Tiny House Design Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses

For Sale: 18′ Front Range

March 19, 2015 By Greg Parham 3 Comments

We are pleased to announce the upcoming completion of our latest model in the RMTH lineup, The Front Range. The simple shed roof design takes a nod from the Front Range mountains that rise abruptly from the great plains, stretching from Casper, WY down to Pueblo,CO. The designated “south” side has four large windows that are intended to soak up the views and sunshine. The floor plan is basic in nature to place less emphasis on the house, and more on the outside surroundings.

This particular house is constructed using SIP’s (structural insulated panels). This will be the 5th SIP structure we have completed. If you’ve missed the previous conversation regarding this building system, in a nutshell it provides much greater thermal efficiency, is stronger, and easier to construct compared to stick framing, saving on costs.

All of the windows and the front door were acquired from the local salvage yard. They don’t all quite match, and there are some architectural lines that don’t quite line up as a result, but hey, there are in very good shape and were inexpensive. The cream colored metal roof also came from the salvage yard. It had some dents we had to smooth out, but no holes! We took the drops from the roof and applied them to the siding in a way that looked nice and maximized what we had left. We had some leftover cedar lap siding pieces from previous projects we were able to use as a wainscot. On the endwalls, we had some leftover cedar shakes to finish the tops off. We’ll be using vertical cedar planks on the sidewalls above the metal band.

The 18′ long by 7′-6″ footprint features a dry bath at one end, closet space and kitchen in the middle with a loft above, and an open living space on the other end. A 28″ full lite door with a screen on the rear of the trailer provides access and lots of light/fresh air.

The interior will be a combination of whitewash walls, pallet wood, beetle kill planks, and overall lighter toned woods for trim, counters, etc. It is not too late to contact us if you would like to add your own personal touches.

As the house is still in construction and I do not know what the final costs will be, I do not yet have a sales price. Our target price is somewhere around $35k, however. If you are interested in purchasing this professionally built tiny house, please get in touch with us here.

A River Runs Through It: Custom Gooseneck Tiny House

February 17, 2015 By Greg Parham 83 Comments

A gentleman that I went to college and used to race bikes with back in my days of collegiate cycling contacted me last year. He and his wife Krissy were interested in having me build a tiny house for their young family to live in so they could simplify life, pay off their debt quicker, and start saving up for their ultimate dream of buying a sailboat and sailing ’round the world. With a toddler, a dog, and a cat comprising this family, as well as a second child on the way, they knew they would need something on the larger end of the tiny house spectrum, preferably 32′ or longer.

While the 30′ bumper pull tiny house was completed back in December ’14, I wasn’t sure how I felt about doing a 32′, especially knowing that they would eventually be towing it themselves from their current location in El Paso near Ft. Bliss to some place further north where Steve could be a park ranger after his time in the reserve was up. I asked if they would be open to a gooseneck design, partially because I had yet to do one and really wanted to, but also because I knew it would be easier to tow than a bumper pull of equal length. After drumming up some quick sketches, they said “sure!” And so started another fun, innovative, creative tiny house build here in the San Juan Mountains.

I like to name all the houses I build, as does most everyone else, so I asked them what they wanted to name the house, and after a little thought Steve got back to me: “Rio Grande”. It was a fitting name in so many ways. The headwaters of the Rio Grande lie only about 70 miles away from Durango in the San Juans, just on the other side of the Continental Divide. From high up in the alpine, snow melt travels south into New Mexico, meandering by Sante Fe and Albuquerque, before paralleling I-25 down to Las Cruces and then to El Paso. Most of the drive from Durango to El Paso follows the river closely. The river is always ebbing and flowing, changing with the seasons, reacting to the demands we humans have placed upon it. Just like life.

We took this river theme and found ways to artistically incorporate it into the design. The overall shape of the tiny house with the gooseneck, the changing rooflines, and a shed roof that gently drops off towards the aft invoke a feeling of flow. We took a propane torch to the cedar siding to brand on the shape of a flowing, growing river. Making “water” with fire. It’s awesome. Steve and Krissy collected river rocks, which we inlaid into a “river” that we let into the wood countertop and then applied epoxy over. I was ale to collect some river willow and use it for the guardrail over the gooseneck bedroom. Everything really turned out great.

