Archive for May, 2010

Is Prefab Green Housing Real?

Monday, May 31st, 2010

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Because being green is very popular, there are numerous products that claim to be friendly to the environment on the market. Not all of them actually live up to this claim. Conversely, there are a number of products that are not usually considered to be environmentally-friendly, but that have aspects to them that most certainly are ecologically sound. Among these is prefab green housing. Prefabricated housing is usually associated with tract developments that are generally not considered Earth-friendly ways to develop. Individually, however, these homes have significant advantages.

Prefab green housing earns the green moniker, in part, because of the way that the rough framing components are designed. All the insulation in the world will not make a drafty, poorly-designed house environmentally sound. Prefabricated houses are designed on CAD programs and constructed in a controlled environment. This translates to durable walls that fit together seamlessly, tight tolerances for all the supporting structures and designs that are harmonious from the first nail to the last. Because they are all designed from the start to fit together, these elements leave little room for waste.

Prefab green housing is also good for the environment due to the materials used and the ways that they are eventually put to use. At any construction site, there is bound to be lumber and other materials that are left behind, ruined by the elements or otherwise compromised. In the controlled environment where prefabricated homes are constructed, there is no loss due to the elements and supplies are purchased in quantities that exactly match the project being completed. This means that there is not one nail too many nor one board too few involved in the construction. Even though technology is a huge part of being green, sometimes old-fashioned efficiency is even greener.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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Is Prefab Modern Housing Environmentally Sound?

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Any question of environmental friendliness can be answered in several ways. There are products that seem environmentally-friendly, but aren’t—bottled water, for instance—and there are plenty of products that have just the opposite characteristic. Prefab modern housing is one of those products that doesn’t generally get the environmentally friendly label it perhaps deserves. While new home construction in general is usually characterized as taxing on the environment, there are ways to do it that cut down waste and, thus, that are environmentally friendly in that regard. Prefabricated housing is among them.

Prefab modern housing entails many different products. Among the most popular are those packages that constitute the basic rough framing of a home. These products do have an environmentally-friendly edge to them in that they cut down on waste. The way this works starts at the factory. The prefabricated elements are constructed under controlled conditions. This means that lumber isn’t ruined by being left out in the elements and that the materials are in top condition when they are used to construct the parts of the home ordered. There is another very important element to this cost- and planet-saving aspect of prefab homes.

Prefab modern housing is designed on CAD programs and constructed by in-house carpenters. This means that materials aren’t wasted in the construction of the home through a lack of skill or planning. Every board foot is accounted for in the drawings and the carpenters that assemble the plans are skilled professionals who have all the materials they need on-hand. The average do it yourselfer cannot match this model for efficiency or for quality control. It also eliminates trips back and forth to the lumberyard and that, of course, reduces the carbon footprint associated with the construction of the house.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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What Kind of Prefab House Kits are Available?

Friday, May 28th, 2010

The prefab house kits on the market, not too surprisingly, constitute some of the most popular styles of houses. Even when people construct their own home from scratch, they tend to stick with certain conventions. Oftentimes, despite the much-increased cost of building from their own plans, these homeowners end up with houses that are more similar to other homes than they are different. This is because there are tried and true elements in architecture that work well and, because of that, these elements are oftentimes repeated between one home and the next.

Consider the ranch home, for instance one of the most popular prefab house kits. The ranch home is notable for its single floor design and its sensible size. This is great for people who don’t want to deal with stairways and who don’t want more house than they can realistically afford. This design is popular because of its practicality and, because of that, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel every time this house is constructed. Prefabricated designs allow the elimination of hassles that are, in truth, completely unnecessary to getting a good house up and ready for your move-in day.

Other prefab house kits include the Colonial design. These are larger homes, suitable for those with a family or who just like a bit of extra space. Even though these houses can be quite expansive, they are very affordable compared to constructing a similarly-sized structure from scratch. These kits include everything needed to erect the house and all the elements are designed to fit together flawlessly. This means that constructing even a large home is surprisingly affordable for most anyone. There are a host of other designs available, as well, and all different sizes of homes can be ordered prefabricated.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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Taking Advantage of Prebuilt Housing

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Prebuilt housing provides some real economic and time-saving advantages to the homeowner. First and foremost, there’s no need to design a home from scratch. When you consider what’s involved with such a project, it’s easy to see how prices quickly increase. It starts with having an architect design the home, of course, and continues on through the construction of the rough frame, the finishing elements and all the other associated parts of construction. With a prebuilt home, much of this hassle is eliminated and, with it, many of the expenses and delays associated with building your own house.

