Pre-Fab Homes?

itwerx asks: "I am considering purchasing a pre-fabricated home to put on an empty lot in an urban area. I have researched hither and yon and Googled to my heart's content and found great gobs of information online. The question here is what the SlashDot community's own experience has been with this type of technology? Anybody purchase a pre-fab home recently? What was your experience like?"

Comments

My parents just put one up

[duffbeer703]

It's big colonial that came in 5 pieces... and it is absolutely magnificent.

If you go with a good builder, you're gonna get a house as good or better than a conventional home for less money.

It tends to be easier to find a good prefab builder than a reliable contractor, depending on where you live.

Just one tip: If you are building a house in the country or suburbs where there is no city sewer, MAKE SURE that you perform a perk test BEFORE purchasing the land. If the soil is clay or too rocky, you could spend as much as 50-75k putting in a septic system!

Do your research

[dlockamy]

I work in construction, we've worked on a few modular homes and from what i've seen you can find some well build ones.

We did some repair work on one last winter, a tree had fell on the house and it was barely damaged.

This particular house was build WAY above code, it was very empressive. I wish i knew who manufactured it, i would have recommended them highly.

prefabs are great

[Bishop]

From a process engineering (geek) point of view you can't beat a prefab house built in a factory. There is much better control of the process and allocation of workers. For example if the frameing is finished early the electricians can start early. It is also easier to train a framer/drywaller/painter (which the trade unions hate) who can be quickly moved around as needed. If a house is running late it is possible to work 24hrs instead of only durring dayling. The quality control is also going to be better as a knowledgeble foreman can supervise many homes at once. Also the house designer or someone with similar training is probably onsite and can be called upon to decipher the drawings.

Anecdotal evidence shows that locally prefab houses are of much better quality then regular built homes. The better process builds a better home. By "anectdotal evidence" I mean the 2 prefab houses I know of had no serious problems. Whereas 7 other new home owners have had significant issues from cracks in the wall, to no insulation in the atic/roof, to improperly installed hardwood floors. It is possible that the local home builders are simply incompetent.

Re:prefabs are great

[Zeinfeld]

From a process engineering (geek) point of view you can't beat a prefab house built in a factory.

The first ever pre-fab homes were built by Thomas Edison for his own use. He had two built next door to each other on his place in Florida. There was no way he could have got the quality of contractors localy in what was then a swamp mostly.

If you are going to build a wooden house you are almost certainly going to build it in panels and then fit the panels together. Bob Villa builds all his houses that way at any rate. So there is not much difference between building a partly finished panel onsite and a fully finished panel back at a factory. Certainly no intrinsic reason pre-fab should be worse.

I have a Victorian arts and crafts house, some parts are completely hand crafted, others are machine made. The real difference is not the type of manufacture, its the quality of the materials.

Consider how they're built

[Hanzie]

I've had exactly these questions. Fortunately my wife's father spent 20+ years building houses, and firmly believed that building a house to last a century saves money in the long run. Since he's gotten older, he's worked as a building inspector for the local city, and a couple of others.

When we get together, he tells me stories of stupid dishonest contractors. (I ask for them so I know what to look out for). Apparently, it's pretty common for the cities not to have enough inspectors, especially in fast growing areas. It's also common for inspectors to let the contractors know in advance what will be looked at closely and what wont. Large tracts of homes are especially vulnerable to inspection oversight. For dishonest contractors, it's cheaper to fix what an overworked inspector catches than to build the entire thing to code. Especially if you know the inspector, and know what he looks for and what he ignores.

He very much likes pre-fab houses for quite a few reasons (detailed below). He's also a big fan of steel framed houses, since they're strong and easy to put up. And don't burn. Wires are also very easy to fish through them. They also have extremely strong points under the supporting I beams, good for hanging unlikely things like water beds.

Pre fab vs onsite:

Pre Fabricated houses are built in a heated factory by workers with all tools and materials close at hand. Building supplies are instantly available, and are replaced as needed.

On-site building requires timing of delivery of supplies. Lumber brought in advance is subject to waiting in the rain, theft, vandalism, and bugs in the dirt. Tools are brought to the site, and if one breaks, gets lost, borrowed or needed elsewhere, an inferior tool will probably get drafted for the job. Supplies are bought in quantities just enough for the job, and if an accident or shortage happens, they're will probably be a "stretching" of supplies to make it through the job. Or it's running over budget and cheap stuff is substituted.

