Piotr Goławski
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Jan 15,
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Houses don&#;t have to be built on the construction site. Modular houses are factory built and finished, and construction site is a place for assembly.
Advantages of modular homes:
Strong structure.
Modules that make up a building are more durable than those built traditionally. Prefabricated houses not only have to meet design requirements, but also withstand transport loads.
Shorter construction time.
A small modular house can be build in less than two months at the factory. The reason is automation, greater repeatability, greater teamwork. Assembly on the construction site is usually a few days.
Higher quality of the building.
The reason is much more detailed shop drawings of modular homes than in the case of traditional houses. Modular houses usually have every detail elaborated. Also a definitely higher health and safety level in the factory will increase quality of work.
The speed of implementation.
Shorter investment time means lower costs for any investor. There is no need to rent social rooms for employees at your site. If you you are renting a flat now, you will pay less for rent by moving into our home earlier.
Acoustics.
Acoustics of modular homes is much better than houses traditionally built. In traditional homes, sound propagates through the construction of walls and ceiling. That is why floating floors are often used to suppress noise. In prefabricated houses, each module is a separate construction. The modules connected together in the house are protected from transfering noise from one to the other.
Lower risk of damage.
Significantly lower risk of theft and damage caused by third parties. The theft most often occurs when the house is not yet adequately secured. Theft of building materials and equipment can be made by labourers working on your construction site. If you are building a house traditionally and wondering why you ran out of tiles, theft may be the cause.
Contractor&#;s benefits.
Modular homes also benefit your contractor and his employees. Employees who build a house in a factory do not have to waste time on long travels to construction area. They do not have to work in cold or in rain conditions. They have more comfortable working conditions in factory. They can also spend more time with family and friends. A satisfied employee is a good employee. If you want your home to be made by good professionals, the biggest chance for it is to choose modular technology.
Price.
Price is probably the most important advantage. Modular homes are not at all more expensive than traditional ones. I can not guarantee 100% that modular homes are always cheaper. It all depends on your design, material requirements, location, etc.
Disadvantages of prefabricated houses:
Lifespan.
The most common modular homes are timber frame constructed. It is a popular technology in Scandinavia and North America, but it is not widely used in central Europe. In Poland many people think, that brick houses are long-lasting and timber made houses not. Everything depends on the performance and manner of maintaining home, but the feelings are right.
Read my post about the lifespan of building materials. I did an analysis base om manufacturers&#; recomendations. Most brick manufacturers declare durability of their products for over 100 years. Manufacturers of wooden frame walls declare 50&#;100 years. Of course, there are wooden buildings that are hundreds years old, but they are properly maintained and protected from fire.
Compare two abandoned houses &#; one wooden, the other brick. Which one will deteriorate quicker? The external walls of both houses could be protected by plaster and paints, and could be resistant to weather conditions. After a few years the windows in both houses were destroyed, and the roof would began to leak. After the next few years, in a brick house, water would destroy plaster. In a wooden house, water would not only destroy plaster, but also timber slab and walls would began to rot.
Shorten lifespan does not apply to concrete modular homes. In this case we can talk about identical lifespan as in brick houses.
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Heat accumulation.
Timber houses are much lighter than masonry houses, so they do not keep warm and cool down quickly. This is a big drawback. Most central heating installations operate during the day and are switched off at night. In a modular timber house, we can&#;t afford it. In the event of any interruption in the heating operation, the house will get really cold.
Prefabricated houses with timber frame technology will not accumulate heat gains from the day.
If you plan to build a passive house, forget about building it in timber frame technology. Passive houses require high heat accumulation.
From the other hand concrete modular homes have high accumulation value, but concrete itself has very high conductivity. This means requires very thick insulation to avoid high heat losses.
Fire resistance.
The walls and ceilings of timber made modular houses have only 1 hour fire resistance. In brick houses, usually two hours. In addition, wood is a combustible material. Concrete and brick are non-flammable. The more we use non-flammable materials in the construction of our house, the lower the losses in the event of a fire.
Construction limitations of prefabricated houses.
This is not a big drawback, because you can, for example, combine several modules together to form one large room. Sometimes when you plan to have bigger / higher rooms, it may be more cost-effective to make prefabricated walls only.
How is living in modular homes?
Prefabricated modular houses have a lot in common with timber frame houses. Most reviews of prefabricated frame houses that I found on the internet are positive.
People exchange such advantages as delivery time, quality, reasonable price, less risk of theft.
