Trying to build a tiny house myself. Ive built basement suites and done renovations, not terribly complicated and the process was relatively simple. Could fit the guidelines for a basement suite on about 4 pages.
But this tiny house thing is ridiculous. I have my development permit and building permit which already took a powerpoint presentation to the town council, approval from the planning commission, and then several submissions and lots of scale drawings for approval for the building permit, plus the fees.
So I had some specific questions and wasn’t sure where to ask. There are SIX different places where I could find different sets of building regulations. Figured the most applicable would the National Building Code for my province. Opened up the document online and its 1,570 pages!? What the hell?
So I narrowed it down to the section on homes and small buildings and just the INDEX for that section is 7 pages long.
This is nuts. No wonder people don’t want to build homes. The codes are so ridiculously detailed that unless you study it for a living its just crazy complicated (There’s a code for how many hinges you put on a door and how deep the screws have to go into the casing)
I’ll slog through it but if I cant find the answers in a couple of hours Im gonna revert to the old “its easier to ask forgiveness than permission” approach and see how cranky the building inspector gets.
Man, you want houses built in Canada? Make it EASIER to find out how to do it.
When the inspector comes, make sure there is fresh baked bread smell around. I’m not even joking. Even the “bake at home” ones work.
I like the way you think. It works for selling houses, dont know why it wouldn’t work for inspections.
I assume you are in north america, maybe Canada?
Here in Europe, just forget it building yourself. Because in addition to all the building code and rules, you simply cannot fulfill the work area safety rules and, unless you can do 100% alone all the work, also guarantee the requirements for the other workers. What I mean is that you cannot because a company is required, only a company can have all the required paperwork for having other people working on the site.
And don’t get me started on the “paesaggistica,”, which is a town commission that must approve and change to the facade or in general public visible parts of your house to ensure those match the landscape…
They forbid me to have a 2-way roof, I needed to replace the 4-way roof with a similar one because “it’s the style here”. More complex, more money, less light (no real windows possible). And o counted 80% of houses around me have 2-way roof… So you go figure.
Yes Im in western Canada.
That situation in Europe would drive me bonkers. Im a firm believer in not hiring people to do things I can learn to do myself. I would hate being forced to hire people just because they have access to the paperwork that I dont.
We do have something similar to the paesaggistica, which are particularly intrusive if you own a condominium apartment. It can get quite ludicrous as they have an elected board who can make up whatever rules they like and impose fines. Ive heard of people being fined for having a flower box on their outside patio, or for hanging up Christmas lights before a set date because its against the condo rules. Just craziness.
If I were going to try to do this, I’d plan everything for at least a year. First, I’d watch a few videos, I suggest Perkin’s Brothers on YT. I watch them for fun. I suggest the playlist about the $100K rental property. They give an overview of each step. Then, I’d draw the building in Sketchup, or some other app, and I’d work through every step as though I were building it. Code? Just read the relevant parts as you go, using the videos as prompts for what to study.
One step at a time, make progress every day, don’t give up. Once you have your plan, and you’ve built the thing virtually in the computer, you’ll be prepared to do it for real. No one is born knowing this stuff. Learning takes effort.
Thanks. Ive actually been planning this for 10 years and have had half the tiny house sitting on a trailer in my yard for that long. Just couldn’t find the right place to put it where the town council would be open to the idea. Attitudes are finally changing though and the idea of tiny homes is becoming acceptable in many more Canadian cities.
Yeah you’re right about taking one step at a time. Thats a good point. I was looking at the chart for determining the size of built up beam I need to put under the house and its clear as mud. And the silly measurements are given in mm which is lovely except that no one goes into a lumber store and asks for a 38 x 184 board. Thats a 2x8. Dont know why they dont just call it a 2x8. Silly.
I couldn’t figure out the right size, so I put the link to the chart into ChatGPT and gave it my span and asked it to interpret the chart and tada! It figured out that a beam of three 2x8’s nailed together is what I need to pass code. Nice.
