How to Save Money Building a Tiny House

Tiny houses have been considered for such a long time an alternative for people who want a smaller space to live in. In fact, it has become a trend because of the shift in American’s living style. A typical house of American is about 2600 square feet while a tiny house is only about 100 to 400 square feet. Moreover, they are variable in size, shapes, and designs, which provide a simpler and cost-effective living standard. The most common reason which makes people fall for them is that they can solve many problems about the environment, financial situations, and the desire for freedom. So how can you build a tiny house with a minimum cost? In this article today, I will show you precisely what criteria you need to save money building a tiny house.

1. Save money on tiny house building materials

Using recycled materials

Expenses you can save: wood, plastics, glass, mosaics, decorations, etc.

Benefits of recycled materials:

Recycled materials are cheap and friendly to the environment so that they can save you tons of dollars spending on raw materials. Instead of going to stores, you can find materials to recycle everywhere. They can be drying flowers at your grandmother’s house, a vase somebody threw away in the garbage or a piece of lumber at the construction site nearby.

The most common ones which can frequently be found are plywood, hardwood flooring, bricks, concrete, windows, hinges, paneling, stairs, railing, roof tiles, countertops, and insulation.

There are some sources you can search to have the best-recycled materials for your house:

  • The Habitat Restore
  • Rummage Sales (craigslist sales such as Milwaukee garage, Appleton garage, or green bay garage are great examples)
  • Junkyards
  • Flea Markets
  • Any constructions which are about to be demolished
  • Your friends, family, colleagues, or even acquaintances.
  • Buying materials in larger chunks

Expenses you can save: wood, plastics, glass, mosaics, decorations, etc.

Benefits of purchasing materials in large chunks

The most common profit is that stores usually give discounts for bigger sized packages. That’s how you can save your money. If you know what goes together, you can have a specific plan and calculate the expenses to buy them. Do a little search on Google, and you will find exactly what you need.

I often search on Amazon.com because it seems to offer the most bargained prices ever. I saved about 20 percent on doors and door frame when buying on Amazon, which was equal to 4000 dollars. That’s a huge amount of money you can save, isn’t it?

2. Rent the building tools

tiny house materials

Expenses you can save: Screw drivers, anchor setting tools, a gun kit, trowel, wall building tools. Etc.

Benefits of renting the tools:

Unless you love being a carpenter, buying the tools can be a little more profitable. But if you only want to build your tiny house for once, I suggest you should rent the building instruments. Renting tools is also one of the greatest ways to save money building a tiny house.

Some fantastic tools you can rent are a vibrating plate machine, duty breaker, wall support, ladder, mini concrete mixers, and so on. According to my experience, there are seven tools you should rent, not buy, including a tile saw, post-hole digger, rotary hammer, tiller, paint sprayer, and drain auger. These are quite expensive in all of the stores. So if you can, rent them.

Some helpful sites for renting construction tools:

3. Design your tiny house

save money for a tiny house - save money building a tiny house
Source: tinyhousebuild.com

Expenses you can save: hiring a designer

Benefits of creating on your own:

The cost of hiring a designer for your house is variable and usually relatively high. The price is charged per hour, which is from 50 to 200 dollars. So if you design the home yourself, you can save more than 1000 dollars averagely. So why not? Besides, designing is not as hard as you think. You can follow these steps to make your tiny house the most beautiful place on Earth.

Step 1: Look for other tiny house designs for reference.

Try to find out what other people are doing with their house, how they develop the interior, or what materials they use. You will be surprised at various ideas people have. Once you have done searching, I believe you will have a lot more new thinking for your tiny house.

These are some excellent designs you may want to take a look:

Step 2: Think of where you want to put your belongings and furniture.

People will think a typical bedroom needs a bed, wardrobe, and dressing-table to become a perfect place to sleep. Nevertheless, in a tiny house, convenience is on the top of priorities. Because of a small space, it does not allow you to place so much furniture like that.

Such a big item like a wardrobe would probably not a good idea. Therefore, think of all the activities you usually do at home and try to imagine where you would put the furniture.

For example, I have a habit of making coffee every morning, so I put the boiler in the living room because it is nearer to my bedroom and coffee is right next to it. After that, making coffee is so smooth and comfortable. You can try to imagine just like me.

And one of my tips while choosing furniture is that instead of buying large ones, you can use drawers or a folding bed. They can save a lot of space for your house and much less expensive.

Step 3: Start sketching your plan.

When you already have various things in your mind, you can start drawing them on paper. This move will help you picture your house and interior. Moreover, you can add more details to any place you want and change your design if anything wrong.

Try to calculate everything carefully in this step because you may not have another chance to fix things again while building. If you feel insecure about your design, show it to others and ask them to make comments. More ideas will even come to you, and your house can get the best look on both the outside and inside.

Step 4: Working on the process

Think of the process when you build your house and choose a beautiful day to start. If the previous steps were terrific, this step would not be so much difficult.

These are the most excellent methods for you to a minimum the amount of money and still build a beautiful tiny house. Thank you for reading my article about save money building a tiny house. I hope they are useful to you and you will make the best tiny houses ever.

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