Are you interested in a prefab home for your off grid homestead or simply confused about what the differences are between all the different types. Well I hope that this page can help clear up any of the confusion that you might have.
What Is A Modular Home?
There is a common misconception that a modular home is the same thing as a mobile home or trailer. This is not in the least bit true in any way. A modular home is simply a home that is built off-site opposed to a stick or brick home that is built on-site. They are still built with the same quality materials that the standard stick built homes are constructed with. They are built in a factory for a better controlled construction setting instead of being built on-site. This is why it’s so much cheaper to buy a modular home than a new construction on-site stick built home. They are then placed on a flat bed truck to be delivered to its final location.
There are different options to choose from the outdoor appearance such as colors, doors, and other added features. There are plenty of choices for the inside features too. There are choices such as paint, wallpaper, window features, carpet, laminate, and hardwood flooring options to choose from in most prefab homes. There are even quality kitchen appliance options to choose from. There are garden tub, standard tub, or shower options to choose between.
There are also those fine details of the sink accessories in the bathroom. A modular home is put on a foundation to ensure extra safety precautions and ensuring a long lifespan of the home. While there are limitations on the customizations for the modular home, the important ones are there for you to select. You can still have the home of your dreams without the wasted time and money.
What Is A Panel Built Home?
A panel built home is exactly how it sounds. It is a normal stick built home with the same high quality materials. It’s manufactured in a warehouse type of facility that will pack it on some heavy duty flatbed trucks. It will then be delivered to your home site to be built by the use of a huge crane that lifts each panel into place for easy construction. Many also considered this as a modular home.
What Is A Manufactured Home?
Manufactured homes are built in a factory assembly line type setting which benefits the buyer. They are made with high quality products on top of a steel frame and are much faster to build than a new construction on-site home. Being made in a factory means they have an abundance of materials to manufacture the pieces of the home for a fraction of the price. This is why it is faster to receive a newly constructed manufactured home then to build a new construction home on site. It’s also more cost-effective due to the time it takes for production and labor costs. A manufactured home is not put on a solid foundation. It is brought to the site on wheels with steel beams for reinforcement. It’s common for the home to sit on the wheels and the deliverer will just cover it with a skirting of some sort to give a crawlspace for repairing with ease.
These homes are faster to need repairing underneath them since they are not on the permanent foundation. It’s easier to get weathered and may need extra maintenance in order to preserve the life of your home. A home is an investment whether it is built on-site or in a factory type setting so a little preventative maintenance is expected to ensure safety and longevity of the house. Everything that lasts for many years takes some repairing at some point during those wonderful years. It is common for a manufactured home to last up to 55 years after being made. That’s a lot of memories to be made in your prefab home if you take care of it.
There are two building systems for your prefabricated home choice. Would you like to have a hand on building your own home? Do you want the pride of saying that you built your own home by hand? Would you like to just sit back and let someone else do the dirty work? Either way is just fine. The sky really is the limit when finding and choosing the prefab home of your dreams.
What Is A Mobile Home?
A mobile home is very much similar to a manufactured home but with a few key differences, mainly the quality. The first and simplest key difference between the two is the year that it was built. If it was built before July 15, 1976 and is the same style as a manufactured home (ie. It is built on a steel frame with wheels) then it is classified as a mobile home. This classification is due to an industry standard that was put in place at that time to ensure the quality of the structures. This classification put in by the powers that be really just made things more confusing but ultimately ensured that the living units were up to quality standards.
The second and main difference from a manufactured home is that a manufactured home meets the HUD Code standards where as a mobile home does not as those standards weren’t yet created. These standards include rules pertaining to fire resistance, heating/air conditioning, plumbing, ability to be transported safely, construction design and overall strength of the unit.
Because of these new standards people started to put more trust in the quality of this type of housing. People went from thinking that a mobile home type house was extremely low quality, cheap housing, to something that was a very affordable way to live in decent quality conditions. Some still feel this way as they do not understand the difference between manufactured and mobile and just think of them as the same thing, a mobile home.
What Is A Prefabricated Home Kit?
Prefab homes are essentially stick built homes built with high quality products where the main components have been assembled beforehand and then finished on site. The main difference is they are built in a more modern capacity with better efficiency than with a traditional stick built home which is completely built on-site .
Prefab home kits are made by production in a controlled construction setting. This means a warehouse type of facility. It’s not just a huge pile of lumber that is being delivered on-site to give you pure anxiety. There are very specific directions that are specially engineered for you to be able to understand completely. They use the latest and greatest production techniques to give the best quality products with less time spent waiting around. There are no costly delays for materials due to being engineered in a factory setting and being produced in bulk. There are no pesky weather delays or material theft to stress you out and cause more time delays and money.
The prefab home kits come with specially engineered directions with labeling for the easiest assembly possible, think of it like putting together IKEA furniture. You could be your own general contractor or hire a handyman to take charge of building your dream home. You could also just get a few friends to help out with the assembly of your specially designed prefab home.
How Long Does It Take To Put Together A Prefab Home?
Typically, a two man crew can assemble a whole prefab home in about 4-6 days with a little bit of effort and dedication. All of the hardest work is completed in the warehouse so you don’t have to do it yourself. This is building like a professional while having little to no experience needed.
There are so many types of home kits. There are fairy type houses that look as if they jumped out of a fairytale. There are modern type houses. There are options for some great A frame houses that will have a cozy cottage type feel. They even have some old cottage style prefab house kits. There are tiny rustic cabins to the largest, most elegant looking cabins you have ever seen. If you want an awesome house at a lower budget, then a prefab home kit is exactly what you are looking for.
What Are The Disadvantages Of On-site Stick Built Homes.
There are many factors to having a home built on site. The weather can be a pure disaster and cause a serious time delay depending on how harsh it can get. There are permits that must be pulled before building for multiple reasons and then there is a general contractor that must be hired to ensure that the latest standards and regulations are being used by the laborers. There are plenty of different building materials that have to be measured, calculated, and purchased prior to building. This can be costly if your contractor doesn’t shop around for the best deals on materials. There can always be a miscalculation with the measurements and having to order more products could cost more money for you if the prices have increased on materials.
There could be a shortage of a specific product in the store therefore causing a serious delaying of your home from being built on a timely schedule. One minor delay can cause a serious chain reaction that is catastrophic to a deadline. There is always the chance of material theft too. Sometimes the laborers used can be thieves or someone watching your home site could take your materials also causing delays in your construction.
Sometimes, buying a new construction home can take a lot longer to build than expected or planned for. This could put you out of pocket by paying more for rent on a month to month basis in a new place. This could end up with you having to sign a new lease agreement on a rental home for another year. You may just have to move in with some of your closest family and friends. That is never an easy thing to do without some sort of friction. It can seem like you have worn out your welcome before you have the option of leaving. Let’s just be honest, there can be some very incompatible personalities for a common living arrangement. You can be great friends that can’t seem to live under the same roof. It’s perfectly normal. This is why having your own private home is such a blessing.
Conclusion
Understanding the differences between each type of home is important and I hope that this article was able to help you with that. When first looking into alternatives to traditional home building techniques all of the different terminology can be very confusing.
There are some key differences between each type but they are all similar in the fact that they offer a much more affordable way for someone to live in a pretty luxurious environment without coughing up the huge amount of money that it costs to build a home the traditional way.
I hope this gave you some insight and clarity on your journey to finding the perfect home.
Thanks for reading!
-SuccessOffGrid.com