I will stop babbling let the pictures and video do the rest of the talking. First, here are some quick stats:

24′ deck with 8′ of floor over gooseneck for a total length of 32′. Typical 7′-5″ width 13′-6″ tall at ridge
(2) 7000# axles with brakes, GVWR 14,000#
actual dry weight 11,500#
218 sq ft main level living ( including front gooseneck), 70 sq ft of sleeping loft
36″ reclaimed front door with a fold down porch, 24″ rear door made from reclaimed wood and glass
Custom river rock inlaid counters at 41″ height for tall people!
reclaimed picture windows in the main loft
propane range and on demand water heater
full size fridge, full size bathtub, washer/dryer combo
110v shore power
on grid water system with hose hookup
Nature’s Head composting toilet
greywater drain system
Full size 30×60 bath tub
Woodstove primary heat
Mini split A/C (not shown at time of photography)
approx sale price: $73,000
time to construct: 6 weeks (from day of trailer arrival)

Custom SIP Tiny House (As Seen on TV)

January 4, 2015 By Greg Parham 29 Comments

A lovely couple from Colorado Springs commissioned me to build this tiny home for them in spring of 2014. As the time approached to get started on it late summer, a tv production company also contacted me asking if I had any unique builds going on or knew of any people building their own tiny house that they could film for a new tiny house reality series for HGTV. All I could send them was the contact for my clients to see if they were interested. Turns out, Derek and Mary were, and so we all agreed to let the house build be filmed.

After nailing down the details and getting all our ducks in a row, the crew came down to Durango from Denver on three weekends to film construction, and we filmed a fourth weekend in Colorado Springs once the house was complete and delivered. I wasn’t really able to talk much about the house, and absolutely none about the filming. We wanted to keep everything a surprise up until the air date.

The show aired back in December ’14, and so now it is ok for me to share this. People have been looking for more info about this house and haven’t been able to find it, until now!

Like all tiny houses that pass through the shop, this was a full custom design and build from scratch. Here are some of the design parameters we had to work around:

Needed to be light enough to be towed by a 1/2 ton Ford F-150
Needed to be warm, since the clients might have to move to a colder climate for work
Needed stairs that their dog Buddy could go up and down
Also needed a doggy door for Buddy.
More or less a traditional looking tiny house, but with some contemporary flair
Stainless counterops. A fridge larger than typical dorm style fridges.
Woodstove, and Dickinson propane heater if feasible
Room for a store bought couch. Also enough wall space to mount a 40″ tv

I worked with the Voight’s extensively to refine the design. I had just developed a great relationship with a SIP (structural insulated panel) company while on business trips to Boulder earlier in the winter. In fact, I had just built 3 energy huts for Hunter Douglass using SIP’s the month before, so I had learned about how the product goes together and was excited to apply it to a full time living tiny house. Luckily, Derek and Mary were open to SIP’s and were ready to become one of the few owners of a tiny house made from SIP’s.

SIP’s are a cool building product to work with, esp. for tiny houses. You absolutely have to pay attention to the minuscule details, however, or you are going to fight the system until it drives you crazy. My experience with the other three SIP structures along with the help of a very good sales rep made the assembly of these panels a breeze. I made absolutely sure my trailer was square and level before starting. We triple checked the locations of our baseplates before raising the walls. We made sure all of our edge nailers were flush with the OSB and no dried glue was sticking out. We left some wiggle room in key places. Everything went together perfectly until the last dormer roof panel. Things had somehow gotten a hair off, and a hair multiplied over nine or ten feet can add up to 1/4″ on the other end. Luckily, we were able to attach some mounting plates to key areas of the roof and pull everything into plane using winches.

