Prefab homes are the future of the housing market worldwide, with a great many advantages these homes are the beginning of a revolution. The housing market has long been asking for a massive change, one that could become the future, prefab homes are the change this industry needs.
The reasons prefab homes are the future of the housing market are smarter resource management, better economic value, higher quality construction, solution for dense areas, improved construction for residential buildings.
All those reasons are why prefabricated homes are already leading the construction market in Scandinavian countries with more than 90% of houses constructed with prefab methods, and growing fast in other developed nations such as Germany 20%, Japan 23%, Australia, and even the US 7%.
The construction market has been known to be slow in adopting new technologies and improvements. However, as the situation on the housing market is evolving new solutions are in need if nations wish to keep up with the growing need for homes. Prefabs are the future as they can ensure that homes would be built within the desired schedule and high quality and many benefits to our society.
With that said, it looks like that in the next 5 to 10 years prefab homes might become a dominant power in the construction of new homes and neighborhoods. To understand why this is happening one should understand the benefits of prefab homes over stick-built homes and the factors that drive prefabs into the future.
Smart Resource Use For Better Future
Our home – the Earth, is a wonderful place with an abundance of different materials that we humans have perfected for our use. However, the resources on earth are limited and finite, meaning, at some point those wonderful resources will end.
As the construction market consumes large amounts of materials and human labor hours making sure everything goes where it should is beyond the bounds of possibility. The reason being is that following every single action during a construction process on a stick-built home or residential building involves a larger craw and control, whereas prefabs are limited to the factory floor and designated roles and actions.
The production of prefab homes is done inside a closed facility where each station constructing the same part or section over and over again. This is a highly methodical process that was planned in advance and perfected to be completed in the shortest time and with the best quality possible.
Additionally, as prefabricated homes are constructed in an industrialized process their resources are measured in advance which makes construction waste almost non-existing. Apart from making the costs lower for prefab homes making less waste helps reduce the ecological impact of each house.
Thus, prefab homes are indeed the choice of the future, as we are facing a challenging period of climate change large parts of our culture must adjust. A huge impact on our environment can be reduced by making housing construction into a sustainable and green prefabricated production process.
Cheaper For The Future Of The Economy
Prefab homes will shift the construction industry to be more economically efficient. Unfortunately, this change will put some people out of business as simpler jobs will be lost, however, with each interrupting change happening opportunities for more skilled and contributing jobs will open, including training programs.
Now, as this shift will occur the construction environment will change, with things like building all parts and homes on one site and delivery systems that can be managed to be fully economic.
First, building in a factory saves unworkable days outside as the factory floor is closed from weather impacts. This means that workers can work more and have a stable job which in turn gives those men and women more buying power – good for the economy.
Second, and also related to weather impacts, raw materials and completed sections of the prefab homes are stored safely which makes for less waste and higher efficiency as well.
Third, transforming the home construction process into an industrialized one supports the introduction of industrial engineering methods to this field. It starts with materials management to the actual layout of the factory floor stations and follows with computer systems to help manage deliveries, purchase orders, and not to mention design.
Making a shift towards a more industrialized process reduces production time, error rate, improves quality, and improves efficiency, all of which improve the economic model of the construction industry.
Better Quality High-End Prefabs For The Future
Building homes for the masses can be pictured as low-end prefab homes, but, with better technology and more companies improving the process high-end prefab homes are more likely to be built sooner rather than later.
Up until recently, the high-end homes constructed were reserved for the rich and privileged in our society. Thus, building a high-tech or advanced home was for many just a dream. Because prefab manufacturers are becoming more popular these days the possibilities for higher quality homes are rising as well.
If the construction process is cheaper, a larger chunk could be invested in higher quality materials, finishing, and appliances, not to mention better insulation properties and lower electrical bills. This also improves the sustainability of each prefab home while lowering the general public carbon footprint.