I found a negative opinion of a person who thinks that modular homes lose value faster than brick houses &#; Considering lifespan of wooden houses compared to masonry, this is a good point.
In my opinion modular houses soon can become very popular, but first manufacturers should deal with all the shortcomings that these houses have.
The solution may be modular houses made of light weight concrete with very low thermal conductivity. This way modular house would have all positive parameters of house of brick, what is people really want.
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There are several advantages to buying a "mobile home" instead of buying a traditional, "stick-built" house, but there are also disadvantages. Before you decide to buy a mobile home, let's weigh the pros and cons to make certain your decision is consistent with both your financial and housing goals.
Mobile homes, also known as "manufactured homes," are built in a factory and placed on a trailer chassis to allow them to be moved. Mobile homes are sometimes placed in a mobile home park or on leased land. In these cases, the owner rents a space or leases land, but owns the mobile home itself.
Alternatively, mobile home owners can place mobile homes on land they own or are buying under contract.
One advantage that mobile homes offer is that they're often a lower-cost option to having a stick-built home custom built for you. In this regard, mobile homes can make homeownership easier to achieve. And since mobile homes usually cost less per square foot than stick-built homes, you can get more space for your money.
There are some stick-built home builders that have standard floor plans and options that allows them to build homes for prices similar to mobile homes. If you prefer a stick-built home, you might look into whether such a builder is in your area, and compare the quality of construction with a newer mobile home.
Another advantage you might find with mobile homes is flexibility. Since mobile homes are usually more affordable than stick-built homes and only semi-permanent, if you own land, you can place a mobile home on it now and remove it in the future (though removal isn't as easy as it sounds, given the plumbing and other attachments). This might be an option if you are uncertain of whether you want to own the land long term, do not want to commit to a stick-built home now, or cannot afford a stick-built home right now.
Although mobile homes are not easily moved once set up, they are easier to move than a stick-built home. Once a stick-built home is built, it is more or less there permanently (or at least until a natural disaster occurs or someone undertakes a demolition project).
An additional advantage mobile homes offer is that they are usually built in controlled environments. This means they can be consistently built to a high standard. And because they are manufactured in such conditions, construction delays due to weather or difficulty scheduling subcontractors are less likely.
A disadvantage of buying a mobile home is that its value will depreciate quickly. Like a new car, once a mobile home leaves the factory, it quickly drops in value. Stick-built homes, on the other hand, normally appreciate in value over time because the stick-built home owner almost always owns the underlying land.
A person who owns both the land and the mobile home might see the value of the combined property increase over time, but that is likely the result of the underlying land increasing in value, not the mobile home.
One reason mobile homes depreciate in value is because they are considered personal property, not real property. "Real property" is defined as land and anything attached to it permanently. Anything that can be removed without "injury" to the land is not real property. Personal property, on the other hand, is anything that is movable and not classified as real property. Even though mobile homes are not easily removed from land once placed, they are still considered personal property (although in many locations a person who owns both the mobile home and underlying land can convert the mobile home to real property by taking some affirmative steps). On the other hand, stick-built homes are considered part of the real property.
A related disadvantage is that mobile homes, because they are personal property, are usually more expensive to finance. Personal property loans, sometimes called "chattel loans," usually come with higher interest rates and shorter terms than mortgage loans.
Additional disadvantages to mobile homes have to do with them typically being located in a mobile home park. Despite "owning" your actual home, you will still have a landlord, to whom you will have to pay rent and answer to for your compliance with park rules. The landlord might at some point decide to evict you, in which case you'll be faced with either moving or selling your mobile home.
Mobile homes are not easy to resell, especially when located in a mobile home park. Because they are relatively immobile after being set up, unless the buyer wants to keep the mobile home where it is, finding a buyer can be a challenge. It can cost several thousand dollars to move a mobile home.
This might not be a disadvantage, though, if the mobile home and land are sold together, just like a stick-built house. However, despite significant advances in the quality of mobile home construction, there is still a stigma attached to mobile home ownership that could turn some buyers off.
A final disadvantage is that, unlike stick-built homes, which are built on permanent foundations, mobile homes are usually placed on temporary foundations. During a natural disaster, like an earthquake or severe storm, mobile homes can be more prone to damage.
To sum up, modern mobile homes can provide a quality, cost-effective alternative to a stick-built home. However, they have some disadvantages to stick built homes that you need to consider. Factors to consider, such as costs, laws that impact mobile home value, and low cost stick-built alternatives vary from region to region, so be sure to do your research.
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