I called Derek the other day to see how the SIP’s were performing now that they are in the dead of a Nebraska winter. He said “Great, it’s -4 outside and 77 on the inside.” Without doubt, the thermal performance of SIP’s is the number one reason to use them, but let me also cite a few more:

They go up very fast compared to stick framing. The added cost of the product outweighs the labor time involved with traditional methods
They are CNC cut, from the angles of the walls and roof panels, to the rough openings for the windows and doors. You are left with a very precise shell that makes it easier to install windows, siding, and interior wood.
You have a solid substrate to attach components to on the inside. No need to locate a stud, just screw or nail anywhere and you will hit meat.
they are strong as all get out. So strong, that you can actually use less steel on your trailer frame and still have a tiny house that is stronger than a stick frame house with an overbuilt trailer. The use of SIP’s on a trailer really takes rigidity to a whole new level. This was important since we were trying to keep weight down

SIP’s do have their drawbacks, too, but I will save this for a later post since they did not effect any of the design goals for this project. Moving along, here are some quick stats of the finished product:

custom fabricated 18′ trailer with (2) 5200# axles equipped with brakes and a break away system
Walls and Ceiling constructed from pre-engineered 4 5/8″ Structurally Insulated Panels. Floor insulation and subfloor is integrated into trailer frame to provide an extra 4″ of headroom
Finished dry weight came out to 6900# This was within the weight rating of Derek’s truck with a little bit to spare for personal goods
Electric and Water supply are setup for grid tie
Grey water goes to a gravel collection pit that the clients installed after delivery. Solid wastes are handled via a “humanure” composting toilet
Primary heat is provided by a woodstove, backup heat by a propane Dickinson Marine Newport
A/C not required due to temperate climate
Cost for a replicate would be in the 46k range

Due to all the filming craziness, I wasn’t able to snap too many shots of the finished product, but I did get a few:

To close this post out, I would like to share a photo that the clients sent me with the house all settled in alongside a sweet deck that they installed on top of an old trailer frame that was laying around at the Nebraska farm where they are parked. Tiny House, Big Living!

Custom 30 Foot House

December 12, 2014 By Greg Parham 111 Comments

I am pleased to show you the latest tiny house to leave our shop and find its way to some very excited owners. I hauled this beauty down to Driftwood, TX where it will live for a year or so before moving right back into the Rockies. A family of three contacted me in late Spring this year to discuss having me build their dream home. The program requirements were pretty grand: 30 feet or longer, two lofts, a bedroom, a murphy bed, full size appliances, a full size tub/shower, stairs, A/C, LOTS of storage, an electic mix of gingerbread traditional, and rustic modern. We collaborated a few months getting the design complete and had to wait til mid October to begin construction.

From a RMTH standpoint, you can throw just about every superlative on this house you like: longest, tallest, heaviest, most difficult to tow, most complicated, most expensive, most delayed, most man hours, and most fun! The project came in on budget, but our completion was delayed two weeks due to a late delivery of all the beetle kill wood.

I’m not going to write up a whole lot more about it, because I actually made a video tour! My camera and impromptu documentary skills really suck, but I think you’ll get a pretty good idea of how this house feels and functions. Also below this are some photos of the exterior, the haul, and a few interior stills.

A few quick stats for the curious:

30 foot 15,000# triple axle trailer chassis custom fabricated
about 12,000# dry
197 sq ft on the main floor and about 100 sq ft of loft space
4″ EPS foam floor and wall insulation, 6″ in the ceiling
advanced wood framing
$89,000 as shown

Funky East Austin Rental

November 30, 2014 By Greg Parham 54 Comments

Mandy Harris Urban Oak Photograpy

Here it is December and I am just now getting to this! Things have been crazy busy this fall heading into winter-so busy that I now have four employees! That’s a whole other post though. Today I wand to share with you a wonderful tiny house project that was completed back in October.

Sometime earlier this summer a lovely woman from Austin contacted me to see about having a unique tiny house built that she could use as a nightly rental for Airbnb and other similar sites. She was on a very tight budget and timeline, but was looking for some really funky and creative design ideas. After some back and forth collaboration, we agreed on a price and delivery date, as well as began with the design process .

With some careful planning and thoughtful use of reclaimed materials, along with some very much appreciated assistance from the client, we were able to meet budget constraints and were if not for some large rains that flooded the shop a few times, we would have been exactly on time but instead were a week late on delivery. Most importantly though, we were able to create a tiny house with very unique details that has caught the attention of tiny house enthusiasts the world wide. It is with great pride I present the Funky East Austin Rental tiny house.

