Learn to build your own tiny house in 2026! View our new Tiny House Workshop dates and locations.
If you’re designing your own house or perhaps even some furniture, you’ve likely heard of SketchUp. Below are some common questions we receive about SketchUp.
SketchUp is a computer program in which you can create both simple and complex 3D models fairly easily. SketchUp was originally developed by Google (so it is often called ‘Google SketchUp’) but has since been sold to Trimble. Currently, there is a free and ‘pro’ version of the program available.
If you plan to make changes to the design of a house, having the SketchUp model can make this significantly easier. Changes can’t easily be made to a set of printable plans. If a change is desired, the plans will generally need to be recreated. This can be complex since a change to one page of a set of plans (or section of a house) may impact other pages (and so on). By instead modifying the model for which the plans are based on, you can immediately see how your changes will impact the other parts of the house and then recreate the plans with the new changes.
Even if you don’t plan on making changes to the design, having the SketchUp model can be extremely helpful. SketchUp can be used to visualize and understand how the house is assembled, and to get additional details and measurements during construction.
While SketchUp is extremely powerful, it is also relatively easy to use. If you just want to navigate an existing model and perhaps take some measurements, you’ll only need to know a very small subset of the available features in the program. For a quick overview of those, I’ve put together an introductory video. I've also recorded a few other video that dive into some of the more advanced features of Sketchup.
If you plan to use SketchUp to create a model from scratch or to change an existing model, you’ll need to know a lot more about the program. For a wide range of video tutorials visit: https://www.sketchup.com/resources/trainers.
There are a lot of differences between Tiny Houses on Wheels (THOWs) and Recreational Vehicles (RVs), yet one of the most common questions we get is “why wouldn’t you just buy an RV instead of a tiny house?”.
Something exciting is about to happen! You are searching for the most important feature of your Tiny House to be. The cornerstone. The Foundation. The Trailer. What should you be looking for in a trailer that is about to carry your home? I recently purchased a tiny house trailer and this is a summary of all the items I considered.
Most tiny houses get their utilities the same way RV’s and conventional homes do. Through services provided by utility and power companies. However, occasionally people wish to locate their homes where these services are not provided.
Getting geared up for another season of hands-on workshops, we love to look forward to watching the growth of people and their confidence in just one weekend. There are many people who come to a workshop just for that very reason: because they feel like they could never build a tiny house.
There is a fact finding mission that everyone goes through when they are starting out looking to go tiny. During this search, most people’s idea of what size they want their house to be changes a couple of times. There are definitely some pros and cons to the different sizes that are out there. Here are some of items to look over when considering your tiny house size.