The main advantage of prefab is saving on labor costs. I can see it for modified shipping container homes, but those have problems as well. I went to a prefab housing factory about five years ago in PA. It's an assembly line process and the guys working on make about $10/hour compared to $15-$25 for onsite workers and they can build a whole house in about a week, with another week for setting time and finish work.can anyone tell me why builders here do not use prefab technology?
The main advantage of prefab is saving on labor costs. I can see it for modified shipping container homes, but those have problems as well. I went to a prefab housing factory about five years ago in PA. It's an assembly line process and the guys working on make about $10/hour compared to $15-$25 for onsite workers and they can build a whole house in about a week, with another week for setting time and finish work.
exactly. the point of prefab is saving on labour and time. labour in DR is cheap. and for poorer folks time is of no meaning since they build their houses whenever they have some cash to spare, it may take them a long time, they do not care. richer folks do not care much about costs anyway, they want something that will last.
and finally, TRADITION. i have been here for years and i have only seen a handful of modern style houses (not counting million dollar homes of the very rich). people here want the same house as the neighbour. and that means cement blocks throughout.
That's not the same as a real prefab, which is shipped in two to four sections then set on the perimeter beam. The prefabs are shipped already painted with carpets, electric, plumbing, windows, roofs and most of the siding.
Interesting tech and structural panels have great potential. Glad he's not using OSB with lots of glue, which break down eventually esp in the tropics.
The main advantage of prefab is saving on labor costs. I can see it for modified shipping container homes, but those have problems as well. I went to a prefab housing factory about five years ago in PA. It's an assembly line process and the guys working on make about $10/hour compared to $15-$25 for onsite workers and they can build a whole house in about a week, with another week for setting time and finish work.
Was that in Stage College, PA?
Prefabbing concrete and block houses could be an issue in the DR.
Concrete panels, could be a good solution.
Wood is prone to termite infestations.
I see more work being done here with Styrofoam being used, CMC in Cabarete and a house recently built in my development both used Styrofoam/stucco.
I forget what company it was but it wasn't in State College. There are many modular home companies out there now. One reason why PA is popular is the Amish make up a big chunk of the workforce and they will work for cheap.
We used ICF(foam block) for the foundations on our build. Some good points with ICF, but not much need for it in the DR since R-values aren't that important and they would be expensive to import.