Mandy Harris Urban Oak Photograpy

First off, this tiny house is built on a single axle 12′ trailer. The client was originally drawn to the 16′ Boulder house I built since her backyard was fenced in by faded corrugated metal and cedar pickets, but due to the small size of where she had room to park it, we had to go with a 12′ design. We were both glad we did after I showed up and we had a heck of time just getting this 12 foot trailer through the gate, turned, rotated, and placed in the final spot! I have a motorized trailer dolly that I fabricated to help in situations like this, but it broke down right before delivery, and I’m not sure how well it would have worked since the yard had very loose soil. We enlisted the help of some neighbors and in duo with a hand winch, were able to manually get the house situated!

Similar to the Boulder, the plan features a kitchen up front, bathroom in the back, living space in the middle, and alternating stair treads that lead up to the sleeping loft. The house utilizes a shed roof design.

In addition to the inspiration taken from the original Boulder, the client wanted some steampunk and industrial flair, yet with a healthy dose of rustic elements. We achieved this unique look with the following:

Mandy Harris

Pipe fixtures- using off the shelf pipe fittings, these fixtures were installed for items such as TP holder, paper towel, pot racks, closet rods, handrails, and more

Mandy Harris

Barn wood with sliding barn door- much like the Boulder, there is a barnwood wall separating the main space from the bathroom. This design, however, features a sliding door that we fabricated the hardware for in house.

Steampunk light fixtures-these were all hand picked and purchased by the client. She had them shipped to my shop in Durango. This was not only a huge load of work off my to do list, but afforded the client a very hands on approach that reflected her tastes very well. They are beautiful!

Steampunk plumbing fixtures-these were all fabricated in house using carefully selected off the shelf pipe fixtures

Mandy Harris Urban Oak Photography

Live edge maple stairs- I bought this wood in large slabs from the salvage yard next door. They took A LOT of cutting, planing, jointing, glueing, and prep work, but the end result speaks for itself. Another element of the stairs that was integral to the program requirements was to have a space under the stairs to use for suitcase storage, and or a small work area with a charging station.

Mandy Harris Urban Oak Photograpy

Hanging couch- while I wish I could take credit for this beautifully designed and crafted piece of furniture, it was the client’s idea (purchased from this Etsy shop), so that suitcases and a small sliding coffee table could fit underneath. Most of my clients have a hard time comprehending just how compact tiny houses are and how to maximize function and storage, so hats off to Denise for bringing a ton of good ideas like this to the project.

Mandy Harris Urban Oak Photography

Barnwood kitchen shelves. Simple but undeniably gorgeous. Care was taken to make sure electrical outlets were put in the right place to power the appliances the client had purchased as well as make sure they all fit neatly.

Live edge maple countertop- using the same maple slabs, we crafted a beautiful and large kitchen counter for guest to use during their stay.

Mandy Harris Urban Oak Photography

Overall, this was a very fun project to work on and I’m proud to have had a hand in it. All accessories/furnishings were pre-purchased and installed by the client. I have to say, the grand vision for this project was entirely hers, and it wouldn’t have been nearly as nice without her very close coordination and help. Thank you Denise, for trusting me with this unique and fun project. I hope many folks come to stay and partake in your hospitality!

You can view a full gallery of images at the Rocky Mountain Tiny House facebook page here!

You can view the AirBnB listing and get in touch with Denise, the owner, here.

Hope you enjoyed learning about this project. Stay tuned for more awesome tiny house projects coming up!

Mandy Harris Urban Oak Photography

Stanley Log Cabin Tiny House

October 20, 2014 By Greg Parham 2 Comments

Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses is pleased to announce the completion AND sale of its latest creation, the Stanley. It was about this time last year that I was taking a sabbatical traveling throughout Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, not only in search of adventure and a little vacation time, but also on the hunt for tiny house design inspiration.

My travels took me through a wonderful little town called Stanley, in the midst of the magnificent Sawtooth mountains and along the Salmon River in Idaho. Stanley is probably my single favorite town that I passed through on this trip. It has a little bit of everything for the outdoor enthusiast. Scattered throughout the small town and along the outskirts are structures from a bygone era-beautiful, rustic, and tiny log cabins. After photographing a few, I knew right away that I had to build a log cabin tiny house on wheels and name it after this place.

Immediately after selling the Boulder tiny house, I began construction on this fun new project. There wasn’t a whole lot of precedent for true log cabins built on wheels. the ones I did come across weren’t that visually appealing, weighed too much, or just had lots of room for improvement, so I started from scratch and designed this house from the tires up. I had never built a log cabin before, much less one on wheels, but how hard could it be, right? Turns out, a little harder than I thought, but not too much.

