• HOME

  • HUT INSPIRATION

  • GETTING STARTED

    • Affordability
    • Access to Land
    • Choosing Design & Construction methods
    • Planning Permission
    • Develop a hut site
    • Building your hut
    • Leases, rights and responsibilities
  • HUT CONSTRUCTION

    • Hut construction rules & regulations
    • Factors affecting site choice
    • Building Elements
    • Building Services
    • Health & Safety
    • Hut Construction Diagrams
  • 1000 HUTS

    • About 1000 Huts
    • Contact
  • FAQs

  • SHOP

  • BLOG

  • FORUM

  • More...

    Use tab to navigate through the menu items.
    To see this working, head to your live site.
    • All Posts
    • My Posts
    thewildcroft
    Apr 25, 2020
    Edited: Apr 29, 2020

    Tiny House on Wheels - Build and Price Breakdown

    in General Discussions

    So I promised this a while back, and finally getting around to adding it. I am a carpenter/builder/crofter and was asked by a friend last year to build her a "tiny house on wheels". I jumped at the chance. What makes a tiny house different from a hut? Well, I guess a house is meant to be lived in, so includes a toilet, shower etc. I wouldn't bother with them with a hut personally - I'd have an outhouse. I kept a full blog of the build process on my old Facebook page 'Atlantic Drift Woodcraft' if you'd like the full story. If you'd like to follow my new page The Wild Croft, there will be a hut being built hopefully in 2021, this time for us. Super cheap and super simple is the plan, probably A-frame. Anyway, back to the tiny house I built...


    Design brief:

    • On wheels! Need to be movable with a road legal trailer. (means max weight 3.5te)

    • Zero plastic. All avoidable plastic fittings must be kept out! (breather membrane and a few exterior plumbing items were the only plastic bits I couldn't find a way around).

    • Sustainably built. Reclaimed or well sourced materials

    • Budget of £15k including trailer, labour, delivery from the highlands to Shetland!

    • She wanted a bath, and remember, no plastic! Hmm. That was a challenge.

    • On grid, but with a wood stove for heating and cooking.

    • Might be used to live in, might be airbnb, might be moved back to the mainland and used as an occasional hut, so plan and design for all these things.


    We eventually decided on a Shepherd's hut type design. I didn't want a 2nd storey as it was going to be sited in Shetland and needed to cope with 100mph winds. Tall things go missing in Shetland. The chosen trailer was £4,600 delivered, a third of the budget gone before I started. It was a superb trailer imported by Tiny Eco Homes in Northumberland. It was 20' x 8' (6m x 2.4m). 14.4sqm total so about 12sqm internal.


    Internal Layout (as planned):



    The rest of the specs:

    • 2" sheep wool in floor (sealed galv metal sheet under this)

    • 3x2" frame, insulated with reclaimed kingspan and sheep wool, then ply, then clad in Scottish cedar

    • Curved roof cladding supplied by Cladco Glasgow, 3" sheep wool insulation.

    • Instant hot water gas heater, fed from a well. Also gas 2-ring hob. Bottled gas.

    • Mains electricity lighting and kettle. No heater. (couldn't afford a solar setup)

    • Wood range-type stove made by Windysmithy, Devon. 4kW with oven and hot plate.

    • Reclaimed hardwood double glazed windows.

    • Reclaimed door split and made into split stable door.

    • Wooden bath made from marine ply, with shower overhead.

    • All-in-one compost loo (very simple design, not bought).

    • Wooden kitchen sink (reclaimed dough bowl off ebay!)

    • Pine flooring, pine t&g cladding inside.

    • Raised double "box bed" with storage underneath.


    Even with all of this, Tiny, as she's now called, is incredibly spacious. Most people who stay in it or visit comment that they could happily live in it. So, if you are planning to max up to the 30sqm hut size I would argue that isn't really necessary. Just design your space well and save some money.


    It was built in 3 months working a total of 400 man hours (just me but occasional helpers, including the client who came to get stuck in for a week!)


    Material Costs:

    • Trailer £4,600

    • Building Materials incl plumbing & electrics: £4,400

    • Stove and flue: £1,000

    • Gas heater, fridge, hob, bath: £500

    • Indoor painting, sofa, mattress and other bits and bobs were extra.

    • All windows and half the insulation were salvaged for free, saving a considerable amount of money

    • Door was reclaimed.


    Obviously there were logistical costs of moving it etc and a lot of labour involved, and the budget of this one was only feasible with "mates rates" and really going out of my way (and being lucky) with reclaimed materials that take a lot of time and effort to find, but hopefully the costs above give you an idea.


    If you weren't needing the wheels, the exact build could be done on blocks saving that cost, but you'd need beefier support beams as the trailer was also the main structural frame.


    The total weight was 2.6Te all fitted out, so plenty of wiggle room on the 3.5te legal max.


    Here are a selection of photos. For build photos, check out my Facebook page linked above for a full build log. Started early 2019. I hope you enjoyed the post and feel free to ask any questions. I am right on the north coast, near Tongue, but am potentially available for builds north of Inverness only, on wheels or not. But this isn't an advert really, I did this as a one-off and am now focussed on other projects. Not gunna lie though, it was awesome fun to build and if you're dreaming of a hut, press on - it'll happen, and it'll be worth it. :)

















    4 comments
    4 Comments

    Share Your ThoughtsSign up to leave a comment.

    conceptxx.soasls55
    Jun 29, 2021

    There are however some common preferences that include having either surround sound speakers, a 7.1 channel home theater speaker, or going for the best 5.1 surround sound system. All of these and more, serve different purposes. However, finding the top-rated home theater systems can be a bit of time taking task and this is where we come in. We have prepared for you a list of the best top budget home theater speakers on a budget that you can find currently. You can also check out our following guides present at the bottom of the article to help you, called: Conclusion and How To:


    Like

    L
    lorna_jackson
    Sep 01, 2020

    Amazing thank you! Does anyone know, do you need planning permission, if yes what sort, to have a tiny house on wheels in a wood you own?

    Like

    dylan
    Apr 27, 2020

    Beautiful build Al, thanks for sharing this information.

    Like

    O
    oldtorrlee
    Apr 26, 2020

    Absolutely beautiful!

    Like
    4 comments
    Similar Posts
    • Cost of building my hut
    • Building a Hut on Wheels
    • New Hut Build
    RS_logo.png

    1000 Huts is a project of the charity Reforesting Scotland, which works to restore and support sustainable communities in a well-forested land.

    Disclaimer:

    The content of this site is supplied as good practice guidance only. It is not an authoritative statement of the law or of the policy and practice of the planning or building standards system at the local, national, or case level. It simply sets out what our contributors believe to be good practice for hut builders in complying with the Scottish Government's new regulatory framework for huts. Anyone considering undertaking a hut development should seek their own legal, planning and building advice. 

     

    CONTACT

    ​

    ​

    ​

    ​

    1000HUTS: 

    huts@reforestingscotland.org

    ​

    ​

    REFORESTING SCOTLAND