How to Make Your Own Tiny House

Recently, housing prices have been phenomenal. And this crisis isn't getting better. Mortgage rates are at extreme numbers. Small apartments are at mind-boggling prices. It seems impossible to get your own place.

What if you can build it?

I am Titus Casas, a rising sophomore at Asheville High. I've been wanting to design a tiny home for a while to see how feasible it is to build your own home. The Make it Home challenge provided the perfect opportunity to tackle this idea. It turns out it is not as expensive as you might think to build your own house. It just takes some tools, the building materials, which are very cheap when compared to the price of rent, and time.

The best part is that you can customize the house for whatever you want it for. It can be suited to all of your hobbies and your lifestyle. You will save so much space by making a house just for your wants and needs. If you are going to college, you can pay to get it moved to wherever you want, as long as you have local permission. You can even build one to be rented, such as an Airbnb. The options are endless, and this Instructables will show you how to make it your own.

Designing

Paper and a pencil - for creating the layout and floor plans

Computer with your CAD choice, I recommend Revit, Fusion 360, or AutoCAD

Building supplies

The exact supplies depend on what your house will look like

Prototyping (Modeling) supplies

3d printer and filament, paint, and glue for plastic, or any material to make a model of your home.

Why build a tiny house? Well, tiny houses can solve a few modern problems. They are way cheaper than normal houses; you can build a small house for under 6,000 dollars, excluding tools, appliances, and fixtures. The average monthly mortgage payment in the US as of 7/25 is ~ $2,200, so in 3 months of mortgage payments, you can pay to build your entire small house.

If you design it, you can design it for all of your wants and needs, instead of a "one size fits all" ordeal. You can design it to even take advantage of certain environmental features, such as skylights, or windows at certain angles to heat up the house in the winter, and keep it cool in the summer.

You can fit a small, tiny house with the proper appliances and fixtures for less than 4,000 dollars. This means that you can house yourself or someone else for under 10,000 dollars. Now, this is excluding labor prices, and if you are making it, that is free. If you want to mass produce this like on an assembly line, the price of paid labor would be cheaper, and many problems could be solved from that.

Small houses can be picked up and placed anywhere that is a stable surface. Because of this, we can assemble tiny villages in less than a week. We can place these houses in a park-like location with benches and social areas. These communities are extremely cheap ways to connect people and build community and trust, which is what our world needs more of.

As of early 2024, there are about 775,000 homeless people, close to a million citizens without a place to call home in our nation. It is a hard cycle to break because you can't apply for a job if you don't have an address, and you cannot get a home without a job to pay for it. It is an endless loop, but tiny houses provide a feasible solution. For roughly 7,750,000,000 USD or nearly 8 billion dollars, we can solve that problem. That is based on the fact that labor will raise the price, and the gigantic mass production will cheapen the price of everything because it will be in bulk. Getting homeless people off the streets isn't the only benefit. Some will add themselves to the workforce, further helping our nation's economy.

The large price of eight billion seems gigantic, but compared to the fiscal spending of the US government, which is about 5.35 trillion dollars in 2025. The money is there, so let's see how to solve these issues!

This is the part where you get to make it your own

Think about the layout of the house and how it will flow. I used some graph paper and had one square representing one foot. Sketch out all the important things layout-wise.

You'll want to include a bed, kitchen with a sink, fridge, oven/stove, counters, table, and chairs; bathroom, shower, toilet, and sink.

Then come things that are not as important, but if you need to, you can leave them out. Some of those are a washer and dryer, a desk, and a dishwasher.

Think about what else you want in your home, like a small workshop as a room, or a studio, a big table, an island in the kitchen, a deck, anything.

Don't forget to add spaces for doors, and make sure all the appliances and features can fit through the doors to be installed.

Next, you can add windows, shelves, and cabinets. It is relatively simple, as you can add them where there is space on the wall or under counters.

Add the HVAC, which is a heater and air conditioning which you can add like windows or cabinets, just make sure it can blow into the main areas, not one corner.

Draw it out from other sides too, just to make sure there is nothing impossible. Try to think in 3 dimensions and think about creating things like lofts.

When you add something to your sketch, like a refrigerator, check the size because they are often standardized. Always make sure what you are adding exists.

