The home-grown steel-framed Tiny House company
The Australian Häuslein Tiny House manufacturing company began after the business partners saw the boom happening in the US. Riding on the phenomenal momentum of the ‘recreational vehicle’ (RV) universe, where people were downsizing through either necessity or searching for freedom from a mortgage, they knew this was a wave worth catching. The small Australian team was so impressed, they got together and the company was born. At Häuslein, all the Tiny Houses and other forms of ‘hauler trailers’ are designed and manufactured entirely in Port Macquarie, NSW.
Sam Verlaan, Co-Founder and Director of Technical Services talks of the uptick in interest the group found from people wanting to take up the lifestyle. The practical problem for the team was to source the right steel framing, sheeting, wood panelling, as well as finding the best-skilled fitters and joiners and construction people with the same passion to join them on the journey.
“There has definitely been an uptick in interest in tiny houses since we started nearly five years ago,” says Verlaan. The global lifestyle changes ignited in the pandemic sparked a huge leap in orders. “We were inundated with build requests during 2020-2022 and with such demand many other tiny house builders have popped up.”
Using a mix of 2-5mm thick steel lengths procured in shared purchases through Southern Steel and Vulcan, the Häuslein crew cut the steel in packs on a bandsaw and assembled using timber templates and premarked tape measures. “It then gets tacked together, squared up and welded using MIG with argon. We use a combination of steel frame on the bottom as the chassis, and then a timber frame up top.”
“The recently released Häuslein Tiny Hauler was born out of our passion for dirt bike riding and mountain biking in the bush,” says Scott Rohdich, Häuslein Co-Founder and designer of the Hauler. “We wanted to create a really unique toy hauler trailer that was highly-functional and attractive. We wanted to design something which wasn’t cluttered by ugly vents, flaps, panels, and gas bottles commonly found on conventional caravans in Australia.”
Scott Rohdich comes from deep within the building industry. With a background as a highly qualified carpenter and joiner, he built furniture, created stairs, guitars and components for houses during his early career.
A particular hurdle in fabricating these houses and trailers is staying in alignment to the customer’s state vehicle and building regulations. “Legally classed as a caravan, any guttering needs to be fitted once the house arrives on site,” explains Rohdich. “The guttering puts the tiny house over the road-legal width restrictions. A local plumber may also assist in fitting the guttering as well as connecting your toilet or grey water and could do this at the same time.
“Strategically the new Häuslein Hauler model builds upon on the success of our core tiny house business and diversifies our product range into the caravan market with a bold new futuristic product,” says David Boyd, Co-Founder and Director of Marketing at Häuslein Tiny House Co.
“At Häuslein we strive to build to the highest building standards possible, going beyond what is found in prefab granny flats and most conventional houses built today. We build everything from scratch right here in Australia and are creating homes that will last for generations, not houses that will look worn in a few years. Häuslein Tiny Houses are built by Australians to withstand transportation and Australia’s harshest conditions.”
Verlaan adds that there is a lot of competition out there right now. “This competition of course makes the work harder than ever before to get people across the line,” he says. “Our piece of the piece continues to get smaller.”
Of the range of Tiny Houses, Trailers and Haulers, the smallest trailer ‘Gunyah’ is a five-metre DIY weekender. Häuslein is now working to design a new single-level house, but the Grand Sojourner remains, “the most popular design over the life of the business. Not only is this the efficient design for the team to put together but it is also easily the most popular Tiny House on the market.”
Häuslein Tiny House Co launched in 2018, on a mission to build high-end tiny houses, trailers and products to help Australians live a simpler, less expensive, more sustainable way of life.