Home built with 20% recycled material

Andrew McColm has gone from demolisher to creator.

The former Shaw’s Demolition Yard owner has just completed his first tiny home — inside his Milton warehouse.

A bedroom up a ladder, a kitchen, a bathroom and a lounge are all crammed into the small building. Mr McColm hoped his creation — for which he asks $120,000 plus GST— would be the dream home for someone.

"Last year when I ceased trading [at Shaw’s Demolition] ... I looked for something positive and enjoyable to work on.

"Being in the building industry I’ve built residential, commercial and obviously demolition so this was something ... a nice project to work on [in] semi-retirement.

"This came to mind. Something relatively easy. I’m still physically fit and able to build it in a relatively short amount of time."

It had taken about five months of working six days a week in the warehouse for Mr McColm to complete the project.

The tiny home’s bathroom has a composting toilet and in the lounge there is a small fireplace.

There is also a detachable porch that can be placed at the front of it.

"I like the design," Mr McColm said, pointing to the curved roof.

"The whole point of me building this was to get away from the box shape.

"I’ve gone for the curved roof and the old musterer’s hut look about it. If you looked at that — that would be quite nice in anybody’s paddock."

He said the musterer’s hut design gave more head room than there would be in a box-shape tiny home.

Mr McColm said the house would be environmentally and economically friendly to run.

"Using the solar system and gas ... hot water, gas cooker, gas heating even and you’ve got the wood burner fire in there.

"[It] harvests the water off the roof to water your vegetables."

And it was ready to be lived in.

"It’s basically buy the thing and move into it," he said.

The tiny home was road capable as it was built on a 3.5tonne galvanised steel tandem wheel trailer.

"It’s all built within the building code," Mr McColm said.

"Because they’re quite top heavy and you can just imagine this thing trekking along the road — I’ve had to really emphasise the bracing in the structure.

"They’re just a caravan on steroids ... a granny flat on wheels."

Mr McColm’s warehouse was full of materials he had gathered from his old demolition yard and the tiny home he built was made up of about 20% recycled products.

Alongside the completed project, Mr McColm had another steel trailer base set up for the next tiny home he was about to start.