Along with building a tiny house out of logs, I was also interested in building a 12′ long house to see just how small I could go and still have a very livable structure. Keeping the cost below $22k was the third goal of this project, since I was getting a lot of requests for something less expensive even though my larger models are very competitive with other builders. The log cabin method seemed like a good way to do this since the walls are now only one layer instead of six or seven (framing, sheathing, insulation, moisture barrier, ext siding, int finish), and even if the logs cost a bit more, all the time savings should more than make up for it.

The fourth primary goal was to keep the house a reasonable weight under 5,200 lbs, since I was only going to use a single axle rated for that much weight. This would open up the doors for this house to be towed with a 1/2 ton truck, and possibly even a V-6 vehicle. With these lofty goals in place, I cranked out some drawings, ordered the trailer, ordered the logs, ordered the windows, and set out to craft this beauty.

Once the trailer arrived, I wasted no time in insulating the floor and installing the beetle kill spruce t&g flooring. I went ahead and applied two coats of natural tung oil. Soon after, the logs arrived and I was very excited to get going on the walls. The first course of logs is bolted to the trailer through custom tabs I have welded on the trailer frame. Each additional course above that is fastened to the one below using massive 12″ timberlocks. I had the Colorado beetle kill spruce logs milled with a large tongue and groove to add structural strength, but also help seal the logs and not require any chinking.

Unfortunately, the mill didn’t do a top notch job, and the tongues were not lining up with the grooves like they should have been. After many hours of hammering/chisesling, and routing, I got things to mostly line up. The logs also had some warping, crowning, and twisting that also had to be worked to keep all the courses straight and within tolerance. All this work was definitely more time consuming that I had planned for, but once complete I have a very solid and beautiful structure with which to frame the roof and finish out the rest.

The window and door bucks were made from very old and thick rough cut wood I got from Durango Salvage. The roof was framed out of regular 2×4’s and a large doug fir ridge beam that is left exposed on the inside. Red somehow seemed like an appropriate color for this house so I installed a very bright red metal roof and the casement windows came clad in red as well. The roof cavity is insulated with EPS foam and then covered with the same beetle kill spruce material as the floor, only thinner. The final look is quite spectacular with the rough cut saw marks, blue stains, and randomness.

Since this house was only going to be 12′ long, I wanted to maximize the width. I normally build the walls so the inside flushes out with the fenders, but this time I made the outside dimension a full 8′ and decided to box out around the fenders on the inside. Road legal is of course 8′-6″, meaning that didn’t leave much room for roof overhangs. Decent overhangs were necessary to match the look I was going for (plus they add some nice function), so I designed hinged overhangs that spend most of the time tucked up under the main roof, but can fold up and latch down to the main roof for times the house needs to be moved and still remain highway legal.

The back of the trailer/front of the house also features a fold up porch similar to the Durango model built from a welded steel frame and cedar planks. The roof structure above the porch does not fold up but is built stationary to show off the beautiful woodwork of a cantilevered log and rafters/purlins cut from thick barnwood. I had a set of elk antlers that I found in the woods last fall that I mounted to one side for a little decor, but also to hang stuff. The buyer, a young man named Ethan, hung a chair from the other beam and plans to use the porch quite often!

The interior features a plethora of rustic and reclaimed woods for wall partitions, built ins, loft joists and decking, gable windows, front door, and more. To showcase the beauty of the log cabin walls in the shower, as opposed to covering them with fiberglass or other typical shower enclosures, clear plexiglass was carefully measured,cut, and fastened with self sealing screws. The corners were sealed with clear silicone. The final effect is very cool!

Although not pictured at the moment since it was a last minute change order, the toilet will be a composting unit by Nature’s Head in lieu of a sawdust toilet. There are some built in shelves and cabinets above the toilet all crafted from reclaimed wood.

The kitchen uses a reclaimed base drawer unit that I changed out the drawer faces with some leftover rough cut flooring. The sink base and drawers were built in place also with reclaimed wood, The countertop is custom made from maple slabs I got from the salvage yard. We left one edge “live” and it is cool! You can see where insects burrowed in and left squiggly marks. There is a medium sized sink, a double burner cooktop, and a two door refrigerator. A pine upper cabinet and xenon cabinet lights round out this part of the house.

