DIY Archives - Seattle Tiny Homes

Why You Should Have a Tiny House on Wheels

April 19, 2017

For many, the choice to live in a tiny house built on a mobile trailer is the beginning of an exciting adventure. Many choose to live this way to enjoy more freedom, have less “stuff” and experience life in a more mindful way.

Why Live in a Mobile House?

There are many advantages to living in a tiny house on wheels (THOW), but the biggest one is probably the ability to travel with your home. If you have a truck or SUV, you can tow your tiny home around the country sightseeing, visiting family and friends or living in different places for extended periods of time. When your job moves you, you can take your home with you.

Just think how great it would be to be able to sleep in your own bed with your own belongings after a long day of travel! No hotels, no setting up a campsite, just crawling into bed after a day on the road exploring.

There are many tiny home communities around the country where you can park and stay, check them out here.

Is it an RV or a house?

Did you know that Seattle Tiny Homes is one of a few tiny house manufacturers that are RV certified? This means our tiny houses on wheels are built to exacting standards, and they are designed to be 100% road legal.

But if you are the do-it-yourself type, how do you build a tiny house on wheels? You start with the trailer, and it’s important to choose the right foundation for your tiny house. After you decide what design you want, you’ll need to get a customized trailer that will fit your tiny house needs. With a Seattle Tiny Homes trailer, your trailer will be personalized with just the right length and axle placement – giving you the ideal weight distribution for your tiny house (which makes towing safer and easier).

Additional Benefits of a Seattle Tiny Homes Trailer

A Foundation for Safety and Stability

Our heavy-duty trailers are engineered for one thing – tiny homes. Due to our special design, your home will sit low inside the framework, giving you optimum safety and stability. High-grade steel maximizes strength while minimizing weight.

Pre-Installed Floor Makes Your Job Easier

Your trailer comes with a pre-installed and insulated sub-floor that takes full advantage our unique design and is topped with high-grade plywood. This allows you to maximize your trailer’s extra space- and it’s a great head start on your build.

Resist Moisture

A solid metal floor can attract moisture, leading to mold and rust. That’s why we use an integrated steel framework coupled with a special moisture/rodent barrier and marine grade plywood for additional protection.

More Space

Because of its special engineering, you can build over the wheel wells of your trailer. This gives you 12-18 inches of extra width. Because the floor is dropped inside the trailer frame, you gain up to six inches of headroom. You will definitely notice the extra space!

Much More!

Your trailer comes with a warranty, an adjustable coupler, sidewinding jack and much more! Learn more about our custom trailers here.

Combining precision, extra space, and a two-year warranty, we believe a Seattle Tiny Homes trailer is truly the best foundation for a DIY tiny home of your dreams. Of course, if you want us to build your entire tiny house, we can do that too.

It’s time to make your tiny home dream a reality! Contact us today to get started!

2 Big Benefits of Buying Tiny House Plans

April 13, 2017

So you’ve been thinking of buying a tiny house for a while now…but you’re not exactly sure if you should build it
yourself or buy one that is all ready to go. Both are great options and either way you will end up with a beautiful tiny home of your own. But, if you like DIY projects, there are two big benefits of buying tiny house plans and building it yourself. Let’s take a look at them.

Save Money

Everyone wants to save money. Whether it’s because you have a tight budget or you just want to save money to travel more, building your own tiny house from plans you buy will definitely save a ton of money on labor costs. Using your own sweat equity can literally save you thousands.

Tiny houses, just like regular houses, can vary widely on price. But, if you buy tiny home plans and are confident you can do the work yourself, you can build your custom dream home for much less!

Other ways to save money include using reclaimed or recycled building materials, searching Craigslist for free items, bartering for materials and asking for help from family and friends.

Seattle Tiny Homes DIY plans include everything from framing and electrical to plumbing and HVAC. You won’t waste money on trying to do things yourself, you have the plans and guidance to get it right the first time.

Create Your Custom Dream Home

You know exactly what you want in your tiny house – stairs instead of a ladder, that certain shade of pale yellow, a copper sink that fits just right, plenty of hidden storage space. When you build your own tiny home, you have the freedom to design it and customize it exactly the way you want.