DO NOT forget to check the building codes and make sure all of the features comply with the building codes in your area. It would be a huge setback if you were finishing your house and called in an inspector only to be told it doesn't comply. There is a lot of grey area or no straight answers, so only do it if you are sure it complies.

For reference, I am designing a house as small and simple as possible.

I am using Fusion 360 for the modeling in CAD. You can use AutoCAD or Revit, as they are often geared towards this, but because of my experience with Fusion 360, I am choosing Fusion as my CAD. If you feel comfortable with one of the other CADs, then definitely choose it. As for this instructable, it is based on Fusion 360, so if you want to make it in another CAD, then skim read this CAD process.

This is the step where the floor plan is made in CAD. It is the walls and location of doors, appliances, and features.

Your sketches will probably deviate from what you drew out on paper, as the dimensions are accurate in the CAD, and you will probably slightly change some features' unspecified dimensions.

For the walls, if you are doing 2x4 framing, I would have the wall width at 4.5in, 3.5in for the lumber itself + 0.4in for the width of half-inch drywall, and another 0.1 inch to include paint and drywall mud, creating an easy 4.5 inches. If it is 2x6 framing, it is the same as 2x4s but 6.5 inches because 2x6s are 5.5 inches.

For this stage, I sketched the first floor or the main floor, then projected the needed features for the loft with the bed above the kitchen. I then drew all the views that were important to make it, and added windows in those views.

Always check the building codes to make sure that everything complies before continuing. It is a lot of words to sift through, but you NEED to do it. You don't have to read every word, but skim through it. If you are confused, always check the codes.

For this stage, I started by sketching and extruding the 2x10s for the floor frame. Then I sketched the 3/4in OSB board for the floor that is based on 4'x8' boards and extruded them. The proper thickness for the subfloor OSB is 23/32, but it is 1/32 of an inch smaller than 3/4, so I am using 3/4 for simplicity.

Create a "group" or folder by right-clicking the bodies tab and selecting "New Group". Name it to whatever it is that you are doing and select the new bodies, right-click, and select "move to group". Do that for everybody that is made to clean up your workspace, so you don't have 168 unnamed bodies to scroll through if you want to show or hide a sketch.

Next, to create the frames, I started by projecting the walls that are on the floor sketch and drawing the studs between them. I started by creating the first stud, which was just a rectangle that would represent that part of the frame, and drawing the studs on top of the sketch. I drew one which was a 2x6, so I drew a 1.5x5.5 rectangle and used the linear pattern spaced 16 inches apart to make it so I didn't draw a new rectangle every time.

When you constrain the sketches, try and use the dimension tool as little as possible because the dimension takes up a good amount of space and clutters your sketch.

Once I drew out and extruded the perimeter walls, I sketched and extruded the rafters, or the roof, then interior walls, other interior frames, then window and door frames. Check the building codes, or check out a real builder's framing tutorial or image to see what dimension lumber you need and how to frame some features.

In this step, you add the sheathing, which is the OSB boards that go around the house and on the roof. You can do a rough job at adding the sheathing by drawing out the entire wall and openings, or you can draw out every 4x8 panel. I am choosing to draw out the entire wall because you can copy that face and divide it up later into 4x8s. It will make it easier for prototyping or creating models, and it will create fewer bodies.

This stage is easy if you do a rough job. All you do is create the sketch for that wall and project the window frames and edges of that side and extrude it to the proper thickness.

The house should look like how you envisioned it now, and the hard parts are done in CAD.

This step is the easy part, or the fun part.

In this step, you add all the things like windows, desks, appliances, toilets, sinks, doors, lights, and other furniture. When you create all these things, you want to find a real one, create a new document, and model it. It doesn't have to have all the features, but it has to be recognizable and dimensionally accurate. I went to Lowe's online and found the appliances I liked and modeled around them. Many dimensions are standardized, like counter heights or oven widths, so try to incorporate the standardized dimensions.

To enter this stage, create a new document and insert the main document as a component.

You can insert the pieces of your model into the assembly document then assemble them appropriately.

I set all the appearances to the appropriate ones and rendered it to get a better idea of what it would look like in real life. Now you can move on to the next step, which is creating a real-world model!

