Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Houses do come as flat pack. You just fail to realize what a miracle the 2x4 is, and all the other standard parts. Walls could come as a unit, but that makes shipping harder and since people (for good reason) don't like identical houses there isn't even any savings possible doing it in a factory.



Prefab/modular is a thing, it isn’t really cheaper yet, but there are niche cases where they have benefits over stick builds. Quality, for example, can be better with prefab, since QA in the factory might be better than QA on-site.


Cover is a company that tries to apply auto manufacturing knowledge to build modular homes. ATM they are super luxurious and expensive granny flats (auxilary unit), but I can't see why they can't scale up in future.

That said steel houses have been tried and have few downsides - echo, blocks RF and hard to modify.


I've framed stick built houses and assembled modular homes on site and let me tell you modular wins hands down for build quality.


While that can be true, modular has earned a reputation for bad quality. When you buy one with good quality it is only a little cheaper than stick built on site, and stick built gives a lot more options.


Yeah I'm not convinced that reputation is earned. As I said elsewhere in the thread modules are built significantly more rugged than the equivalent stick built construction due to having to survive the rigors of transportation and installation. If there's any grounds at all for critique it might be interior surface treatments, but those are customizable.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: