It is 2014. Your phone probably has a touch screen and apps for each part of your life. Your car may have satellite radio or be able to connect to the internet. But how has the building world changed? One way is the pre-fabricated homes have changed drastically since their introduction as an alternative home building method.
The first homes that were assembled on a production line were exceedingly basic and did not have many options to choose from. Some manufactures continue to use this style of building. By only offering a few floor plans, which cannot be changed, these builders can take advantage of decreased engineering time and costs. In the same vein, by offering only one or a few cabinet, trim and door, or carpet colors these builders can take advantage of bulk buying power and decreased learning curves for installation techniques. These procedures streamline time and costs and provide exceptionally affordable housing, which will always be a need.
There are also modular, or systems, builders who have gone the other direction and have no set way of building. Each home is engineered and built different. Anything is possible with time and money which means that there are no limits to the beautiful, elegant mansions that some pre-fab modern home builders are capable of designing. There are still some benefits of completely custom pre-fabricated building like timeliness and reduced weather delays, however this cuts the cost-effectiveness factor down drastically.
At Rochester Homes, we believe there is value in the middle. By offering customization, to a degree, and many, but not endless, options to choose from, we can take advantage of many of the benefits of modular home building systems. In order to do this, we do our best to stick to standard building dimensions, component sizes, and truss lengths, so that we can buy lumber in bulk and have systemized components which cut down on expensive engineering times. As far as the interior and exterior finish of our homes are concerned, we customarily offer a handful of color or style choices for each component in your home. This gives us a nice balance between design capabilities and buying efficiencies. And of course if our standard offerings don’t quite cover your taste or budget desires, we can always omit certain components to be finished on-site, without disrupting the flow of the production line, which helps greatly to save building time and costs.
The future has a lot in store for systems-built homes. As with any building project, buying your home is a major investment and it is important to work with people who can serve your needs. Pre-fab homes have the capability to meet most housing needs today, and are an increasingly viable building method for the future.