Tiny Houses With Rooftop Decks – 15 Creative Tiny Homes To Inspire Your Design

A rooftop deck on your tiny house is a great way to add extra outdoor living space to your tiny home. Many people want a tiny house with a rooftop deck in their design so that, while they’re traveling around with their tiny home, they’ll always have a great view from up top.

These decks are a really good option if you’re going to be moving a lot. When I built my tiny house, I designed it to be more permanent so I opted for a patio to extend my living space. I added a fire pit, two Adirondack chairs, and a grill, and did some landscaping to complete my outdoor living space.

How To Add A Rooftop Deck To Your Tiny House

The biggest downside to a rooftop deck is that it can be tricky to support without compromising your roof. There have been some very clever ways tiny house builders have added roof decks, but too often I look at a rooftop deck built on top of a tiny home and can tell just from the photos that it’s going to lead to a leaky roof.

So what’s the best way to put a rooftop deck on your tiny home?

I’d start when you’re building your tiny home from day one. On the trailer, I’d weld four support columns made of metal square tubing rated to support the load. Welding those ensures that the load transfers directly to the strongest parts of your tiny house trailer.

These columns will be built within your walls and come just below your roof line, then extend out only as far as they need to clear the roof and support your roof top deck above. A cross member between the support columns that prevents the columns from deflecting outward can be concealed in the tiny house loft and walls.

This method will allow you to fully support your rooftop deck without making a single roof penetration, which is key to having a leak-free roof.

Tiny House Rooftop Deck Access

Of all the ways that I’ve seen tiny homes build in rooftop access, an external ladder seems to be the best method. A possible secondary method would be an operable skylight that can be opened from inside. These two options aren’t as easy to get onto your tiny home roof as some of the fancier decks where the roof rolls back, but again, they’re the best methods to avoid leaks.

An exterior ladder isn’t ideal, but it’s a simple solution. If you decide to build a skylight to access your tiny home roof, I’d make sure the curb of the skylight is built up at least 6 inches, apply Grace Ice and Water Shield to the transition, and then have a single piece of metal flashing custom built so there are no seams at all in your metal roof flashing.

Tiny House Rooftop Deck Photos For Design Inspiration

Here are some great examples of tiny houses on wheels with rooftop decks to inspire your own design. With these designs, look for how they control for water infiltration, how they gain access to their roof, and other unique deck design features they’ve worked in.

Tiny House With A Roof That Opens

This house is built with a roof that rolls back to reveal the loft bedroom in this tiny home. Of the houses here, this is my favorite because of the light wood and the fact that on a nice night, you can open up the roof and see the stars.

Gooseneck Tiny House With Rooftop Deck

If you want to have a tiny home built on a gooseneck trailer or fifth wheel, this is a great design for you to consider. The two-tone wood siding and metal cladding give this a pretty modern look. This house also has a well-built skylight that you can open up and climb onto the roof through to access the deck. You’ll also notice they’ve built the roof and applied the deck to the ribs of the standing seam roof to hold fast, but do not have any additional penetrations.

Shed Roof Tiny Homes With Rooftop Deck

Here are two modern looking tiny homes that have shed roofs and a nice deck on top. These simple roof lines are a great way to simplify your rooftop deck. Without complex angles to work around, you can more easily mount the decking on top. Keep in mind that you want at least a 2/12 pitch to your roof.

Tiny House Rooftop Deck With Fold Down Railings

Building codes have a lot of very specific rules around decks and railings if the deck is over 30 inches above grade. This varies from municipality to municipality, but there are specific rules everywhere. Having a folding deck railing is really helpful to keep your house shorter while driving down the road.

Tiny House Roof Deck With Stairs

Outside stairs make for easy access to your deck way up on your tiny house roof. Keep in mind that stairs like this can take up a lot of space that might be otherwise used for more living space or storage. In a tiny house, you don’t have a lot of space, so while a staircase might be convenient, having an extra 35 square feet of living space might be even better.

Tiny House With Ladder Access To Roof

One of my preferred ways to access the roof is by having an external ladder that you can climb to access your tiny house roof. This uses the least amount of space and is the least complicated to build. It also avoids issues where water might find its way in when compared to other more complex access approaches.

Tiny Home Cargo Trailer With Deck On It’s Roof

Tiny House meets RV Travel Trailer Hybrid

Modern Tiny House With Rooftop Deck

Even the railing looks contemporary on this modern tiny house rooftop deck.

Tiny House With Two lofts And A Rooftop Deck

Other Tiny Homes With Rooftop Patios

Roof Deck On Tiny Home

Your Turn!

• What rooftop deck design are you thinking about for your tiny house?

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By Ryan Mitchell on March 4, 2021   /   Tiny House   /   4 Comments

Tags: Construction, Design, Tiny Home