Since this is the house you are going to be living in, you’ll want to make it exactly the way you have envisioned it. You can choose your windows, doors, ceiling height, lighting, flooring, on-the-grid or off-the-grid utilities, paint color, appliances and anything else you can think of!

With a DIY build, you also have the option to select the perfect trailer for your home’s foundation. Be sure to choose a trailer that can accommodate the weight of your home and that provides optimum weight distribution for safe towing.

Special on DIY Tiny House Plans Going on Now!

Seattle Tiny Homes now offers DIY tiny house building plans through our Small For All initiative. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned from our years of experience and put it into these plans. We have figured things out the hard way so you don’t have to. Available plan modules available include tiny house framing, electrical, plumbing, propane, HVAC, and stairs.

To celebrate the launch of our plans, we are offering $200 off the price of a complete set of plans and FREE shipping worldwide! In addition to those savings, we are also giving $300 credit on trailers with purchase of the plans.

All plan modules include:

A list of tools you’ll need
List of materials for each system
Highly detailed schematics and perspectives
A complete, copyrighted print out of your plans on easy to read 11 x 17” pages
A license agreement to build a single Alki home

We would love to help your tiny home dreams come true, contact us today to learn more or check out our DIY plans here!

7 Tips on How to Build a Tiny Home Yourself (From Someone Who Actually Did It!)

February 23, 2017 1 Comment

The tiny house movement has caught the interest of people across the globe. From college students looking for cheap living to cities searching for efficient housing, the tiny house hype doesn’t seem to be dying down any time soon. While many different companies have emerged selling tiny homes of different variations, there are many people who want to build their tiny home themselves. Whether you’re focused on saving money through sweat equity or interested in the crafty details, doing it yourself is a great option. So, how can you build a tiny home yourself?

Chris Silva, a UCSB graduate from Santa Barbara, California, decided to take the DIY approach when it came to building his tiny house. Believing in the tiny homes vision, Chris started a group called Sustainable Obtainable Tiny House Project.

His goal? To show the world the benefits of living small and how easy ‘doing it yourself’ really can be.

After a lot of research and a few months of hammering and painting, Chris was ready to showcase his new tiny home at local festivals- starting with the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival. Here are some tips he learned in the exciting process of building his own home . . .

7 Tips on How to Build a Tiny Home Yourself:

Figure out zoning/parking – Some cities are picky about tiny home parking and others aren’t. Make sure you have a living spot in mind before you invest your time and money.

Find the right trailer – A foundation for a tiny home is as important as any home. Chris chose a Seattle Tiny Homes’ trailer because of our ability to customize the trailer to best fit his needs. The trailer was custom built with specifically placed axles. This would allow his tiny house to have the most stability and support for living and transportation.

Find a place to build – Assembling your tiny home can take time, especially if you’re not in a hurry. Make sure you line up a consistent, safe place to park trailer while you’re building your home on it.

Be persistent – Knowledge comes to those who seek it. Search around for the best deals and never feel like you’re asking too many questions.

Hunt for deals – Chris was able to get many of his materials at cost and even benefited from some donations. Hunt around for good deals on materials and see if you can score some freebies.

Seek consultation – Learning from trial and error is good, but learning from the trial and error of someone else is even better. There are lots of DIY people out there happy to share their ideas and methods. Be sure to soak in as much as you can.

Let professionals do the hard stuff – Unless you’re a plumber or electrician, hire professionals to do those parts for you. It’s important to do it correctly the first time and safety issues can arise if done incorrectly.

Key Takeaways

There are many more aspects to building a tiny home yourself, but those pointers should help you get started. Remember, you’re not the only one whose done this, so don’t feel like you’re building alone.

The amount of work can seem daunting; after all, you are technically building a house. But Chris assures that it’s a positive experience and gets better as you go. Chris was able to build his house much cheaper than a tiny house would normally cost by utilizing the above tips.

If you’re ready to move forward with building your own tiny house, Seattle Tiny Homes is here to help. We offer incredibly detailed building plans for the Alki – one of our most popular models. We also provide trailers that are completely customized to meet your needs. Of course, if you want us to build your tiny house, we’ll work with you to personalize your home and build it to the highest standards of quality. Contact us today to get started!