Tiny houses might be small, but their weight doesn’t necessarily reflect that description.
How Much Does a Tiny House Weigh?
A tiny house has an average dry weight of 8,500 lbs, accounting only for the material used to construct the house. The lightest tiny homes can weigh as little as 2,500 lbs, while the heaviest can weigh up to 15,000 lbs. or more.
To better understand the weight of a tiny house, this article will define some related terminologies and show you how to determine the exact weight of your tiny house. Keep reading for the details.
Tiny House Towing Terms Defined
If you’re asking this question, you’re likely concerned about towing your tiny house.
By the time you’re ready to tow your tiny house, you will be working with a gross weight that includes everything that goes into the house (water, furniture, appliances, other belongings, and people), the trailer, and the tongue. This final weight should not exceed your truck’s Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR).
However, before you hitch up your house to the back of your truck, understanding some common towing terms is important.
Dry weight
Dry weight is the weight of an empty tiny house before anything is added to it. Tiny houses typically have a dry weight that ranges between 2,500 lbs and 15,000 lbs.
Based on this, we could categorize tiny houses into three sizes:
- Small tiny houses: weigh around 2,500-8,500 lbs
- Medium tiny houses: weigh around 8,500-10,000 lbs
- Large tiny houses: weigh around 10,000-15,000 lbs
Some tiny houses may exceed the 15,000 lbs weight depending on what the owner is looking for. However, this is rare, as houses that weigh more than this are typically on the edge of “tiny house” territory.
The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR)
The GVWR is the maximum weight that a trailer can carry. It marks the maximum weight limit that is considered safe for the trailer and is usually indicated in the manufacturer records. It’s important to know your trailer’s GVWR because the overall weight of your tiny house should be lower than the trailer’s GVWR.
Tongue Weight
The tongue is the part that connects the tiny house trailer and the towing truck. Tongue weight is the weight exacted on the hitch of the tow vehicle.
Experts in the towing field state that the tongue weight should be around 9%-15% of the tiny house total weight. So if your tiny house is 8,000 lbs, your tongue weight should not exceed 1,200 lbs.
Overall weight distribution
To ensure safety on the road, and to cushion the tongue and trailer from excessive wear, your tiny house should be loaded in a way that the weight of what’s inside is well distributed. The rule of thumb is that 60% of the load be in front of the trailer’s axle’s midpoint, and 40% be behind.
A weight distribution system (weight distribution hitch) may be used to stop the weight from moving to the back, causing the tiny house to tilt. This is especially important if you are going to be on the road often.
Examples of Tiny Houses and Their Weight
The weight of a tiny house depends on its size and the kind of material used. Most tiny houses use the same material as ordinary houses, which can be quite heavy. But tiny home owners can always opt for lighter materials, as we explain later.
As alluded to in the definitions, the dry weight of a tiny house should not exceed the GVWR. Let’s look at how a couple of tiny houses stick to this principle.
The “Rio Grande” tiny house
The “Rio Grande” is a tiny house made by Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses. The name describes the theme in the house, which depicts a river and is built on a gooseneck trailer. It has a 24 ft deck and an 8 ft gooseneck, making for a total of 32 ft. It is constructed on axles that can support up to 7,000 lbs and the trailer has a GVWR of 14,000 lbs. The tiny house dry weight is 11,500 lbs (2,500 lbs below the GVWR), which leaves room for what goes to the house.
Dee’s Kozy Kabin
Dee’s Kozy Kabin is an 84 square foot cabin named after the designer. The Kozy Kabin is built on a 14 ft. trailer with tandem axles and has a GVWR of 7,500 lbs. The dry weight of the Kozy Kabin is around 5,000 lbs, a difference of 1,500 lbs, which may be utilized by new weight coming into the tiny house.
Now that you have an idea of the weight of a couple of popular tiny house designs, it should be easier to understand how to weigh a tiny house.
How to Weigh Your Tiny House
The dry weight of a tiny house can be weighed before or after construction. It’s important to always remember that the final weight when towing will feature the weight of furniture, water, your belongings, and the occupant(s).
Let’s look at three methods of establishing the dry weight of a tiny house.
Weighing the building material before construction
This method entails weighing the building material before using them to build the tiny house. It is the most recommended approach to weighing your tiny house because once the tiny house is constructed it becomes much more difficult to weigh.
The easiest way to calculate your tiny home is to weigh all of your materials individually before you begin construction. While this is tedious, and may not give you an exact final figure, it will give you a rough idea of how much your home will weigh once it’s finished.
You can also check the weights on building material weight tables and use that to calculate the weight of materials by size and amount; however, this may be less accurate than weighing each piece of material individually.
Using standard estimates
If you are constructing a tiny house using a plan, you can tell its weight by checking the suggested approximate weight. Designers act from experience and know how much a particular size of a house will weigh. Besides, they always tend to approximate the weight with a small margin above the actual weight to be on the safe side.
If you are building your tiny house without a plan, you can consider the estimates suggested by constructors based on the length of the tiny house. According to idownsized.com, you can expect these or similar standard weights of your tiny houses based on the length of your tiny house.
- 4,000lbs for 10–12ft
- 6,000lbs for 13 – 16ft
- 9,000lbs for 17–24ft
- 10,000lbs+ for 25ft+
Weighing your tiny house at the public certified scales
When your house is ready to tow, you can bring it to a public CAT certified scale and determine its weight by following these steps:
- Drive onto the scale and ensure the steer axle (front axle) of your truck is on the front platform while the drive axle (rear axle) is on the other platform. The wheels of the tiny house (trailer axles) should be on the platform. The weight distribution system should be disconnected if present.
- Alert the scales attendant that you are ready to weigh by pressing the intercom button and wait for his/her signal. After that you can drive off the scale. You’ll typically get the 1st weight certificate for around $10. If you need to reweigh, let the attendant know and you can usually weigh again at a discount.
- Detach the tiny house at a safe place and repeat the weighing process with just the truck. This gives you a 2nd weight certificate.
- The 1st certificate calculates the gross weight by adding that of the three axles (steer axle + drive axle + trailer axle). The 2nd certificate calculates the weight of the track by adding the steer axle and drive axle’s weights without the trailer.
To calculate the weight of the tiny house, add the tongue weight to the trailer weight.
For clarity, here are the equations you’ll be using:
- Tiny house weight = Tongue weight + trailer axle weight.
- (Tongue weight = (steer axle1 + drive axle1) – (Steer axle2 + drive axle2)
It should be clear by now that you should try to keep the weight of your tiny house at a minimum. One sure way of doing that is opting for lighter materials.
Opting for Lighter Materials
If you are worried about exceeding the required weight, you can opt for lighter building material from the onset. Consider these options:
- Using low-VOC instead of fiberglass for the interior wall insulation
- Opt for TPO roofing instead of metal roofing
- Use plastic PVC plumbing in place of copper plumbing
- Consider using wood for the flooring instead of Porcelain tiles
Using light furniture and avoiding unnecessary belongings can also serve to keep your gross weight in check.
Concluding Summary
A tiny house has an average dry weight of 8,500 lbs. This means that the weight of tiny houses typically ranges between 2,500 lbs to around 15,000 lbs.
It’s important to understand some towing terms like dry weight, Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, and tongue weight when discussing the weight of your tiny house.
You can weigh the material used to make your tiny house before construction to make a rough estimate of how much it will weigh once completed. Alternatively, you can use standard calculations established based on the house’s length or bring your already constructed house to a public certified scale.
In the long run, it is better to have a tiny house that’s below the trailer’s GVWR than one that exceeds it.