You say it’s the wrong optimization but your argument seems to be that there are bigger problems. I tend to agree, particularly with pernicious stuff like single-unit zoning and such, but that doesn’t mean that prefab is “wrong” overall. I don’t see it as a cost optimization, I see it as a speed and consistency optimization. Do we know if long-term maintenance costs of prefab construction are lower?
Seems like it would be hard to reason about. Consistency is great but it means if you order assembled wall panels from a factory, your foundation has to be exact in dimensions and dead level, or it's not going to come together. On-site framers aren't really bothered by this. I think it trades one kind of complexity for another.
This is really key. The quality of the end product will always be determined by the crew that sets the house. Same will be true for custom stick-built.
The biggest challenge we faced, even with a skilled crew, was simply getting the pieces into some of these lots in the ADK. Between the tight winding roads and lot elevation, it was quite a battle.
Source: My family has been in the modular and manufactured housing business since the 60s.
Well, you’ve certainly proved that I don’t understand this well enough to evaluate alternatives, fascinating though I do find this subject :) I guess the dimensions seem like they’d be easier to get right than leveling, though, maybe?
It costs more than it is worth to have them do better. As a framer is takes me a couple minutes more to compensate. To have the do it would take hours of labor.
I presume you're talking about scribing the bottom plate, or perhaps another board placed between the foundation and the bottom plate? Why couldn't a layer of that same sort of scribed board be placed on the foundation before placing the prefab modules?
Depends on where it was. The worst case I saw was a half wall, so we cut each stud a different length.
There are options for prefab as you saw - but when building on site we have the saws and other tools needed anyway, so it isn't a big deal to use them. With prefab they don't normally use those tools so you have to account for the cost of getting them out putting them away.
"What do you mean you didn't finish all the tickets in this sprint? Must be shoddy work."
You're looking at single pieces of a complex and already optimized-for-several-factors system and assuming it would be trivial to do it better for one factor without taking others into account...
