ᐅ Prefabricated house – yes or no?

RobsonMKK schrieb:
It has to be called the pure "installation phase," because construction actually takes place long before at the factory.

As already mentioned, the house components are manufactured in 1-2 days. Our supplier produces 3 houses per week.

I didn’t know that the screed could be fully installed beforehand. Interesting.

Meister keks schrieb:
hi.@curly
ok, I didn’t know that.
then this obviously no longer counts as a criterion.
thanks for the hint.

@Bastian b
the issue with the sample centers is now clarified.

how long did your house construction take?
around here, some build with solid construction and others with prefabricated houses.
the initial phase was roughly the same.
why are the prefabricated houses and the solid structures not progressing the same way?
please be kind and explain this to me.

then I have a point that might still matter.
with the company elk, we knew exactly what we had to pay from the moment we signed the contract.
we obtained countless offers, including from solid construction companies; it was the only company that could tell us the final cost down to the cent.
my experience has been that this is quite rare.
so the point that it is cheaper is correct for me, since with others, I would have only found out the final cost at the end.

So, if you are able to define absolutely everything in advance, then a general contractor (GC) can tell you the final cost of the house down to the cent.
Regarding construction time, a prefabricated house has to be prefabricated in the factory after contract signing, which, depending on the workload, can take several months.
A solid construction also requires a lead time depending on the current order volume, but this is generally shorter than the time it takes to prefabricate a modular house.
The shell of the building was up for us in about 5 weeks, even though we requested breaks in between because we pulled all the cables ourselves.
In other words, up to 5 weeks of shell construction time can normally be expected, usually considerably less.
The interior fit-out is comparable (I have experience with both types). In solid construction, you have to chisel grooves and plaster the walls, while in a prefabricated house, you have hundreds of square meters of walls and ceilings that need to be covered twice with panels, then filled and sanded; the rest is comparable.
A friend with a prefabricated house took about 8 months from the assembly date until moving in, but he also did a lot himself. Another friend with a solid construction took about 6.5 months but did less work on his own.
If you add the lead time for factory production to the first case, it took significantly longer overall.
Many get misled by the fact that the house is put up quickly in a single day, but the house is not ready one day after signing the contract; inside, it is just a skeleton with a lot still to be done.
The only advantage once the house is assembled is that progress is largely independent of the weather. Otherwise, a prefabricated house offers no significant advantages for me, especially not if you buy it turnkey.

Prefabricated houses are often made of wood. Aren’t they significantly more expensive to insure compared to masonry construction?

Nordlys schrieb:
Prefabricated houses are often made of wood. Aren't they significantly more expensive to insure than masonry construction?

When it comes to financing, banks may not offer 100% loans or might limit the loan-to-value ratio to 60%, at least with budget home providers.

@Peanuts74 has otherwise summarized it well.

ypg schrieb:
When it comes to financing, it might happen that the bank does not grant a 100% loan or limits the mortgage to 60%—at least with the budget home providers.

The emphasis is on "the" bank. Some have general reservations about timber frame houses (meaning the construction method rather than the provider itself; at least that was our experience).

However, there are actually enough banks on the market that a trusted mortgage broker can find to support the project even with 100% financing.

Interestingly, some budget home providers always have a broker "in their portfolio"; either they recommend one, or in one case we experienced that the broker was sitting in another room of the house within the prefabricated home park. In that instance, even "120%" was not a problem (this was compensated by a "large" self-build mortgage).

Caspar2020 schrieb:
The emphasis is on "the" bank....).

Exactly