So, after much consideration, planning, dreaming, and budgeting you have decided to build your own house. The traditional, brick and mortar one, that is. Congratulations!
But before you take on this life-size project, you probably know that building a house can be both time and money-consuming, as well as quite stressful if you decide to be your own project manager. And if you do choose to manage this mammoth project yourself, here are some questions that you need to ponder over before you even lay the first brick:
- What is your budget and how much are you prepared to go over?
- What about unforeseen costs (like additional surveying of your land, increase in prices of building materials etc.)?
- How and where to find a good and professional builder?
- How to work around bad weather?
- Do you have enough time and patience to stick with it? Bear in mind that the most basic house takes at least six months to build.
- Can your lifestyle (family, marriage, work) handle such a large-scale project?
- How to find the best location for your house?
- How are you going to deal with delays because contractors usually never finish on time?
- Do you really know how you want your house to look like, down to the colour of your door knobs?
- Are you good with managing people (because you will have a whole army to manage)?
These questions are just a tip of the iceberg and, as you start building, rest assured that many more will pop up. These and many other issues are the most important reasons why prefabricated houses are becoming all the rage. The modern prefab houses bear almost no resemblance the ugly, grey, low-end, box-like, mass-produced housing that you are probably associating with the term.
Prefab houses have had a very contemporary makeover and now they can be as elegant and comfortable as any traditionally designed house. Prefab houses are becoming more common and more in demand and here are just a few reasons for that.
One of probably the biggest benefits of having a prefab house is cost-effectiveness. Unlike traditionally built houses, prefab houses rarely go over the budget and they are real money savers. They are highly energy efficient which means that your heating and air conditioning bills will be very manageable. After all, they are considered a form of green building.
Prefab houses have excellent insulation and since they are made in an indoor, strictly controlled environment, their construction is much more precise and accurate.
Prefabricated houses usually come with a fixed timeline and take less time to build. As we all know, time is money and less time is spent on construction, less money is wasted. It takes approximately twelve weeks to build a prefab houses and maybe another week or two to install it.
Imagine the money you are going to save from upfront planning, expedited fabrication and no delays. Another important fact to consider is that these houses are built off-site which means that weather has no effect on the construction process. Furthermore, off-site production eliminates the need for home inspection which is another money saver.
There is also another important benefit to consider when deciding between a traditionally built and a prefab house and that is flexibility. The design of prefab houses can be easily changed and they permit a high level of customization. This puts you in complete creative control of the project. In terms of wasted building materials, prefabricated houses are winners yet again.
Some of the manufacturers of prefab houses even offer to their customers a local government’s approval guarantee meaning that they are confident that their houses are perfectly structurally sound and are made in compliance with the strictest building codes and standards.
Last but not least, there is the safety aspect to consider. Worker safety is much higher during prefab construction than during traditional, on-site construction. Less equipment is required to assemble a prefab home which again reduces the costs and environmental damage that fumes and smokes from construction machines make.
All in all, prefabricated homes are more accessible, more sustainable, more energy efficient, cheaper, quicker to build, more environmentally friendly and easier to modify. More importantly, they are much less taxing on your well-being since there is almost no stress involved.