As the prefab industry will grow so does its ability to deliver high-quality homes, this is the result of growth which puts more power at the hands of the prefab factories that will result in greater burgeoning power over suppliers and greater market share.
Besides, the conception of prefab homes that were up until not long ago of low-quality “catalog on wheels” homes is now changing. More people are ordering prefab homes like modular, panelized, or kit homes as they are attracted to their pros over the stick-built homes.
Future Dense Building Areas Solution
It is a fact that more people are living in cities than ever before and the trend is only predicted to grow in coming years. It is estimated that by 2050 at least 66% of the world’s population will live in cities and other urban centers, this creates a denser environment which puts pressure on the traditional way we build homes.
Denser areas today are teaching us lessons for the future as stick-built homes are harder to build prefab homes become an almost magic solution. Some lots are so small that there is no space for construction materials to be stored on-site, this creates workflow delays as workers might need to wait for materials and even stop working early as materials have not arrived.
Additionally, waste disposal, materials delivery, heavy machinery, etc. could become harder to manage in higher density areas. Getting trucks in and out of job sites daily could prove to be harder and harder.
This is where prefab homes are becoming the solution for all those problems, space for storage inside the factory’s ground, waste disposal from the factory almost exclusively, and a short interruption to the neighborhood as the on-site construction phase is extremely fast (could take only a couple of days).
Prefabs homes are more sustainable and appropriate for the future of the housing market and the future of us urban humans. Prefab manufacturing is better suited for the future of urban life but also country life, which benefits from high-quality homes, faster building times, highly economic, and less destructive to the environment.
Overall the urbanization process is bound to continue and prefab homes go hand in hand with it as they are better suited for changing surroundings and needs of this future urban system.
Constructing Residential Buildings With Prefabs
As the technology of prefabs improves the range of homes available is expanding as well and even residential buildings are starting to be built with prefab technics.
Building residential buildings using prefabricated units and sections could speed the process up and make it way more economic. These improvements could prove to be even more tremendous than in the private homes market as a larger scale production benefits more from lower costs and more improvements.
The trend of using prefab sections for larger and more complex buildings is already happening with schools, hospitals, and government facilities being constructed with modular prefabricated sections. They are the early adopters of this technology and as time will pass so does the building codes will change to enable greater use of modular prefabricated residential buildings.
This could mean the end of the traditional building method, as prefabs as mentioned above and on my post is just better and more suited for the future of our kind.
Having a system that could be almost autonomous and produce homes at a faster pace and a lower energy consumption is what our future needs. Those manufacturers will improve with time and learn to create the best homes and buildings possible to make our life more sustainable.
Moreover, building residential buildings using prefab systems will open far more options for design as the planning and construction are easier off-site than it is on-site. The computerized design process followed by a methodical production line can create new and highly efficient designs for residential buildings.
Lastly, it is true that not all prefab manufacturers are ready to start constructing residential buildings with multiple floors and some might never will, but those who will choose to do so will be those with the best odds for success. Thus, when prefab residential buildings will start to become the norm method for constriction it is surely will be better in every way possible.
Prefab Homes Are The Future Of The Housing Market
I’m sure there are more reasons for prefab homes to be the future of the housing market though in my eyes the above 5 reasons will be the driving forces for this construction method to take over the global market.
If we care about our future and the future of our children we should really consider supporting the prefabricated homes industry today so that it may advance faster. A sustainable housing market is good for everyone and creates a fair opportunity for people to live and work wherever they choose to do so.
Additionally, taking care of our earth should be in our best interest as Mars isn’t ready to receive humans and it may take some time to get a sustainable colony up there, so until this happens Earth is all we got. With smarter use of our resources such as materials, space, and energy prefab homes will be able to support our growing housing needs and keep the environmental impact low.
This is why prefab homes will be the future of the housing market with improved systems, faster construction times, better suited for the urban way of life, and suited to deal with climate change.
I hope you feel the same as I do in regards to this industry, yes or no, feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Until next time
My Alternative House