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The deck
Two paragraphs on deck framing. The deck is what the rest of the house sits on, so it’s also what every later problem comes back to. We use 2×6 joists on 16-inch centers with ¾-inch subfloor, glued and screwed. Glue matters more than you’d think — it’s what keeps the floor from squeaking a decade in.
On the trailer-mounted camps we add a steel-to-wood isolation layer. Direct contact between dissimilar materials is where rot starts.
Insulation
R-30 minimum between joists on a standard build. On the four-season upgrade we add a continuous layer of rigid underneath the joists, so there’s no thermal bridge through the framing. The envelope is only as good as its weakest layer, and floors are usually the weakest layer in a tiny home.
- Rock wool between joists
- Rigid continuous underneath
- Vapor barrier above subfloor
- Finished floor on top of that
Anybody who tells you the vapor barrier goes on the cold side without qualifying it for your climate zone is guessing. For Maine, it goes up.
Vapor control
In zone 6, the vapor barrier goes on the warm side of the insulation — above the subfloor, below the finish floor. Closed-cell foam is its own vapor retarder and changes the stackup.
finish floor
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vapor barrier
———————
subfloor (glued + screwed)
———————
joists + insulation
———————
vapor-permeable sheathing
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(crawlspace or trailer)What we check before closing it up
Before the subfloor goes down, the floor assembly gets a three-point check:
- Fasteners — every joist, every hanger, every blocking member.
- Insulation — full coverage, no gaps, no compressed batts.
- Penetrations — plumbing and electrical sleeves sealed with the right tape for the vapor strategy.
Then the floor gets walked by a second set of eyes. Then it goes down.