ᐅ Prefabricated house provider - duplex with basement, approximately 1,290 to 1,510 sq ft of living space

Hello everyone,

we are planning to build a prefabricated house and are just starting to look into it more closely. The house will be built in Hesse and will be a semi-detached house with a basement and approximately 120 to 140 sqm (1300 to 1500 sq ft) of living space.

We would like to know which providers you can recommend. The budget is secondary for now, as our main concern is to find a reliable and good provider. Of course, we do have a budget, but as mentioned, the primary focus is on which provider is recommended.

So far, we have been in contact with Okal Haus, Fingerhaus, and Streif Haus.

I would really appreciate any feedback.

Best regards,
Moritz

First of all: where does the decision to build a "prefabricated house" come from?

moritzp schrieb:
The plan is to build in Hesse, specifically a semi-detached house with a basement and about 120 to 140 sqm (1300 to 1500 sq ft) of living space.

And what does "semi-detached house with 120 to 140 sqm (1300 to 1500 sq ft) of living space" mean – do you want to build a whole semi-detached house, with that living space for each half?

Take a look here in the post search for "11ant semi-detached house," then I don’t have to explain everything again. At least in this forum, quite a bit has already been said on this topic.

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Your question has tricky aspects in three dimensions:

1) As the name semi-detached house half already suggests, both halves together form a whole and need to fit together somehow. I strongly advise against the recent trend of building the halves separately – even though there are differing opinions. A semi-detached house is essentially a developer’s project, and separate planners are like too many cooks spoiling the broth.

2) Also regarding the basement – or the complication if one half is built with a basement and the other without (made more complicated if built at different times) – there are already several threads on that.

3) Likewise, the problem (I believe this was only discussed in the "green" forum) when one wants to build with solid construction and the other prefers prefabricated.

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My advice for semi-detached houses is very clear: approach the project together with your neighbor.

If you are building a full semi-detached house (or two jointly planned halves – don’t worry, they don’t have to be exact mirror images) the project is more relaxed, even if only one side has a basement.

Regarding prefabricated builders in Hesse, Bien-Zenker (in Schlüchtern) comes to mind. If solid construction is also an option, my favorite would be Massivhaus Mittelrhein, or GSE from the Darmstadt area in Hesse.

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Sorry, I probably didn’t explain myself very clearly. We want to build a complete duplex, meaning both units. Each side should have a living area between 120 and 140 sqm (approximately 1,290 to 1,510 sq ft), plus a usable basement.

So for us, the question of whether to have a basement under just one side or both sides doesn’t arise. The same goes for the facade—the house should look the same from the outside.

We are now just looking for the right provider or, more precisely, we would like to know about your experiences with various prefabricated house manufacturers. At the moment, we have checked out Okal Haus, Bien-Zenker, and Streif Haus. So far, Okal Haus seems to offer the best value for money (at least at first glance).

Best regards,
moritzp

moritzp schrieb:
So we want to build a complete semi-detached house, meaning both sides.

That makes a lot of sense. That’s what I was hoping for 🙂

moritzp schrieb:
what your experiences with one or another prefab house supplier were or are.

Why only prefab house suppliers?

There are no manufacturers that I know of who are significantly better or worse when it comes to semi-detached houses (if you build them as “one unit”) compared to single-family homes. After all, it’s not a fundamentally different type of building. Basically, semi-detached houses can be divided into two main types:

For “standard” house widths (from about 9m (30 feet))
they are usually developed from single-family house designs. These are only adapted in that they lose one window wall;

For “narrow” house widths (sometimes well under 9m (30 feet))
they are typically designed as end units of terraced houses placed side by side.

I am not aware of any house builders in the terraced and semi-detached sector who would be weaker than in the single-family home sector—at least not in terms of quality. In terms of sales volume, there might be some who rarely sell anything but single-family homes—though that might have been true previously for premium brands. Nowadays, plots where only semi-detached houses fit are so common that no builder is “spared” from this market.

Therefore, research results regarding customer satisfaction with a builder can be transferred almost directly between single-family and semi-detached houses.

It looks somewhat different when comparing customer satisfaction now versus in the past: the majority of prefab house manufacturers have changed ownership structures over the last twenty years. In the 1980s, these were still “companies” typically led by the founder’s grandchild. Then came a phase of mergers within these circles, and now they are mostly “brands” (similar to how “Grundig” once was with radios), often owned by investment groups.

What remains are the brand orientations, i.e., brand image and target customer groups. Regarding Okal Haus, I would put it like this: you build with them if you still have a savings book and drive the smallest B-segment car without extras. The currently typical Bien-Zenker customer, from my point of view, is young couples, often dual-income, planning marriage and children. For Streif Haus, I would look at their “Twin” and also “Family” lines with the same in mind to see how they fit.

Look at the reference customers, and see where you most identify with—this is a good indicator whether the builder is right for you.

All those mentioned are neither amateurs nor criminals—you don’t have to worry about any of them.

Personally, however, I would not exclude the solid prefabricated builders and single-brick solid builders. Timber-panel prefabrication is, in my opinion, comparable—though not better.

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