Decision-making: Prefabricated house or solid house

We are still at the very beginning of our house planning, and right now the question arises: prefab or solid house?

We have already been to a prefab house provider and to an architect with whom we would build traditionally, brick by brick and solid.
As far as I know, there is not much difference nowadays regarding both quality and costs. My boyfriend tends more towards the solid house, while I am still somewhere in the middle.
With the prefab house, however, it would be the case for us that we would completely "take out" some trades (sanitary, heating, and possibly also painting) - we have a sanitary and heating technician in the family (my father), who would then also lay the corresponding installation pipes. So it would be quite a bit that the prefab provider would not do...
What is the experience with this? We fear that this "omission" of trades would ultimately also have to be paid for again.
We could also contribute some own work, although probably more in terms of interior finishing (painting, laying floors).
The plot is available and developed.

Of course, we would also like a speedy completion, as we currently live in rented accommodation.

What would you tend to choose in our special situation?

Hi,

we recently faced the same problem and decided to build solidly! Why? Quite simple:

- A solid house is not as noisy as a prefabricated house.
- It stores heat better and releases it nicely again.
- It is more durable than a prefabricated house.
- If you drill a hole in the wall, you can seal it well again, which is somewhat more difficult with a prefabricated house with a wooden frame.

I think you can’t go wrong with a prefabricated house, but I tend to prefer solid house construction.

Best regards Marcus

That was not a question for us for long.

It quickly became clear: solid.

Reasons for this have already been given.

But: there are also prefab house providers who build solid houses.

Hi,

we recently faced the same problem and we decided to build a solid house! Why? Quite simply:

- A solid house is not as noisy as a prefabricated house.
- It stores heat better and also releases it nicely.
- It is more durable than a prefab house.
- If you drill a hole in the wall, you can easily seal it again, which is a bit more difficult with a prefab house with a wooden frame.

I think you can't go wrong with a prefab house, but I tend to prefer building a solid house.

Best regards Marcus

The salesman did a thorough job here. These are the most common prejudices there are.

Why should a prefab house be noisy? In our house, all floors are decoupled for sound, and I can tell you, the floors don’t creak either. A colleague who also lives in a prefab house lives in the flight path to Baden Airport. When the windows are closed, he hears nothing. Technically, everything is possible.

A modern house is so well insulated that it hardly releases any heat anyway, so where should the advantage of heat storage lie?

With proper care, meaning you keep the wooden house dry, it should last long enough before you want to tear it down for energy reasons. Just try moving into an unsanitary old building from 1940 today...
A lot has really changed in prefab house construction. I know my aunt’s prefab house from 1980 and ours from 2013... a world of difference. Unfortunately also in price.

Especially when drilling holes, a wooden house with wooden panels in the walls has its advantage. If I want to hang a picture, mirror, or kitchen cabinet, I just screw a few Spax screws into the wall with a cordless screwdriver. No drilling, no plugs, nothing. Even my heavy kitchen cabinets hang like this. The hole is sealed as long as the screw is inside; if I remove the screw, and it was an outer wall, I just put some acrylic in and the place is sealed.
After laying the floors, I had to screw about 200 screws for the baseboards... if I had to insert a plug every time, I still wouldn’t be finished today. Just put the cordless screwdriver on and that’s it.

I think nowadays both construction methods are on par. Neither in terms of construction time nor living quality. A solid build has a long drying phase and compensates for the longer waiting time of prefab houses. On the other hand, prefab construction has the advantage that usually one week after setting up the house, the heating is running and the screed is laid. Our house was built in December, and we could have moved in 4 weeks ago if we hadn’t done any work ourselves.
I’m sure if you visit us, no one will notice it is a prefab house.

The only disadvantage you have: banks rate the house significantly worse and lump all prefab houses together.
That is especially annoying for people who need to sell it later or require more credit.
I would build a prefab house again anytime because I really like the feeling that the exterior walls were made in a dry hall. The further construction process was also very impressive.

Hello,

We are still at the very beginning of our house building planning and right now the question arises: prefabricated house or solid house?

In the case of a prefabricated house, however, it would be that we would completely "remove" some trades (sanitary, heating, and possibly also painting work) - we have a sanitary and heating specialist in the family (my father), who would then also lay the corresponding installation pipes. So it would be quite a bit that the prefab house provider would not do...
What does this look like based on experience? We fear that we would end up having to pay for this "omission" of trades again.

"I don't think you have to 'pay' for it; the problem arises elsewhere, namely where the warranty begins, and it does not matter whether you choose the prefab or solid house option. If you want to completely exclude the sanitary trade via your father, you should also carry out all subsequent trades as own work (EL), basically after the shell construction is completed. Because what actually happens if a problem occurs on the construction site related to the sanitary trade? Or where sanitary and electrical have intersections? Exactly – then the argument begins about who is to blame... You can avoid this by carrying out a formal acceptance of the construction project before the EL and only then start your EL. Then the responsibilities are clearly regulated.

We would of course also be interested in a speedy completion, as we currently live in a rental.

The differences between prefab and solid house – in terms of time – are marginal...

Which would you tend to favor in our specific situation?

I will not advise you for either method. This is a very personal decision and must come from you yourself. There is no exclusively good or absolutely bad option with either variant; always assuming you choose a reputable provider.

Rhine greetings

Hello DerDa,

you can read everywhere that you are a fan of prefabricated houses. But why should a house actually be torn down from an energy perspective? How many old solid houses are torn down or are they simply renovated with new insulation? How many solid houses do you know that already stood in the 19th century and how many prefabricated houses from that time? Well, let me ask differently, how old is the oldest prefabricated house and when was it first built? I really don’t know, but certainly not in the 19th century.
Why a solid house stores heat simply results from the mass. This keeps the temperature more constant.
Why do you always bring up your favorite argument “drilling holes”? I already asked you once how often you actually drill holes? I don’t hang new pictures every day.

So price-wise they are probably even more expensive and time-wise not much changes either.
What I am a "fan" of should be clear