Standards for Tiny Houses
ICC/THIA Standard 1215 on the Design, Construction, Inspection and Regulation of Tiny Houses for Permanent Occupancy
Tiny houses are growing in popularity as communities look to address affordable housing issues and homebuyers are looking for new housing options. This standard will codify existing requirements for the design, construction, inspection and certification of tiny houses used as permanent dwellings into a single standard and address identified gaps in available requirements for foundations and chassis. The 2021 International Residential Code (including Appendix AQ), and ICC/MBI Standards 1200 and 1205 will serve as the initial base documents with references to other existing standards.
This standard will provide minimum requirements for the design, construction, inspection, certification and regulatory compliance of tiny houses used for permanent occupancy to ensure public safety, sustainability and resilience.
ICC/THIA 1215 will include: consensus definitions for tiny houses and related terminology; prescriptive and performance-based compliance methods for tiny house foundations and chassis; and plan review, inspection and certification requirements for tiny houses constructed on-site and off-site. The standard will address tiny houses built on a foundation and those with wheels and a permanent chassis intended for permanent occupancy.
The standard will be written in mandatory code-intended language to support use by manufacturers and adoption by jurisdictions globally. This standard will not address tiny houses used for temporary or seasonal occupancy, or tiny house community development or microgrids.
About the Standards Development Process
The Code Council adheres to openness and transparency in our standards development process. Committee members represent a diverse set of interest categories. All ICC Standards committee meetings are open to the public. Any interested party can participate in committee meetings and can be considered by the committee for membership on any work-group that the committee creates. Interested parties will be notified by email of standards activities related to the Tiny Homes Standard, including committee meetings, sub-group meetings and the availability of standard development documentation.
Visit the Off-Site and Modular Construction Standards and Guideline Committees webpage for more information and to view the committee roster.
