ᐅ Prefabricated Houses & Solid Construction – Evaluation of Offers
Created on: 20 Mar 2016 12:57
D
delbau
Hello everyone,
we are currently planning to build a single-family house in Baden-Württemberg (Ostalbkreis) and have already found a suitable plot of land.
Now to the tricky part:
At first, we looked at some prefabricated house suppliers; there are quite a few show homes in our area.
Our requirements are as follows:
- Single-family house designed as a city villa (two-storey), about 140-150m² (1505-1615 sq ft) – no bay windows or similar features
- Double garage
- Open kitchen/dining/living area
- Floor-to-ceiling windows
- Basement optional, not included in this current planning
- The plot is almost level and easily accessible
-> In my opinion, the requirements for the house are therefore quite modest.
In terms of price, for a nearly turnkey finish we were always quoted around 315,000-340,000 euros (without land, without additional costs).
Based on these figures, we spoke with some real estate experts who said that a solid/traditionally built house should be possible for that price as well (and might even be cheaper).
We prefer a solidly built house because of its long-term value and stability.
Since the delivery times of the major prefab house suppliers are around 1 year, we then approached an architect.
The architect quickly said that the quoted house prices seemed very low to him but wanted to take a closer look anyway.
Even with commonly cited prices of about 1500-2000 euros/m² (140-186 USD/sq ft), for our house size I calculate 280,000-300,000 euros and still remain well below the prefab house offers, even at the higher end (2000 euros).
This leaves me with a few questions:
- In your opinion, is it possible to build our solid house (almost turnkey) at a similar or preferably lower price than the prefab houses?
- Do you have any recommendations for a prefabricated house supplier with a good price-performance ratio?
Quality comes at a cost – that is clear, so we do not want to save at all costs and were not looking at the cheapest suppliers.
- Is the commonly mentioned price of 1500-2000 euros/m² calculated as “turnkey”?
We look forward to your most up-to-date experiences.
Many thanks and have a nice weekend!
we are currently planning to build a single-family house in Baden-Württemberg (Ostalbkreis) and have already found a suitable plot of land.
Now to the tricky part:
At first, we looked at some prefabricated house suppliers; there are quite a few show homes in our area.
Our requirements are as follows:
- Single-family house designed as a city villa (two-storey), about 140-150m² (1505-1615 sq ft) – no bay windows or similar features
- Double garage
- Open kitchen/dining/living area
- Floor-to-ceiling windows
- Basement optional, not included in this current planning
- The plot is almost level and easily accessible
-> In my opinion, the requirements for the house are therefore quite modest.
In terms of price, for a nearly turnkey finish we were always quoted around 315,000-340,000 euros (without land, without additional costs).
Based on these figures, we spoke with some real estate experts who said that a solid/traditionally built house should be possible for that price as well (and might even be cheaper).
We prefer a solidly built house because of its long-term value and stability.
Since the delivery times of the major prefab house suppliers are around 1 year, we then approached an architect.
The architect quickly said that the quoted house prices seemed very low to him but wanted to take a closer look anyway.
Even with commonly cited prices of about 1500-2000 euros/m² (140-186 USD/sq ft), for our house size I calculate 280,000-300,000 euros and still remain well below the prefab house offers, even at the higher end (2000 euros).
This leaves me with a few questions:
- In your opinion, is it possible to build our solid house (almost turnkey) at a similar or preferably lower price than the prefab houses?
- Do you have any recommendations for a prefabricated house supplier with a good price-performance ratio?
Quality comes at a cost – that is clear, so we do not want to save at all costs and were not looking at the cheapest suppliers.
- Is the commonly mentioned price of 1500-2000 euros/m² calculated as “turnkey”?
We look forward to your most up-to-date experiences.
Many thanks and have a nice weekend!
H
HausBammental18 Apr 2016 07:34delbau schrieb:
Hello,
sure, how far along are you at the moment? What are your plans? I have started a conversation.
I can recommend Keitel-Haus. In the end, we did not build with them, but we only heard good things and received a very competitive offer. In our comparison of offers, Keitel-Haus performed as follows:
Keitel-Haus (Brettheim)
Mr. B. (Prefab House Center Mannheim) is a friendly, committed salesperson who gave a very positive impression of his company. Highly recommended if you want a timber frame construction that is custom-designed rather than built from a catalog. The company is the test winner in two leading prefab house magazines in Germany. The tests were based on surveys of homeowners. Additionally, we received five recommendations from operators of construction blogs.
Features
- Construction method: timber frame construction
- Southwest cellar or Bürkle cellar
- Heating company: Brehl or Heidelmeier
- Heat pump/ventilation: Alpha-Innotec or Tecalor (identical to Stiebel Eltron)
- Kneer-Süd windows
- Discounts available for direct contracts on cellar and heating system
- 7 months construction time
Advantages
+ excellent reputation
+ lowest price offer
+ short construction time of 7 months (including 3 months delivery time for the house, during which the cellar is built)
+ easily meets KfW-55 standard due to energy-efficient walls
+ unlike other prefab house providers, each house is individually planned
+ windows with concealed fittings and stone exterior window sills are standard
+ diffusion-tight or diffusion-open walls available (for an additional charge) (we chose the more affordable diffusion-tight option because of the central controlled ventilation system)
+ preliminary sampling possible
+ friendly, non-pushy salesperson (Mr. B. from the show home in the German Prefab House Center Mannheim), fast and detailed offer preparation, transparent pricing
Disadvantages
- Floor-to-floor windows in the stairwell are, due to the concept, more expensive than in a solid construction house
- Increasing ceiling height per floor is more costly than in a solid construction house due to the design approach
- High prices for wall and floor coverings as well as outdoor landscaping; likely cheaper to contract local tradespeople directly
More information on other topics can be found in our construction blog (Construction company: Gemünden / Location: Budenheim / Homeowners: Juliane and Peter), which can be easily found via a Google search.
