Building your teardrop outside

[gersus]

When I first looked into building a teardrop I didn't know if I would be able to build because my garage is full of other stuff and I'll have to build outside... but then it seems like lots of people build outdoors. I know a lot of people use their garage and that would be a lot better but I don't have that option.
So, my plan is to build some of it in my garage and lots of it outside tarping it in between sessions with some airflow underneath the tarp. Is this ok? The point of erecting the walls and working the roof will be interesting I'm sure...
Any tips?

[daveesl77]

I have a detached garage, at the back of my property. My garage is full of junk, tools, wood, and other wonderful treasures accumulated over the decades. So the build happened in a temporary "garage" I popped up next to my real garage. This is on the back corner of my lot and due to all the trees and stuff you really could not see it. I used 2 HF 10' ez up canopies, ones that I normally take camping. Over these I spread a 20x30 tarp. I do a similar setup, but a slightly smaller tarp, when we tent camp. The tarp is held down on essentially every other grommet. For stakes I have found the 1' long, flat, green, steel lawn stakes sold by Home Despot are simply great and I've used them for years. Will drive into anything, holds in just about anything and comes up easy by whacking the side with a hammer, but won't come out of the ground easy by itself. Doing it this way puts the various components in a tension/compression factor on all areas of stress. Tarp pulls down on the canopy, canopy pushes up on the tarp.

Anyway, this gives me a 10' x 20' covered area, 7' tall, with feet of overhang on all sides. This setup has withstood multiple super heavy cloudbursts, with winds around 60 mph. On days when I wanted to open up a side or needed to move a canopy (like when putting the EPDM on the roof, it took about 5 minutes to pull a side over and maybe 10 minutes to reset. I just took it down a few days ago now that I am at the final build stages and the trailer has been moved down to the pad next to my house.

dave

[Tomterrific]

I built mine outside under a pop-up canopy. During times of heavy rain I tarped it and lowered the pop-up. I kept my tools out side under a tarp also. It was summer so easy to get a full week with no rain. I'm not a craftsman but an okay designer so I had a reasonably good idea what needed done and the basics went together quickly. We've used it twice last year bit it still isn't done. :-) Lots more cool ideas for our trailer.

Tom

[dales133]

I'm building mine outside.
I've got some basic shelter but it's not very dry when it rains

[bobhenry]

I thought I would add a few shots of my spacious shop during 5 different builds































Same shop with the same leaky roof.

All the builds turned out just fine.

[noseoil]

I'm using the front porch for now (shop is too full of stuff, except for the table saw & out-feed table) as a place to work. Once the real build is started, I'll be using the trailer frame (leveled) to build. I have a canopy I can put up and will tarp the build between sessions, due to our monsoon rains which "may" be coming around July 4th. I want to have as much done as possible prior to doing the assembly, so I'm working on the cabinets & small stuff first, before the walls are attached to the floor. I clamp things together on weekends to check the fit, take it apart, then do some finishing during the week (sanding, stain & urethane). It's a slow process, but it works well enough.

[gersus]

nice! Glad I'm not alone!

[tony.latham]

I saw a guy build a whole house outside once.

I've had the fortune with my three builds to be able to roll them in the garage during non-build pauses. The last two builds I have constructed on a dolly built out of 2x4s. I load them on the chassis after the aluminum is on. Most of my actual building is done outside. If I didn't have stoarage space for the project inside, I'd do it without hesitating. You'll come up with a quick-set-up tarp system that works. Seal things up when you can.





Tony

[jstrubberg]

A fellow visiting us from England told me "Only an American would park a $30,000 car outside to keep $3000 worth of stuff in his garage.".