Industry
Part of Eight Small Space Design Mistakes and the Fixes That Hold Up in Compact Homes
What a credible homeowners' record of a compact renovation actually contains
How to tell a documented compact home project from a styled one, what a credible case study contains, and why survey data beats an anecdote.
What to take away
- A credible case study reports what failed, not only what was built.
- Survey data beats a single project story for anything general.
- Factory built projects publish more verifiable detail than site built ones.
- What people say they do and what they actually do are different numbers.
Most published small space projects are photographs with captions. A useful case study is a different document, and it is worth knowing what to demand from one before you take a lesson from it.
What a credible project record contains
- The starting condition, described rather than implied.
- The constraint that drove the designbudget, code, building rules, a household need.
- What was tried and rejected, with the reason.
- What the work cost, with the exclusions named.
- What has failed or been changed since.
- Who paid for the coverage, if anyone.
The fifth item is the one that separates journalism from marketing. A project written up six months after completion has something to say. A project photographed on handover day does not.
Credible project record contents
- Starting condition, described not implied
- Constraint that drove the design
- What was tried and rejected
- Cost with exclusions named
- What failed or changed since
- Who paid for coverage
Factory built projects are easier to verify
Off site construction produces a paper trail that site built work often lacks: repeatable specifications, factory inspection records and standardized assemblies. It also changes the shape of a schedule, which our remodeling timeline describes as more lead time and less time with a crew in your home.
Factory vs site built verification
Factory built
- Specifications
- Repeatable
- Inspection
- Factory records
- Assemblies
- Standardized
- Schedule
- More lead time
- Solar install
- In factory
Site built
- Specifications
- Often lacking
- Inspection
- Less documented
- Assemblies
- Variable
- Schedule
- More crew time
- Solar install
- After, costly
The Code Council's write up of ReMo Homes, a modular manufacturer of net zero operational dwellings, adds checkable details.
Its co-founder explains making a home net zero after the fact costs much more, largely soft costs such as installation. Building photovoltaics and battery storage into the unit in the factory turns solar into another step in the production process.
Whether or not you are interested in modular housing, that is what a useful project lesson sounds like: a specific claim about where cost sits, tied to a method.
Survey data beats a single story
For anything general, one project proves nothing. A survey does more.
The National Fire Protection Association reported on a nationwide survey of smoke alarm use in the United States, which found that 99 percent of U.S. residents have smoke alarms while a third never test them. That single pair of figures is more useful than any number of home tours, because it describes the gap between having equipment and having protection.
Apply the same skepticism to design claims. A household that owns a folding table and a household that unfolds it are different data points.
Treat any project write up with a single before and after image as an advertisement until proved otherwise. The useful documents are the ones with a dimension, a constraint and a number in them.
Building your own record
| Stage | What to capture |
|---|---|
| Before | Photographs of every wall, dimensioned sketch |
| During | Photographs before walls close, dated |
| Handover | Snag list, warranties, as built dimensions |
| Month 6 | What you stopped using and why |
| Year 1 | What you changed, and what it cost |
The month six entry is the one nobody writes and the one that would help the next person most.
Putting dates against those entries is what makes them happen. Our post remodel maintenance plan sets the intervals at month one, month three, month six and year one, and says what to look at in each.
The failure patterns these records tend to confirm are set out in our guide to small space design mistakes, and the cost side of documenting a project is covered in our piece on real renovation cost lessons.
