Everything you wanted to know about PreFab Homes

What is a Prefab home?

Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes or simply prefabs, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. 

Wikipedia

A Prefab home simply refers to the construction method of building the entire home off-site, then shipping it to the final building site.  This home or building may be built in one piece or numerous.  This could be a home, cabin, or even large residential developments and hotels.

Technically this could include kit homes and modular or RTM ( Ready-to-Move) homes.  As all these include a prefab component. 

What is a Kit Home?

A kit home can also be called a also known as mill-cut houses, pre-cut houses, ready-cut houses, mail order homes, or catalog homes.  They were popular 50 years ago (hence the catalog home)

Kit Homes and cabins still exist, but are quite different the Prebuilt cabins now available and are largely sold to more remote locations where roads and transportation of an RTM cabin or Modular cabin components simply aren’t viable.

What is a Ready to Move Home?

A Ready to Move Home is a manufactured prefab home ready to be transported on site in one piece to the building site.

A Ready to move home is a complete modern prefab home designed and built in a factory then shipped out as a single unit to be permanently placed on foundation, basement, or piles.

There is great value in having a summer cottage or cabin built as an RTM. Local qualified and reputable contractors can be difficult to find or contract, and doing it on a fixed price even more difficult.  

What is a Modular Prefab Home?

Due to size restrictions, many homes are simply too big to be moved in one piece or there is a restriction on routes, such as a small bridge, or other restriction that requires the manufactured prefab home to be delivered in pieces, instead of one piece like an RTM Home.

Modular buildings and modular homes are prefabricated buildings or houses that consist of repeated sections called modules. “Modular” is a construction method that involves constructing sections away from the building site, then delivering them to the intended site. Installation of the prefabricated sections is completed on site. Prefabricated sections are sometimes placed using a crane. The modules can be placed side-by-side, end-to-end, or stacked, allowing a variety of configurations and styles.
Modular buildings, also called prefabricated homes or precision built homes, are built to equal or higher standards as on-site stick-built homes. The building method is referred to as permanent modular construction.

Wikipedia

Residential modular homes can be any size and are indistinguishable from their traditionally built cousins, the are real estate, real homes.  The only difference is that they are constructed in a precision built factory like Mountain Views,  and not onsite.

They arrive on site finished, with the exception of a little trim work, drywall work and exterior siding work to complete the appearance  as a unified home

Is a Prefab home as well built as a traditional?

A Prebuilt modern home is built to a bare minimum equal to a traditional home.  They must meet all the same basic building codes as any other home, and because they are permanent they are a home in every way no different than any home built in the old way – site or stick built.

Mountain View Homes’ are built far stronger than a traditional home.  Although using the same building codes a Mountain View home has strength built from the inside out to withstand the rigors of travel, and craning.

At Mountain View, this means we utilize an additional layer of internal sheathing to solidify the walls and add additional ceiling support between floors.  This means your home is far stronger, and better built than an old style home. Most reputable manufacturers will build the homes stronger.

After 1992’s hurricane Andrew it was noted that Prefab Homes had far less damage than the homes traditionally built.  “relatively minimal structural damage in modular housing developments. The module-to-module combination of the units appears to have provided an inherently rigid system that performed much better than conventional residential framing.” It is clear if you want a strong home, prefabricated home manufacturers modular or RTM Home or cabin is going to be far superior to a site built home.

Is Modular or Prefab Building Affordable?

Because of the efficiencies found by a precision indoor building facility like Mountain Views largest Southern Alberta Manufacturing facility, it is cheaper to build the home then having all the materials and trades transported to site for every aspect of the build.

Our materials also never see the outdoors, or are exposed to potential theft, so wastage and shortage are dramatically reduced.

In the end, the final price is often 10% less than site built, by the time transportation and crane services are paid for, and site costs like foundations (though we can prefab those too!!)

What are the benefits of a Prefab Home

The benefits of ordering a Prefab manufactured home in British Columbia, Alberta or Sask is that you can utilize the skill and precision that Mountain View RTM provides by building in a CSA approved and inspected facility and the largest indoor modular facility in Southern Alberta.

Benefits include:

• upto 50% faster move in date / Completion
• Warranty by Progressive New Home Warranty
  
• Completely customizable
• No Limits to size or design
• More affordable to build
• No local trade issues.
• Inspections and factory quality
• No weather delays or wastage.
• Cost Control. Mountain View Guarantees our fixed price.  

We would love to talk about your building plans.

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