When you design a home from scratch, there’s a lot involved. To work with a contractor, you’ll need proper blueprints and, of course, this means that you’ll need to work with CAD programs or other complex computer software. For most people, this is entirely beyond their capabilities. Having it done for you is not cheap or fast in any regard. Prebuilt housing has all of the plans designed already. There is no mystery to how much is involved in constructing any given wall, nor is there any need for you to produce blueprints for the contractors.

Prebuilt housing also has the advantage of letting you set a concrete budget. A large part of the reason that construction projects run over budget or time quite a lot has to do with the sheer amount of planning and logistics involved in constructing a home from scratch. With a prebuilt design, it’s easy to figure out how much the total supplies bill will be as there is a known quantity involved with every aspect of the home. The plans are made already, the building process is understood in terms of time and supplies and, thus, there is no guesswork or mystery involved.

Popularity: 13% [?]

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Pre Fab House Options for the Country

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Rural areas are always a challenge for builders. Pre fab house options can eliminate many of these challenges. To understand what makes construction in a rural area difficult, first understand that suppliers may be many miles away. Unless you measure perfectly, cut with computer precision and never make an error in logistics, you’re going to be making unexpected trips to the lumberyard to pick up more supplies. When you’re on the clock and need to get the project up fast, this can mean a lot of headaches and, in many cases, quite a lot of wasted money.

A pre fab house doesn’t mean that you get the same house that a hundred other people have. In fact, oftentimes, the people that order these homes order only those elements that are the most difficult to construct. The rough framing components, for example, are oftentimes ordered and that allows the homebuilder to get the basic structure erected quickly. This ease and speed of initial construction helps later on in the process, and can cut costs in significant ways.

Once the rough framing of the pre fab house is constructed, it’s very easy to work on the interior elements of the home. The structure can be temporarily protected from the elements. This allows subcontractors to start working on the interior elements of your home without regard to the weather. It also allows you to avoid having to preplan every element of your home’s design. You will not, for instance, have to worry about the amount of supplies you need to order, nor will you have to deal with the expenses of ordering too much or the hassles of ordering too little. The rough elements are prefabricated for you, so you don’t have to worry about it at all.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Is Prefab Housing Attractive?

Friday, May 28th, 2010

It’s pretty easy to confuse all prefab housing with the worst examples on the market. Usually, consumers will assume that any prefab housing product means that their house will be essentially identical to what they see in the most aesthetically dull tract housing developments. This is not necessarily the case. Prefabricated housing oftentimes encompasses those parts of the home that are generally the same from structure to structure and that can be manufactured more efficiently in large numbers than they can be separately. There are some distinct advantages to these products that make them attractive to consumers.

Prefab housing is easily erected by most people with do-it-yourself level carpentry skills. The hardest parts of the structure to craft, including the walls and other elements, are delivered already manufactured. They’re designed to fit with one another at the factory and that makes putting them up orders of magnitude easier than it would be were you creating these parts of your house from scratch. Essentially, the rough framing for your home is delivered on a truck and you have only to assemble it to get the project underway. This can save quite a lot of money in a variety of ways.

Prefab housing allows contractors to work in a protected area as quickly as possible, given the impressive speed that the rough framing can be put up. This, of course, means that they’re able to get the rest of your home constructed much more quickly and that you don’t have to pay them for the rough framing work, which can be very expensive. It also means that you don’t have to worry about supply shortages or under or over ordering materials. Everything is ready to be assembled from the start and is engineered to have a perfect fit.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Considerations for when you Build your own House

Friday, May 28th, 2010

One of the most exciting things that you can do is to build your own house. Initially, you’ll probably take plenty of flights of fancy as to what you’re going to build. You may be thinking of something completely environmentally friendly or you may be thinking of a huge mansion. There will be considerations that are universal, the size of the structure notwithstanding. One of these considerations will have to do with the rough framing of the home, which is the process of putting up all the most basic elements of the house, including the floor, walls and roof.

When you build your own house, you’re taking on more than a carpentry challenge. Most contractors have individuals whose sole occupation is to order supplies as they are needed. Oftentimes, they have to track down needed supplies and delays can be costly for the contractor and their client. This oftentimes throws new homebuilders for a loop. The complexities are very real and taking a house from blueprint to construction requires a lot of logistical work. If you consider it, there’s a lot of work involved in figuring out how many feet of wood you need to build even a simple structure.