To create the 3d model, I chose to 3d print it because it is already designed in CAD, and it is relatively easy to prepare. My initial plan was to print all the studs and glue them all together to make the frames. In real construction, you frame it by creating mostly 2d walls. I realized that I can print all the 2d frames instead of printing out every stud and gluing it 400 times.

To prepare it for fusion, I selected everything and scaled it down to my desired size, which was 1/40th the size of the original. I grouped all the studs on every 2d wall panel so I can 3d print it. I exported everything I was going to print as a .stl so I can toss it into my slicer and print it.

For the slicer, I used Bambu Studio, which has way more features and tools than my original slicer. You will want to use an "advanced" slicer like Orca Slicer, Bambu Studio, Prusa Slicer, or Cura for a few important tools.

Turn on "precise arc fitting. This ensures that the dimensions of the 3d printed part are true to that of the .stl. Next, turn on precise Z height; this makes it so it doesn't print it at the layer height's nearest multiple, but rather the exact height of the model. Elephant's foot is when the first layer is being extruded, and it is being squashed onto the bed, causing the first layer to spread wide. If elephants' foot is an issue, then turn elephant's foot compensation on to the preferred amount. Next is ironing. Ironing is where the nozzle runs over the X-Y surface while extruding a small amount, to smooth it out on the top layer. It is not necessary for the frame, but for panels, it is very important because it makes them smooth, so you don't see the individual lines from the top layer.

This step should be relatively easy, as all you do is hit print, and print out everything you want on your house from the prior step. But for me, this was not an easy step.

My 3d printer kept having issues, like the PTFE tube popping out because the retaining mechanism broke and clogged the nozzle. Then, having to find the strongest glue I could get at my hardware store, because superglue wasn't sufficient to hold it in, because it is Teflon. It finally stopped popping out after I scraped/shredded the PTFE tube with a knife for the glue to adhere. This put me way behind schedule, making me have to skip some of the fine interior details.

After I finally solved that problem, the printer wasn't detracting the filament after retracting, so it literally could not print anything because the filament wasn't in the nozzle. After a lot of different slicers and restarts, it randomly started working normally, then randomly stopped working. It kept doing that or doing that mid-print like it did to the frame, so I am using some half-made pieces, but they work. For the interior, I skipped the frames and appliances because I didn't have the time to print them. I made the drywall out of paper; I just cut a piece of paper to the right size. In the end, it worked out, and the house looks nice.

To start, I glued all the frames together on the corners to create the perimeter frame. I then glued the subfloor beneath it. I mixed some colors that my younger siblings had lying around and painted the walls a wood-like color. I then painted the exterior walls a matte blue-grey color by mixing some more paint and adding graphite powder to it.

The graphite creates a very interesting color, black, but not dominating all the existing colors. It adds a slightly grey hue to it, in small amounts, but in heavy amounts, where it is the majority, you can see the color coming through. It makes the paint a matte shade, and incredibly interesting to look at.

The roof was incredibly fragile because I had to use my original slicer for it, and it was one layer thick and incredibly weak. So instead of just painting it, I put a good amount of JB Weld on top of the roof as it was my glue of choice, and colored it. I added some black paint to thin it out, but it didn't do much, and added a lot of graphite powder. I applied it, and smeared it all over the roof, and it created an interesting shade of black, and an indescribable texture. It made the roof a lot stronger, and I could handle it without it breaking.

I glued the paper cutouts of the drywall inside and glued the roof on, and painted the rafters my wood color.

I touched up the walls again because glue and smudges of many things had rubbed off on them while working on it before finishing it with the door.

Finally, to finish it off, I painted the windows and doors, then glued them on.

Not everyone has access to a 3d printer, but it doesn't mean you cannot model it. A simple solution is to make it from other materials like plywood, foam boards, cardboard, or even paper. You can model the frames by stacking layers together and cutting them out to the frame's size. You can make the sheathing and drywall by using paper or your chosen board material. You can even make it out of entirely paper, if you are an origami master

It doesn't need to be complex or overcomplicated; it just needs to meet your personal model requirements. Don't forget to paint it. It makes it look better, and it is fun mixing colors.

Now that you have completed your prototype and are content with its looks and the CAD, it is time to move on to the real one. Think about any detail or flaw in the design before moving on to actually building it. Once you start, there isn't any turning back.

