Photo: Martin Hammer
The International Residential Code Has A Big Vision For Tiny Houses
February 24th, 2018
The inclusion of a new appendix in the 2018 International Residential Code (IRC) addressing standards for dwellings that are 400 square feet in area or less—commonly called “tiny houses”—represents an important milestone not just for advocates of simpler living, but also for the International Code Council.
Appendix Q Tiny Houses is the first set of building standards for dwellings ever incorporated into a model code. The story of how the appendix came to be is a great example of how the Code Council works together with stakeholders and industry professionals to develop model code standards for new and innovative technologies as they emerge.
Tiny-house advocates and code enforcement officials alike have long recognized the need to establish code authority over tiny houses, but it wasn’t until April 2016 that the process to codify requirements for them kicked off in earnest. That’s when the IRC Building Code Action Committee, meeting in Kentucky, heard a proposal submitted by Richard Davidson, a retired building official from Oregon, to create exemptions for design elements that are specific to tiny houses such as minimum floor areas, ceiling heights, door sizes, and hallway widths, and for safety features such as guard rails and automatic fire sprinklers.
Although the committee voted to disapprove Davidson’s proposed changes, it agreed that a more comprehensive approach to tiny houses was certainly needed in the code and suggested that the issue might be better addressed in an appendix.
At the hearing, however, one person had testified in “friendly opposition” to the proposal: Martin Hammer, an architect who had co-authored the IRC’s straw-bale construction appendix. Following the hearing, Hammer received a call from his friend Andrew Morrison of TinyHouseBuild.com, a builder and educator who had helped Hammer write the appendix. “Andrew asked if I thought we could submit a different proposal,” Hammer recalled.
“Andrew asked if I thought we could submit a different proposal,” Hammer recalled. “My first response was yes, but in two and a half years, because the code development cycle was already underway. But after I thought about it some more, I called him back and said he could try submitting a public comment on the disapproved proposal, which would get it in the code cycle right now.”
With Hammer’s help and supported by a volunteer team of designers, engineers and architects, and with the unflagging support of his wife Gabriella, Morrison set out to craft an appendix for tiny house standards in time to submit it to the follow-up round of hearings and public comment reviews scheduled for late October 2016 in Kansas City.
Throughout the process, Hammer tried to manage everyone’s expectations. “Public comments are less likely to be approved than an actual proposal,” Hammer said. “It’s also unusual for a code change proposal that covers new territory to be approved in the first cycle. But I encouraged them to try anyway, because even if it was disapproved, we would learn something for the next time.”
Code Hearing RB196-16 Martin Hammer
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Martin attended the ICC session where 2016 updates to those appendices were approved unanimously for the 2018 IRC, and while there he also testified in friendly opposition to an IRC proposal for ‘Small Houses’, which was then unanimously disapproved. “I saw the potential of the proposal, but wanted to help improve the code language…the subject of tiny houses was and continues to be so widespread. It’s on everyone’s radar,” said Martin. In 2016 he joined forces with tiny house (and straw bale) leader Andrew Morrison to propose IRC Appendix Q – Tiny Houses. With spirited testimony in Kansas City from the tiny house industry and advocates, as well as numerous building officials grappling with code-compliance issues for tiny houses (≤ 400 sf) for ceiling heights, lofts, and their access/egress, the proposal was narrowly approved. The remaining challenges of tiny houses on wheels and chassis standards are now being worked out by the industry with proposed changes to Appendix Q and with a new ASTM standard that is expected to be more applicable worldwide.
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