skirt the trailer for winter. This is going to work great I just know it, and it’s FREE
With the help of my Brother-in-law this should go pretty fast. You know just take some measurements make some cuts and boom it’s done. Not really but that is what I am always hoping for. We started on one side of the trailer and began taking measurements and working our way around the trailer. We brushed some of the gravel out of the way where the foam would be touching the ground. After tightley fitting the foam sheets in place, push the gravel back up against it to help hold the bottom in place.
Using a battery operated Sawzall we started cutting the pieces to fit in there rightful places. If you don’t have a sawzall, a jigsaw, handsaw, shoot even a chainsaw.....um no bad idea....no chainsaw!!! Good grief!! WOW that escalated quickly. A sharp fillet knife can slice through this stuff pretty good too but it does take some force. Then to hold the pieces of foam in place I’m using some white duct tape. The traditional grey duct tape would have looked really tacky :wink:wink:
This project would have been really easy if we didn’t have to pop out for the tires and the different drains and stuff. It would have probably taken half the time that it did but it did push us to be a little creative and put our thinking caps on for a bit.
I needed to have access to some valves under the trailer for draining the various tanks. I didn’t want to have to pull big pieces off that was already taped in place so.....
I cut in some litte access holes. Just slide the plug out reach in and operate the valve. When your done, plug the hole up and your on your way.
For the drain on the right side of the trailer, we had to built a whole popped out section in order to cover it. Basically we built a rectangle with 4 pieces and secured it to the main foam piece with tape and long 4 inch lag screws I had in the garage. This creates the pop out needed to get past the drain pipe. Then just cut 1 rectangle piece to fill in the hole.
So now we have the back, right side and the front done. Just one more side left and this one looks to be a bit complicated. Stairs, tires, and the drain pipe that goes through the vent into the crawl space of the house.
The tire pieces weren’t such a big deal since the way we did it on the other side worked out really well. So we had some good practice already. As far as the stairs go, they will always be on the down position. So we cut a “U” shaped piece to fit under the stairs then a rectangle piece to fill in the hole above the steps.
It might look like there is a gap above the steps but there isn’t. There is metal there and that rectangle piece is a snug fit.
Oh I forgot to show you guys under the trailer after we finished the right side. My Bad
Not much light shining though, that’s a good thing!! We want this as sealed up as possible to keep that cold out and keep the things under the trailer just that much warmer. You don’t want it air tight as moisture can build up and create other problems.
Ok no back to where I was...UMMM...where was I? ??? Oh ya that’s right. We were just getting ready to cover the drain pipe that goes under the house through a vent in the concrete foundation. Wanna know what else comes through this vent in the foundation.... the exhaust vent for the Clothes Dryer.
HOLD UP
This just went from, I hope this will be good enough to This is going to work awesome!!. Do you guys see what I am getting at? Yep, that’s it!!! If I make the tunnel to cover the drain pipe big enough it will go around the outside of the clothes dryer vent. Therefore whenever the clothes dryer is running it will blow nice warm air under the trailer.
I just have to say, it doesn’t get much better than that. Free materials and recycling the warm air from the clothes dryer to heat under the trailer. This should prevent stuff from freezing but also keep temps inside the trailer a little warmer too.
Winning
Cutting the foam sheets does leave a bit of a snowy mess. Any slight breeze and this stuff blows all over the place. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya :wink:wink: So to clean it up I used my leaf blower. No I didn’t blow it into the neighbors yard. I’m not that big of an A-hole c’mon. My leaf blower turns into a leaf sucker. It sucks the dry leaves up and chops them into small pieces. So why not suck some leaves up and this snowy foamy mess at the same time.
Now that the mess is cleaned up, I am going to call this DIY Project
Complete
Thanks for stopping in and checking out another one of my DIY Projects. I hope this gives someone a little motivation to tackle a project by themselves. Always remember to use your resources.
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