The second annual Tiny Home Show was held from July 28 to 30, 2023 in Ancaster, Ontario, and featured a variety of knowledgeable vendors and speakers, on Tiny Home builds, Ontario Building Code, off-grid energy solutions and waterless toilets.
Tiny Home Builders
This was a great event to look at what is possible in terms of Ontario Building Code compliant tiny homes and modular dwellings. Smartscale Tiny Homes gave an informative presentation on building with structural insulated panels (SIPs). One advantage with SIPs is you can build a dwelling without wood, using mold-resistant materials! Another advantage is increased energy efficiency.
A number of builders who presented were very knowledgeable on Ontario Building Code, and the Tiny Home Show organizer, Bianca Metz was also a wealth of information on how to navigate zoning and how to ensure your build is certified to code. If you are looking for help navigating how to get yourself into a Tiny Home, check out Bianca’s services!
White Rock Tiny Home Solutions had this beautiful model on display:
Stephen from White Rock Tiny Home Solutions described how they use a two-permit system in their tiny home builds. Their tiny homes are built in Cambridge, Ontario, so they get a permit for the site where the home is built. They also apply for a permit for the site where your tiny home will ultimately be used. You can learn more about the whole process here.
Habitat28 was an exhibitor and gave tours of their Tiny Home, on site. Below is a video showing their S28ECO model. Habitat28’s units can be converted for off-grid living if no electrical is provided and can include:
- Composting or incinerating toilets
- Solar panels
- Holding Tanks
Full specs for their S28ECO model are available here.
Jen McCarthy, owner of Teacup Tiny Homes, shared the panel discussion of Tiny Home builders to Teacup’s YouTube channel, speaking about build standards (CSA, OBC and more), from the Tiny Home Show, available to view below.
D’Arcy McNaughton from Acorn Tiny Homes is also part of the panel above. Acorn’s blog provides a great overview of the problem with using shipping containers to build a tiny home. It’s a popular idea, but a number of problems arise immediately when designing this sort of thing. These include the decline in structural integrity when you cut doors and windows, the challenge with insulating and the concern with whether or not your new home is off-gassing harmful chemicals leftover from its days as a container. I’m with Acorn on this and not a fan of recycled shipping container builds as a home.
The tiny home builders at the show all had standard models and most will also work with you to make a custom build. Below is an example of a very unique custom build, created by Acorn Tiny Homes, which was available to tour at the Tiny Home Show.
Quebec-city based Tiny Home Builder mini maliste has a virtual tour available of their models if you missed them at the show. Their Nomad model (featured in the main image at the top of this blog post) can be fully equipped for living off grid and can be towed by a pickup-truck!
Municipal Conference Day
On Friday, July 28, there was a special event specifically for Municipal planners and I was surprised at how many Ontario Municipalities sent a planner (or two) and in one case, someone from the Mayor’s office. Much of the discussion during the breakout sessions was around which municipalities were working to make changes to comply with Ontario Bill 23 (More Homes Built Faster), and which ones had already made changes that allow for more dwelling size options and different types of builds, such as tiny homes.
Land Lease Agreements
One topic of discussion was land lease agreements, an arrangement where a tiny home owner (for example) may lease land from a land owner as a place to live in their own tiny home. This is an interesting arrangement highlighted in Ontario’s Bill 23, where one of the stated goals is to streamline the land lease approval process across the Province:
Land leases, where the house is owned and the land it sits on is rented, are a more attainable housing option for many people, particularly in rural parts of the province. We’re proposing to streamline the land lease approval process to encourage more development and increase the number of land lease community homes.
Ontario Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster
Will more land lease agreements provide a solution (hopefully among many) to Ontario’s current housing affordability crisis?
Off-Grid Energy Solutions and Waterless Toilets
The Tiny Home Show also boasted some experts in off-grid technology, with Ruth Cooper of Steeltown Solar, (a division of Ecodomus Consulting) going over solar technology and Odilon Lemieux of Borrum Energy Solutions presenting on home wind turbines.
Finally, an informative presentation on waterless toilets was made by Coops, Crappers & Cabins, a tiny home builder that also makes (as the name suggests) chicken coops and crappers.
An event well worth the trip to the Ancaster fairgrounds. If you didn’t make it in 2023, mark your calendar for next year!
Updated September 27, 2023