Building Small, part 2: Getting a tiny house build approved

This is part two of a three-part series. Missed part one? Go back to Part 1: Assessing your tiny home needs. Ready to continue? Read Part 3: Seeing your small cottage project through.

In part 1 of this series, I covered the early stages of building a small home. We started with keeping the end result in mind. Then we looked at checking out and choosing a contractor. That brought us to the point of “I’m ready to spend money, but how do I know if that money is being used for the highest and best use?”

Now let’s keep going and get your tiny house build to the finish line.

You’ve picked your contractor and you’re ready to spend your money. This is where the project gets real.

It’s where the jitters about parting with our money keep us up late at night, second-guessing our decision.

It’s the left and right brain each trying to win the other over.

In my experience, a project goes well when we can calm those jitters and make a clear-headed decision that we’re still excited about. At this point, the excitement pushes us to commit. At the same time, we need to be fully aware of all the pros and cons. You need both.

Many times, I’ve gotten fired up about a project and thought about it for so long that it played itself out. I collected so many details and facts that I stopped pursuing the goal at all.

That’s where Wolf Industries does things differently.

We don’t want to build a project for a customer if we know they’ll be unhappy with it six months later. If I can urge you to make one decision, it’s to hire a company of good people. You will run into problems nobody saw coming. If you work with good people, they’ll stick by you through the whole process.

Working out these unknowns takes time. Building ADUs (accessory dwelling units) and other small homes is part of a newer approach to city planning. It hasn’t fully caught on yet. Many times, we’ve gone into the permit office of one of our local jurisdictions to apply for a permit, and it’s been rejected. Here’s why.

Presenting a tiny house build project

When you bring a small project to a planner or code official, keep in mind what they’re trained to do. Their job is to protect the public. They do that by applying the building and land use codes fairly and carefully.

People are very visual, so the plans examiner looks right away for anything different from the projects they’ve already approved. Something often jumps out at them with a small project, like a tiny house in the backyard. When it does, they’ll do one of two things:

1. immediately reject the submission
2. ask their supervisor how to handle the situation

That’s because a tiny house project doesn’t fit their normal process. The best way to avoid these problems is to be prepared. (Today, Wolf’s permit team prepares and submits the package for you.)

Here’s the big picture of what you’ll need.

Step 1: Find a designer

This can happen in many ways. It could be a friend you take out for coffee, or a professional you hire. Either way, having someone to bounce ideas off is really important.

In our experience, the best ideas come when two or more people share the same goals and each wants the best for the other. Bounce the ideas around and let them take shape on paper.

On the design side, keep checking with your contractor to make sure your tiny house can be built easily, as we covered in part 1. Some people find the design step really fun. Others would rather leave it to a professional. Neither way is wrong.

Step 2: Get your design formally drawn

Once you have the tiny house design sketched out, the next step is to get it formally drawn. Sometimes a designer uses CAD (computer-aided design) software that creates the drawings for you. Other times you’ll need to find a separate drafter.

At Wolf, for example, we work out floor plans with a designer. Then someone else takes the floor plan further with elevations (drawings of each side), section views, and framing layouts. Even at this stage, check in with the person who will build it. Make sure the project will stay on budget, which means it can be built with normal methods and materials.

Step 3: Hire a structural engineer

Hiring a structural engineer comes next. Like buying anything from shoes to a new phone, you’ll find many different kinds of engineers. Here are a few common types:

• The engineer who works alone as a lone ranger
• The small firm that has some processes and systems in place to handle small to medium projects
• The medium-sized firm that’s geared for projects that take more than a day or two
• The large firm that really doesn’t have the time of day

Let’s look at the first: a small independent engineer with lower overhead.

Engineers are careful by nature, and they understand the risks of the job. It’s important to find one who won’t over-spec the design, meaning call for more material than the job needs. You don’t want to pay for extra material and labor you don’t need. This is a big cost driver that often goes unnoticed. It happens early in the project, when very few hard dollars have been spent. But every line drawn on the paper has a cost tied to it.

Bottom line: find an engineer who “gets it.” You’ll know when they want to talk about how the tiny house will be built. They’ll also know current building methods.

Step 4: Draft a site plan

Now the tiny house has been drawn and the building is structurally sound. Next you need a site plan with all the details. Drawing a good site plan is a bit of an art. It holds tons of information but doesn’t look cluttered. A site plan has a few basic requirements:

• Footprint of the proposed structure (ADU, guest house, etc.)
• Utilities going to it (except for power, as it’s independent)
• Existing and new driveways
• Easements and setbacks
• For lots in town, placing trees on the plot plan is generally required
• Contour lines
• North arrow and street names

Most jurisdictions have a checklist with all the requirements on it. Look for it online, or ask for it when you pick up the application paperwork. These checklists are really helpful because they tell us exactly what the jurisdiction wants to see.

The paperwork is usually easy to follow until you get to a stormwater plan or an erosion control plan. Stormwater and erosion rules differ by area. In general, small projects are exempt from them. You still have to fill out the forms, though. Ask twice about everything so you don’t have to make extra trips to the permit office.

Once your package is complete, don’t waste any time. Go submit the thing. I’ll pick up from there in part 3 of this series.

Missed part one? Go back to Part 1: Assessing your tiny home needs.

Ready to continue? Read Part 3: Seeing your small cottage project through.