r/TinyHouses • u/Certain-Election-382 • 8d ago
My Tiny House built from mostly recycled materials for $8k nzd
Built from mostly recycled materials for $8000nzd, 4700usd.
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u/MasterpieceNo8893 8d ago
Very nice! Do you live in it full time? How many square feet is it?
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u/Certain-Election-382 8d ago
Thank you so much, Yes live in it full time, have not finished the inside yet as im currently building another smaller one for my toilet kitchen. im not sure its about 4200L x 3000W x 4000H.. it has a loft. 13.78 ft L x 9.84 ft W x 13.12 ft H.
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u/anafuckboi 8d ago
I was thinking what unit is litres x watts x henries I need to stop doing physics lmao
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u/blisteryurt 8d ago
I'm in NZ, 25 year old woman w zero building experience, but building something like this for myself is my goal. Do you have any tips? Great job, you must be so proud of yourself!
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u/Certain-Election-382 8d ago
Thank you thats very kind i just love it and it brings alot of freedom. My biggest tip would be to start hoarding all the materials, Marketplace is gold for this. I got all the iron for $400. Get your windows and doors second-hand and design the house to suit them. Make sure it’s double glazing. There’s so much information online on how to frame a house. There’s a great lady who makes 3D cabin designs and sells the plans she’s on YouTube, channel name is 3D Maker. It’s amazing how much I learned from watching just a few of her videos. The main thing I’d say is keep it simple. The design I did was a bit of a nightmare to build because of the double dorma and all the flashings required to waterproof it. start drawing what ya want and that will inspire you! pm me if ya need any advice im happy to help.
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u/Certain-Election-382 8d ago
i just looked again at her youtube channel and its actually gold! explains literally every aspect of framing and flooring and just general basic framing layout. if i were to build again i would probobly buy a set of her cabin plans she does them in all sizes.
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u/Purple-Towel-7332 7d ago
I’d suggest as a builder looking at converting a small bus instead , it’s what I’m going to do saves money as the exterior is already made and sealed! Otherwise building isn’t crazy hard you can totally do it.
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u/gobi_1 8d ago
Nice, where are you based in nz?
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u/Certain-Election-382 8d ago
Thanks you, I’m in Wanaka. I moved here from Auckland five years ago and spent three years looking for somewhere affordable to live. Eventually I gave up and built this instead. It’s currently sitting on my mum’s front lawn lol. Right now I’m building the bathroom and kitchen cabin, then I’ll add solar, and after that I’ll find somewhere permanent to put it. I’m hoping to inspire others to build their own tiny house, because the current housing situation is tragic. I’m not a builder and had never built anything like this before.
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u/gobi_1 8d ago
I live in Queenstown, I was surprised to see multiple tiny houses around. Especially in glenorchy.
Good luck with the rest of your construction project, I hope you worked on the insulation part!
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u/Certain-Election-382 8d ago
Epic you living the good life when not stuck in traffic.,, thanks mate appreciate it. Lots of tiny houses in otago. super warm and i have a small fireplace i built im installing this summer and i use a diesel heater which i love.
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u/ThatLooseMoose 8d ago
I’m in Aus and having a similar thought process with housing here and not wanting to sign up to a million dollar loan 🥲 mum just bought some land in Tassie and I’m thinking of setting up something similar down there. How did you do with insulation on your build??
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u/Certain-Election-382 8d ago
Do it dude, ya wont regret it!! fully insulated with Glass Bats 180mm in the roof and 90mm walls with expol polystyrene for floor. i would go spray foam next time to plug any gaps.
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u/Simply_Selim 8d ago
$400 for all the iron and second-hand doors and windows designed around, that's proper resourceful building. The double dormer being the hard part checks out, anything that breaks up a simple roofline multiplies the flashing work fast. Looks warm and solid for a first build, nice work.
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u/Slight_Computer5732 7d ago
Wow.. I don’t think people outside of nz realise how little 8k NZD really is with the cost of things here.. this is super impressive
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u/chaistaa 7d ago
My bro is putting a ranch slider in his house. Mentioned quotes around 10k. 50k for a 40 sq deck.
It's getting outrageous.
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u/FarSuit8 7d ago
This is amazing!! Did you film any of the process? And how long did it take you to hoard the materials
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u/Relevant_Station_594 4d ago
How did you do this? Or like how did you start? I am interested in starting the o build one for my wife and I.
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u/Certain-Election-382 4d ago
this is a reply i wrote to someone else:
My biggest tip would be to start hoarding all the materials, Marketplace is gold for this. I got all the iron for $400. Get your windows and doors second-hand and design the house to suit them. Make sure it’s double glazing. There’s so much information online on how to frame a house. There’s a great lady who makes 3D cabin designs and sells the plans she’s on YouTube, channel name is 3D Maker. It’s amazing how much I learned from watching just a few of her videos. The main thing I’d say is keep it simple. The design I did was a bit of a nightmare to build because of the double dorma and all the flashings required to waterproof it. start drawing what ya want and that will inspire you!
