Tiny Houses, tiny maintenance… or not?

At the bottom of this article you will find the fifth question of the TinyFindy summer contest, with which you can win an overnight stay in a Tiny House!

When you are about to buy a Tiny House, you also think about the necessary maintenance for your house: how much time and money will maintenance cost and can I do a lot myself or does it require professionals? Jan-Willem van der Male (Tiny House Academy) and Marjolein Jonker (Marjolein in het klein) share their experiences.

Tips from Jan-Willem

Jan-Willem explains how you can stay ahead of maintenance and expensive repairs. “Make sure you are always well prepared for bad weather, think about your waste flows (including from the toilet), give the safety of your construction and installations priority in the design phase and reserve an annual budget for periodic maintenance and repairs.”

Many Tiny House pioneers find it a nice challenge to do a lot themselves during construction and maintenance. Jan-Willem: “Keep in mind that some activities are really better taken care of by a professional or experienced handyman. Not everyone is equally adept at painting and basic woodworking. A neat finish prevents a lot of damage and ensures that cleaning remains simple. ”

DIY

For house, garden and kitchen jobs it is useful to have at least good basic tools at home, such as a pipe wrench and bahko (adjustable wrench), hammer, screwdriver and drill. Jan-Willem: “If you invest in the right tools and learn a few basic skills, you will be able to carry out minor maintenance immediately. This prevents you from getting much bigger jobs at a later time. Those skills can also be useful if your house is on a trailer and you need to check tire pressure, wheel nuts or bearings. ”

Make sure your house is tidy, especially your technology room. Jan-Willem recommends a preventive approach: “Tidy up floors and cupboards and check the corners, for example in the wet room and the kitchen, every month to see if moisture and mold problems arise. Take on a job immediately; for example by quickly repairing blocked drains, tightening leaky taps, checking exposed pipes for leaks, checking the water pressure and most importantly not pouring the wrong substances down the drain. Have you experimented with technology? If it doesn’t seem to work, change it.”

Experiences of Marjolein

Marjolein is the first legal Tiny House resident in the Netherlands and has lived in her Tiny House for more than five years. In her blog ‘Maintenance of a Tiny House‘  she talks about her maintenance experiences. Marjolein freely admits that she likes working in the garden more than doing maintenance jobs on her house.

A special job was replacing the window frames last year. You don’t expect that to be required within 5 years. Marjolein: “During the construction we experimented a bit with new materials and techniques. Unfortunately the old window frames soaked up too much water, resulting in mold. I now have beautiful new painted window frames. ”

Marjolein’s Tiny House has a Modiwood facade of thermally preserved wood. In principle, you don’t have to treat that, but doing nothing at all isn’t such a good idea either. Marjolein: “I see some green spots on the roof and wasps have been gnawing on my facade here and there. Not a problem in itself, but if you want to do it right, you have to brush your facade every now and then. ” There are also special cleaning products available, but that is a burden on the environment, so Marjolein prefers not to use them.

This winter the drain was clogged. The house uses a helophyte filter and has no sewerage. Using chemical drain cleaners is a no-go. Marjolein: “Fortunately, there are also excellent natural solutions that work. Sprinkle a few teaspoons of baking soda down your drain and then pour in some vinegar, for example. Just don’t forget to disconnect the drain and collect the drainage in a bucket, so that it does not run into your helophyte filter.”

At some point you have to do maintenance on a house, whether it is large or small. Marjolein: “Fortunately, the maintenance is a lot faster and cheaper with a Tiny House than with a large house.”

Source: Marjolein in het Klein, Tiny House Academy