Pre-Fab: The compressed air is high pressure and lots of volume, meaning that the tools all work properly. The factory is well lit and problems, if arising, can be corrected immediately.

On Site: The compressors are small enough to carry around. They don't have the same power (they work, but can't handle the same duty cycle)

Pre Fab: completely engineered, and any problems have been long since solved, and properly corrected. It's on an assembly line.

On Site: often designed one at a time, for each plot of land, so each one is different. Sometimes boneheaded mistakes are made in the design, but not caught till later. The fixes are ugly, but hidden (suprises later!). Once the house is built the contractor is gone, and he didn't do the work anyway, he subcontracted it to guys who are operating on a shoestring,cutting corners everywhere possible.

Contractor: Get the job done for the least amount of cash acceptable. Do a good job where the building inspector is looking, unless it's a subdivision. Then there's no time for inspections and horrible things happen, like stealing the rebar out of the cement forms before the pouring. Unbelivably stupid, but it happened.

The mentality of the factory owners is like Avis rent-a-car "We're #2 so we try harder". Everybody equates them mentally with ramshackle mobile homes, so they have to be nearly perfect to even try to compete. Oh, and since the "mobile home" rep is still dogging them, they have to compete on price, and the house is a continuing "model home" because all the owners friends are going to ask about it.

Any materials for building on upper floors have to be lugged up stairs^h^h^h^h^h^h ladders (ever try to climb a ladder with both hands full?). Every extra bit of adhesive/lumber/brick/drywall mud/nail used is one more that has to be lugged up. Was it even delivered in the first place? If they run out of something, they'll substitute with something else to get the job done.

Re:Consider how they're built

[Hanzie]

Forgot 2 things:

#1: Apparently the expensive homes are generally very well built, since the owners are, or can afford, lawyers. The opposite is also generally accepted.

#2: Pa-in-law was the building inspector who caught the rebar theft out of foundations. He inspected multiple concrete buildings a contractor was putting up. The inspections were spaced far enough apart that they could pull the rebar out of building #1 and get it to #3 while #2 was inspected. Then #2's rebar went to #4.

Apparently they figured that once the cement was poured, there wouldn't be any way to tell the rebar was gone. They probably also figured that it would be such a boneheadedly stupid thing to do that nobody would think to look out for it.

Anyway, something triggered suspicions, and he went back and checked #1 as it was being poured. No rebar. Stop the pouring and drive straight to #2. Same story, but no cement yet.

The end of the story involved jackhammers and large fines. Building inspectors herabouts get badges and citation authority.

It was a huge risk for such a tiny gain, since rebar is so cheap. On the other hand, as my father in law says: If nobody ever tried it, there wouldn't be inspection requirements.

You're a geek right?

[squiggleslash]

Surely the geeky thing to do is casemod an existing home. What you could do is add a window, and put some lights on the inside, so making the internals visi... I'll get my coat.

Don't forget!

[gmhowell]

Don't forget to take the wheels off. Trust me, you do NOT want your house being repossessed.

Seriously, I know a few people with prefabs (off site construction, or some other PC phrase exists) and they seem okay. Watching the home shows, it seems they can do amazing things these days. While you can't get a true 'custom' home (also unlikely as most contractors only want to build from one set of cookie cutter prints) there is enough variability in modules that if you find a large manufacturer, you're unlikely not to be satisfied.

There, think that second paragraph might be serious enough to avoid a downmod as a 'troll' for what is really a 'funny', 'insightful', and 'intelligent' joke in the first.

I actually sell them.

[mike_lynn]

Check with the manufacturer, ask for details on how it's constructed. They've been required since the mid-80s to build them to at least HUD code and since they're generally shipped down the road in pieces, each piece is usually sturdier than many "stick-built" homes (in order to survive the trip).

Even with these requirements, there's still a _very_ wide range of construction quality, both exterior and interior. Shop around, walk through a few lots physically. Beware, we work on commission. Don't seem too interested or you may find yourself sitting at a table with a pen :D Also, prices vary from dealer to dealer (even with the same manufacturer), so you may be able to drive an extra hour or two and save yourself a few thousand bucks.

