Prefabricated house vs. solid house - price difference?

2016-01-10 14:13:59

If you are considering a prefabricated house, also take a look at local carpentry companies. We are currently building a house with a timber frame construction with a lot of exposed wood and wouldn't want anything else anymore.

2016-01-10 14:44:09

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All in all, that makes about €250,000 for the house! (Material for self-performed work included).

With prefabricated house suppliers, I was always looking at around €320,000 - €350,000 – also with the above-mentioned self-performed work! (I always had a show house offered, as we are currently still in the preliminary planning phase with the architect).

But how does such a large price difference come about?

We had similar experiences. In our case, it was mostly due to individual wishes (double garage, living basement), which prefabricated house suppliers usually can only implement through subcontractors. Here, they mostly overreached considerably or quoted prices that were beyond good and evil. A popular trick was, for example, the approach to charge for the living basement almost "twice." So, a flat rate of 60k was called for a living basement and then another ~€2,000 per sqm of living space. Surely, such a living basement can always hold surprises, but we always had the vague feeling that if things went well, you wouldn't see any of your money again.

2016-01-10 16:06:00

If you are considering a prefab house, also take a look at local carpentry companies. We are currently building a house in timber frame construction with lots of exposed wood and wouldn’t want anything else.

Yes, we have thought about that and have already spoken with someone who would build using timber frame construction. I really like it – however, that would result in a main contract procurement. And to be honest, I don’t have the time for that – I definitely need a general contractor I can trust. (I am professionally traveling about 20% of the time and also self-employed on the side; mostly on weekends).

2016-01-10 16:11:18

We had similar experiences. In our case, however, it was mostly due to individual requests (double garage, basement living area), which prefab house providers usually can only implement through subcontractors. Here, they mostly overreached heavily or called out offer prices beyond good and evil. A popular method was, for example, with the basement living area, the approach to practically "double" charge it. So a flat rate of 60k was sometimes asked for a basement living area and then another ~2,000 euros/sqm of living space. Surely such a basement living area can always be full of surprises, but we always had the dull feeling that if things went well, you wouldn't see any of your money again.

It looks more or less like this for us too! We want a double garage (or garage + carport) as well as a basement living area. And the prices were similar – even with companies that would offer the basement themselves. Then simple windows for 30,000€ (I get identical ones for about 7,000€ plus installation). And all the offers are written in such a way that you can’t compare or read anything from them at all! The offer from the general contractor is much more detailed.

How did you finally decide?

2016-01-10 16:14:15

Oh man RoLi no Google? DIN 68800: untreated wood must be installed! Simply put: constructive wood protection before chemical wood protection! Point 1. Exceptionally (!) impregnated wood may be used, but as said, exceptionally. As a builder, you have to be justified why you are getting this stuff. DIN 4074: for 30/50 battens, sorting class S 10 is specified according to 4074. I have not seen impregnated battens in S 10 and I travel a lot in this republic. Depending on the rafter spacing, even 40/60 are required (also in S 10). Of course, these things are all a bit more expensive; it is technically dried wood.

It also says so in the roofer’s specialist rule, the carpenter probably hasn’t read it for a long time...

Thank you very much! I do have Google - I also looked up what the standards are about, but honestly I didn’t read everything - and even if I had, as a layman I probably would have overlooked the crucial parts.

But even if I add everything up now, I generously estimate about €20,000 additional costs. That’s still an €80,000 difference to the prefabricated house, so yes – I might be comparing a Golf to a Passat – but a bit of special equipment on top and I have exactly what I need and save money on something that is not necessarily required.

2016-01-10 16:33:37

How did you finally decide?

With an architect. At some point, we were also tired of talking to the companies. Especially since we always said we wanted a "living basement," floor-to-ceiling windows, and we want to go out at ground level. So nothing with a white tub or anything like that. In the end, our basement is basically like a ground floor.

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Prefabricated house vs. solid house - price difference?

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R0Li84

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