What are prefab homes?
A prefab home is shortened name for a prefabricated home, which is a home that has components manufactured in an off-site industrial facility. They are sometimes referred to as factory-made or modular homes, although there are some differences. In a prefab home, the walls and wall units are made in a factory, whereas modular homes have entire sections of the house build off site. By manufacturing the parts of a prefab house off site, waste is reduced and less time and energy are expended during construction. In addition, the slab put in for a prefab house is much easier to arrange than the foundation of a traditional home.
The benefits of buying a prefab house include ease of mobility, speedy construction, and fewer expenses. These homes are usually less expensive to build and can be put up in only a few days, complete with wiring, heating, and plumbing. The only thing buyers must provide for their prefab house is a plot of land on which to put it.
The history of the prefab house goes back to the birth of America. Many of those escaping religious persecution in England took apart their homes before they left and brought them over on the boat to be reassembled in the new land. During the gold rush of the 1840s and 1850s, house kits were shipped to prospectors in California. In the early 20th century, mail-order prefab homes were shipped to people all over the country in thousands of pieces. Owners could put the houses together themselves, like a giant puzzle, with each piece numbered.
Prefab housing has advanced considerably since then, but the basic idea remains the same. Prefab home manufacturers usually offer a variety of different floor plans, but many will work with buyers to create unique designs. Walls and wall sections are built off site, which allows them to be made under controlled conditions. The pieces are then shipped to the building site, where the home is assembled. It still takes time and effort to assemble a prefab house, but usually considerably less than a comparable stick-built home.
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The modern prefab house is often crafted to appeal to futuristic aesthetics. The newer, upper-tier prefab houses look just as well-constructed as a traditional home built with studs. Now, more than half of all the homes built in the United States use at least partial prefab materials.
Many modern prefab houses are designed to be very energy efficient, and often appeal to people who are looking for a small home that uses fewer resources. Others are designed specifically for vacation properties, and can even look like log cabins. There are prefab house styles today to please any architectural taste, from Colonial to Southwestern to ultra-modern.
If you are interested in the convenience and price benefits of manufactured homes, you might first want to learn more about what types of manufactured homes are available. Your best bet is to visit a local manufactured home dealer for more information, but before you do that, you will want to learn a bit more. For starters, you might be confused about terminology, so let's clear some things up. Here is information on some basic terms:
Types of prefab homes
- Manufactured home. A manufactured home is one built in a protected environment, such as a factory, following federal standards, and then taken to its site. Laws governing the building of manufactured homes were put into effect by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1976, in order to ensure higher grade housing.
- Mobile home. This is the term now given to all manufactured homes made before the federal rules were enacted in 1976. Because there were no regulations, often these homes were constructed with shoddy materials and techniques.
- Modular home. This is a type of manufactured home in which the individual modules are constructed at the factory and then trucked to the home site to be assembled. These homes are regulated by state law, and because of this cannot be moved from state to state.
- Panelized home. A home built in panels, such as a wall with windows and doors already inserted, and then assembled on site. Panelized homes are also regulated by the state.
- Pre-cut homes. Similar to panelized homes, pre-cut homes are also assembled on site. These types of manufactured homes include specialty homes such as domes, log homes and kits.
Manufactured home prices vary with the size of the home you have chosen. However, because they are built in a controlled environment using assembly line techniques a manufactured home price is often considerably less than a traditional home. Many home buyers are initially lured by this factor. Once they see the many manufactured home floor plans that are available, they are easily convinced of the other benefits of owning a manufactured home.
There are two common types of manufactured home plans. These are single section and multi-section. The single section home is very popular, because it is economical. These homes can contain up to 1,300 square feet of area to live in. One thing to be aware of with this type of manufactured home is that because of its construction, it can bend in transport and may have to be shored up upon arrival at the site.
A multi-section home is a bit different in that the various sections are constructed separately at the factory, and assembled on site. These homes can range up to 1,500 square feet of space.
You might be surprised at the variety of manufactured home floor plans that are available, whether you choose a single section or a multi-section home. It is a great benefit to the consumer that manufactured homes are now so tightly regulated, because this results in higher quality and safer homes. But because of this, it is vital to work with a manufactured home dealer who can help you to understand the various laws and choose a home that you will love.
Prefab homes built with SIPs
Many of the prefab models coming onto the market are built with a technology called SIPs. The acronym SIP stands for Structural Insulated Panel; the lowercase "s" is usually added to pluralize.
A SIP contains a 4" - 6" foam layer sandwiched between two layers of rigid material, usually oriented strand board (like plywood, but each layer is made of many small wood chips), plywood, or fiber cement board. This sandwich is the total thickness of your wall, roof or floor, minus the finishes.
The benefits of SIP include the ability to ship a wall panel to your house site that is cut to size and ready to install. Insulation and framing are handled in one step. Compared to standard stud-framing, the SIP is more likely to be the right dimensions, be flatter (compared to the waviness of the studs) and to have a built-in insulation system. The crew on site just fits the panels together.
The general critique of SIP construction in the home-building world is the initial cost, due to most of the labor being offsite in the factory. Considering we are discussing prefab, however, most of the labor for any product will be in the factory. Environmentally conscious folks might take issue with the use of such large quantities of foam in the panels. However, SIPs save construction waste on site, and ensure that your home will have one of the best energy efficiencies possible for the given wall thickness.
If you decide to build a home with SIPs, prefab or not, you need to make sure your contractor has prior experience with this method, as SIP construction is different from traditional construction. And, if the designer doesn't provide oversight, the contractor must make sure that drawings are accurate prior to approving for manufacture. Additionally, installation of electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems will require special techniques.
Quality of prefab homes
The first sentence of a letter to the editor published March 26 states, "trailers, mobile homes, mobile homes -- whatever you call them -- should be outlawed, at least in states that are prone to these horrible tornadoes."
Considering the letter writer's lack of understanding that seems so obvious in that sentence, perhaps it isn't surprising that she reached such an unfair conclusion.
In making her case, the writer described how she and her husband rode out high winds in an RV some time go. The storm left "trailers and smaller motor homes" damaged, she reported.
The problem with her logic is that she is talking about different types of dwellings and is condemning mobile homes. Trailers -- I assume she means recreational vehicles or motor homes -- mobile homes and mobile homes are all very different.
Unlike motor homes, which are not designed to be permanent, and mobile homes, which are factory built homes constructed before 1974, modern mobile homes are built to be just as sturdy and safe as site-built homes.
The factory-built homes destroyed in the Feb. 2 tornadoes in Central Florida were older structures.
In fact, many of them were built before 1974, during an era when there was no federal building code for mobile homes.
In 1974, the federal government enacted the first regulations for construction and officially changed the name of the product from "mobile homes" to "mobile homes."
Then, in 1994, the federal government strengthened those construction standards, and in 1999, the state of Florida enacted new installation requirements that made this state's installation process the safest in the nation.
The end result is that today's factory-built homes are safe, sturdy structures that match site-built homes for quality, and they are more affordable because of the cost savings associated with the factory-building process.
I invite the letter writer and anyone else to take an open-minded look at modern manufactured housing before expressing an opinion.
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