Are you considering joining the tiny home movement and downsizing your life and expenses by embracing tiny home living? It’s a good idea as according to Forbes, the average 200 sq. ft. tiny home can cost as low as $30,000, while the traditional American home costs much more. Not to forget, tiny homeowners don’t have to deal with mortgages. Conventional homes are just bigger spaces with high utility bills. When you invest in a tiny home manufactured by an established builder, you pay less and live comfortably but have lower utility bills to pay at the end of the month. However, when building a tiny home on wheels, you are likely to make a lot of mistakes, especially the DIYers without any prior experience. Most issues are fixable, but preparation is the key to avoiding these mistakes from the start as much as possible.
TinyHouseMe connects you with established and experienced builders who can design and customize your tiny home on wheels and also prevent you from making building mistakes that threaten the durability, strength, and functionality of the structure.
Overlooking headers
Many inexperienced tiny home builders and DIYers forget about the headers, which can cause structural problems. The doors and windows have a gap in the support structure, and taking a strong wall and putting a huge hole in it, can decrease structural integrity. You need to find a way to balance the weight and not forget about the headers. Ignoring the header, leads to additional issues and you will have to spend extra money on the tiny house. An experienced builder will know about the importance of a header and will not make the mistake of ignoring it.
Go beyond the trailer width
Talking to the builders about designing the tiny home on wheels and putting in a lot of creative layouts and storage ideas for customization is great. However, maximizing everything begets problems like poor weight distribution, and you don’t realize how easily you go beyond the legal width limit. According to TinyHouseBuild, a trailer’s legal road limit width is 102” or 8.5 feet. A good builder will advise you to build over-the-wheel wells to maximize the interior width without surpassing the legal limit. While designing your customized tiny home, you and the builder should consider the sheathing, siding, roof overhang, drip edge, etc., on both sides. If you don’t plan these things with your builder during the building phase, you need to spend extra renovating your space again.
Furthermore, consider the exterior width features like venting pipes, which add more thickness to the structure. Although wider tiny homes are more common and wide-load permits are inexpensive, extra-wide tiny homes on wheels are challenging to tow by inexperienced homeowners. Additionally, finding a secure parking spot is difficult due to these factors, and parking under the radar is trickier, especially when the mobile home is harder to relocate.
Tiny homes are affordable – BUT don’t try getting it dirt-cheap
The tiny home movement gained momentum because they are comparatively more affordable than a traditional house. According to Media Company, Work+Money, the median cost of a conventional US home is 10 times more than that of a tiny house. However, expecting a tiny home to be dirt-cheap and going for DIY structures to reduce costs is not a smart move. Rather research tiny home builders and purchase a high-quality tiny home on wheels after comparing the models and prices. TinyHouseMe connects you with established builders across the US providing premium-grade tiny homes at competitive prices. TinyHouseMe can offer expert help to plan and finance the tiny home if you don’t have funds to pay upfront. Remember that while investing in a THOW, put your money on a good trailer. A customized trailer is a secure foundation and supports the overall load of your tiny home. The trailer needs to be strong enough to support the weight of the tiny home.
Not using lightweight materials
Cement siding and too many tiles are heavy for a tiny home on wheels. The THOW are moveable structures, and lightweight materials are imperative. Consider alternatives like steel roofing panels for the roof, expanded polystyrene boards for insulation, vinyl for flooring, birch plywood sheets for the interior structure, and lightweight steel studs for the exterior. A local builder can help build your tiny home, customized to suit your needs. For competitive pricing, connect via TinyHouseMe and book an appointment at the earliest.
A Thumb Rule – Ask for help if you need it!
We don’t expect you to understand the entire building process of a tiny home. Installing electrical and plumbing systems are challenging and must be done right to avoid future complications. You need to plan out the structure of your tiny home with the builders before taking the plunge. At TinyHouseMe, you have the privilege to connect with multiple builders and look into their latest manufactured models to compare and choose what works best for you. If the models please you visually, the price suits your budget, and the specifications meet your needs – then connect with the builder instantly via TinyHouseMe. We place you in the frontline for the builder and ensure a faster response. Connect today!
