Leonardo Da Vinci is considered as an inventor of prefabricated housing as he was the first person to produce and assemble prefabricated structure. However, long time has passed and the technology has much moved forward with the development of new materials, technologies and standards.
It is not a secret that today there are quite a lot of companies producing prefabricated houses. A sense that prefabricated house is easy and fast way to build a house from this point can be misleading. The increasing number of producers increase the probability that your house may not comply with newest and local standards.
We would like to list several most important features of the prefabricated houses that are mandatory for todays newly built homes.
1. Energy efficiency.
This combination or phrase is constantly used in various contexts, but actions and results speak more than words. Your house has to be energy efficient. Energy efficiency today is classified with classes A+, A, B, C, D, E. In simple words, letters rather convert to the energy used in the house for heating or cooling purposes. Before starting to produce the house, it is important to evaluate climate aspects, sun intensity, window sizes, house position and other things. This must be done between you when expressing the needs of your house (design, type etc.) and architect - making the correct positioning of the house. Second step is to determine together with the producer the correct construction type for your house. Colder climates have more significant temperature differences inside and outside, therefore require a little bit different constructions for comfort living while hotter climates have more need to cool internal areas rather than to heat them. Consequently, this ends up also in different construction types. Producers obligation here is to discuss and to provide the most optimal construction choice for the client. Also, do not enter into the race of increasing the U-value of structures of your house. U-value is only one, although important, but not the most important, quality of your house. Air-tightness is also equally important feature for your house since if the warm air easily escapes through the unsealed sections in your house then there is no need for high U-values. Make sure the producer is using special, professional, anti-ageing air tightness tapes to reduce the probability of air-tightness problems after 5 or 10 years.
2. Quick planning, production quality and finishing speed.
Once you have your project ready, the adaption of it to the prefabricated house technology has to be fast, without any compromise to quality. The obligation of the producer is to preserve the original features of the project (e.g. certain design details, window glazing sizes and other). Since the production of your house is done in controlled environment (inside the factory), the quality of the structure must be very good. Producer must show and prove that it is using only good and certified materials and use the best practices that allow to build a perfect house. One of the biggest advantages of prefabricated houses is that there is no long and exhausting building processes in the building site. Normally, standard 150m2 house should be assembled in less than a week and finished from outside in less than 3 weeks.
3. Complying with local standard.
There is no uniform prefabricated house standard. One construction fits perfectly in one country while other countries with different climates require different solutions. Producer must be able to prove with arguments for you why one or the other construction is suitable for your house. Static calculations must be done using special software to measure the calculated loads from snow, rain. Correct roof angles and ventilations must be taken into account. Also different countries require different construction wood dimensions, element sizes - this is very important to know before entering into any production.
4. Individual design.
Most of us build only 1 house in their lives. Therefore, according to our philosophy, it must be built completely according to your wishes, plans and designs. Producer must be able to build a house exactly as you want it. Catalogue solutions are no longer the only solutions. In addition, you must have ability to choose all the details: exterior decoration types and profiles, corner finishings, windowsills finishings, roof ending finishings, closed or visible beams in roof or ceiling and many other details.
5. Ecology.
This is also one of the words that is very widely used today. Nevertheless, we are developed society and we have to know and to start building houses efficiently with recyclable materials. Prefabricated houses technology allows to do that. We can reduce the building waste to minimum, use less electricity and after many years easily recycle your house in order to build a better one. Your producer must be able to provide ecological options for your house both from construction side as well as include materials that are without chemicals and dangerous substances.