Prefab Houses Are No Longer 2-Room Cottages without Indoor Plumbing!

Posted: Sep 06, 2012
Author: 1st Choice Home Centers

Prefab houses have a long history in America. An early version of a prefabricated house was sent from the United Kingdom in the 1600s, but prefabrication as we know it today, didn’t gain momentum until the invention of "house kits." These kits contained every component of a house, so that people could either construct them themselves or hire builders.

Today, prefab houses are no longer small, 2-room cottages without indoor plumbing! They can be thousands of square feet in size with basements and multiple stories. They have evolved dramatically, and like you can now have heated seats and a GPS system in your car, you can add crown moldings and hot tubs to your prefab home.

The assembly of prefab houses is based on the same principle as that of a car. Henry Ford’s mass-production method of his famous Model T enabled the average consumer to afford a car. It’s the same with prefab houses – the assembly-line production at factories and bulk buying of materials decrease construction time and cost.

Modular homes and manufactured homes fall under the umbrella term “prefab housing.”

Manufactured homes (also known as mobile homes): These are built on non-removable steel frames and must be constructed in accordance with the HUD Code (Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards).

Modular housing: This is considered to be a higher class sibling of manufactured housing. A modular home consists of modules or units that are made in factories and constructed on site:

Construction must conform to North Carolina’s regional and local building codes which go beyond the HUD Code.