“The common link globally for tiny houses is that we don’t have standards that are unique to our own industry,” says Janet Thome, ASTM member and founder and president of Tiny House Alliance USA. She was involved in the effort to establish the new subcommittee. “Is a tiny home on wheels a building or a vehicle? Well, it’s actually both. We’re excited to be able to help make those determinations as part of ASTM now.”
The subcommittee is in the process of assembling its membership, but once the group is established, it plans to begin developing its own standards, starting with tiny-house terminology and creating a uniform construction standard for tiny houses on wheels that will result in a new classification of housing. As Thome explains, that standard is particularly needed by the industry because these structures today fall through the cracks of existing regulations. “We’re not an RV, we’re not a modular home, we’re not a manufactured home. We’re trying to introduce something brand new; something that doesn’t exist.”
