Honestly, this cladding was the most difficult part of this whole process. The aluminum cladding that we chose was actually pretty easy to install, if we are talking about the small pieces. This cladding, unlike most cladding, has to be installed from the top down. So, based on where we knew we needed to end up at the bottom of the trailer, we had to do the math to figure out exactly which point to start at the top, and hope that if we kept each piece straight, we would end up where we needed to be by the time we got to the bottom. These sheets are about 0.7 mm (0.028 inches) thick by 7.8 meters (25 ½ feet) long and difficult to install on a day with even the slightest hint of a breeze. Other pieces were shorter, depending on where they were on the tiny house. Each piece interlocks at the top with the piece before it and is secured along the bottom edge and the sides. After what we thought would be one very long weekend of cladding from sun up to sun down, we still needed an additional week to complete the project. When we were done, we were so proud of it though, and it looks fantastic!

The next step was to complete all of the outer edge trim, the finish work. Each corner, or exposed edge where a window would be, or where the roof came down to match the cladding had to be trimmed out with corner pieces and riveted on. In Bruce’s words, this part, although intricate and detail oriented, was a, “Piece of piss.” This finish work was so much easier than fretting about fitting those big cumbersome pieces of cladding. Next up, we get to fit the windows!