Building an off grid tiny house on the Hilo side of Hawaii, Advice needed (real estate, houses)

[MikeyMike11]

A composting toilet is not cheap, and you said you have a limited budget. How is an unpermitted cabin going to "pay for itself"? Are you going to rent out jungle shacks or something?

[67Cam]

Originally Posted by MikeyMike11

Section 5-26. Package homes.

In lieu of compliance with those provisions of section 5-25 pertaining to dwellings, model package homes (homes manufactured in a factory and ready to be assembled on the job site)may be pre-approved as follows by the Hawai‘i County Department of Public Works-Building Division (DPW-Building Division).
(2012, Ord. No. 12-27, sec. 2.)

This is where you would need to investigate further. When I looked into it and got an informational pdf from Honsador it included prices for each house and what was/was not included, plus a bunch of other helpful information. The model homes from Honsador, (and likely HPM and others) are not pre-built in a factory (manufactured homes) and ready to assemble. They have pre-approved blueprints (that still need an engineers stamp) and they supply the exact number of windows, doors and rough lumber to build to the plan. The lumber is not pre-cut and ready to assemble. These places are lumber yards that supply plans, materials lists, raw lumber and other materials (ie - windows and metal roofing that needs to be cut to fit). So if your plan requires 150 2x4x8 to frame the house, they drop off 150 of them and you put it together, cutting as needed for window openings, door framing etc...

By strict definition manufactured homes have a chassis attached and are also known as Mobile homes. Homes largely prebuilt in a factory are Modular homes. The packages from the lumber yards on the Big Island don't meet either of these criteria. So how literal is the DPW? Are the package homes covered under this language? I don't know. Hopefully someone who does will chime in.

[67Cam]

Just a couple pages from the pdf...

[MikeyMike11]

I did find a home package which is built in the factory, but they are from Maui. Very affordable, cheaper than those "tiny houses" you see. I think that trend is waaaay over priced. It would be cheaper in material cost to get the factory built home, have a more finished and good looking product, and you could easily obtain a permit for that. Not sure what's available on the BI, but this one is not on any chassis. They literally plop it onto your foundation. I'm still researching the cost to ship it, but there is no way it wouldn't be worth it for us. The homes are pretty nice, but I will make it nicer. If you're looking for a beach house or vacation home, this is the way to go IMO, and you don't need to deal with an engineer or architect.

[hotzcatz]

You'll still need an architect's or engineer's stamp on the plans, but that may be provided as part of their package. Who are the folks on Maui? There used to be a manufactured home place in Hilo, but that was back in the 60's, I think. I knew someone who worked there, but never saw it in business so the exact details are hazy.

Inter-island barge isn't all that expensive, at least, if you're shipping mixed freight. Not sure how much to ship the whole house, but it would be less expensive than from the mainland.

Hmm, I looked at a couple of them online and they have very short eaves. That'd be a deal breaker for me, I consider 3' a 'minimum' eave width, not a maximum. It makes a huge difference when you're living in the house if the sun isn't shining on the sides of the house. Plus houses with no eaves just look really weird, IMHO. In any case, we have some access issues with getting large things to the site, so getting a house in there even if it's half at a time would probably be problematical. We'll stick build a bit at a time as we get the money for the materials. Saves ever so much bother of paying off a mortgage.

[TreeZoo]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Hmm, I looked at a couple of them online and they have very short eaves. That'd be a deal breaker for me, I consider 3' a 'minimum' eave width, not a maximum. It makes a huge difference when you're living in the house if the sun isn't shining on the sides of the house. Plus houses with no eaves just look really weird, IMHO.

On a house with small eaves you can construct a type of curtain wall just inches outside the real wall. This wall would be open at the bottom and vented into the attic at the top (the attic would be vented to outside via gable vents or ridge vents). This way your actual walls are always shaded and cool. To shade the windows would require awnings of some sort. I realize that this style is probably unusual in Hawaii but not in Florida.

[hotzcatz]

That sounds like an interesting method of keeping walls cool, but since this will be new construction, I'm gonna opt for 3' roof overhangs. Less expensive than double thick walls and allows for a less rainy walk place.

There's probably a lot of Florida and deep South construction methods which may be of use in Hawaii, I'll have to start looking for them.

[Jungjohann]

Originally Posted by TreeZoo

On a house with small eaves you can construct a type of curtain wall just inches outside the real wall. This wall would be open at the bottom and vented into the attic at the top (the attic would be vented to outside via gable vents or ridge vents). This way your actual walls are always shaded and cool. To shade the windows would require awnings of some sort. I realize that this style is probably unusual in Hawaii but not in Florida.

Given the cost of materials in Hawaii, Catz, as usual, is correct. Much less expensive to add a few feet to the overhang than build an additional wall around the building. Just getting windows and doors to properly interface with that would be a major pain in the okole.


Uuurrrpppp,,, scuze me

[TreeZoo]

I doubt that it would be more expensive than extended overhangs. Basically you put your house wrap on, then stud out for your curtain wall and put siding on as normal. Voila - a double wall.

The larger overhang does have other advantages which you are well acquainted with. The double wall is just another thing to keep in your bag of tricks.

[MickeyE]

Since we are discussing off-grid houses, has anyone looked into the Tesla Powerwall and solar roof?

Check out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sfwDyiPTdU . Looks interesting if cost is reasonable (and "reasonable" can be a very personal thing).

The solar roof options look great, but again cost may be prohibitive.

NOTE: There are also Youtube videos on buiding your own DIY version of the Powerwall. Seems to be pretty straight forward technology.

Mickey