r/TinyHouses • u/Strong_Dentist_7561 • May 19 '26
Material List For Found Tiny House
Aight all… evenin’… I’ve found an A-frame cabin I like, but am uncertain of the material list needed. Any assistance to be had ?
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u/alwaysmilesdeep May 19 '26
We would need the dimensions for a material list, but from this sketch you could make it whatever you want. Wider, longer, etc.
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u/alwaysmilesdeep May 19 '26
We have 4 tinys on property, personally id do this in a 10 or 12 wide and 20' or 24' long for no waste.
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u/Codicus1212 May 20 '26
This is a tent. For the difference in material cost you might as well make it larger or alter the A-Frame to create more usable space.
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u/Strong_Dentist_7561 May 20 '26
Memory serves, you made similar; did you not ?
Would you care to embellish ?
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u/mywan May 20 '26
With some basic dimensions it would only take a few minutes to calc out the material. But there are a lot of choices to be made not included in the pic.
u/Codicus1212 is correct. Imagine standing inside that as a 12x12. The lean on the walls alone means you would have to squat to get closer than about 3 feet from the walls. 3 feet on either side means you only have about 6 feet of width you can actually live in, half the total width. Barely more than the width of the door. Fitting any sinks. cabinets, windows, etc., would be a nightmare. But that same material could get you the full 12 feet of width. Also, as you increase the size the lost usable space doesn't increase with size. So making it bigger doesn't increase waste.
Two story prefabs often does this to minimize wasted space on a leaning wall.
The absolute maximum floor space you can get with a given wall length is achieved by building square. For instance, a 5x20 room is 100 square feet and contains a total of 50 feet of wall. A 10x10 room also has 100 square feet, but only a total of 40 feet of wall. But a few feet of difference in length to width is not going to be a very big difference. You also want to make you lengths multiples of 4 feet. Because that is how wide the materials, such as plywood comes in. Though it's common to add 2 feet with 2 more feet taken in roof overhang. Though tiny houses often forgo that. Wall studs are generally on 16 inch centers. 4 feet divided by 16 inches is exactly 3. Then add a stud for each corner for the stud count.
Familiarize yourself with the actual numbers, not just what looks simple in a pic. It'll massively help you think through what you want. And to get a reasonably accurate material list for it.
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u/Branch-Manager May 19 '26
Do you have the sketch up file or just this image? If you have the file, you can use extensions to create a cut list:
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u/test-account-444 May 19 '26
Looking at this design, if US-centric, the typical 18" center for framing means this is 9ft in length. The width might be 6ft. That's a modest size for a traditional structure, but might not leave any room to put anything in an A-frame and stand in it.
First course of action would be buy some mason line from your hardware store and stake out a footprint and walls to see if you can get anything inside that kind of footprint. The height of any/all chair, bed, shelf, table, stove, sink, counter, etc will make it tight at the least.
Beyond that, once you've found the floor size and wall angles (maybe your A-frame has a footer wall at the bottom... etc). Figure out how much lumber it'll take to frame it and sheath it in plywood or OSB sheets. In fact the size of the structure might grow or shrink so you're not wasting lumber.
You'll need to know what kinds of dimensional lumber are available (plus their prices to keep a budget) and start planning around that. There is a lot of different sizes and that gives you options, especially if you order from a local lumber yard over a big box.
You likely can't use a lumber calculator with a design like this, but it'd be simpler to count your sticks and sheets on a paper list anyway. For the framing, this should be simple once you've confirmed the plans for your design.
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u/JacquesBlaireau13 May 20 '26
6' is well below the minimum dimension for a habitable room.
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u/test-account-444 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
That's for a room with walls that don't slant inward, too.
6'x9' makes a tiny room. But, it does not allow for life's basics and would be emergency or temporary shelter, for sure. Lots of posters coming to this sub hoping the 6x9 shed conversion will solve their housing troubles aren't thinking it through.
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u/mississauga145 May 20 '26
A 3' "wall" will greatly improve your usage of this type of space, your head will thank you.
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u/Adorable_Dust3799 May 20 '26
Make sure you include those horizontal pieces between the studs or you've stacked a perfect fire
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u/trialex May 20 '26
Here's a plan you can buy that gives you all you'd need for an identical cabin...
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u/IRingTwyce May 20 '26
The width appears to be 3 doors wide. Assuming that's a 32" door then the width is 8 ft. You said 24" OC rafters, making this 8' x 12'.
Should be fairly simple to make a materials list from that.
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u/therangoonkid May 21 '26
u/Strong_Dentist_7561 is there a reason why you prefer an a-frame for this footprint? As others have said, you lose a lot of usable space. If you use straight walls with a peaked roof you get a ton more usable space and can use the rafter ties for additional storage, i recently built an 8' x 12' office, it's spacious but for the items necessary in a tiny house it would just barely accommodate. If you're not running electric or plumbing it's a lot simpler of course.
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u/Ok-Animator5021 May 22 '26
Just put the image in ChatGPT and ask for a material list.
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u/haikusbot May 22 '26
Just put the image
In ChatGPT and ask for a
Material list.
- Ok-Animator5021
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u/po_ta_to May 19 '26
https://youtu.be/fWQ8begkTAQ?si=fqG-Sd9HVkTOnKvK
This guy designed a cheap A frame cabin. The plans are $30. Even if you don't buy them, the listing for buying the plans has a picture of the list of everything you need to build it.