Anybody built a Tiny House?

[etpm]

You can save a bunch of money if you go with a premade fiberglass unit, but I'm not aware of any of them with a zero lip entry. If you get a one piece unit, you need to install it before the walls are up. They do not fit through doors!!! You also need good access to the drain, they can be a pain to install in tight spaces. For limited use, and easy to maintain, it's hard to beat them. The four piece units are easier to install, but they are not as attractive and I've seen them where they didn't get each piece aligned properly because it was too tight and nobody knew how to shave off some of the wood on the studs, so they leave gaps where there shouldn't be. I've seen this a few times. If you go with the fiberglass units, then movement isn't as big of an issue as it is with tile.

Greetings Eddie,
You seem to have a lot of experience in this area and I really appreciate your input. I am going to talk to the person who would be most helped by a zero lip entry to see how much it would help or if it is really even necessary. The person is a close in-law and we have already installed an electric chair lift for this person to get into and out of our house.
I already knew about the ADA ramp slope and it looks like we can build a ramp with a steeper slope because the scooter can handle it with ease. We will still have a pretty long ramp to the room though. Still, this is for family, and I don't mind.
Since the room is only intended for close friends and family to use, and not the general public, it just needs to accommodate their needs and does not need to be strictly ADA compliant. Nevertheless my wife and I want to make it easy to use. Thanks again for you advice.
Eric

 

[2manyrocks]

I wonder if you wouldn't have finer control over moving the building (if it isn't too heavy) if it could be moved with mechanical advantage instead of a tractor?

I may not be understanding the discussion, but I also thought the key to keeping tile from cracking is having a sufficiently strong subfloor? Our bathroom subfloors are advantech +3/4 plywood on top of that, and I haven't seen any cracking.

Another way of stiffening a floor is to add more joists.

If you can lay tile yourself, it can be less expensive than buying a fixture and tile can be cut to the space you have instead of having to build the space to fit a premade shower.

 

[3gunr]

They make fiberglass shower units with a very low lip and then you could build up the outside floor with another layer of plywood . we do a lot of custom bath work like eddie , my buddy built a tiny home for his daughter , i will try to get a picture of the bathroom for you .

 

[EddieWalker]

That 1:12 slope for the ramp isn't something to mess around with. This ramp is 1:12 exactly, and the deck was something like 4 feet off the ground. The person living there was in his early 30's and very thin. He couldn't walk at all, so he was dependent on somebody picking him up and carrying him up and down his deck before I built the ramp. His nurses where very concerned about the steepness of the ramp and wanted it to be have less slope, but I just couldn't find the space to make that happen. It has two landings, it goes off the back and works its way to a low enough position that it ends up in the driveway.

With wheelchairs, you never want to push them to their limit. Anything more then 1:12 is dangerous and should be avoided. Just because it's possible to get away with it once, or dozens of times, doesn't mean something really bad could happen.

 

[EddieWalker]

I wonder if you wouldn't have finer control over moving the building (if it isn't too heavy) if it could be moved with mechanical advantage instead of a tractor?

I may not be understanding the discussion, but I also thought the key to keeping tile from cracking is having a sufficiently strong subfloor? Our bathroom subfloors are advantech +3/4 plywood on top of that, and I haven't seen any cracking.

Another way of stiffening a floor is to add more joists.

If you can lay tile yourself, it can be less expensive than buying a fixture and tile can be cut to the space you have instead of having to build the space to fit a premade shower.

All houses move, vibrate and sway to some degree. The goal with a well built house is to minimize this to as little movement as possible. One of the bigger issues that's become fairly common is in homes with taller walls. 9 feet seems to be ok, but ten foot walls and taller walls really move a lot during thunder storms and winter freeze. Nobody notices the winter freeze movement until the ground thaws out and their house settles back down into the dirt. That's when the cracks in the molding appear.

On a concrete slab, the entire house moves when the soil freezes. Having a great foundation means that it all moves together and you never know anything is happening. Pier and Beam never move as one unit, so the issued tend to be more isolated and obvious on certain materials. For Pier and Beam homes, the tile should be separated from the plywood with something that will move separately from the house. What you use is up to you, but something has to be used to avoid tile cracking from movement. Hardie makes a great subfloor product that relies on a bunch of roofing nails to isolate the movement. Schluter uses a plastic product that you attach with Thinset to do this that is very popular on home improvement shows. All this assumes that the subfloor is installed and sized properly based on the width and size of the floor joists for their spans. I have had good success by removing 3/4 inch plywood subfloor and installing 1 1/8 inch subfloor on older homes.

The concern with the bathroom the OP wants to build is that the building is on beams that are not set into the ground. Since they can slide the building over, I believe that it's movement will be excessive during strong storms and severe cold weather. This doesn't mean he can't build a nice bathroom in there, he just shouldn't use tile. A vinyl floating floor would work great and look really nice. Tongue and groove pine on the walls, and the ceiling, would work great. So would paneling. A fiberglass shower is perfect for something like this. He just has to use materials that will work in his building.

 

[2manyrocks]

Thank you for explaining this to me.

 

[jjeff]

I've used bamboo flooring in bathrooms instead of tile occasionally, going on ten years on one still looks great, and seems very durable.

 

[JasperFrank]

A friend built a tiny house just outside the city limits, and I though he was crazy. But 20 years later, its the property that exploded in value, and not his little house that he build to no compliance with code. he had exploited a loop hole that taxed prop on "improvements" So he paid near nothing in Prop tax for twenty years. The lot he has is now valued far more than my property with an actual code compliant house. So who won?

 

[EddieWalker]

I haven't seen anything happening with Tiny Homes in my area. A few people tried it, but from what I've seen, it's been a failure.

I have seen a lot of people do the Barndominium's thing and successfully avoid paying taxes on their land, even though they are living in a metal building that is finished out nicer then a lot of houses. The couple that I've done for clients where supposed to be temporary living areas until they build their "dream" homes. From what I understand, they only pay the Agriculture tax on their land, which is in the hundreds of dollar range.

 

[etpm]

After speaking with the relatives that would benefit from a lipless shower and a ramp I learned that I don't need an ADA spec ramp or a lipless shower. The scooter will safely go up and down much steeper inclines than 1:12 and their shower at home has a lip. I do need to try to make the lip as low as possible so I guess I will be shopping around. The most important thing to have are grab bars in the right locations.
I know I said this before but I still want to thank everyone for their help and suggestions. This is a new area for me and I needed good info and advice and suggestions.
Cheers,
Eric