Pre-Fab Homes

There are a lot of great pre-fab houses out there these days, and many of them are both well designed and eco-friendly. The catch is finding one that you like and can afford, and which is actually being produced. (Many of the best ideas are just that: ideas.)

To be clear, the term pre-fab refers to houses that are manufactured off-site (complete with walls, flooring, cabinets and even lighting) and assembled on-site in a few steps, which dramatically cuts down on both cost and construction time. When investigating a particular pre-fab company, look for photos of the finished product, as opposed to computer renderings. It’s also critical to know whether the companies can ship to and build in your area. Sure, that Nordic-style black barn is the perfect modernist addition to your little slice of heaven in the Catskills, but by the time you’ve carted its parts from Sweden (and factored in the pathetic state of the dollar vs. the euro) you might just as well build from scratch.

For “Made in the USA” pre-fab, one of my favorites is weeHouse. Run by Alchemy architects in St. Paul, Minn., weeHouse streamlines the entire process. Prices start at around $80,000 for a 341 square-foot studio, and go to about $320,000 for a bi-level 2,000 square-foot, three-bedroom, permits and delivery included. (You provide the land, septic or sewer hook up, electricity, landscaping.) The other great thing about this system is that you can always add another weeHouse to an existing weeHouse as your family – or budget – grows.

The LV Home Series – modern kit homes by Rocio Romero that are affordable, easily built, and highly customizable. The Missouri architect’s LV series starts at about $31 a square foot, but this couple’s 4-bedroom house came in at about ten times that much. $300 a square foot may sound like a lot, but, as the owners pointed out, they still saved a bundle on architect’s fees, and now have the super-customized modernist house of their dreams. In the same article (and roughly in the same price range), Gunderson mentions the Los Angeles firm Marmol Radziner Prefab. See the non-prefab house Ron Radziner designed for himself and his family below.

Finally, guys at fabprefab recommend the Minnesota-based Hive Modular. Hive houses start at $160 a square foot for the B-Line, and include options like a modern flat roof or a more traditional peaked roof. But unless you live in the Midwest or central Canada, Hive Modular is not yet available in your area.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under FSBO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.