Tiny House 3.0 Part 1

A New Era for the Tiny House Movement

2017 marks the year the Tiny House Movement turns a corner and pulls forward into a new era for DIY “backyard builders,” professional tiny house construction companies, and tiny house homeowners alike.

Welcome to Tiny House 3.0!

2-Part Series: What, Why, and How!

In the first of this two-part series, we’ll reflect upon our organically grown Tiny House Movement, and explore the budding need for greater formality of our industry. 

At the end of this month’s article, you’ll read a recap of my personal beliefs as they relate to the need for a unified Tiny House Construction Code and a logical flow that shows how we can bring legitimacy to the Movable Tiny House and further open the door to live legally in our DIY or Pro-built portable dwellings. 

Next month, you’ll get a bit of a how-to guide on ways we can defend our position and rights, align our community interests and construction activities, and resolve our needs to establish a precedent of progress for legitimizing tiny houses as dwellings and legalize their occupancy across the nation and around the world. 

We’ve arrived together at a crossroads with the need, desire, and capability to bring more formality to our burgeoning industry. And we are galvanized around a singular purpose: To legally live in the homes we’re building.

Welcome again to Tiny House 3.0!

Generational Growth and Development

To begin, take a peek at the sidebar, Solid Foundations — Our Tiny House History, and you’ll see how our organic growth parallels other closely related industries. Below we’ll establish the framework for our current era by recapping the two major predecessors to today’s time in the Tiny House Movement, and illustrate the compelling need to take more deliberate steps forward in our progress toward legitimization and legalization.

Tiny House 1.0 (2007 – 2012)

In popular terms, it begins with the Oprah Show squeezing cameras into Jay Shafer’s 96 sqft. tiny house, and socially with the launch of Kent Griswold’s Tiny House Blog. These two events are among others that quickly catalyzed interest in what is termed the Tiny House Movement. 

Early tiny house pundits rise to the forefront of local and national news for building what becomes colloquially known as a Tiny House on Wheels with its attendant acronym: THOW, or THOF for small “ground-bound” homes on foundations. Simple structures are built on new or repurposed cargo trailers and RV chassis, and many leverage the “green building” and “sustainable living” craze with utilization of reclaimed materials. 

Amazingly low construction prices are highly attractive to a nation reeling from a mortgage crisis, further economic recession, and unforeseen lifestyle changes largely by two generations: Baby Boomers moving toward retirement with significant loss of investments fueling their future with fixed incomes, and Millennials exiting college with dire prospects for employment and lower levels of early financial success as a reward for their accomplishments in higher education.  

Tiny House 2.0 (2012-2016)

The presidential election drives another dip in national economic stability, and the reality of tiny house living is embraced by an even larger population seeking how-to knowledge for the practicality of “going tiny.” 

The tiny house trend continues to grow and gains greater momentum. An unprecedented popularity of news stories showcase everyday folks using a self-enabled can-do attitude to build their own homes, with homeowner/builders leading the charge into a lifestyle of minimalism and simplicity. The tiny house “showcase” of Boneyard Studios gives tangible expression to dreams of living among friends in a small self-supporting urban community. 

Tiny house startups with companies like Tumbleweed and Tennessee Tiny House rise to the top as recognized brands of a burgeoning industry. The availability of tiny house plans opens a new

market while how-to seminars proliferate the wealth of shared knowledge, and attendance of hands-on workshops develops a demand that supersedes the supply of seats. 

Everyday, lifelong building trade professionals hang up their big business spurs in favor of starting a tiny house business, and young can-do builders hang their social network shingles alongside as project shops in the expanding tiny house construction industry. A seemingly never-ending stream of tiny house TV shows and YouTube videos feeds a hungry market of binge watchers who long to live the dream of “going tiny.” 

Best practices and guidelines for tiny house construction are promoted by the American Tiny House Association. The need for legal tiny house parking becomes a hot topic, with advocates working to persuade state and local building officials to allow their portable dwelling units to be officially used as their homes. 

Residential requests clog the phone lines of building departments and zoning officials, who are unsure how to address calls for a previously unrecognized form of residential structure. News stories share sad tales of tiny house homeowners being forced to move as nimby neighbors call with complaints, forcing local officials to (sometimes reluctantly) exercise their roles in code enforcement.

Legal concerns grow, and a few large tiny house companies embrace the use of recreational construction codes as the means to legitimize their products and safeguard their business interests by rebranding themselves Tiny House RV companies. Yet the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) maintains its position that RVs are “designed and built for temporary seasonal use, never as a permanent residence.” 

Several short films are released about tiny house living and building mostly geared toward The DIY crowd.  Notably, the Living Tiny Legally documentary raises awareness and illustrates ways-and-means for proactive groups, community developers, and municipal leaders to work in concert  opening the door for legal tiny living. And, in September 2016, Andrew Morrison and a team of advocates propose — and win! — an introduction of tiny house code allowances into the seemingly formidable International Residential Code.

Tiny House 3.0 (2017 – Present) 

A new day dawns for the future of tiny houses. Growing interest in tiny houses as dwellings, their adoption as Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) in large municipalities, and development of several tiny house communities illustrates the viability for tiny houses to help solve a compounding housing crisis.

Throngs of tiny advocates and hopeful DIY builders nationwide prepare to approach state and municipal Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) with the need to adopt IRC 2018 Appendix V (aka: the Tiny House Code). Two tiny house inspection and certification programs become more visible, fueling a debate over the need for — and application of — construction codes for Movable Tiny Houses. 

