Prefabricated housing, any experiences?

Hi all-

I was wondering if anyone here has lived, or does live, in a prefabricated home. I'm not talking a trailer or mobile home, but something a step above that.

I guess they're kind of catching on now given the huge cost of traditional homes (especially in my home state of California), and I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with them, or knows anyone that does.

You see, I have a good job, but it is not exactly a well-paying job. It pays me enough to live and save a little bit, and it has good benefits, but this is 21st Century America and gone are the days of being able to work an average job and afford a house, or rather a "normal" house.

I'm looking at options such as:

Ideabox Confluence

Livinghome C6.1

I think the hardest part would be find a good plot of land, probably not cheap, either. You might also have to get utilities built in depending how far out you are living, too.

I like the second one. It does have a nice layout and if you have kids, that would put them on the opposite side of you and the wife/GF. They are becoming a big thing though some neighbors in the metro area have had issues due to them going up so fast that they didn't know a house was being built on a piece of land. As long as wherever you move to is OK with it, a crane will come in and set it up and it will be ready for you in a couple of days. They are pre-wired and pre-plumbed. Site work needs to be done to bring power, water and sewer as well as connecting to local sewer, but should not take long.

@WhiteKnight77: yeah, with planning I've read some of these things can be built in less than a day. Or installed, I suppose is a more correct term. They arrive built.

I can see neighbors maybe getting upset, going away for a few days and you come back and sitting next to you is this new home and some family you were not expecting. But whatever, they don't really have a choice either way, it just happens fast or slow :P

*I just looked up some plots of land, they're ridiculously priced. Residentially zoned lots are like 500K for, like, an acre or two. I'm never going to have my own home....

I don't even want a big home, I just want a bedroom and a nice kitchen, **** is that too much to ask for? Shit maybe I will move to detroit, get one for 20k...

Move east. Cali is too damned expensive. I know, I have been. Not far from where I live, you can probably get it cheaper. LandWatch has the details.

@topgunmv:*in a very ignorant tone* Is that down there by that 8 Mile Road?

@WhiteKnight77: hey thanks, that site will come in handy!

No sweat.

I'm glad you bought this because someone was talking to me about it the other day. I plan on selling my home because I've heard that Ideabox and Livinghome are great alternatives to traditional houses. I would love to stay in the state where I live, but I think it would be more cost effective for me to move down south because the land is cheap and my family has a decent amount of it.

@MarcRecon: see that would be amazing! If you just happened to have a plot of land, and many people do, it'd be so awesome to do this. And super affordable.

I'm not sure how much it cost to bring sewage and electrical out, or to dig a well or bring water out as well, but relative to buying a home I am sure it's not so bad. A lot of these homes have the added benefit of being super green and efficient as well, with low-flow fixtures, efficient lighting systems, and insulated walls and windows.

It's a pipe dream of mine, but a dream none the less, to live off the grid or almost completely off the grid some day. I'd still need internet, obviously, but it'd be great to have my own solar, water source, small farm, and so forth before I am too old to actually take care of it all. With the way grey water, solar tech, and all that stuff is going it's definitely becoming more and more realistic.

Aren't most cookie-cutter homes in modern subdivisions prefab homes? That's what we live in right now and the wife's happy with it. Not too big and not too small. Just right for a family of 4.

i lived in one it's more like a trailer than anything else. You can tell the quality is less than a normal home and sh*t will end up falling apart ALL the time.

Maybe? I'm not too sure. I think most are built the traditional way these days, if you are referring to track/subdivision housing. Truck in wood, truck in dry wall, measure cut and build, etc

Prefab housing refers to housing "modules" that are built on a factory floor to limit waste and save cost and are then shipped, more or less as finished product, to be installed on site. They are not so much built on site as they are simply placed there. Not sure if that applies to subdivions.

This is my one concern, but apparently build quality is increasing. I first became aware of prefab housing as repurposed shipping containers, then basically fancy mobile homes...but now, they seem much more serious.

Still, a lot of the materials do seem pretty flimsy at times. They use a lot of recycled and/or light weight material to be green, save money, and/or reduce weight and my fear is that I might slip and either fall through the floor or the wall.

Here is kind of a really in-depth, educational video. It's actually the first home they built and the founder lives there.

Most homes are still built one stick at a time. They use 2x4, 2x6 and 2x10 or 2x12 (over windows and doors). Even mobile homes are built one stick at a time, they just use 2x2, at least for inner walls, and 2x4s for the outer walls. The difference between modular, prefab and mobile homes is that mobile homes stay on the steel transport frame and that they use thinner construction.

These videos can help understand prefab or modular and remember, they can reach several stories tall, something that a mobile home cannot do.

Make sure you have water and electricity.

From what I've heard, they are super-convenient for the builder (build on site owned by them, where they can have all components delivered) which in turn can drastically decrease the cost to the buyer. That said, delivering the home comes with risks (trucks aren't perfect) and sometimes some huge costs (which is why they are almost always bungalows, so they don't have to cut power lines).

Personally, my wife and I want to buy a used home (that's been renovated) rather than build new. Building new is always going to cost more than used, and this includes pre-fab. But pre-fab is drastically cheaper than any other type of new build out there.

I'd recommend it if you have a good deal on land.

