I had a friend do this. It’s a great house and the process went very smoothly.
It’s a sensible way to do it. Modern prefab doesn’t necessarily mean the house is entirely built offsite and then dropped in place. It just means that more of the assembly is done in a controlled, precision, effficient environment (a factory) and then assembled on site with less time and expense. It means more houses, faster and cheaper. Which is what we need.
The answer to this has always been no, everywhere.
Not quite true. Many homes in Canada literally were ordered from the Eaton catalogue. Truck arrives with all the components, you assemble it yourself. We used to do these things.
Yeah. We actually already do prefab with roof trusses. They are precision manufactured in a factory, shipped to the site and then assembled. This is extending the same principle to other home components like wall assemblies.
Yeah, but it won’t fill the housing gap.
Those houses still have to be assembled somewhere.
The more likely solution is a big fibre optic rollout and getting all information workers out of the cities.
They would be assembled on site.
Yeah; in most of the places where there are housing issues, the problem isn’t skilled labour to build houses or a lack of building materials (although those can become issues) — it’s the cost and availability and accessibility of land. There’s no “on site” to assemble them on.
We should give tax credit for wfh too perhaps.
Except our government doesn’t actually want housing prices to fall, or for there to be less people in the city.
More people should be living in the city so the wilderness can remain the wilderness. Build up, not out.
Is the only thing that’s going to fix the housing crisis actually reducing the cost of homes? And nobody actually wants that to happen… so…
Nobody who owns a home wants that to happen*
Even moreso, those who own other people’s homes.
The Vancouver special was made illegal in the late 80s for seemingly no reason. Every municipal has tons of bureaucracy on what can be built, likely in order to stifle new development and to raise home values.
This will succeed only in so much as the Liberals through Brookfield will take a chunk of profits. Which is fine, if it took a bit of corruption to wipe out municipal bureaucracy then its still a win for the poor.
I was also in favor of Doug ford getting kickbacks for opening up greenbelt, I don’t see how we do 4% annual population growth without actions like that.
Going to assume this was awkwardly worded because why would you ever think that politicians getting kickbacks is in your best interests?? That’s pants-on-head.
What in the world does the greenbelt have to do with housing? Do you think lack of space to build is anywhere on the roster of issues standing in our way??
I think land values are extremely high due to a lack of available land relative to demand. Exacerbated by sprawled zoning that nimbys have fought tooth and nail against.
Honest request: Explain to me how Brookfield is involved
They are heavily invested in prefab homes. Which will help us bypass municipal laws, and build architectural style to maximize floor space with relatively cheap construction costs, like the Vancouver special used to be.
The greenbelt doesn’t even need development. The province’s own report said we just need to make better use of our land. In too much of Ontario for too long, zoning has restricted most homes to be inefficient single family housing and suburban sprawl far from peoples’ jobs. We need missing middle housing, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and greater density.
Ford won’t do like Eby because his voters will revolt. Opening greenbelt is the only way to get houses built sadly, though I agree that is the logical thing to do.
Opening greenbelt is the only way to get houses built
How can you possibly think this??
The green belt is an important wildlife corridor and it helps to protect surface water and ground water recharge areas. The benefits of a few mcmansions built in a desireable area are not worth the long term consequences of destroying the greenbelt.
Lets stop kicking the can down the road and finally address the factors that caused this crisis like sprawl and zoning.
If it could be done I agree. But voters won’t allow it, unlike BC they aren’t progressive, they vote Ford.
Weird take.
Because prefab homes are an euphemism for mobile home or trailer home. That’s why. No one wants to live in a low quality house.
You have no idea what a prefab is.
Yes I do i, I have had neghibors who lived in them. all notedethat even the good ones make quality compromises over the better site built. Which isn’t a surprize as site built gets nost things pre cut to size and to there isn’t much room. A site built house just brings the factory to the site.
Just because we’ve built homes on site from raw materials for decades doesn’t mean there are not better ways to do it. Prefabrication is not that uncommon in other parts of the world. The problem in Canada is that our industry is built around on site construction so it has a lot of inertia and there is tremendous financial risk to making changes. What Carney’s plan does is create stable demand, provide funds, and create incentives, for the industry to change faster.
Homes are not built onsight with raw materials. They are built with heavially processed things like plywood and 2x4s. Both of the above are mostly precut to the exact length needed.
Are you aware that many high-end luxury log homes are prefab?
high end and luxury need not imply quality. For that matter I’m aware of some of those logs houses and calling them prefab implies a lot more factory than they have - they are built (at least for the one I know of) just like any other stick house then left to dry for a year.
False.
I’ll save you a click. Because they’re poorly and cheaply made, limited in design, and generally small. Also the savings aren’t what they should be for the reduction in quality
That’s not really the focus of the article at all.
I think prefab has the potential to ease the housing crisis here in Australia.
Where did you see the thing about quality? All I found was:
They also had to overcome the “zeitgeist around prefabrication in Canada” which assumes factory builds are poor quality, Chicoine said.
That’s no longer based in reality; some studies have argued prefab projects can catch potential defects during the design phase, yielding higher-quality builds.
Yeah prefabrication is the way to go to accelerate tonthebratebof houses we need right now
You assumed by, “save you a click,” they’d read and summarized the article? No, they are such a big brain, they know everything without even having to read the article!
You assumed by, “save you a click,” they’d read and summarized the article?
Not at all. But it never hurts to be polite.