Opposite the kitchen is the living space. It was left open for the buyer to place furniture or custom built ins. The front corner was designed to house a Colorado Cylinder stove. It didn’t get shipped in time for me to install it, but should be ready in a few weeks by the time Ethan arrives at his destination and gets settled in. I was able to construct the platform and wall heat shield from 18ga raw steel, using 1″ spacers to hold it off the logs.

A 48 gallon water tank was installed in the loft storage above the kitchen as Ethan will be living off the grid. A 750w solar system will be installed once he reaches Oregon to complete off grid components along with the woodstove, propane appliances, and composting toilet. I can’t tell you where, but we also built in some secret storage to hide important documents and a handgun. Trust me, you would never find it.

After all was said and done, I met all of my design goals. The final dry weight came in at 4,800 lbs, a bit more than I was hoping for, but with still within range. The final cost came in at exactly $22,000. Even though it is only a 12′ trailer, it feels very spacious and is very much livable . The log cabin construction method, although a bit testing at first, proved successful and very unique.

So, I think that about wraps up this neat little tiny house. I hope your enjoyed learning about it. For more updates, be sure to like the facebook page. There’s also an album there with more detailed construction photos for those interested.

Stanley

September 16, 2014 By Greg Parham 67 Comments

The Stanley model is a rustic log cabin style tiny house. It is built on an 8×12 single axle trailer and features a folding porch, cantilevered roof for porch covering, folding eaves that allow the house to travel at highway legal width but provide nice water and snow shedding when lowered, a wood stove, small bath, small kitchen, a sleeping loft, and a little bit of room left to place a small couch or desk. Dry weight will range from 4800-7000 lbs depending on what kind of logs we are able to source and other features you want included in the build. Price for the Stanley range from $32,000-$40,000 depending on features.

2021 Update: Due to wood scarcity, we are no longer offering this model in a true log cabin style. We can however, stick frame it and maintain a similar feel. With it’s small footprint, and simple layout, it remains one of the most affordable option in our lineup.

Colorado Cylinder Stoves

January 17, 2014 By Greg Parham 25 Comments

Today I’d like to share with you a component of my tiny house that brings me great pride and warmth: my woodstove. Heating a house in the rocky mountains, and any cold climate for that matter, is always an important thing to figure out. Tiny houses, by their nature, don’t require much energy to heat, especially the ones I build, but tiny home owners, by their nature, are always looking for ways to simplify, save money, and reduce their footprint. With the rising costs of fuel and/or electicity, woodstoves make a lot of sense. There’s also something nostalgic and enduring about them. If any of you have ever shopped around for a woodstove to put in a tiny house, you’re probably aware of how hard it is to actually find a model that is just the right size and doesn’t cost a fortune. Some of the more popular models I have come across cost at least $1000 if not more. This doesn’t even include the cost of stove pipe, wall thimbles, elbows, accessories, etc. This wasn’t an option for me, so I kept looking.

While on my big summer trip across the Rockies, I stopped in an outfitter outside of Whitefish, MT to buy some bear spray before heading into Glacier National Park. They sold a lot of cowboy tents and accessories, among them, small cylinder stoves that are designed to easily be packed on horses. I thought to myself, these are the perfect size! Plus, they were much more affordable, ranging from $200-$500. When I got back home, I did some more research and found Colorado Cylinder Stoves, a small company in Grand Junction, CO that manufactures these small stoves.

I called Wes, the owner, and we talked for a while about what I was looking for. He was quick to point out that the stock models they sell were not really designed for full time winter use, maybe one month out of the year. However, he got to thinking about it and said that he could just beef up the metal gauge and then it likely would be good for heavier use. We came up with a custom design, he made it, shipped it, and I installed it. I’m happy to say it is just what I was looking for! If you are considering a woodstove for your tiny house, I would give this one some serious consideration. Here are the details, and some pictures.

My custom model is based on the Mesa package. The dimensions are the same, it just uses thicker steel, so it won’t warp if it gets real hot, and it will hold up much longer. It is a little heavier, of course, which does factor into tiny house design, but the whole thing still weighs less than 50 lbs, even with the stove pipe and accessories. It’s small, after all. The package came with the stove, some threaded legs that can be cut to adjust the height, a coal grate, a stainless steel water heater that mounts on the side, a spark arrestor, the stove pipe, a flue, a stovetop extension, and a wall thimble, a part that safely allows the stove pipe to pass through the wall.

