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38 Comments
- suxmonkey, on 11/10/2008, -1/+13Whoa, houses on wheels FTW ... or FWIAHDTR (For When I Am Homeless During This Recession)
- a117, on 11/10/2008, -1/+10Yeah, it's pretty cool... but are any of them zombie proof? I don't want 2 inches of corrugated cardboard between me and the legions of undead.
- jaybol, on 11/10/2008, -0/+8i love this stuff and the things you see in magazines like dwell where people maximize a small living space
- Lula87, on 11/10/2008, -0/+6Populations are soaring, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these shipping container-looking apartments start popping up to make living space more affordable.
- bradleyland, on 11/10/2008, -0/+5We live in a 500 sq ft house, and while it can be hard at times, I'm often thankful for our modest living arrangements. It keeps our living costs extremely low, and when you don't have space to accumulate a bunch of *****, you spend a lot less time cleaning and organizing. When we buy/build a home, I'd like it to be one of these.
- oaktree, on 11/10/2008, -1/+6Prefab homes are for poor people...oh wait, not this apartment building in Ohio. The corner unit goes for $2400/mo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/56075875@N00/sets/721 ...
- Culyt, on 11/10/2008, -0/+3I'm more concerned with Velociraptors myself.
None of those bar style door handles in my house, just normal knobs.
I'm also not convinced that the corrugated iron from shipping containers is enough.
Interestingly enough, since Jurassic Park scientists have girlied up Velociraptors, they are now called Deinonychous (The original name is used to describe midget ones) and have more feathers than a drag queen... :/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinonychus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor#In_popul ...
☢ - qhiiyr, on 11/10/2008, -2/+442
- normlsparky, on 11/10/2008, -0/+2I am a construction electrician and I'm not buying this BS. I have wired new homes of various quality levels and done the electrical work setting up modular homes. They may have improved appearance wise over the years, but most of them are still junk when compared to even the cheapest of houses. Several of these modular homes have required electrical trouble shooting and repair because of improper wiring from the factory. They are assembled by unskilled factory workers. You get what you pay for. I wouldn't spend one thin dime of my money on one of them.
- digitalhippie, on 11/10/2008, -1/+3I love prefabs, but they are still too expensive. I wish someone would come up with an elegant prefab that really demonstrates a huge cost savings.
- jwolcott, on 11/10/2008, -0/+2trailer park stylez
- Pyeman73, on 11/10/2008, -0/+2As long as they don't resemble ship cargo containers or trailers, I'm willing to have a look at the new styles popping up. Some of them are very Jetson-ish.
- Leviathan433, on 11/10/2008, -0/+2Now children, if you feed him he will only want to follow you home and live under your bridge.
- Pyeman73, on 11/10/2008, -0/+2Sparky's got a point, and I speak from a lot of experience myself. I have, however, seen a marked improvement in the quality of many of the prefabs available recently. More upscale options that will likely get a lot more attention (we're currently at 468 Diggs, for example) during the recession. There are also companies marketing "Green" prefabs exclusively which might also strike a "current chord" with a lot of people: http://www.bluhomes.com for example.
- sodade, on 11/10/2008, -0/+2Spartan lifestyle FTW
- Jambi, on 11/10/2008, -0/+2Or you could live in the non crappy part of a city. I was born in a large city and for the most part grew up in several of them... no way in hell you could pay me to ever live in a suburb; there's nothing to do in those places.
- doomeyes, on 11/10/2008, -0/+1They all have a 1950s futurist style, which I find very aesthetically pleasing.
- normlsparky, on 11/11/2008, -0/+1Having unskilled assemblers who know almost nothing about electricity or electrical codes isn't what I'd call quality control. The quality differences in even the electrical outlets is astounding. How many outlets do you have in your prefab? Once the warranty expires, you better factor in the price of replacing many of them at some point into your total savings. I've seen this lack of quality 1st hand.
If the quality or safety of newly constructed homes in your area is inadequate, then your state or local laws should be changed. Thankfully, my state (WI) just passed legislation requiring all electricians to be state licensed. Although this will cut down on the number of idiots wiring houses, it will do nothing to eliminate crap wiring in mobile/modular homes. At least the warranty will provide me with job security fixing them, as it is all billed to the manufacturer while still under warranty. - normlsparky, on 11/11/2008, -0/+1Until these manufacturers start hiring qualified individuals (and paying them accordingly) to build their products, I don't see how quality will ever improve. Not only that, but the quality of the electrical devices, such as switches and receptacles, are not even in the same league. Electrical work is not equivalent to installing carpet or drywall. The results of improper installation are not comparable. At best, the electrical device (light, switch, receptacle) won't work. At worst, the improper installation could cause a fire and result in the death of the occupants. These manufacturers need to reevaluate the areas where cutting corners and costs are appropriate. Safety of the occupants should always outweigh savings and profits.
