Walls keep flying up and framing continues. Both structural and envelope integrity are foremost in our minds at this point…
We opted for California corners in the framing, which increases envelope efficiency. By rotating the intersecting wall’s corner stud 90 degrees the builder can insulate across the full stud bay, which helps in two ways:
It prevents the inevitable uninsulated cavity behind the corner stud which would otherwise create a thermal bypass.
It prevents conductive heat losses through the one stud that is rotated.
As with the floor framing, we installed cross bracing in the wall framing. Noticeable differences in overall rigidity occurred after this step. You might be wondering about the insulation in the corner stud bays. We needed to complete this step at this point because the California corners make it difficult to wedge (rigid) insulation into them once the cross bracing is in place.
More reinforcements! We tied the wall framing to the entire floor system with 10″ galvanized bolts and massive square washers (we found another use for the square washers…more on that later). The house is officially one with the frame of the trailer. Onward and upward!