Pallet House Construction Alternative
This holiday season has been super busy for me, at work and home. You might have noticed by the lack of posts here and my other blogs. But this particular tiny house design concept has been stewing in my head ever since EJ, one of my readers, sent me a link to a very cool shipping pallet structure. I took this idea and went off on my own tiny house tangent.
I’m currently using pallets to build my tiny free house but keep running into big challenges that this approach would solve. Pallets are often made from hardwood which is really hard to work with. Pallets are also not super sturdy when you screw, nail, or bolt them together vertically. They are really best lying flat and supporting the weight of something heavy. I suspect that laying them horizontally and stacking and nailing them together might be a smarter way to go.
This approach would also make an incredibly insulated structure on almost any size. Think of it like building with any kind of big block, much like how one builds with straw bales or adobe. The difference here is that pallets can be found in trash piles and have an open cavity that would need to be filled with some kind of insulation.
Roof – The roof should really be framed from dimensional lumber. Pallets walls seem safe enough but anything that goes over your head should light weight and strong. A conventionally framed roof seems the most logical. I don’t think I’d ever put a flat roof on a house myself. I’ve got a flat roof now and have been fighting a leak so a shed or pitched roof with a metal surface seems like the best way to go.
Floor – The floor could also be made from pallets but covered in plywood and laid on a dry flat surface. Placing wood pallets on the ground will invite termites and other infestations. I think the best floor in this house would actually be a concrete slab which would also act a a nice heat sink.
Walls – The walls could be covered with anything, stucco, pallet boards, plywood, etc. I like the idea of stucco because the walls as so thick it almost looks like an adobe. The wall cavity would be filled with some kind of insulation. I imagine some kind of low emission environmentally friendly spray foam would be ideal. Stuffing the pallet cavities by hand with something like packing peanuts would be another potentially free option. But the spray foam just seems like it would be much faster and air tight.
Windows & Doors – In college I had the opportunity to help a friend design and build an adobe house in Abiquiu, New Mexico. In an adobe the openings are framed with large wood bucks made from at least 2×6 pressure treated lumber. A header is then embedded in the block wall above the opening. The walls here would be much lighter than adobe but window and door bucks with a header over them seems like a good solution for pallet walls too. The windows and doors themselves could be hand made, dumpster dived, or store bought.
What do you think? Is this crazy or what? Have you seen anything like this before? I’ve not been able to find anyone online who has build a house like this. Have you?
I am wondering if you could take the wall width down one more notch and cut the pallets into 4ths or 12 inches wide by 40. You would still have plenty of insulation area, your weight would be cut in half and you would use half the number of pallets.
Great point Kent! I was thinking that 12″ might not be enough width for a stacked pallet wall but I bet it would be fine. I’ll draw it up and noodle over it more.
I can’t help but be a little conserned about the insulation or sheeting. While this would make for easy framing, it seems quite wasteful in terms of number of required pallets, and the ease of adding insulation. Any sort of loose fill (straw or fiberglass) would take a lot of time.
[...] couple weeks ago I posted an alternative concept for a tiny house built from shipping pallets that simply used half pallets (24″ by 40″) as building [...]
[...] I’ve posted a few other pallet house designs on my Tiny House Design blog. The pallet house on this site uses pallets very efficiently but the other designs would make better long-term housing. View the alternate tiny pallet house design. [...]
[...] Tinyhousedesign has another set of plans, this one a bit more swanky. [...]
Does this meet any safety code requirements and are electrical wiring and plumbing incorporated into the design to make the house livable? Are there larger designs, say for someone who may want to have more than one large room? This is an interesting concept and I’ve long thought about building an eco-friendly home with little impact on the environment. But of course can it be done without giving up some of the luxuries of modern living?
Dan,
I’d be surprised to find any pallet house that has been approved by any building inspector. But just like straw bale homes, I think a pallet house could eventually be acceptable by planning departments. It would just take some work to get the approvals.
As far as size I don’t see why a larger home couldn’t be built this way as long as a conventional roof were used.
-Michael
I’m loving this idea, and think it might even be a great way to eventually build my kids a club-house.
I think for insulation, wouldn’t it make sense to use recycled denim insulation? I’m thinking this may be more environmentally friendly then the spray foam option, even though that is a great option.
I also wonder if you couldn’t start heating/cooling it with passive geothermal/solar, that would make things very “green” Add day lighting, or with the shed roof, put windows on the higher side, and viola, free sun/heat/cooling/lighting, use a composting toilet, and a solar oven, and I think you have everything. (There’s an idea for making a solar oven more “traditional” on my website, but I don’t know if it would work.)
Form follows function. How you use the pallets would depend on your needs. The tiny free house on wheels needs thin, light and strong walls. A tree house would have the same needs, and there for you would use them on edge.
A house on the ground might use the stacked method. Depending on your climate you might want 24″ inch walls. There is no one best way.
If you are trying to make cheep, temporary housing for disaster victims, you might use them on edge, if some one can come up with a fastening system to quickly and cheaply fasten them together. I’m thinking along the lines of the mettle joice hangers with the teeth you can bang in with a hammer and add a screw or two. Even if you had to ship in a pallet or two of them. grin.
