Pallet House Construction Illustrations
I was recently contacted by a fellow named Roy who was looking for something to do with 200 pallets. He couldn’t find any buyers or even someone to haul them off free, so he’s decided to build something out of them. To help him visualize how I’d build a house from pallets I drew these 3D drawings with Google SketchUp, the free 3D drafting software from Google.
I’ve been getting better at drawing with SketchUp and it only took about 30 minutes to draw this up. I’ll eventually replace the 2D plans on this website with a better 3D plans. In the mean time I thought I’d share with you what I shared with Roy. The tiny house pictured here would use about 50 to 70 pallets. I left the roof off the design because I’m thinking more and more that the roof should be conventionally framed. Pallets over head just seems a little too risky, although I think Roy is going to find a way to do it safely.
For those of you playing with Google SketchUp here is my SketchUp file. Also note that the pallets in the drawing are an odd size, 45″ by 40″. That may explain why Roy had such a hard time getting rid of them. Standard 48″ by 40″ pallets tend to be easy to sell and give away, odd sized pallets are a different story.
It seems to me to that you could turn the pallet into a pseudo-Structural Insulated Panel (S.I.P.)by applying a sheet of OSB to both sides of the pallet. This would obviously add some expense (about $5 per sheet) but should be cheaper than conventional framing. Another idea would be a nice timber frame truss with pallet pieces as the purlins.
Jeremy those are great ideas. By adding OSB or plywood sheathing the strength of the pallet would be greatly improved and could even be used in a roof. Thanks!
Ok. I built a small cabin, and my roof seemed like it was going to be week. I started putting the purlins on, and the tin. It was like a tank when I got finished. Have faith. Once you either put purlins, or tin, or both, or normal roofing, it will be ok.
this is very great information about how to make dream house design ideas
I am working on setting up Redemption Village in/near King COunty,WA and was one of the organizors of a homeless encampment called Nickelsville that started in Seattle in Sept of 2008. I built a pallet house and painted it pink to match the 150 bright pink tents we set up at 4am… my design was not as sturdy or as astetic, but I weigh 195lbs and am a Marine Corps Veteran and I was doing pull ups, swinging from and walking on the top of the pallet house we built. I am planning on doing this on a massive scale on Thanksgiving Day…wanna help or give any advice on where to get about 2100 pallets for fairly cheap, maybe even for free?
Sounds like an exciting project. I bet this little act of civil disobedience will garner some good press for the plight of the homeless. Nice.
For pallets watch craigslist for sure; they turn up regularly down here in Sacramento. You should also check with roofing companies, heating and air companies, motorcycle dealers, and auto body shops since they often have many spare pallets.
As far as putting them together you’ll find it harder to assemble a pallet building with odd sided pallets. I’d use the odd sizes ones for floors and even exterior walkways/sidewalks. On these kind of surfaces use pallet boards that have been extracted from pallets (via reciprocating saw) or plywood so feet don’t fall through the gaps between pallet boards.
Sort out the standard pallets since they will make better building blocks. I found that by capping the open ends with an extracted 2×4 made screwing them together easier. Nails work too, as I’m sure you found, but screws (square head and hex head exterior screws) hold better. The only trouble is that you’d need a bunch of drills and ideally some AC power… so I can see that nails would probably work best for your project (hammers and nails are cheaper than nails and you will have many hands).
The odd pallets may be useful dismantled into their parts with a reciprocating saw. Just be very careful cutting up pallets since those saws are as dangerous as they are useful. Lost fingers would definitely work against you. Another health related issue to avoid is the smoke from pallets. There is no way to tell if a pallet (or any reclaimed building material) has been fumigated, spilled on, or painted (coated) with anything nasty so choose not to burn any of this wood. When cutting wear a respirator.
Roofs are best built with something other than pallets but you could use the lumber from dismantled long pallets.
I’d love to see some photos of your last pink house. Sounds like a great story to post on Tiny House Design too.
As a carpenter I think this is a really neat idea.
Although, your exterior sheeting should be installed horizontally and staggered for a stronger structure.
Cheers.
Good point Sean. THanks
If you sheathed the outside with stran board and used something as simple as cheap 1/4 in plywood or cardboard on the inside, you could get some of the tanks of spray insulation to fill the interior of the pallets and create a very reasonable facsimile of a SIP.
I agree Gray… ironically I scored some used plywood for my tiny pallet house. Hopefully in a week or two I’ll get back up to the farm to install. Plywood will add a lot of strength to the building.
is there any more pictures i can see of the pallet cabins..
of any small homes here in northern california
thanks
There are several tiny house builder in northern California… mostly in Sonoma County. Tumbleweed and Little House on the Trailer do regular open houses. I’m not aware of any other pallet houses besides mine which I hope to complete this year. This is how my house looks at the moment: http://www.tinyfreehouse.com/2009/08/23/roof-update/
Also see http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/ and http://littlehouseonthetrailer.com/ for non-pallet small houses.
Another one of my favorite builders is also in Sonoma County but doesn’t often do open houses. It’s called Tortoiseshell Home http://tortoiseshellhome.com/
The idea of pallets is great. My Dad built a very large garage out of pallets. Very very strong!