ᐅ Prefabricated house – yes or no?

Peanuts74 schrieb:
So, if you are able to really define everything in advance, a general contractor will be able to tell you the exact cost of the house down to the cent.
Regarding construction time, a prefab house has to be manufactured in the factory after signing the contract, which can take several months depending on the workload.
A solid (concrete or masonry) construction also requires some lead time, depending on orders, but usually not as long as the time needed to prefabricate a prefab house.
Our shell structure was completed in about 5 weeks, even though we asked for breaks in between because we installed all the wiring ourselves.
So, typically a maximum of 5 weeks of shell construction time may be added until the shell is complete, usually much less.
The interior finishing is comparable (I have experience with both). With solid construction, you have to chase chases for wiring and plaster the walls, whereas with prefab houses you double-sheath hundreds of square meters of walls and ceilings, then fill joints and sand them; the rest is comparable.
A friend with a prefab house took about 8 months from the assembly date!!! until moving in, but he did a lot of work himself. Another friend with a solid structure took about 6.5 months but did less work himself.
If you add the lead time for the factory production of the prefab house, he took significantly longer.
Many are misled by the fact that the house can be assembled quickly in one day, but actually it is not ready the day after contract signing, and the interior at that point is just a bare shell with a lot to be done.
The only real advantage once the house is assembled is that construction is less weather-dependent. Otherwise, for me, a prefab house has no relevant advantages, especially when buying it turnkey.

Thank you for the detailed explanation.
Everything sounds very plausible.

Regarding turnkey delivery, I would like to add that we decided on it because the additional cost compared to the stage "ready for final finishes" was very low.

Nordlys schrieb:
Also, there’s also this feeling that solid construction has always been used, and it has always lasted; some solid houses have stood for over a thousand years. It can’t be wrong.

Everyone has their preference. There are wooden churches over 600 years old, as well as old solid structures. Nevertheless, today, according to building experts, the expected service life for solid construction is 70–80 years, and for timber frame construction, 60–70 years. I have discussed several times why both are relatively short. This is attributed to standards evolving to the point where demolition becomes more economical than renovation. However, both construction methods are technically capable of a longer lifespan. Depending on the source, modern timber frame buildings are also expected to last over 100 years.

Meister keks schrieb:
Once again, you bring up the topic of solid houses when someone is sharing their experience with a prefabricated house. That’s a classic example of comparing apples and pears. Let me guess, you own a solid house?

ypg brings this up because it is simply wrong to claim that only prefabricated houses can be delivered as a complete package. That is just not true; if you want, you can get any type of house as a turnkey solution! That is exactly what general contractors (GCs) are for.

That’s how it is

You can’t really say one side has an advantage if the other has the same benefit.
As I mentioned earlier, each choice has its own advantages, but it ultimately depends on the individual homeowner to decide.

By the way, I am only sharing neutral information; it’s up to the reader to interpret what to make of it.

The highly predictable planning process of prefabricated houses can be very appealing. Finding contractors for solid construction with available capacity is currently difficult. Many in our building area therefore rely mainly on Swedish prefabricated houses. The economic situation there has not been overheated, so manufacturers are able to deliver, and from what I have seen, they do so reliably and quickly. Of course, you need to like the house style: wooden facades, often bungalow style. You need a plot size well over 600cm (240 inches) because of the large floor slabs. Very shallow roof pitches, open-plan kitchens, relatively small bedrooms, but large living areas. However, you will certainly not get a poor-quality house for a fair price, and you can count on it being completed by the agreed date.

Kayan schrieb:
Which ones would those be...?

-As mentioned, lower valuation when buying used or refinancing. Usually, appraisals assume a service life shorter by about 20 years.
-The sound insulation is not comparable to a 20cm (8 inches) concrete slab and walls made of sand-lime brick. Before building, we visited several prefabricated houses, ranging from budget to higher price levels.
-Possible problems with mounting heavy objects.
-Each hole pierces the vapor barrier. I can’t judge how much this matters if a screw is put back in afterward, but it seems questionable to me to carefully tape everything first and then drill holes again.
-And finally, a brief summary of what I found online back then:
In a prefab house, a kitchen drain pipe was not properly connected, which fortunately was noticed quite quickly. Still, two walls had to be opened up again, and the soaked insulation had to be replaced over a large area. According to that expert, it was lucky that it was detected so fast; if the water had leaked more slowly and the damage hadn’t been noticed as quickly, the wooden frame might have been affected, which would have required a very complex renovation—if even possible. It was also fortunate that the issue was in the kitchen and not upstairs in the bathroom, where the water would have run down and spread more widely.
In a solid construction, something like this is no fun either, but drying is likely easier and the building fabric significantly more resilient.

A quick counter-question: what real advantages does a prefabricated house actually offer? And please don’t say “it’s faster.” We have already discussed that planning takes about the same amount of time. Besides, most people live in their house for 40–50 years—does a difference of a few weeks really matter?
I mean clear, tangible advantages!
The only one I see is the reduced effort for plumbing and electrical installation—but only if you do it yourself. Most people will probably have that done professionally, so please list advantages for the finished house!

One last note: this isn’t a disadvantage of prefab houses, but I would call it an advantage of solid construction. We were still able to add an extra wall and change a window during construction—try doing that with a prefab house...