As for the houses themselves, there are several different types (manufactured, modular, etc.) each with their own features and price ranges. I sell manufactured homes. They have their own shipping frame built into the bottom of the house. The structural benefits make construction less expensive for the manufacturer, but as a result they're built less like a stick-built home than a modular is (where rooms are preconstructed, minus foundation, and shipped to the site). Also, much of the construction contains OSB (oriented strand board) which can cause problems for severe asthmatics due to possible low-level formaldehyde release from the bonding adhesives. Most modern homes actually use this material in one place or another, it's just more prevalent in a manufactured home. If you're worried, look for adequate ventilation in the construction. As a side note, I've worked 8 hours a day (sometimes more), 5 days a week in one (for an office) for a few years and feel fine.

I actually got into the business when my wife and I moved and were looking for a new home. We considered a manufactured home, but eventually settled for stick-built. Here's why: the house was already built, all we had to do was pay a price. With paperwork, site-work and build-time, a manufactured home can go up in as short as 2 months. This is _extremely_ fast in comparison to constructing a stick-built home, plus you have a considerable amount of 'customization' available (at roughly half the cost per square foot). However, it _is_ a construction site and will probably end up being a construction loan. Be prepared for it to take time and you'll need to be in constant contact with your salesman and bank.

As for the prior poster who wrote: "If the soil is clay or too rocky, you could spend as much as 50-75k putting in a septic system!", I can honestly say I've _never_ seen a system cost that much. Maybe it's just where we live, but high end systems here run just under $20k, while the average is $12k. You will need to be sure of: Electrical access, septic rated for the house you order, site-work for the foundation, garage (?), access for getting the pieces of house on-site, etc. There are a lot of costs that aren't included in the house, _make sure you get it all up front before you sign_.

All said and done, manufactured homes are a great way to go for a semi-customizable home at about half the cost of building your own. You'll probably be limited to a single floor (2 story homes are still a rarity, but they exist), but we've got some that are in excess of 2700 sqft. I really like the product and may end up living in one at some point in the future. Good luck in your research.

but maybe you don't like colonial ?

[HughsOnFirst]

If you don't want a colonial, or other "traditional" home you should check out
FabPrefab, a web resource dedicated to tracking developments in the realm of 'modernist prefab dwellings'.

Also check out Dwell Magazine and the Dwell Home which is a showcase project for the magazine and is prefab.
The Loftcube is a cool Prefab Penthouse ( delivered by helicopter ! ), but whether you could get one shipped from Germany is something else.

Hither and yon

[breon.halling]

"...researched hither and yon and..."

Damned kids these days! Doesn't any one say "thither" anymore? ;)

I recommend Real Estate School

[Hanzie]

Suggestion: go to real estate school and get your real estate license.

It's kind of like a law degree. You don't have to be a practicing lawyer for it to help.

A real estate license will teach you the great unknowns about the laws and pitfalls of the business.

Unlike law, the real estate license takes about a month (around here, at least) and is subsidized by the real estate brokerage firms. They don't care to make money by tuition, they just charge enough to make sure that the prospective students are serious, not timewasters.

Around here it's $500 dollars, and that more than covers the savings you'll make on every house you buy or sell. It's a month, but the hours are extremely flexible at most of the schools, and your real savings will probably be closer to $3-5000 on each house you buy. More than enough to pay back your time invested.

Earning a real estate license will also let you forgo the need to hire your own agent. You'll be able to split the fee with the selling agent, and pocket about 3%. Yes, it's legal in most, if not all places, to act as your own agent when purchasing on your own, but there are some thing you really need to know. Accordingly, this paragraph starts with the word "Earning" rather than "Having"

Also, there are a great many people who don't like realators for various reasons, and prefer to keep the comissions for themselves. Hence "For Sale by Owner". It is very helpful to know what you're doing in this circumstance because both of you might very well be clueless to the laws and ordinances and local "gotcha's".

Another worry is that "For Sale by Owner" might be because the current owner is attempting something that no realator would risk their license by being a party to.

Caveat emptor. Knowlege can keep you from getting burned.

Good luck.