I started out by building a platform that I can store firewood under, but it also raises the stove off the floor enough so I don’t have to bend down to put wood in. I also have a couch kind of close to the stove, so this gives me a safer distance from the unit to my couch mattress. I put some slate tile down to protect the plywood from heat. I then chopped the legs so the stove sits 6″ above the slate. The stove pipe comes in 24″ lengths. I installed the flue per instructions and ran the first piece up, put an elbow on, then cut my hole in the wall for the thimble. I ran another 24″ piece horizontal thru the thimble, and then another elbow, and two more lengths straight up. I secured the stove pipe to the house using a piece of scrap steel and a chain I had laying around. This steadies the pipe during hard winds, and also keeps it from falling down. To finish things off, I placed some scrap corrugated metal in the corner to reflect the heat into the room and keep the tongue and groove pine wall from getting too hot.

I’ve been using the stove for over a month now and it works great! You can control the fire level by adjusting the flue and the air intake, which is a simple slider bar covering some holes in the door. It’s so simple, yet so effective. If the stove had a downside, it would be that you can’t fit huge logs in it. But then again, we’re talking about tiny houses here, so you don’t really need to. Even on subzero nights I’ve had to crack windows because this thing was already putting out so much heat. Unlike my propane heater, which just kind of heats the air and relies on convection, a woodstove also heats by radiation, which is more comfortable. It’s the same way the sun heats your body. The radiant heat actually heats the surface of the house, as well as any nearby objects. It’s a deep heat that will last into the night. At some point, the fire will die out and the heat will taper off, but for me this doesn’t seem to happen until about 6am the next morning, at which point, my propane heater will kick on using the lowest setting and keep things warm enough until I wake up and either leave the house or decide to get the fire going again.

So what about cost? Everything pictured above, including shipping to my door, cost less than $500. Still a chunk of change, but considering what you get, it’s a great deal. My firewood was free. There are tons of downed cottonwood trees on the property I live on, most of which have been seasoning for years. I just had to collect, cut, split and store, so perhaps there’s a bit of sweat equity involved, but I consider this a good workout, and instead of paying for a gym membership I’m providing myself with nice comfortable heat for the winter.

There are of course some more options for woodstoves in a tiny house, but for now I just wanted to focus on this one since I am personally using it and having fantastic results. If you wish to order one from Colorado Cylinder stoves, tell them you heard about them from me, and make sure to explain that you need the same design and package that I ordered. One last thing that I and I am sure they will point out, is that these stoves are not UL listed and they were never designed for this type of application. Well, my bike was never designed to be used as a snow plow, but I’ll be darned if it doesn’t move some snow around quite easily. Just use common sense, read and follow directions, don’t over-fire the thing, and you should be good to go. I’m not responsible if you burn your house down because of carelessness or improper installation. The same holds true for any woodstove though, so please know what the heck you are doing, and if you don’t, hire a professional.

The Art and Science of Fold Down Porches

October 30, 2013 By Greg Parham 5 Comments

Photo courtesy of the Durango Herald

Fold down porches for Tiny Houses are awesome. They allow you to have a larger porch without taking up any of your trailer floor space. When its time to pack up and move, they fold up into the house and won’t add any length or wind drag to the house while in transit. Those little 3×3 porches you see on a lot of Tiny Houses are cute, and they are somewhat functional, but with a full width porch that is 42-48″ deep, you will actually be able to place some chairs out there and enjoy a nice rainstorm. Plus, you get to reclaim that extra 9 square feet into your house.

I have been getting a lot of questions and seeing a lot of comments online about how I built the fold down porch on my Durango, so I wanted to share with you how I do it. Your Tiny House design will invariably differ, so don’t copy my details verbatim, but instead, try to understand the concepts and materials you will need to complete this project. I offer this article as advice, NOT engineering consulting.

The folding porch consists of four basic elements: 1. The porch 2. The porch hardware 3.The roof 4. The roof hardware. I’m going to break each component down so you can understand it better.

