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View Full Version : Tiny Texas Houses - Great New Video



Dachsie
20th September 2014, 08:09 AM
This guy is located in Luling Texas and that is where you can rent one of his tiny houses for a short period of time to see what living in a tiny houses feels like.

He has a large fund of knowledge about building, Texas building codes, and building materials.

I did not know if you build a tiny house that is under 1000 square feet of living area, you are not subject to building codes. I could stand living in a living area that is almost 1000 feet. I remember a very nice apartment in Houston years ago was like 950 square feet and it had one full size bedroom and one tiny extra room that was a den that really could be a small second bedroom.

Also if you build to certain dimensions, you may even get your tiny house classified as a storage building and then no property tax would apply.

video is one hour long but I think worth every second of it.
Luling would be a good place to buy a small piece of land and build a tiny house. It is about 40 miles, rough estimate south of Austin and the weather is mild all year long - no hurricanes, no tornadoes, no floods, no freezes. Don't know how soil for good crops is there.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGa7qyGO8M


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGa7qyGO8M


Tiny Texas Houses' "Willy Wonka" on making magic reusing wood
Kirsten Dirksen
Kirsten Dirksen
197,818
19,341

Published on Sep 16, 2014

Brad “Darby” Kittel came to Texas living on a converted school bus. He had planned to write the Great American Novel, but he ended up buying up boarded-up homes and fixing them up using materials he salvaged from other old houses, barns and buildings.

After a couple decades refining his salvage mining techniques, he began using his collection to build “new” tiny portable homes from salvage. The prefab homes, measuring 64 square feet and up, are built from 99% salvaged materials. The other 1% is for things like electrical parts, plumbing, nails, screws, and some insulation materials.

Since he builds with natural materials (mostly wood) or materials that have already off-gassed, he calls his homes “organic” (he makes clear he doesn’t use plastics, formaldehyde, sheetrock, VOC paints, latex paint, carpet or toxic glues and minimal vinyl or PVC).

Kittel has started a tiny home community on his land in Luling, Texas to embracing what he calls Pure Salvage Living. Right now he offers the homes as rentals so people can experience a “truly organic house”. Some of the homes are being lived in longer term by employees and interns and the compound has a community kitchen and bath house. Kittel also hopes his village, or villages, will become completely independent from zoning and regulations by voting to become independent towns.

He’s also dug “four million years” beneath his home in search of fresh water and living space. He’s supported this huge underground world with salvaged railroad ties. At the bottom of main cave lies a pool of water where Kittel hopes to practice fish farming and access drinking water if necessary.

There are also caves down here that could be used as living spaces. Kittel has already occupied one (directly beneath his home) using an old RV (it was craned in before his home was built). He can access it through a trap door beneath his home and currently he uses it for solitude, but he sees its potential for underground living.

Tiny Texas Houses: http://tinytexashouses.com/

Original video: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/...

Category
Howto & Style
License
Standard YouTube License

gunDriller
21st September 2014, 02:12 PM
Small spaces are WAAAY easier to heat and cool.

gunDriller
10th November 2014, 07:38 AM
Small spaces are WAAAY easier to heat and cool.

Glad somebody likes it ! :)


i am watching a very resourceful local homeless person, who traded in a 4WD Ford van (which i almost bought, separate story) for an old Ford truck. he has gotten a trailer and is using i-beams scrounged from a nearby building (which will collapse when we have a decent quake).

reminds me of Ran Prieur.com
http://ranprieur.com/

speaking of Tiny Homes.


om ... back to heating.

last year we had weather in the 00's and teens for about 3 weeks. i had a neighbor with a 200 square foot trailer, and my 1500 square foot house.

well, it was a lot easier to sit for coffee in their trailer cause it was WARM !

Dachsie
10th November 2014, 08:21 AM
Yes, ability to keep a place sufficiently warm in colder climates is extremely important. I notice some "tiny houses" have fairly high ceilings and they use the ceiling area for storage and sometimes for a bed loft, that is, not blank space up there.

I still think moving to warmer climate offers best chance for lowering monthly bills and surviving nicely. You can live without AC but not without heating.

Dogman
10th November 2014, 08:24 AM
Hot weather + tiny house + good insulation = cheap @ easy to cool also!

madfranks
10th November 2014, 08:44 AM
This guy is located in Luling Texas and that is where you can rent one of his tiny houses for a short period of time to see what living in a tiny houses feels like.

He has a large fund of knowledge about building, Texas building codes, and building materials.

I did not know if you build a tiny house that is under 1000 square feet of living area, you are not subject to building codes.

Sorry, that's incorrect. As an architect licensed in Texas, I also know a lot about building codes.

City of Luling, TX code adoption: (https://www.municode.com/library/tx/luling/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH22BUBURE_ARTV IDWCO_S22-181ADRECO)


Sec. 22-181. - Adoption of Residential Code.

The International Residential Code, 2003 edition, as now or hereafter revised or amended, is hereby adopted by reference and all regulations, parts, notions, references, specifications therein are hereby adopted and made a part of this article, except as deleted or amended in this article.



2003 International Residential Code: (http://publicecodes.cyberregs.com/icod/irc/2003/icod_irc_2003_1_sec005.htm)


R105.2 Work exempt from permit.

Permits shall not be required for the following. Exemption from the permit requirements of this code shall not be deemed to grant authorization for any work to be done in any manner in violation of the provisions of this code or any other laws or ordinances of this jurisdiction.

Building:

1. One-story detached accessory structures, provided the floor area does not exceed 200 square feet (18.58 m2). 2. Fences not over 6 feet (1829 mm) high. 3. Retaining walls that are not over 4 feet (1219 mm) in height measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, unless supporting a surcharge. 4. Water tanks supported directly upon grade if the capacity does not exceed 5,000 gallons (18927 L) and the ratio of height to diameter or width does not exceed 2 to 1. 5. Sidewalks and driveways not more than 30 inches (762 mm) above adjacent grade and not over any basement or story below. 6. Painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets, counter tops and similar finish work. 7. Prefabricated swimming pools that are less than 24 inches (610 mm) deep. 8. Swings and other playground equipment accessory to a one or two-family dwelling. 9. Window awnings supported by an exterior wall which do not project more than 54 inches (1372 mm) from the exterior wall and do not require additional support.


Luling code does not amend this section, so the only way to get out of permit requirements is if you build less than 200 square feet, as an accessory structure. And even then, exemption from permitting doesn't grant you authorization to build in non-conformance to the code.

Now I'm not saying small homes are bad, in fact I think they're great, for all the reasons posted here and then some, but if anyone is serious about this because they think they'll be able to build outside of government reach, I don't think that's the case. In any regards, anyone who wants to build in Texas, give me a call. :)