Trying to build a tiny house myself. Ive built basement suites and done renovations, not terribly complicated and the process was relatively simple. Could fit the guidelines for a basement suite on about 4 pages.

But this tiny house thing is ridiculous. I have my development permit and building permit which already took a powerpoint presentation to the town council, approval from the planning commission, and then several submissions and lots of scale drawings for approval for the building permit, plus the fees.

So I had some specific questions and wasn’t sure where to ask. There are SIX different places where I could find different sets of building regulations. Figured the most applicable would the National Building Code for my province. Opened up the document online and its 1,570 pages!? What the hell?

So I narrowed it down to the section on homes and small buildings and just the INDEX for that section is 7 pages long.

This is nuts. No wonder people don’t want to build homes. The codes are so ridiculously detailed that unless you study it for a living its just crazy complicated (There’s a code for how many hinges you put on a door and how deep the screws have to go into the casing)

I’ll slog through it but if I cant find the answers in a couple of hours Im gonna revert to the old “its easier to ask forgiveness than permission” approach and see how cranky the building inspector gets.

Man, you want houses built in Canada? Make it EASIER to find out how to do it.

  • ShimitarAEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    I assume you are in north america, maybe Canada?

    Here in Europe, just forget it building yourself. Because in addition to all the building code and rules, you simply cannot fulfill the work area safety rules and, unless you can do 100% alone all the work, also guarantee the requirements for the other workers. What I mean is that you cannot because a company is required, only a company can have all the required paperwork for having other people working on the site.

    And don’t get me started on the “paesaggistica,”, which is a town commission that must approve and change to the facade or in general public visible parts of your house to ensure those match the landscape…

    They forbid me to have a 2-way roof, I needed to replace the 4-way roof with a similar one because “it’s the style here”. More complex, more money, less light (no real windows possible). And o counted 80% of houses around me have 2-way roof… So you go figure.

    • LoveCanada@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      13·
      4 days ago

      Yes Im in western Canada.

      That situation in Europe would drive me bonkers. Im a firm believer in not hiring people to do things I can learn to do myself. I would hate being forced to hire people just because they have access to the paperwork that I dont.

      We do have something similar to the paesaggistica, which are particularly intrusive if you own a condominium apartment. It can get quite ludicrous as they have an elected board who can make up whatever rules they like and impose fines. Ive heard of people being fined for having a flower box on their outside patio, or for hanging up Christmas lights before a set date because its against the condo rules. Just craziness.