I think you’re right Elizabeth… there are many ways and none of them are right or wrong, only right or wrong for the purpose they serve.
I love the idea of some kind of metal bracket that could be used to quickly fasten them. I had never thought of that. With something like that designed for pallet buildings the pallet structure could be assembled very quickly.
I’ll look and see if something off-the-shelf could be adapted. Great idea!
My name is Terry and I have been building small mountain cabins from pallets for about 11 years I have had many differn’t ones mostly just exsperiment’s, I plan on building one in 2009 to be permanent. I love building with pallets and look forward to my latest cabin thank’s for your web site I thought I was alone and alittle crazy.
Hi Terry… I’d love to see photos of what you’re doing.
Sorry to find this discussion so late…I’m actually taking a class called Organic Architecture and have been given the daunting task of designing a dwelling for an indigenous pop somewhere in the world…. So I stayed home in my thinking; am currently developing plans for pallet construction for homeless, multi-unit dwelling with as much sustainable (and re-claimed) tools as possible…anyway, thanks for the ideas, pics, and efforts.
Hi Alan. Sounds cool. On friday I’ll be posting a concept for the homeless. It won’t be pallet house based but it might have some stuff you’re welcome to use as you see fit.
As far as pallets are concerned, if I were to do it again I’d stack them up like I’ve posted here and not put them on a trailer. No matter how you stack pallets they are heavy. But stacked up flat they could provide a great insulating shell.
Love to see what you come up with too.
-Michael
I recently discovered a family farm near by that has sheep, they shear them every year but have not sold the wool for the past couple of years due to low wool prices, I am considering making them an offer and using wool for insulation. Wool is fire retardant and natural, but will moths eat it? will the little house smell like a wet sheep? Has any one out there had experience with this?
Hi, I haven’t gotten through all the comments yet. but I wanted to offer a caution about using wool as an insulator… Wool, when burned, gives off Cyanide gas (hope I’m remembering the gas right) This contributed to the deaths of so many people in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, My memories of the news coverage said that some people were found dead in their seats due to the poison given off by the burning woolen drapes. I am not saying you shouldn’t use wool as an insulator, (it’s a great green idea) but you might want to consider some sort of treatment for it to make it fire retardant. Also, it’s going to need a LOT of cleaning first (which will pull out most of the smell). If you don’t want to do it yourself, there are fiber mills who will do it, Ohio Valley Natural Fibers is closest to me, and I know that Kent and Ginny will take your fiber to whatever level of finishing you want, short of actually knitting your sweater!(ok they MIGHT do that too) They can make the wool into batts which could be laid into the pallets as they are stacked.
Hi Elizabeth… I’ve not heard or read any actual end-user reports but did find this interesting article on it at Inhabitat
http://www.inhabitat.com/2005/05/31/sheep-wool-building-insulation/
I am looking at building with pallets, but putting them vertically – two deep and alternating so the “seams” are offset. The pallets are fastened to each other since they are double think and offset and so you wouldn’t need to worry about a bracket system. This would make it strong enough and would use fewer pallets. It also wouldn’t be so heavy. For insulation, I would stuff with straw, then encase it in chicken wire and stucco over the entire wall. Vertical posts every 8 ft. (Conventional roof)
Doing a test wall – we were able to screw together a 14ft long by 10 ft high wall in just a few hours. Stuffing with straw went quickly by using a mop to shove the straw down and we had the chicken wire stapled on and one coat of stucco applied all in one day.
I’m hoping to start on a house in the Spring.
Hi Cara
I am interested in the method which you are using. I have seen pictures of a small place made with singe layer pallets stuffed with starw mixed with clay slip and then earth plastered over.
I wish to do a trailer house ( gypsy wagon) and perhaps I will sacrifice floor space to have a double wall pallet structure.
How is your test wall?
Thanks everyone for the ideas here on this forum.
Has anyone thought of papercrete, or for that matter simple papermache, (recycled newspaper) poured into the wall cavity? There is some way I seem to remember for treating it, to discourage rot and insects. Seems it would make a great sustainable insulation.
Peace!
That’s a really good idea Gill… in fact I think that would probably add to the strength of the structure too. Thanks!
Don’t think that would be as fire frindly as woold tho. If there was a fire the wool would not burn and help to put the fire out.
The pater is a good idea tho if your not to worried about fire safty.
How practical..or stupid is the idea of building
a two story dwelling this way(dumb idea?)
This is one of the best things for house design that has come along in a long time .I whant to build something like this for my self wife and kids .On the place we have out in bfe .And get out of the city . It just seems that geting someone to come out and say you may live in it .Mite be hard .Half to look into that .Befor I start halling pallets out there lol
why not use rice hulls, there lightweight ,durable,cheap,fireproof,,nothing for bugs to eat. as your boarding up walls fill it walls. the voids are small so if you lose a little so what.
if you want a bigger house,just make interior wall out of pallet to,keep rooms small so spans won,t be to long. bring pallet walls right up to roof truss that are made from pallets..