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Tiny houses wouldn't save resources, it would use more of them. We'd end up with more houses, each needing infrastructure to be livable.
Unless they are built like regular homes, they become fire traps and anyone who witnessed a mobile home fire knows how fast they become nothing less than a pile of smoldering ashes.
They can be great ways for people living in rural areas to maintain a home but it isn't cheap to do. The idea that small means less expensive is a mistake. When the plumbing has a problem, it means the same kind of fixing that a larger home needs, the same for electrics and other systems.
If the tiny home is built cheaply, it won't last or it will have problems down the road. Cheap is cheap.
Then the issue of housing density comes into play. Are they going to be placed very close to each other? Many tiny houses seem to take up as much land as larger homes because the lifestyle of the people living in them seem to like open space around them.
When using countries like Japan as an example, we tend to forget that Japan has very limited land resources, that is unlike the USA and many other countries.
Then don't forget that for families with more than 2 people, a tiny home really doesn't work very well unless everyone is showering together and sitting on top of each other.
Tiny houses can work and they do for certain people. As a solution to save the planet? Hardly. Tiny houses often create more problems than they solve. Nifty things for vacations but for most it isn't a workable lifestyle. If it were, a lot more people would be living in them.
Yes, but for the price of an oversized home some could afford several tiny homes to accommodate several family members.
I see no difference other than having to provide for human needs in each that means higher cost and often higher usage of resources. Marriage is often a energy saver compared to a lot of singles for same reason. Man has always known that numbers can do more than single in most things requiring either mechanical usage rather than what more people can do without .For same number one larger structure with service is cheaper than many smaller structures needing indivdual services. Man has long known that as well that a larger single structure on same land size is more efficient.
Tiny houses are not really legal anywhere. Code enforcement could sweep all of them up tomorrow if they saw fit. There is always a minimum square footage for livable structures, and they don't even come close to meeting fire code. Unless you can change these laws, tiny homes are doomed to be just another fad. Comparing them to mobile homes is like apples and oranges. Modern mobile homes are rigorously tested, most of them are 1000-1200 square feet (single wides) and meet modern fire code. They are built to be safe homes. Tiny homes are a neat idea for certain people, but in the end "the system" will bring about their end. How many middle class families will not call the code officer in their county when two 25 year old hippies move their tiny home in next door??? That tiny home wont be there long.
Tiny houses are not really legal anywhere. Code enforcement could sweep all of them up tomorrow if they saw fit. There is always a minimum square footage for livable structures, and they don't even come close to meeting fire code. Unless you can change these laws, tiny homes are doomed to be just another fad. Comparing them to mobile homes is like apples and oranges. Modern mobile homes are rigorously tested, most of them are 1000-1200 square feet (single wides) and meet modern fire code. They are built to be safe homes. Tiny homes are a neat idea for certain people, but in the end "the system" will bring about their end. How many middle class families will not call the code officer in their county when two 25 year old hippies move their tiny home in next door??? That tiny home wont be there long.
That might be the case where you live. Maybe. Such is not the case here.
It's not the case where he lives, either. He lives in Tennessee, but he's a Michigan transplant so he's confused.
Comes down here, railing about big government but, deep down, he's a regulations guy.
Must love paying taxes. It takes a lot of taxes to pay salary to building inspectors, fire marshals, code enforcement officers, and such. Folks who love paying taxes, just love having lots of regulations, and officers on pay-roll with no better thing but to tell others how to live.
In the 70's this town figured that out, and they burned the town charter, to stop that nonsense. No tax revenue means the town had nobody on salary, and people could live again. In this state so far 40 towns have done the same thing, to lower their taxes.
But there are other towns even around here, that lover their high taxes and they just love regulations.
Must love paying taxes. It takes a lot of taxes to pay salary to building inspectors, fire marshals, code enforcement officers, and such. Folks who love paying taxes, just love having lots of regulations, and officers on pay-roll with no better thing but to tell others how to live.
In the 70's this town figured that out, and they burned the town charter, to stop that nonsense. No tax revenue means the town had nobody on salary, and people could live again. In this state so far 40 towns have done the same thing, to lower their taxes.
But there are other towns even around here, that lover their high taxes and they just love regulations.
Remember that when your neighbors sewer flows onto your property because they decided to dig a few ditches so that their poop would run away from their house.
I get it, you might be considerate, so might the people in your town. That isn't every place is it?
When someone falls off the stairs because the owners got used to one step having a 4 inch rise and the next having an 8 inch rise I'm sure regulations won't be an issue either. They will at the lawsuit but what the heck, thats a different story.
There is over regulation, no argument there but quite a few regulations when it comes to land development and home building are there to keep people safe from hillbilly construction methods. You know, like the black water tapping into the kitchen sink outflow because that darn PVC pipe costs so much and in a tiny house what could go wrong, it all ends up in the same place right?
Most problems in land development come from neighbors who get to do what they want and no one checks. Plenty of them around too, the ones who think paying for anything isn't part of the game so why not tap into your utilities? They won't use much and just because they ran their ground into the hot at your service entrance for your utilities, who really cares, they don't take baths anyway.
Tiny houses are not really legal anywhere. Code enforcement could sweep all of them up tomorrow if they saw fit. There is always a minimum square footage for livable structures, and they don't even come close to meeting fire code. Unless you can change these laws, tiny homes are doomed to be just another fad. Comparing them to mobile homes is like apples and oranges. Modern mobile homes are rigorously tested, most of them are 1000-1200 square feet (single wides) and meet modern fire code. They are built to be safe homes. Tiny homes are a neat idea for certain people, but in the end "the system" will bring about their end. How many middle class families will not call the code officer in their county when two 25 year old hippies move their tiny home in next door??? That tiny home wont be there long.
I suspect they would be welcome in many campgrounds and trailer courts, just like other trailers are.
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