Flat homes, also called kit homes or transportable homes, have surged in popularity lately, with increasingly more individuals eager to reap the benefits of having such a compact house. More about the constructions of the moment read further in this article!
You may long be dreaming of living in a house that aligns with your taste and visions, but you tend to take a step back thinking about the building process. And it is only normal – building a home from scratch is often anxiety-inducing and seems to take an eternity. From setting up a concrete plan and a reasonable budget, you also need to consider aspects like timeframe and contractors. Surely, this is available in the case of flat-pack homes, too, but these modular houses are often built with more ease and less hassle.
Let us delve deeper into the many attractions of these unique homes so that you can have a clearer idea of what they are and whether they are suitable for you or not.
What exactly is a flat pack house?
The concept of a transportable home has been around since World War II, so it is nothing new. But since then, these buildings have evolved considerably and become what they are today: highly advantageous but extremely modern facilities that make for a safe, stylish, and contemporary home. But what exactly are they? Well, flat pack homes are houses made out of pre-cut components in a factory and assembled once delivered at the construction site. They have seen success, particularly in Sweden, but increasingly more UK homeowners started to embrace modular construction, too, so flat pack houses are expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Building a home like this has proved to be more affordable and time-efficient, but you will see there are a lot of attractions regarding these houses, including incredible component accuracy. Since automated machines cut pieces, the chance of error is diminished considerably.
The benefits of a flat pack home
Compared with traditionally constructed houses, flat pack homes come with a wealth of advantages, among which the most noteworthy are:
Ease of construction
Since much of the tedious work is done in a factory, building a flat pack home would be easier and steadier. Fast construction is one of this kind of house’s most significant (and obvious) advantages. Rather than having to wait for everything from deconstruction and laying of the foundation for the new one to actually constructing it, your wait time is significantly reduced, as the components of a flat pack house are made in an off-site factory at the same time deconstruction or foundation laying is happening. Plus, most of the construction is done indoors, so weather is less likely to bring issues and delays.
While a traditional house would take up to one year to build, a flat pack home is likely to be completed in about two weeks. The timeframe obviously depends on the complexity of units chosen for your modular house, so it can extend up to a couple of months, but still, there is a monumental time difference between conventional home construction and flat pack house assembling. Therefore, if time is your enemy, we recommend considering this option.
Whatever your choice, you still need to be mindful of foundation laying, as you could not build any home without a foundation. But do not worry – pouring a concrete foundation is today more manageable than ever. Companies like Titan Concrete supply customers with ready-mix concrete for all kinds of applications and volumes and deliver it right at the construction site. This makes foundation building way more approachable and less hassle-free.
Cost savings
Time equals money in construction, and this is not a surprising fact. The more time spent at the construction site, the more labour. And the more labour, the more money. Since flat pack houses consist of ready-made factory components, construction is faster and, implicitly, cheaper. Part of the savings is due to manpower and part to the building materials. Plus, cooling and heating tend to be more cost-effective with flat pack houses than with regular ones, as electrical construction and plumbing in the latter case can be daunting and take much time.
Less waste
Surprisingly or not, the demolition and construction industry generates a significant amount of waste, such as damaged boards and warped studs. Nonetheless, you can make a tangible change if you choose modular homes. In this case, most of the waste is recycled or disposed of in the plant. Also, numerous material suppliers send their construction materials to modular and manufactured house producers because they buy in bulk (they are volume customers). These manufacturers will safely store building components like lumber and install them in climate-controlled facilities, thus preventing material destruction caused by unstable weather conditions.
Eco-friendliness
Apart from resulting in less waste produced on-site, flat pack homes are also more environmentally friendly. More often than not, they are built using sustainable materials and featured with solar panels or other means of energy saving. What is great about these houses is that this eco-conscious approach can be adopted at the very build stage, making you more likely to build an entirely sustainable home.
Durability
Flat-pack homes usually demand more material in their building than traditional houses, as they need to be reinforced for delivery to the construction site. This makes them more resistant, so contrary to expectations, pre-build homes can be more durable than conventional ones. Moreover, a large amount of material is about to be lost on-site due to various factors, including water damage, vandalism, rust, or theft, which often give labourers no option but to proceed with construction without these vanished materials.
Considering that traditional homes tend to lose significant amounts of materials and that flat pack houses use extra materials to reinforce the construction, we can state that these modular houses are more resistant than conventional ones. Plus, these houses are designed with precision, so each unit has a clear correspondent. With traditional houses, some parts can be neglected, so it is not excluded to wake up in the middle of the building process that some components do not correspond with each other and are forced to make changes that, obviously, cost.