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A hundred years ago, you could mail order a house from the Sears catalog (they are call “craftsmen” homes). The big problem I’ve noticed with factory built in
by hedora 3y ago
A hundred years ago, you could mail order a house from the Sears catalog (they are call “craftsmen” homes).
The big problem I’ve noticed with factory built in California is that the house itself is something like 25% the price and much less than half the calendar time it takes from buying land to moving into the house.
So, you can save 10% in money and time, or go full custom.
(No, none of what I just said should be true; hopefully it’s mostly just a California problem…)
- eesmith 3y agoFWIW, Sears houses were also discussed in the article: > (Some companies reduce transportation costs by shipping homes in smaller pieces, an approach pioneered by Sears and other retailers of “build your own home” kits in the early 20th century, but that just shifts the cost from transportation to assembly.)
- hedora 3y agoIt is unclear to me that it’s more expensive to assemble the kit on site than in a factory. Yes, weather is an issue. However, the “factory floor” is effectively infinite size. If robots were assembling the houses and doing the finish work then they’d have a better argument. With the Sears approach, you can still have robots do most of the cutting and part of the fabrication.