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I've been looking into what is described as a "kit" home, with the shell precut at the factory and delivered to the site. Some are even barn style with exposed beams. Any one have any info as to if these are reasonable quality. I've helped build a log home yrs ago and while it was "simple" it was a LOT of work, these "kits" don't have the huge logs/purlins etc. Pricing seems to come out around $50/sq ft dried in.
Agreed... There is no "easy" way around it. 50/sqft sounds pretty cheap is that with assembly labor? Sometime preman's and kits aren't the best quality compared to a home built traditionally. However once erected I guess you can always make some modifications. I've assembled one premanned home and it was a piece of ****. Now if its one of those panel kits like styrofoam and steal stud kinda things I couldn't say. What are they called sips panels I think? Why not build from scratch? I'd say if its a smaller home why not. Of course I do this for a living and its simple to me. What I can't figure out is how to get the money to fund buying myself some land and buying the materials lol.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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$50/sqft dried in is no bargain. Basically 1/2 the time and money is spent at sheetrock. (so add your Elect, Heat, plumbing and insulation, then double that for est of full price!!
I have finished all mine out for under $50 / sqft, (largely subcontracted). The ones my kids had to build 100% from scratch (including design) for homeschool projects were done for under $40. (they got a boat load of equity from those joints). All had walk-out basements, natural woodwork, stone fireplaces, vaulted open beam ceilings, passive solar, and custom built-ins. One has a double deck garage (drive cars on both levels) so... these were not 'cheapo's
We bought a lot of stuff at Habitat and ReStore (deconstruction). Bought all the windows from dealer 'mis-orders' and cabinets as freight damaged, then designed and built the 'energy' efficient homes around our accumulated supplies. We got 'efficiency' awards (and $$ credits) for each, after passing several tough energy inspections and 'blow-door' tests.
Kits can be a real pain, lot less creative, and not ez to customize.
Well actually what I'm looking at is a post and beam construction. I'm figureing high i believe at $50/ft. The place I'm looking at is in tilton NH not far from whaere I am from, and we have built a cple of log homes before. I'm an insulator so I'm pretty certain if i can wrap 1000 deg high pressure steam pipes at elec generating plants with VERY close tolerances I'm thinking I can do it. I just wondered if any one else had built one and how well it went with whatever degree of carpentry they had.
Never built a kit home but have built other things from kits. The problem is if you screw something up and then have to get a new part, which is not always available off the shelf.
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