Keitel-Haus (Brettheim)
Mr. B. (Prefab House Center Mannheim) is a friendly, committed salesperson who gave a very positive impression of his company. Highly recommended if you want a timber frame construction that is custom-designed rather than built from a catalog. The company is the test winner in two leading prefab house magazines in Germany. The tests were based on surveys of homeowners. Additionally, we received five recommendations from operators of construction blogs.
Features
- Construction method: timber frame construction
- Southwest cellar or Bürkle cellar
- Heating company: Brehl or Heidelmeier
- Heat pump/ventilation: Alpha-Innotec or Tecalor (identical to Stiebel Eltron)
- Kneer-Süd windows
- Discounts available for direct contracts on cellar and heating system
- 7 months construction time
Advantages
+ excellent reputation
+ lowest price offer
+ short construction time of 7 months (including 3 months delivery time for the house, during which the cellar is built)
+ easily meets KfW-55 standard due to energy-efficient walls
+ unlike other prefab house providers, each house is individually planned
+ windows with concealed fittings and stone exterior window sills are standard
+ diffusion-tight or diffusion-open walls available (for an additional charge) (we chose the more affordable diffusion-tight option because of the central controlled ventilation system)
+ preliminary sampling possible
+ friendly, non-pushy salesperson (Mr. B. from the show home in the German Prefab House Center Mannheim), fast and detailed offer preparation, transparent pricing
Disadvantages
- Floor-to-floor windows in the stairwell are, due to the concept, more expensive than in a solid construction house
- Increasing ceiling height per floor is more costly than in a solid construction house due to the design approach
- High prices for wall and floor coverings as well as outdoor landscaping; likely cheaper to contract local tradespeople directly
More information on other topics can be found in our construction blog (Construction company: Gemünden / Location: Budenheim / Homeowners: Juliane and Peter), which can be easily found via a Google search.
E
elisilli120 Dec 2016 19:53I have been building with the company Keitel-Haus since August. My experiences are not entirely positive. Deadlines (such as installing door frames) are not met or only fulfilled after the third phone call. I understand that a timber frame house is not as precise as a solid construction house, but I did not expect so many "uneven" walls.
Since the door frames were installed plumb on the second attempt, I now have a gap of more than one centimeter (0.4 inches) between the door panel and the wall at the top in the visible area! Many details are not clearly addressed during the selections process. For example, that the very narrow window sills cannot even hold a small flowerpot, as the windows are almost flush with the interior wall surface. (There is almost no window recess!) The window sill width of 6 cm (2.4 inches) is mentioned in the fine print of the protocol but is not explicitly pointed out as an unusual dimension.
When I raised this issue with the site manager, his response was:
"You shouldn’t put anything on the window sills — the windows are there for ventilation."
The site manager downplays many problems or does not respond to my emails regarding construction defects.
Since the door frames were installed plumb on the second attempt, I now have a gap of more than one centimeter (0.4 inches) between the door panel and the wall at the top in the visible area! Many details are not clearly addressed during the selections process. For example, that the very narrow window sills cannot even hold a small flowerpot, as the windows are almost flush with the interior wall surface. (There is almost no window recess!) The window sill width of 6 cm (2.4 inches) is mentioned in the fine print of the protocol but is not explicitly pointed out as an unusual dimension.
When I raised this issue with the site manager, his response was:
"You shouldn’t put anything on the window sills — the windows are there for ventilation."
The site manager downplays many problems or does not respond to my emails regarding construction defects.
elisilli1 schrieb:
I have been building with the company Keitel-Haus since August. My experiences are not entirely positive. Deadlines (such as installing door frames, etc.) are not met or only after the third phone call. I understand that a timber frame house is not built as precisely as a solid brick/concrete house. However, I did not expect so many uneven walls.
Since the door frames were installed plumb only after the second attempt, I now have a gap of more than one centimeter (0.4 inches) between the door trim and the wall at the top in the visible area! Many things were not clearly addressed during the selections process. For example, the very narrow window sills are so small that you cannot even place a small flower pot on them because the windows are almost flush with the interior wall surface. (There is hardly any window recess!) The window sill width of 6 cm (2.4 inches) is mentioned in the fine print of the protocol but the unusual size is not explicitly pointed out.
When I raised the issue with the site manager, the response was:
“You’re not supposed to put anything on the window sills – the windows are there for ventilation.”
The site manager downplays many problems or does not respond to my emails regarding construction defects at all.What is the advantage of setting the windows so far inward?
merlin83 schrieb:
What is the advantage of installing the windows so far inside?Assuming a typical prefab house, you have about 14cm (5.5 inches) of exterior insulation.
Add the window frame at around 8-9cm (3-3.5 inches), plus 6cm (2.4 inches) for the roller shutter rails. With a KfW70 wall, you only end up with about 6-10cm (2.4-4 inches) on the interior side.
K
keitelbauer28 Oct 2018 18:05We are currently building with Keitel-Haus and are experiencing serious problems. There were major mistakes made during the planning phase, which meant, for example, that we could not install a chimney. The planning by PBB, which has the same managing directors as Keitel-Haus, is very amateurish. Keitel-Haus does not meet deadlines. After appointments were promised, we were later told that no dates had ever been given to us. The salesperson told us that the shell of the building would be completed no later than 7 months after the contract was signed, and that we could move in within 11 months at the latest. Today, no one wants to acknowledge any of this.
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