DIY builders face a confusion where construction is concerned as garden shed companies publicly position their structures for use as dwellings. The use of Unregistered Industrialized Buildings raises increased concern from state and municipal building officials who seek to stem the flow of illegally placed structures and their unapproved use for residency through letter-of-the-law enforcement. 

Some tiny house builders gravitate toward mass production by seeking certification of their facilities for the production of HUD Code compliant manufactured homes. Large RV manufacturers position their park model RVs as “tiny homes,” and DIY builders continue to build their tiny houses using myriad sources for self-education without official oversight. 

Tiny house professionals elect to voluntarily band together in the hopes of creating an inclusive referential code base for tiny house construction, inspection, and certification. The collective goal is to uphold long standing tenets of residential home construction — mainly health, safety, and welfare — while simultaneously demonstrating that tiny homes can conform to said standards.

Future Proofing Tiny Homes 

As a unified force, we have strength, we have integrity, and we have solutions for the great need for affordable housing. Now it’s time to care for ourselves by protecting our interests, investments, and long-term viability for using Movable Tiny Homes for their intended purpose as safe, efficient, and affordable homes.

In the current state of our tiny house union, two simple things open the door for the use of Movable Tiny Houses as officially permissible domiciles fit for full-time residency:

Legitimacy – Adherence to residential construction codes proving a movable structure is a dwelling 

Legalization– Ordained use of portable dwellings as official domiciles in areas zoned for residency

It’s truly that simple, and yet in such simplicity, there are myriad details to sort out for the legitimization of our structures as dwellings and legalization of their use as domiciles. 

Core Beliefs, Competencies, and Capabilities

As for many others, I firmly believe the following:

Right – Homeowners should have the right to construct their own homes. 

Protection – Tiny home buyers and builders should have the same rights of protection and privilege to operate in the same manner as others involved in residential and recreational industries. 

Due Diligence – Some have stated, “it only takes one.” A single major incident could bring ruin to the freedom we still enjoy in tiny house building, transport, and occupancy. 

Time Sensitive – The time is now. There’s no need to delay or defer. Every day we wait to formalize our interests, we allow others with existing investments in established industries to encroach upon our space and sway lawmaking that will ultimately determine our destiny.Unity – The tiny house world remains a bit fragmented and remains without official formation. We must stand united as one body with clearly established goals and objectives, including the use of Movable Tiny Houses as legally permissible dwellings.

Inclusion – Maintaining a closeted position is likely to result in volatile reactions and undesirable decisions. Too much is at risk for any exclusive group to hold the keys to the long-term viability for Movable Tiny Houses to be used as permanent residences. 

Openness – While it’s true that a large group is difficult to manage, an “open source” approach provides even-handed representation for the rights of individuals and organizations in our industry. 

Agreement – Industry consensus on a uniform standard should be developed and applied to the construction of Movable Tiny Houses by DIY and Pro builders. 

Codified – Whether dwellings are permanent or portable, a uniform set of prescriptive residential construction codes can and should be applied to the construction of tiny houses. 

Referential – Code books are largely relational in that they refer and defer to other code sets where applicable. Our Tiny House Construction Code can and should do the same, using the International Residential Code, Tiny House Code (IRC 2018 Appendix V), and other conditional standards as our referential code base.

Conformation – Adherence to existing residential codes is the only means by which we can seek and gain official recognition of and authorized residency in a Movable Tiny House.

Inspected – Whether DIY or Pro built, regulatory inspections and certification processes can and should be performed for all new construction using baseline minimums that must “meet or exceed” code.

Certified – Certification programs paralleling the residential construction inspection process provide proof of conformation to a specific set of residential construction codes.

Attainable – The means of inspection and certification should be readily accessible in a consistently programmatic fashion for single-unit DIY and higher volume professional builders. 

Affordable – Certification should be reasonably priced, making its use a common practice that adds relatively little expense to total construction costs.

Credentialed – Inspectors should hold requisite credentials for the performance of their role in inspection of construction practices.

Recognized – Certification standards should prove their worth, ease of application, and capacity for use by residential building inspection departments and zoning officials.Voluntary – Conformation to an established standard, inspection of adherence to existing residential codes, and certification for the completion of construction that “meets

or exceeds” the residential standard is readily available and extensible within our own self-regulated industry.

In two years, the term “Movable Tiny House” will be proposed for inclusion into the main body of the 2021 International Residential Code. We should bring hard facts and real numbers that prove our sincere interest in residency, our integrity through voluntary compliance, and our capability to maintain the intent of the residential construction codes by upholding:

• Health for occupants, neighbors, and environment
• Public safety during transit and when used for residency
• General welfare for owner, neighbors, and community at large

Making the Most of the Movement

Tiny House 3.0 brings a formalization to the present day organic growth of the tiny house movement. While more and more DIY and professional builders gravitate to the Tiny House Movement, we must bring a formality to our dealings that protects our collective interests, investments, and opportunities for the use of safe, efficient, and affordable houses.

Whether DIY or Pro, if we want to continue to design, build, and — most importantly — dwell in Movable Tiny Houses, we must recognize the need for legal formality, establish a common standard, and provide proof of compliance. This is the natural course of events, and — congratulations to us — we’ve arrived here together!

Tiny House 3.0, Part 2

Next month we’ll take a hard look at our position among other firmly established industries, recognize the great need to uphold our rights, work with our associations and other groups bringing formality to tiny house construction and community development, and resolve our need to bring legitimacy to the Movable Tiny House that opens the door to live legally in our DIY or Pro-built portable dwellings.

At least that’s my point of view, my opinion, and solution sought in collaboration with our DIY clients, professional builders, university programs, business partners, and our tiny house community at large. 

Thanks for your support. As always, encouraging you to…