Do they come fully furnished? They seem awfully pricey for only 1,300 square feet. My 1,300 sq/ft 3 bedroom 2 bath home cost me $89,500. But I guess it would all depend where you are putting your home, plus I bought used rather then building new.

Prefab? Probably not. Mobile homes? Sure. I once thought about buying some property (back in Nevada) and putting in a doublewide or triplewide mobile home. Those I looked at were furnished.

I could be wrong though.

In Australia, these homes are called Granny Flats. I mean, most granny flats are prefabricated as it costs much less. But it's not a very good option if you're looking to it as a permanent living arrangement.

The biggest problem with modular homes is that they are harder to sell. If you plan on living at your location for a long time, that might not be a big issue, but if you plan on selling in just a few years, it might not be worth the headache. Living in California, one concern I would have is if the way they are pieced together might make them more vulnerable to earthquake damage. I'm not saying it does, but I think I would call a structural engineering firm and get their opinion (there are tons of them, call around until you can get free advice) before buying.

Remember that they still have to meet or exceed the local building codes, including any seismic codes.

I used to sell manufactured homes. It was always a lot for people, getting a new one, to find a place to put it and all the work for delivery, setup, etc. We used to have a 4k ft modular setup...it was actually pretty slick, for some 80k or so (for the home itself...no land or anything).

It's an ok way to "live" but you won't get as much appreciation as a proper stick built home.

I have lived in an RV trailer now for 3 years as part of my pre-retirement (I am 50)

and for the most part its just like living in a home, a few minor differences that are realted to RV life but I dont think would apply to non-rv prefab homes.

I likely will end up buying land and living the rest of my life out of the RV on that land, but for now I want to travel a bit more first.

Personally, I love it

people overthink what they think they need to be happy, homes are a perfect example of this, most people have no idea how dependent they have become on thing that actually are not real concerns

I sincerely do hate to burst your bubble on this one, but you really can't live off the grid like you're talking. Solar and wind need to be constantly collecting power to be able to run a home, meaning you need to be using the power when it's being collected. Bad news, you probably use most of your power at night, so solar is almost useless as far as power generation goes (though it is useful for heating water). That means you probably need to live in a place with a lot of wind and a lot of sun, i.e. the desert. Oh, but now you want sewage and running water? Well, good luck finding a plot of land with a decent well that isn't part of an agricultural aquifer that's being rapidly depleted for a reasonable price. You not only have to compete with them for the land rights, but now you've got a lot of oil and gas speculation driving up land prices too. If you want water you're probably going to need a hookup to a water system, which means roads, which means ecosystem degradation. If you want sewage your best bet is a septic tank, but then again you need trucks to drive out to you occasionally and you'll get some level of seepage into the surrounding environment. You want groceries? You need roads. You want internet? You need a line running to your house, you need cars and trucks driving into the habitat in order to install it, you get ecosystem destruction, etc. It takes a tremendous amount of money to live off the grid with all the modern comforts and without disrupting the ecosystem, and even with a lot of money and careful planning they usually fail on the last point. This is one thing I really dislike about environmentalism, despite less wealthy people being more enthusiastic about helping the environment, they're just in no position to do as much as the more wealthy. It's why wealthy people doing nothing about the issue pisses me off to no end, they have all the resources they need to make a difference, but at best they just can't be bothered to do anything about it.

The good news is that there are some things you can do to help the environment. It's actually pretty environmentally friendly to live in a city, so if you don't mind it too much consider that. Live in a dense area, vacation in nature is much more environmentally friendly than living in nature. If you want more space then already developed suburbs and developments are a good option. If you really want to live off the grid that's fine, but the really responsible way to do it is to give up a lot of the comforts you're used to. You'd have to grow your own food, which is hard. You'd have to carefully ration power and probably give up refrigeration, definitely give up TV and internet. You'd have to purify and ration your own water, handwash your clothes, and probably bathe in a river, lake, or pond. The big problem even with that is sewage. Septic tanks need trucks, sewers interrupt the environment, and all the other solutions are imperfect to say the least. And really, doing this isn't going to be all that different from living responsibly in a city in terms of your impact on the environment. That's kind of good news in a way, you don't have to radically alter your life to have a positive effect on your environment. Oh, and just because environmentally-friendly houses won't let you live off the grid doesn't mean they won't reduce your footprint.

a lot of people who have not done research nor know much about this subject sure do seem to speak with a lot of authority.

it can be done, its not that hard, I know people who have

i am likely going to do as well.

RV community (which I am in now for 3 years) know a lot of things that we laugh about because other people think its not possible.

simple as that.

now...would you like to know how? its not nearly as hard as people think

if you like I can explain everything in detail, from power, water and waste. its not a zero footprint nor meant to be but you dont need power, water, garbage or anything on your land to make it work and most people who do it that I know are not doing it to save the world, they are doing it because they have land far enough way from other morons but said land doesnt have services.

If you have power, water, and/or waste you're probably not off the grid.

you are getting lost in the semantics and not even reading what I wrote.

The question is NOT 'can I save the planet or 'be off the grid' the quesiton is

if I have land with no services on it can i get water, sewer, power and internet without the services being there.

answer: YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

now please..educate me what I am wrong about on what I know for a FACT and technically HOW and literally know people who are doing it right now.
educate me on the RV lifestyle given I clearly dont know anything about it having lived it for 3 years.