Tiny Houses Join the Building Code
Voting members of the International Code Council have endorsed a proposed standard, clearing the way for wider acceptance by local building officials.
The tiny-house movement got an early Christmas present this year: a place in the country’s dominant model building code.
Members of the International Code Council, the group that publishes the International Residential Code, have approved a proposed standard written specifically for houses smaller than 400 sq. ft. It’s the first time these very small dwellings have been covered by the model building code and represents a major boost for the loosely knit coalition of builders and homeowners advocating a lifestyle based on downsizing and simplifying.
The victory comes in the form of an appendix to the next version of the IRC, which could be adopted by local jurisdictions in 2018. The standard covers details such as minimum loft dimensions, stairways, landing platforms, loft guards, and emergency openings — areas where tiny houses have been unable to meet code provisions for standard-size homes.
“This is huge news for the tiny-house community,” says Andrew Morrison, a builder and tiny-house advocate who broke the news. “It means that we will be able to work toward adoption across the U.S. now.”
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This is very encouraging in a country where the trend has been in the opposite direction of "Bigger is Better". It is very perplexing to me that so many Americans believe that it is necessary to have 2000 or 3000 sq. ft. of living space per person for "Happiness". This is especially disturbing when over half a million people are homeless & another 1.5 million are just one step away from being homeless. It makes me proud that this effort to legitimize the Tiny House movement has happened in my home state or Oregon. Thank you, Andrew & Gabriella Morrison!
A victory?! What a disconnect between code writers and the folks building these things...they build them to skirt to the code, not to be a part of the bureaucracy ($$$$).
The only reason folks build these things is not this small is better shtick, but because they are cheaper than the oodles of paperwork one has to put up with if they want to build a fixed home (period).
IBC has to get their fingers in everything don't they?
This is the end of the "Tiny House" movement. It was inevitable that building jurisdictions would do everything they could to expand their power over what has typically been unregulated structures. Once in control of the building departments, the cost of these will skyrocket and make them pointless.