Before the first board is cut, you have to get an inspector to approve of your plans and get permission to build it. That is inspection #1

This is the first stage in building the house. I skipped the foundation because some tiny houses won't have one. The rough frame is basically when the house is watertight and weather-safe. The entire structural frame is finished, all the windows are installed, doors are put up, sheathing is also up on the roof and walls, subfloor is complete, and it is basically entirely watertight.

Once you start building the rough foundation, it is a race to finish it as soon as possible. If it is left half complete, the wood in the frame and everything else within it are subject to moisture, rotting, and weather for as long as it is up. If you have a large shed or a large garage, you can make the 2d frame and subfloor and store it there until you are ready to put it together and install the sheathing, if you want to chill out and take your time. If it is stored in a shed or garage, it should not be messed with and should be "shelf stable", so you can resume it whenever you want. If you take a long break while it is outside, the frame can rot, mold, and warp.

You start by making the subfloor, which is the floor's frame, and the sheathing that goes above the floor, aka the floor OSB boards. This is the floor, but it will be covered in the proper flooring near the end, tile, laminate, planks, etc.

Once you have completed the subfloor, you move on to the frame, which is where all the studs and those things come in. You can assemble it into "faces" or sides and pull it into place. If you have a small or normal-sized house, you should be able to lift it into place with a friend or two. You nail the siding boards into place before or after you put the frame pieces into place. It isn't really important in which order the boards are put in. You also want to put the windows in somewhere in this stage.

Next, you install the roof. You first build the frame and then nail the siding panels on. If you have a short roof, it should be fairly simple, but if it spans a long distance, it will be fairly complicated.

All the siding will need to be sealed, probably with flashing tape on the gaps and cracks to prevent water from coming in, but this depends on your building codes. You finish it off by wrapping it in house wrap.

In order to legally proceed, you will need to call an inspector, who will make sure everything is good to go and it is safe and structurally sound. That is inspection #2

I strongly recommend reading other articles and watching other videos on the step before starting to get a nice idea of what you are doing. Do not take my word for gold, and many things are missing in these steps. There are a lot of steps to do in this stage, but not all are the same because your house isn't a giant mansion.

Now you will install the electricity, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning), and plumbing. Once you complete all of these mini-stages, you will need to call an inspector to check that everything is good, so your house won't get flooded or burn down.

To wire it, I recommend watching some videos on this, and to read some articles, and building codes. It is kind of simple, just run wires to all the outlet locations, use proper equipment and transformers to connect it to the grid, and arrange all of this with your electricity company. It is a really simple and complicated step. This is inspection #3

For the HVAC, this might be the easiest step to do in a tiny house. You simply mount the unit to the chosen place and the frame you made on the wall for it, and plug it in. As far as I know, you don't need an inspector for this.

For plumbing, I don't have much advice or instruction in this situation. Check your building codes and watch videos or read articles about it. This is inspection #4

Once you have completed these and finished the inspection, you can move on to the next stage, which is finishing the house

Now, you finish the house, installing things like insulation, drywall, light fixtures, appliances, bathroom fixtures, paint, driveways, sidewalks, flooring, and landscaping. There are many more things to do that are not in that list, but that roughly sums it up. You are installing everything in this house that normal houses have. Once you are finished, you should be able to move into it.

Before you move in, you need to call an inspector in for the fifth and final inspection to make sure it is habitable. Once you are done with inspection #5, you are done with the house.

Now, this is the part where you reap what you have sown. You simply move in, put your furniture in, and your personal belongings in. You can now officially and legally move into your own tiny home.

This is my instructable on how to make a tiny home. It doesn't cover everything, but I made it to give you a fair idea of how homes work. It is simple yet complicated at the same time. If you want to make your own tiny home, I hope this Instructables gives you inspiration to design your own tiny home and not buy someone else's plans.

I roughly calculated the price for the house I designed, and it is about 4,000 dollars for lumber and boards to build the house, plus the price of the fixtures, like toilets, counters, flooring, appliances, etc. Compared to the price of rent or mortgages, that is affordable.

Personally, this project has increased my knowledge of what goes into houses, and the entire process that they are made. All the research and videos I have watched to make this instructable really increased my knowledge of the subject and surprised me in many ways. Learning how these trades work has shown me all the incredible effort and knowledge our society has put together, and we usually don't even notice it.

Thank you for reading my instructable, and good luck on your next project!