Small Timber Framed Tiny House Vs Brick Built

Hi 👋

We are currently looking at rebuilding on the footprint of our old barn, turning it into a tiny house. The hope is we can live in there whilst we attack the main house build.

We live in Bulgaria and the quality of the wood varies greatly, as well as the price. Our barn is about 8m long and 5m wide. I was just wondering if anybody had built a similar sized timber frame tiny home structure that would be willing to share some pointers.

We've come across a couple of builds documented on YouTube but quite enough to give us the final push to build! The alternative for us is a brick built building but we had hoped to find an alternative.

Kayleigh

Why not brick?

Hi K;
Is there a foundation or slab where the barn was located?

What you build will be there for years when you work with bricks.
Bricks have lower costs but are slower to build compared to wood.

See what price you can get the lumber for.
Perhaps, use both brick and wood for your build.

25 years ago my family moved to our current location with great thoughts of removing the current house and replacing it with a new design. Once we had lived in the present house for some time, we came to like it and kept it as it was.

The idea was to use a building system that combines round timber as load bearers in upright position, with a shutter applied straw and clay slurry as wall fabric. The timbers used are spruce thinning, or coppice timbers with 150mm diameter. The main posts are made from four such timbers set as two facing one way and two facing the opposite way to keep the post dimensions continuous and tied into a square.
The wall fabric is made from straw, the last case used linseed straw, but any straw will do as t is for binding. A good source of clean clay is important.
The clay is made into slurry with a tub and a slow stirrer, or a cement mixer with a dustbin lid covering the hole.
The slurry is then mixed with the straw in a trough the African way ( feet or wellies). This will coat the straw with the clay slurry and make a brown mess.
The effect that takes place: The wet clay slurry will coat the straw and transfer some of the moisture to the straw, making it malleable. This will than be compacted between shutters, forming the walls. The posts will be inside the wall, this meaning that there is a cover of the frame work to protect against fire.
I build a wall like that here in England in the 1990ies when straw bail walls became popular, after having a dispute with a building inspector about fire hazards related to walls containing straw.
After drying, that took ages, I set a propane powered space heater 6” away from the wall with an output of 15Kw + and left it there for 60min. The surface in the immediate area of maximum heat turned red and after an hour the area had glazed but there was no noticeable increase in temperature on the other side of the wall.
However, the straw had burned and left the clay structure to 50mm deep, the timbers were unaffected and retained their stability.
Advantage:
1) Sourcing close by local materials, like spruce cuttings, straw and clay.
2) No sawmill required to square off timbers.
3) Life expectancy of 200Years if weather cladding is applied. (render or timber against rain)
4) Can be fully composted after use.
5) Earth quake proof.
6) Odour free.

Disadvantages:
1) As stated above, planning red rag to a bull.
2) Needs protecting from flooding, and if flooded can settle.
3) Messy to construct.
4) Difficult to dismember and can not be burned.
5) Challenge to contemporary builders minds.

If you have money and no time, stick with bricks.
If you have materials like above around and lots of time and little money and don’t look at your home as an investment, but a harmonious place to live and be, consider it.
With hope for a good outcome.

It sounds like the old barn is a very similar size to the tiny house on trailer builds. They tend to use similar timber framing to conventionally built houses using milled timber. Was that the sort of build you had in mind? It sounds from the heading like it might be, though timber framed could also be bigger timbers like Ben Law's woodland house, or more rough and ready pole framed construction with red brick, mud brick, or straw-clay infill.

I'm sure there should be people here with experience in all these building types. There's a lot of articles and plans available for tiny house type timber framed builds, too.

Though milled wood and siding is expensive to buy. If you're on a tight budget, you might be able to salvage enough round wood poles and old bricks from the barn itself or other outbuildings to do pole frame with infill.

Heavy timber frame with brick infill could be a choice, however building from wood is more difficult than masonry. Masonry is forgiving, any imperfections can be plastered. Big timbers in green state work and move a lot for years, before they dry and settle and experience is needed to do it right. Also, being in Bulgaria you have quite warm and dry summers - so the less wood the better for fire prevention.

Brick is near bulletproof. Brick doesn't burn. Brick adds a lot of thermal mass. Brick is low maintenance. Brick lasts!
Wood is fast and cheap in comparison and needs constant maintenance.    

There are a few questions and observations I need to make;
- Can you give us a photo of the existing area?
- 8M x 5M is not a tiny home, its more a small home?
- How long do you want to build this small home?
- How long would you realistically live in it while the bigger home is built?
- What foundations are there now?
- Do you want a full bathroom or something that works?
- Where will water come from and waste go?
- Have you building experience?
- What supplies are available nearby?
- Are there issues with termites and timber?

I can help you once I know these facts, John

I agree with all the advice you are receiving.  In Europe I see the combo approach in rural areas, wood framing with infill. Europe (and Asia) seem to rely a lot on the lightweight brick for infill, compared to the US. Those are less expensive than structural brick and the larger size makes them go up.... as my grandpa used to say.....gooder than goat butter

I found your You Tube series, I enjoyed it.
I can see what you are dealing  with now.
That timber yoiu used on the deck looked ok, did it dry straight?

I just noticed the sentence about the plan to build a larger house after you build the small one.
In this case I warmly suggest to build the small one using similar materials and techniques as intended for the larger one. This way you learn and possibly avoid mistakes with the later build.
If the foundation allows it you could also build the first floor from masonry with the thought of adding timber framed second floor in the future. I think this is how traditional houses in Bulgaria were being built.

Just wanted to thank you all for your comments and help. We've taken it onboard and we are at the first stage of our strawbale build for the 8mx5m site. Super excited and nervous but cannot wait. We decided to go with strawbale as that's the method we would really like to, one day, build the main house with, so this will be a great trial run for us.
Thank you again ❤️

Google tells me this is 430.56, square feet  which is more like a small house: