41–50 of 343 posts
I really want a modular home ala Japan in the US, but it just doesn't seem like this market exists yet. It's much faster and efficient to build modules and assemble them onsite than it is to build "from scratch" each time.
For the multistory ones how do you get between stories?
This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?
I was wondering that myself. I fantasize about plopping a house down out in the desert, but their video shows a crane used to unfold it. By the time you get all the heavy machinery out there to prep the land and assemble the structure you're most of the way to just building something unique.
And the contractor is only making overhead and profit on half the work of a tiny budget which means that you are not a priority…even if the construction cycle was flat which it isn’t.
The efficiency of the market is why people don’t build this way much. As Heinlein says every generation thinks it invented sex. They think they invented modular housing too I think.
This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?
In the same way a lot of products have become cheaper because of some process optimization (packaged more compactly to reduce transportation costs), I'm excited to see modular homes/home 3d-printing etc. play out and become cheaper over time until they are more affordable than convention home construction or somehow unique and better in ways that conventionally constructed homes cannot be. To answer your question, on…
And then $80k to install between new electrical box, getting raked over the coals by your local water/sewer district, having to build a foundation, stairs from door, etc., etc. And your property taxes will go up.
This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?
Or someone who thinks it's the future and love telling his or her guests about it. Or someone who's fascinated by IKEA furniture.
I imagine the margin isn't there for it, but I wish someone would target the I'd have to guess the market just isn't there for it, maybe everyone else just doesn't mind dealing with the building codes and permit requirements for larger units?
The negative PR from the latter set of clients can’t possibly be worth how much margin they can get from the former, especially when hotels exist in every city, town, and village.
There’s still probably a market for something that size from people who can afford 30k+ to handle the static costs of building a luxury cabin in the country and are still price conscious enough to want to limit how much they spend on building.
It’s extremely unlikely that there’s a market for deplorable houses this size that also fits in a middle class budget like 2k would
I imagine the margin isn't there for it, but I wish someone would target the I'd have to guess the market just isn't there for it, maybe everyone else just doesn't mind dealing with the building codes and permit requirements for larger units?
There's an economic problem with well made smaller homes - they have all the detail of a larger home without the square footage. Hence the cost per square foot is much larger than you would expect.
Interior is not done yet, but exterior is: https://imgur.com/gallery/KbPlbPR
That 250 psf includes everything you need to live from the get go except you have to fill the 50-gallon water tank.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> sub-standard housing > increase the density of suburban neighborhoods that weren't designed for it GP's vision of how this hurts the lower class seems readily apparent.
If the ADU is sub-standard, then the lower class can choose to not live there. I didn't ask about the density statement, I understand the argument the GP made.
Buddy, not for nothing but that sentence could be a textbook definition of a synonym for “Let them eat cake”
Are the lower class supposed to use their vast sums of savings to choose more expensive housing? If a 20 year old Toyota Corolla with 200k miles is substandard for them can they simply choose to buy new?
This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?
I was wondering that myself. I fantasize about plopping a house down out in the desert, but their video shows a crane used to unfold it. By the time you get all the heavy machinery out there to prep the land and assemble the structure you're most of the way to just building something unique.
How big were you thinking? Something like 400 SF? Or a proper house?
As I said in another comment on this thread I think it’s possible to build something totally custom for a similar budget (200-250 psf) as long as it’s on a trailer because you avoid most of the code and inspection issues in several western states by putting it on wheels.
https://imgur.com/gallery/KbPlbPR
Still working on the interior but this house is built better than my actual house in a high-cost market in California. It is super tiny though (200 sf and that includes the loft).
edit: formatting