Porch I used 2×2 square steel tubing (anything from 11-16ga) to make the rectangular frame of my porch. I mitered the corners and a friend helped me weld it all together. There are three joists dividing up the span that the decking will attach to. This can be 2×2 as well, but something like 1 1/2″ angle iron or square tube will work as well since the span is only 36-48″ between the main frame. You could build your frame out of wood, but it will be heavier and I’d suggest you use metal connectors and bolts with locknuts. If you use steel, you will need to use self tapping screws to attach your deck boards to the frame, or drill pilot holes and find a screw that will have good grab. My porch uses a composite decking material that is super light and utilizes a concealed clip fastener system. This is nice if you don’t want to see any screws on your boards. You can use any decking material you want; it needs to be strong, light, weather resistant, and easy to install. I recommend 2x cedar, redwood, or cypress. If you have a planer, you can shave that 1 1/2″ down to 1 1/4″ to knock off a little weight. Newer composite systems are ok too in the 4/4 or 5/4 thickness.

Porch Size This is ultimately up to you, but here is how your house design will likely determine this for you. If you have a gabled house with the door at the rear of the trailer (like mine) then the width can be the width of your house (about 7′-6″). I recommend making your frame 3″ shorter than this so your deck boards overhang 1 1/2″ either side. The depth will be determined by vertical distance from your eave to the bottom of your door. When your porch folds up and your roof folds down, you don’t want them to overlap in the middle so they sit nice and flush against the wall. As a general rule, its nice to have the roof overhang the porch 6-12″. So, lets say you have 96″ from where your eave meets the wall and the bottom of your door. Half and half would be 48″/48″. I want my roof to over hang 12″, so I’m going to make the porch 42″ deep and the roof 54″ deep. Make sense? Another thing to take into account is your deck board width. You don’t want to have to rip a piece, so size your frame such that the first and last boards overhang the frame 1″ or so. If your board is 5 1/2″ wide and you leave a 1/4″ gap, that means the overall depth will be 40″, so your frame should be about 38″ wide.

Porch Hardware There are several ways to go about the hardware. At the very least, you need some heavy duty hinges to attach the porch to your house framing or trailer steel. It is critical that you place the hinges in such a way so that the porch doesn’t bind when your fold it up. The easiest way to do this is to have one leg bolt to the deck (and through the frame) of the porch and the other leg bolt to the trailer at a 90 degree angle. My design is a bit different and require lots of extra parts but I don’t have an exposed hinge on my deck.

Next, you will need some way of supporting the porch once it folds down. At first, I toyed with some adjustable legs that would use a threaded bolt to account for ground height differences, and I still think this would be a good way to do, I just ran out of time and had to figure something out in a pinch so I came up with the cable idea. I drilled two holes in my steel porch frame, attached two heavy duty threaded eyebolts, screwed in some heavy duty lag eye bolts into my corner studs at a height that would match the porch eye bolts when folded up, and ran some 3/16″ aircraft cable between the two.

tiny house folding porch turnbuckle

Lastly, you will something to secure the porch to the house while in transit. Having had two eye bolts already in place, I bought some large turnbuckles to connect the two. One end stays semi permanently attached to the house while the other end can hook on to the porch bolt and I can twist the buckle firmly to snug the porch up against the house.

Roof and Hardware I wanted a real slim floating kind of feel for my roof, so, I found some recycled
corrugated metal, cut pieces to length, and bolted them together with self tapping screws and some 1×1 angle I had laying around. One member at the beginning end, and another about`18″ from the other end.

The first member is hinged to the house with 3 or 4 hinges placed at stud locations (or into the top plate if you didn’t use balloon framing). The other member has some eyebolts attached to it that I run detachable struts back to the house to support the roof. Unlike the porch, the roof does not have enough weight to withstand wind uplift forces so you cannot use a cable to hold the roof. You have

to use a member that can also withstand some compression. I used some 1/2″ all thread rod, this way I can use turnbuckles with matching thread to connect, disconnect, and fine tune my height. There are two lag eyebolts that go into some wall framing next to my tiny gable window that the struts attach to the house with.

I hope you have find this guide helpful if you are considering adding a folding porch onto your tiny house. Once again, you are responsible for you own design and safety. If in doubt, consult a local professional.

« Previous Page