Modcoach learned about a significant change in the language for 2737, which is Oregon’s interpretation of Appendix Q: Tiny Houses, from the 2018 IRC.
Oregon, once the bastion for tiny houses in the US is considering significantly changing their building code to exclude the very houses that brought on the tiny house appendix to the 2018 IRC Code in the first place.
The mandate from Oregon’s HB 2737 was to create building code for houses “600 sf or less.” That is not what BCD is proposing. BCD is now proposing the code language for “houses no less than 400 square feet and up to 1500 square feet”.
If this code change goes through as written by BCD, it will make tiny houses impossible to build in the state of Oregon with code compliance under the IRC’s tiny house appendix or the so-called state appendix for Small Houses, now entitled Workforce Housing. This means that all of the relief from standards that exist in IRC Appendix Q (ceiling heights, stairways, loft usage, egress, etc., would be available if your house is BIGGER than 400sf, but not available for anything LESS THAN 400sf (including lofts). This defeats the entire purpose of HB 2737.
To say that the tiny house people feel betrayed by the lawmakers in Oregon is an understatement.
