Description
This is the expanded, 2nd edition of the Tiny House Design & Construction Guide. This latest edition contains over 50% more content and over 38 more images and illustrations. I listened to my reader’s feedback and added much more information into the framing, electrical, and plumbing sections of the book.
Kyra L. Mcglew –
I just attended Dan’s most recent workshop north of Atlanta. I bought the book, assuming it would be very similar to all of the other Tiny House books I have. I WAS WRONG. This book passes the Tiny House concept from an idea to REAL. Dan guides the reader through the details such as tools needed and why, best way to order material, the details of the trailer and weights, framing, flashing, sheathing, wrapping, hardware, layouts, etc. This book is for those who are READY to really do it! I have dozens of books on Tiny Houses and there is no book like this one. Someone who has never seen a power tool can build a tiny house with the guidance of this book. I am an experienced carpenter and I learned a LOT including techniques specific to Tiny Houses. What is really important that Dan covers is the WHY he does each step the way he does. That’s the difference. A lot of carpenters can build a house on a trailer, but will not think of what it takes for it to GO DOWN THE ROAD, ( ie- the tongue weight of vehicle, towing weight, how to bolt it to the trailer, strap it down, best support configuration of trailer and why, etc.) I would suggest attending one of his workshops, especially for beginners, to SEE the safest way to use power tools and to USE it while Dan supervises. The icing on the cake for me, is that Dan’s company sells the trailers, so you can buy one already correctly put together. (I also learned that he is now offering a place to build your tiny house if you don’t have enough room or are forbidden to build one in your yard.) I give this book a huge applause!!!
Roy –
If you are a novice this is a great resource…..
I would have preferred more detail on plumbing, framing etc. It will Give the reader alot to think about before considering
a Tiny House, I guess I am beyound that point though.
He goes into great detail describing and telling you know to say 2×4, I guess if you need this you should probably
re-consider whether you should be building your own tiny house vs purchasing. Also they should remove design from the
title, very little is discussed about design, except for room placement, which I did find helpful, and gave me something to
think about. Again great resource for someone just starting out.
R. Ketchum –
This is an excellent guide for designing amd building a “tiny house” on a trailer chassis. From these semi-general, semi-specific guidelines, anyone who is fairly competant with handtools and home repairs can create a movable home of their own that can be as green as they wish. I read one review that said roughly “He only give a guide for one specific home on one specific trailer”, well he might not have actually taken the time to read the words !? I say if someone needs more of a guide than this, perhaps Bagawino or some other RV purvayer could serve them better.
As for me I prefer a guide like this that tells me what works, what does not. He explaines pros and cons of different options for different scenarios. With the tools provided in this guide, I can use what I know, learn what I don’t know, and make decisions om the construction of my place.
Does it have shortcomings? Well, yes…I had to pay money for it, He didn’t hand deliver it to me with a free trailer, He didn’t read my mind ahead of time and write it for the exact application I envision, and worst of all, He didn’t bring this book to my attention a long time ago.
Good info guide, very well illustrated, quite detailed and helpful. Highly recommended.
I. M. ForTruth –
At this time, this book is the best around, I guess. It’s a rather thin book, actually—3/8″. I felt that the explanations could have been better. There were many pages of photos of tools you’ll need, which looked like space-filler. There needed to be more diagrams, i felt and the only ones were those the author took from elsewhere, like electrical diagrams. There were many details the author glossed over seemingly because HE understands the process. He’s a traditional builder, apparently, so he approaches Tiny House building from that standpoint. He uses tar paper under the roof and in my experience tar paper is virtually worthless as it is not waterproof and it rots. I also didn’t like that he built a flooring platform on top of the Car trailer, losing 3.5″ of height. I know this is a standard practice, even in traditional house building, but it always seemed dumb to me because then your joists are just stuck on. But in a TH, you should try to integrate the floor into the wells of the trailer. Anyway, I think the author is a builder, not a writer and may have benefitted from some outside assistance. But in closing, if you want an overview of all the processes this is the best for what’s around at the moment.
Beth –
Bought this book to read because I’m curious about the tiny house movement-no plans to build one anytime soon but honestly, after reading this, I feel like I could. This book takes you through step by step, its well written, easy to understand (I have a strong background in construction but even if you don’t you will be able to follow along in this book!) and the author offers tips and insights that truly shows he knows what he’s talking about.
Fernando –
Truly the ultimate guide to tiny house building and design. I have ZERO experience in construction, plumbing, electric, anything! This guide tells you 97% of what you need to know, the rest is easy to google/youtube with the foundation of what you learn from this guide. I was scared I wouldn’t understand it due to my lack of experience, but I was able to follow along very easily. He explains with just enough detail–the whys/hows. Highly recommend.