Tiny houses, laws, permits, safety etc.. British Columbia

For areas not in a municipality, the regional district is the one that writes the rules about what you can build and where. Check with them.

Hi guys,
I'm looking at land on forbidden plateau, and I want to build a tiny home (not on wheels) there, thing is I can't find any regulations and stuff about it… only thing said is permit is required above 10m2…
Is that area, inside usable space, or overall foot print? I know in that district i can go up to 6m (18ft) high roof, does that means i can have one story?
cheers for your tips

regardless, 10m² = ~ 110sf, so you are going to need a permit unless you want a 10' x 10' shed.
The Comox Valley Regional district website will provide all teh info you need to design and apply for a building permit.

http://www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/EN/main/departments/building/forms-information.html

container ftw.

[HTML_REMOVED]$5g a piece in Cranbrook.. bit more than 1/2 that in Van from BigSteelBox. (I'm sure there are cheaper places)

While posing flashy and ideal looks in magazines, metal is an extremely poor heat insulator. It's just not ideal for climate immunity. I still think box-structures still look a lot better than 80% of house structures though.

While posing flashy and ideal looks in magazines, metal is an extremely poor heat insulator. It's just not ideal for climate immunity. I still think box-structures still look a lot better than 80% of house structures though.

furr it out and spray foam insulation for continuous insulation an vapour barrier. finish the inside with whatever wall finish you are looking for.
you can building paper and rainscreen the metal and clad in whatever fashion you want to achieve the look you want.

you then have a completed building envelope, minus the doors / windows you are looking for

As if tiny homes are a new thing…

My parents bought a plot on Lake Huron in the early 80's and built literally a 10'x10' shed with an A-frame loft. Bathroom, dining room, kitchen, woodstove and ladder in the mainfloor and space for a family of four to sleep in the loft.

We spent every weekend there for the next eight years while we build the main house piece by piece. They paid cash for the land and main house, one lumber store trip at a time!

The shed got sold, picked up (concrete pad and all!) and moved across the street to the marina where one of the dockhands lived in it another ten years.

Hi guys,
I'm looking at land on forbidden plateau, and I want to build a tiny home (not on wheels) there, thing is I can't find any regulations and stuff about it… only thing said is permit is required above 10m2…
Is that area, inside usable space, or overall foot print? I know in that district i can go up to 6m (18ft) high roof, does that means i can have one story?
cheers for your tips

Typically in other municipalities that measurement is for an accessory building not a primary dwelling. They will usually state a minimum width in their building regulations.

I think that's why people put them on trailers even if they don't plan on towing them

simply to bypass the building permits.

yeah the trailer deal classes them as a RV .

I am all for the tiny home , hell 4 of us lived in 750sqft for 10yrs , we moved to 1800ish and barely use 2/3s of it between the 4 of us . Once the kids are gone , and we have found a bigger piece of dirt further out the Fraser Valley we have decided on single level and no more then 1000sqft , shop no size limits :)LOL .

Was flipping thru a real estate mag today and the price of houses and the size they build are insane , who the fuck needs 4100sqft of of on a 6100sqft lot , that,s F,n stupid they can build that big on that size lot , we have over 16,000sqft of lot and am allowed roughly the same if i choose .

furr it out and spray foam insulation for continuous insulation an vapour barrier. finish the inside with whatever wall finish you are looking for.
you can building paper and rainscreen the metal and clad in whatever fashion you want to achieve the look you want.

you then have a completed building envelope, minus the doors / windows you are looking for

If you get to that point why not just do conventional stick frame construction? Simple, time tested, decidedly lacking in the cool department though I guess. For the cost of the shipping container itself you can come close to buying the materials to frame two similar sized buildings yourself

I know a guy who was going to build his office space out of them and when it all came out it was too expensive. and that was getting the cans at cost (because they load them)

I know locals who have done the tiny house thing, up here its pretty easy to build one [HTML_REMOVED] find a place to put it fairly close to town, while it served the purpose of cheap affordable housing AT THE TIME that was just a snapshot in time cuz invariably their situation changed for EG I know a couple of terminal 30 somethings who suddenly find an S.O. they move in together and Tiny is too Tiny now what do you do …does a Tiny house have market value?

SO IMO, if you build Tiny think about what you will do when its not big enough?

Its pretty simple if you live in a fee simple house …just sell the fucking thing

Re: container homes. All the ones I've seen have had extensive modifications to the shell so I don't know how they could be quick or cheap to build with. Once you've furred out both sides for finish and insulation I bet I could have a platform (or factory) framed rectangle ready for finish and insulation, probably with less lumber and more insulation space.

They look cute though if you leave some of the shell showing here and there. Goodbye thermal efficiency in that case.

I know locals who have done the tiny house thing, up here its pretty easy to build one [HTML_REMOVED] find a place to put it fairly close to town, while it served the purpose of cheap affordable housing AT THE TIME that was just a snapshot in time cuz invariably their situation changed for EG I know a couple of terminal 30 somethings who suddenly find an S.O. they move in together and Tiny is too Tiny now what do you do …does a Tiny house have market value?

SO IMO, if you build Tiny think about what you will do when its not big enough?

Its pretty simple if you live in a fee simple house …just sell the fucking thing

one of my old co-workers has been living in a tiny home they built with his wife and (now) almost 3 year old son for the past 3 years. I think it was a stopgap measure for a few years to save more money to buy land while he planted more trees and in the meantime they've only been paying $75/month for "rent" to park it on a friends property for 3 years or so. So in that time they've probably saved an extra $30k compared to forking over conventional rent every month, and if you consider how much you'd pay in taxes to earn that $30k they saved alot more than that.

I think they're planning on moving the tiny house onto a property when they've bought some land, then live in it while they build a bigger permanent home and finally keep it for a guest house/studio once that's all done.

(In this area anyways) I think you'd be able to sell a tiny home to someone looking to do a similiar thing pretty easily, probably the same in any town with an influx of seasonal residents every year. In the city maybe it would be harder, but I don't know, never underestimate the conviction of a hipster with no regard for practicality..I see all kinds of weird stuff when I go to the city so don't rule anything out just yet

yeah I have friends who are building a Tiny to live in while they build the dream house/ranch and it will be a guest house or BnB later but my point would be think about the future