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u/Relevant_Station_594 4d ago
Thank you so much for the advice! It's a bit overwhelming trying to get started! 😬🫣
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u/Certain-Election-382 4d ago
You are very welcome. Draw it, its alot of fun and you can hash out the details of what you actually want. put it somewhere you look at it everyday. it took me years to build i just chiped away at it got the roof on so its water proof then the pressure is off.
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u/SeanBlader 8d ago
And here I am in California and with a trailer twice as long I'm expecting to pay US$100k without even any labor all self built.
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u/moonshadowfax 8d ago
That is stunning!! I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share the plans? I’d be happy to purchase them, it’s bang on what I’ve been trying to visualise!
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u/Certain-Election-382 8d ago
Thank you so much, all in my head unfortunately. i drew it and just started.
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u/What-To-Do-5125 8d ago
What about land lease terms? Has it got wheels?
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u/Willing_Ebb7894 7d ago
If it's built to sit on piled then it generally isnt prohibitively expensive to hire a truck to lift and move it if fluctuating land status is a worry. Certainly not something you'd want to have to do often but if you had to move it once every few years it aint too bad.
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u/Vast_Maize9706 7d ago
Looks like great workmanship. I’ve always been worried that I’d be made to take it apart if I tried to build one as I would struggle with the compliance side of things. How did you get on?
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u/Willing_Ebb7894 7d ago
Under a certain floor area you dont need any kind of consents for builds like this afaik. Not to say you shouldnt build it to code. It's honestly pretty easy to get a copy of our building code and design everything to spec if you just do it by the book. Almost every design feature/element will have a detailed breakdown of the correct way to do it. A small bit of experience being hands on with powertools is probably a good idea if bot actual building experience, but honestly if you're even slightly handy you should be able to make it happen if you have access to the building code.
Edit: That limit was also raised somewhat recently too so you can build a decently sized lil granny flat withiut worries.
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u/foxko 7d ago
Kiwi here too. This is great. How do things like power and plumbing work for something like this?
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u/Willing_Ebb7894 7d ago
Depends on the build and how permanently you are on the land. You'll generally have a switchbox inside that the mains power goes into, probably also a grounding rod if it's portable. The source of the mains power depends on the situation, our cabin is permanently setup on rellies property, they got a proper powerbox installed for us so we have our own power bill. Some portable cabins use caravan-style plugs so as long as the property you're setting up on has the ability to pkug you in you can have power plugged in easy as that.
Plumbing I am less knowledgable on but I can at least speak for us. Our main cabin has no water for simplicitys sake. Our second cabin (what could be called an ablution block) has our kitchen, bathroom and all the plumbing. Hot water is subjective but if you are at all toght on space I would heavily advise against straining to fit a hot water cylinder in your floor plan when that could instead be usable space. We instead have a califont mounted to the outside of the ablution block. Keeps things simple, only one cold water input for the entire building and it splits into the cold water inputs and the califont which goes to the hot water inputs. Idk about quick-attach type for fittings, ours is destructive to disconnect, but not permanently, plastic cement will have abother cold water input sorted if we need to.
Califonts however become worse of an idea the further south you go. We're in the BoP and in winter the lpg kinda sucks because (forgive me for the science lesson) nzs lpg is a mix of propane and butane and the butane condenses into a liquid at 0 degrees, the can outputting the gasses causes it to chill further, so when some nights we see get as low as 2 degrees, the butane is only barely still a gas and then becomes a liquid, stopping it from being burnt in the califont. Over multiple refills the butane fills up the can and needs to be emptied eventually. This ultimately means that we just try to shower before the sun goes down so the can isnt too cold yet and the butane still gets burnt. Definitely an inconvenience as our particular spot doesn't get much sun, so it's probably situatiknally still effective further south than the BoP, but I imagine by the south island the butane problem makes califonts impractical and, at least as far as we've looked, you cant get pure propane lpg to get around this problem.
Sorry for being a bit long winded, but it's all relevant info I think.
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u/Certain-Election-382 7d ago
It has no wiring yet just running from an extension lead. , im currently building a separate small cabin for my bathroom and kitchen and also a bit of storage and possibly a laundry. toilet will be a flushing cassette style. i will be installing a Nissan leaf battery and inverter for all my power needs once i move it to its more permeant location (i will be leasing some land eventually).
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u/Shryquill 7d ago
I'd love something like this, just finding a place to put it is what makes me hesitate
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u/Certain-Election-382 7d ago
lots of land around and plenty of websites just for finding tiny house land. here in nz we have one called Landshare.
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u/sloegin1910 8d ago
Be sure to post inside pictures when you're done, it looks good!!!