Lots of skid house questions

[slick2526]

Been throwing around the idea of buying a perm for this winter. More I keep looking the more I have decided against buying one, and just building a skid house and using the current atv trailer I have. I have found lots of articles and threads dealing with building skid houses and have been picking up bits of info off each one. I would still prefer to ask some other questions on my build from people who have been there.

I have seen people using 1/2 to 3/4" thick plywood for the floor, 2x6 for runners, and either 2x2 or 2x4 for the cross supports. im thinking of going with 1/2" green treat plywood and 2x4 spaced every 24" and insulating under the floor. I have been throwing around the idea of making the flooring seperate from the 2x6 runners also.

Do you think that is ideal? Should i just build my floor right into the skids? Is green treated my best option for the flooring and stud support underneath? Should I just stick with 2x2 supports under the floor and go every 16 inches?

My end goal is to keep it as light as possible and keeping the material and hardware under $500.00

More questions to come, this is just all I had time to post right now

[JSK76]

I built a 4x6 skid house last year and used 2x6 green treat for the skids and the 2x6 are the sides of the actual floor. I used 1/2" treated plywood for the floor and 2' on center for the joist. I ripped 2x4's down to 3" actual hight to give me 1/2" more clearance from the ground. Now this is all good for a 4' wide house but if going wider I would use 2x8's or even 10's for the skids so you can use full 2x4' for the joist and get better clearance from the ground, you don't want to go too high as far as fishing high off the ice but too low and you have a snow plow behind whatever your pulling it with. I also highly recommend using the HDPE on the bottom of the skids. I used 4" wide strips on the bottom of the skids, I can push mine by hand and have pushed it by hand up a tilt bed snowmobile by my self.

[i'majigger]

I have built many skid houses over the years and the one thing I do not skimp on is the runners. I use rough cut oak, for my houses I usually go 2x4 but you can go bigger if you want to insulate the floor. I know this sounds heavy but you will appreciate it the first time you house gets frozen in, you can chisle, pry, jack, whatever it takes and do not have to worry about splitting your runners. I usually check around and find a guy that is sawing lumber to find my runners. I make sure I set my house on some 2x4 blocks in the summer and have had the runners last for 25 years. they also polish up real nice on the bottom so they slide real easy on the ice or your trailer for loading. As for the floor joists, light angle iron works well, you will get the support without having them hang down so far and getting stuck to the ice. As for insulating the floor, one option is to sandwich the foam in between to layers of plywood. Screw 3/8 plywood to the runners, glue your 3/4" foam on to the 3/8, then glue 1/2" ply wood to the foam and run long screws through the whole thing to the runners. You will want to put 3/4" strips in the sandwich where your joints will be for the 1/2" plywood so that you will have somethig to nail too. Make sure you offset the plywood joints so they do not line up with each other, this makes a very strong floor with the need for less floor joists. I made one this way and it was a very nice warm floor. Let us know how the build goes.

[Northlander]

Check out soderblooms skid houses. Super light weight and WARM. Insulated below the floor as well as all the inside. They use the spray foam insulation and I can tel you first hand you can keep them warm with a buddy heater. At times too warm. They are in Cromwell.

[gunner55]

Seen these at the icefishing show in Duluth last year & they looked to be very well made.