One tiny house is having a huge impact for the students at Carbon Career and Technical Institute.

Since the second semester of the 2017-18 school year, students at CCTI have been working on building a tiny house.

“This is the first time we’re doing a tiny house. We started this one last year. In the past, we’ve done modular homes, but this is the first tiny house,” carpentry instructor Jeff Hazelton said.

“It was a fun process, a learning process, because me and Mr. O’Donnell had never built one ourselves.”

A tiny house is defined by the International Residential Code as “a dwelling that is 400 square feet (37 square meters) or less in floor area excluding lofts.”

While the livable space in a 400-square-foot abode may come off as difficult, innovation in planning can help alleviate the space issue.

CCTI’s tiny house features a loft bedroom, a guest bedroom, a bathroom with a stand-up shower and compost toilet, and custom cabinetry.

“It was a good learning experience for the kids to figure out the difference between a house with a lot of room in it and this one, which is much, much more compact. It’s a challenge,” Hazelton said.

Students said they enjoyed working on the tiny house, since the concepts covered by the project can be applied all across the board of construction.

Click here to see a photo gallery of students and instructors working on the tiny house.

“It’s great. It gives me a lot of experience that I can use in the real world,” student Dylan Everett said.

Hazelton said that the house construction actually covered the majority of the students’ task sheets, which list certain aspects of a job that graduating students are expected to understand.

“They work on framing walls and rafters, cutting rafters, stairs, floor joists and subflooring, how to put plywood on, trim work, cabinetry, insulation, installing windows, roof material and siding. Just by building this house, they do half the tasks on their sheet, if they take it seriously,” Hazelton said.

Plumbing, HVAC and electrical students also joined in on the project, working on the water, heating and electrical systems in the tiny house.

Over the course of construction, student Teegan Green contributed by working on the cabinetry, thanks to Hazelton’s encouragement.

“Last year, Mr. Hazelton asked me if I wanted to do cabinet making. I liked the idea of working on stuff that requires finesse, like this,” he said, pointing out the cabinets that will be going into the tiny home.

While the project was rather novel and interesting, it did present a number of problems for two instructors accustomed to larger homes.

“Everything is so much smaller than a regular house,” Hazelton said.

“It’s such a small area for a toilet and a stand-up shower, and then there’s no room to put a sink. This doesn’t have full plumbing, so they’re going with a compost toilet. The bedroom downstairs, we built a storage area for all the mechanics. A piece of wood goes on top of that, and the bed goes on top of that. We’ve had to come up with our own designs to make things work. It’s not like you have a basement or a crawl space to put everything, you’ve got to try to hide all of this stuff in a tiny little area.”

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Despite the complications, tiny houses seem to be more popular than ever. As the movement gains more and more momentum, largely among those looking to break free from rent and mortgage obligations, these projects may find a footing in Carbon County and surrounding areas.

With a small total area and relatively low cost, tiny houses can serve as a perfect vacation home, hunting lodge or primary residence.

“I took a trip down to Jersey, and I saw so many trailer park homes, tiny houses, RVs. It’s the way of the future. They’re small, portable and people can just pack up the truck, and move wherever they want to in a day or two. They don’t have to worry about selling the house, they can keep it for a lifetime,” student Luke Becker said.

And with the increased presence of these tiny houses, CCTI students will walk out the door with even more valuable experience. Hazelton even said that the contractors who hire CCTI students for co-op projects are pleased to find that they have real-world experience from working on the tiny home.

“It’s been an awesome adventure. It’s been thrilling throughout the entire project,” Becker said. “Everything you learn here, you can use it in the real world. With the help of Mr. Hazelton and Mr. O’Donnell, you can learn how to frame, and do everything from the ground up to build a house.”