Prefabricated elements provide a good way to eliminate a lot of the logistical complexity involved when you build your own house. The parts, such as the walls, floors, and so forth, are already constructed, being put together in a factory. This means there’s no guesswork to figuring out how much lumber, how many nails and what quantity of other supplies are needed. Using prefabricated parts, it’s much easier to construct a home of your own. It also eliminates the hazards associated with constructing the most essential structural elements on your own.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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Choosing Green Prefab Homes

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

You don’t have to live in a shipping container or a mud hut to be environmentally-friendly. In fact, there are plenty of green prefab homes on the market that provide excellent options. Some of the advantages of these homes are found not in their innovation but, instead, in the fact that they are traditional homes that can fit with most any city’s building code. When they’re constructed right and the planning is done intelligently, these homes can be very green and can provide excellent places to live for the environmentally-conscious homeowner.

Green prefab homes start with the materials used for their construction. Look for companies that use sustainable forest products in their designs. This means that your living room walls won’t be supported by studs taken from an old-growth redwood. Green doesn’t always mean using untested products or foregoing the tried-and-true. Sometimes it just means being a bit more sensible about how products are harvested and, for the companies that make prefabricated housing, this generally means ordering lumber that is taken from sensible, sustainable providers. You can feel good about choosing such a design.

The things that make green prefab homes actually green are sometimes found in unlikely places. For instance, when you order a prefab home, you’re ordering something that has been erected many times. This means that you won’t find surprise drafts in your walls or spots where insulating is basically impossible. The simplicity and practicality of these designs make them even more ecologically sound and, for those who prefer to be conscious of how their decisions affect the Earth, this is good news. Add to this the fact that there s no waste in the construction of these homes and you have a very sensible, sustainable option for housing that is surprisingly affordable.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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Buying Homes Prefabricated

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Buying homes prefabricated is a nice option for those seeking their first house. It has advantages over both standing and custom construction that are easy to understand. There are numerous vendors for these homes. The best of them construct their homes in controlled environments. This keeps the company’s costs down by protecting materials and by providing an environment where construction is not delayed by the elements or other unpredictable forces. It also controls costs by reducing the materials to the exact quantities needed, ensuring that you don’t pay for overages in materials that weren’t used.

Step one in buying homes prefabricated is deciding upon the size you need. There are a host of options available. There are the small, classic ranch style homes that are perfect for small families, couples and individuals who need someplace affordable and comfortable to call home. There are also very large designs available for those who really need space but who don’t want to be restricted to very expensive and sometimes older designs. That last aspect is one of the principal advantages of buying homes that are prefabricated. You’ll soon find that there is a lot of peace of mind to be found in this choice.

Buying homes prefabricated means that you don’t have nasty surprises waiting in store, as is sometimes the case with older homes. You will not, for instance, find out that the plumbing is on its last legs or that the wiring has significant problems after you buy the home. These types of surprises are the kind that no one wants and buying a home that is predesigned helps you to avoid this altogether. You’re buying new construction that is designed to be efficient and worth the money and, thus, you’re not gambling on an inspector or realtor’s accuracy.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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Are Prefab House Prices Worth It?

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Prefab house prices, on the whole, are usually much lower than is the cost of custom construction. Even though this is the case, any homeowner has a right to know why they’re paying as much as they are for a home, even if they’re paying less than they might expect. While prefabricated dwellings are usually much more affordable than building to suit, it’s not because these homes are lacking in any regard. In fact, despite the reduced price, homeowners come out ahead in several ways where prefab homes are concerned.

Prefab house prices are much more predictable than custom construction. This is because there is a set price on the quantity of materials needed. There is also an accurate price for the time involved in construction and the materials are kept out of the elements, eliminating waste. These aspects of prefabricated housing all speak to the efficiency of the concept and to how that efficiency can be to the advantage of the homeowner. It also helps illustrate how these homes are environmentally sound, as there is very little waste associated with their construction. The process of constructing these homes is very well-planned and cost-controlled.

Another element that keeps prefab house prices affordable is the fact that there is a predictable time frame for delivery. Oftentimes, custom building jobs run over budget or time limits and, because of that, the homeowner is stuck with another bill that they didn’t expect. There is also the possibility that needed supplies will be backordered, and that can hold up a construction project for a very long time. Where prefab housing is concerned, it is both the efficiency and the fact that the process is a known quantity in terms of price and materials that make it worth every penny.

Popularity: 46% [?]

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