bored-silly

Boring thread I know but has anyone in the US (or Canada) had any experience of the 'flat pack' home I keep seeing? Or know of any companies that do them and will actually give me a price to erect one?
Thanks
Rachel

AmerLisa

Interesting concept....flat pack homes. I've never heard of them. I swear it makes me think of things we've bought either at Ikea or MFI....

Englishmum

When we were in Vermont last week I saw a couple of lorries with 'half' of a house on the roads.

They looked like long single-storey cottages, which presumably were attached to each other on-site.

I thought they were rather nice.

In the village where we have our house in Essex (England) someone bought a plot of land at the end of our cul-de-sac. He then erected one of those 'Potton' homes....a sort of Tudor style house, where you buy the plans and materials from Potton and build it yourself. It looked pretty good when it was completed.

http://www.potton.co.uk/

I should imagine that if they meet the fire safety regulations that they must be ok....but I guess it's difficult to get a mortgage (unless you put down a hefty deposit?).

In our neighbourhood all the smaller houses are being demolished and larger houses are being erected in their place (which I think may happen to our next-door neighbour's house which is on the market). I just don't know how people can afford to buy a house, knock it down and build a new one on the same site.

bored-silly

Thanks. I have seen them advertised over here and on that 'Extreme makeover Home Edition' show. The only web sites I can find are those of the manufacturers and not contractors who can actually do it for us.
We are just trying to explore all areas seeing as housing is so expensive in the bay area. We are looking at $850k for a small three bedroom house which will need remodelling. Anything half decent which does not need a huge lot of work is well over $1m and probably does not have a huge back garden.
I think I read somewhere that these flat packs come for about $150k which seems like a much ceaper option for us.

Rete

I saw your post and had to ask my Canadian husband what the world you were talking about. He had to think a moment but then laughed like a loon. It would appear you are talking about the homes that come in a box that you have to put together yourself. Much like playing with Lincoln Logs ;-)

He and I are going to be doing the modular home thing when we retire in a few years. Those are the ones that Englishmum was talking about. I've read up on the modes and they seem to be good construction and better able to withstand extreme temperatures such as in Canada and/or in the South of the US then regular homes as there are few seams to let in the elements.

Hey good luck to you.

Rete

bored-silly

Really laughed? So they are crap? Oh well, back to plan b (selling my body)....
Having looked at the Potton site, thats what we were looking for. Just have to see if they fancy a trip to sunny California...

Englishmum

Here's some info here....I didn't know that the terms 'manufactured homes' and 'modular homes' mean totally different things:

http://homebuying.about.com/cs/modul...dularhomes.htm

(It seems that a modular home is best as they don't tend to decrease in value whereas a manufactured home might).

Hope this helps!

http://www.modularcenter.com/

http://www.modular-usa.com/

bored-silly

Thanks, that Potton site is great, You would never believe it but they are about a 20 minute drive from where we lived in the UK - talk about bad timing. Think we might do one if we ever get back to England.

Rete

No, he laughed at the term. They are called prefabricated homes.

Results of a yahoo search for you:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=pre...r=FP-tab-web-t


Rete

Jan Alaska

Modular homes are actually stick built homes, just the same as having an architect design a home and having it built, the difference is they are pre-built at a different location then shipped to your homesite. Because of this the width and length are limited. However once installed on your slab, basement / foundation of your choice they are hard to recognise from site built homes (which are wayyy more expensive). They come in a huge range of styles and from shingle sided homes to full log built homes.

Prefabricated homes, also known as 'double-wides' are different, most mortgage companies wont lend more than 50%-70% on a prefabricated home whereas modular homes can still be 100% mortgaged (if needed)

Jan

P.S. ... we've done alot of research into this lately, we're currently looking for a parcel which is proving somewhat difficult

Jan Alaska

now this isnt exactly a modular home ...but it is moving home American style !