- oaktree, on 11/10/2008, -1/+2This is an example of the negative stigma I'm talking about.
- normlsparky, on 11/11/2008, -0/+1Quality of construction is hard to argue with. Your "stigma" has been earned, not unfairly applied. I grew up in a very nice double wide trailer, and I can say that the quality of construction was crap. It looked nice, but under the surface, it was still crap. Not even remotely comparable to a stick built house of the poorest quality.
I am now an electrician who wires new houses and sets up modular / mobile homes. The difference in quality is even more pronounced to me now that I work in the construction industry. If you want to rid yourself of this stigma, do something to change this. Try hiring a competent, union trained electrician to come into your factory and critique your installation methods and materials. You would be surprised how much difference there is. Engineers may know what looks good on paper, but people don't live on paper. - sodade, on 11/10/2008, -2/+3Where I live, hiring a contractor to build a house is a gamble. 50% of them are drunks or drug addicts who go out on a week long bender after you give them any money. I'd much rather have my house built in a factory with quality controls and a warranty (that should pay for any defects like you mentioned).
- normlsparky, on 11/11/2008, -0/+1I just noticed that these prefab homes you are working on are being installed in the Gulf Coast area. How are they at holding up to the punishment dished out during the increasing number of hurricanes in that region?
- zmigliozzi, on 11/10/2008, -0/+1WTB Practicality, oh wait this is digg.
- normlsparky, on 11/11/2008, -0/+1Unfortunately, one of the main considerations of prefab or mobile home construction is weight. The finished product has to be light enough to be capable of being moved easily down the road and set up at a given location. This means that cheap, lightweight building components MUST be used to achieve the desired end result. Zombies can easily claw their way through hollow core doors and thin walls. So can crack heads with utility knives. If you insist on living in one of these, use the money you save to buy lots of weapons and ammo. I would recommend an AR-10 (.308) and/or a 12 gauge shotgun for their stopping power. In my experience, the 5.56 round requires multiple hits on the said zombie to produce the desired results.
- oaktree, on 11/12/2008, -0/+1Well an apartment building like what I'm doing would have to comply with commercial building codes which require licensed electricians, plumbers, etc. The factory building my projects (I'm the architect) are high-end modular builders with properly licensed and trained skilled workers as well as typical unskilled laborers you'd find on any job site. Because of the complexity of my projects, they are subject to the same local inspections as a stick built apartment building. Complying with codes and quality workmanship is not an issue due to these factors and the fact that I'm in the factory and on site doing intensive 'construction observation.' Not to disparage you or your coworkers, but with my experience, we have more trouble with the crews in the field installing the modular boxes in these large complex projects. You're right, the whole industry has to bring their standards of workmanship up to the same levels as stick built if they want to compete, but projects like I've shown are at that level, if not beyond and will work to dispel the (well earned) stigma attached to modular housing.
- shockbeton, on 11/10/2008, -0/+1This furniture design takes the flat pack concept to its conclusion: http://www.leadholder.com/portfolio/furniture-tc17 ...
- psyclonic, on 11/10/2008, -0/+1modularity of small space becomes more important as we move away from heating/cooling the entire structure by burning carbon. manufacturing semi-permanent dwelling units, however mobile is a good start.
- Elranzer, on 11/10/2008, -0/+1The 1950s were in the past, though...
- oaktree, on 11/10/2008, -0/+1normlsparky - While quality has been a problem in the past, some companies are embracing the potential for large-scale commercial apartment buildings and improving their quality and workmanship to the necessary levels. The building in the link I provided above is a great example of what can be done. I'm working on a slew of similar buildings along the Gulf Coast as well. There is a stigma attached to Modular Housing, but buildings like the ones I'm working on are working are doing wonders to dispel that stigma.
- nowhereelse, on 11/10/2008, -1/+1This sort of architecture is always aesthetically pleasing but I thought many of the designs looked like they couldn't possibly have enough insulation. Without that, you'd need your heating/AC running most of the time and that would not be cheap or green.
- dedringer, on 11/10/2008, -0/+0As soon as someone writes 'buzz word' and 'contemporary architectural design' into the same sentence the deal's off sorry.
- inactive, on 11/10/2008, -1/+1lol zombie robot pirate penguin ninjas XD *holds up spork*
- Richcolour, on 11/10/2008, -0/+0These prefabs are sprouting up all over town.
IGMC. - j0hnk377y, on 11/10/2008, -1/+1Can I get my box in cardboard?
- greatgatsbyII, on 11/10/2008, -1/+1So will the commenters cheer the eco friendly qualities of this, or will they say it only leads to more cookie cutter houses in suburban sprawl?
- Jough, on 11/10/2008, -0/+0MIRROR:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000J43AIQ - theadvinci, on 11/10/2008, -6/+1They look cool, but I probably wouldn't live in any of them.
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