Tiny house

Our structural boxes that create the walls, roof and floor are made from 18mm WISA Spruce plywood as standard, this is FSC certified and PEFC rated. Click here to see a typical Spruce sheet.

Or you can upgrade to WISA Birch, a harder wood (and heavier) option but with a less knotty aesthetic. See here for an example.

To fix the boxes together we will supply you with zinc plated bolts, nuts, screws and washers, as well as stainless steel wood screws.

Your pod will be supported by our specialist, height-adjustable decking risers. Each foot can support up to 1 tonne. They are made from 90% recycled plastic and fully recyclable.

To keep you warm and cosy we provide sheep’s wool, selected for being British based, a natural and breathable eco-friendly insulation for the walls and floor. It is building regulation compliant, contains a borax based fire retardant and does not require the addition of an insecticide. We can also use wood fibre (or most other insulation types).

To insulate the roof, we use a PIR insulation board, chosen for its high performance within 2.5m permitted development height. If you are willing to make the building slightly higher, we can swap this for a wood fibre board.

A damp-proof membrane functions like a raincoat; it will keep you the rain out whilst also allowing moisture to breathe.

For the walls and floor, we use a UV stable and fire rated membrane from Illbruck. 

For the roof Butyl membrane; a UV-stable, non-toxic and has a working life of up to 50 years with a 20 year supplier guarantee. An added bonus is that this arrives green roof ready, so you can add your plant layer straight-away.

Cladding is the material that you see on the exterior of your U-Building. It acts as a ‘rain screen’ to protect the waterproof membrane behind from damage, and completes the external appearance. 

You can use any cladding you like with U-Build, but to make things simple we supply Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir or Larch depending on availability. We choose UK grown timber with a durability class of 3, an estimated life expectancy of 15-30 years above ground, plus it looks and smells beautiful. We use 45x25mm strips that arrive as linear lengths to be cut down to length on site.

If you would like to install the cladding in a ‘herringbone’ or ‘chevron’ pattern we have a developed a cladding panel making workflow for you to follow. 

Cladding panels means that no screws are visible on the front face, and the panels are easy to take off individually for maintenance. Our in house developed software (known affectionately as AutoCLAD) works out the number, length and shape of the different parts and creates a cutting list, which are either be sent for you / carpenter to produce from scratch or cut to length here. To keep the ‘U’ in U-Build, we encourage people to try assembling the panels, and you can also buy one of our specially designed cladding jigs to help with this.

If you like this style but are conscious of time and budget, one idea to save time and costs is to use herringbone cladding for the front only, and use horizontal timber for the back and sides.

We are able to provide calculations of the weight of the pod, so that you can find the right trailer for your tiny house project. Previous clients have used agricultural trailers which are able to take large amounts of weight, and are also used to being towed into position across fields.

Size and weight has to be considered for tiny homes. The below article contains some indicative information for UK roads:

Wide Loads On UK Roads – What Is The Maximum Size/Weight Allowed? (ntex.co.uk)

If your building is on wheels and is classed as a caravan it may not need planning permission. There is more information included on the definition of a Caravan in the Uk’s 1968 Caravan Act. The below article gives more information:

Can I Put a Touring Caravan on My Land? | Caravan Helper

Although we do not provide plumbing and electric services, we can work with your chosen tradesperson and even include hole for plug sockets.