Can homes built in a factory fill Canada’s housing gap?
Factory-built homes are in the election spotlight as a fix for Canada’s housing crisis. It’s a faster, easier way to build, and less polluting than traditional construction methods. So why aren’t neighbourhoods packed with prefab homes?
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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 are mistaken. I suggest researching.
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.
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.
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.
This is such a weird, fact-less comment. Plywood and 2x4s do not come "precut to the exact length needed". They come in standard sizes: 4x8 foot sheets and 8 foot lengths (I'm generalizing here, there are of course other sizes). Every construction site in Canada has skilled carpenters on site that cut those standard sized goods (what I called "raw materials") to correct dimensions.
most of the 2x4s in a us site are precut to 92 5/8. This with the top and bottom 2x4s add up to your standard 8 foot wall. A few are cut for windows/doors and those top and bottom plates are cut to size, butithe vast majority come precut to length. Your plywood is put in place directly, only the pieces around the edge are cut. Yes you hear a saw all day - but the majority of parts are precut.
you can also get 2x4s in 104 5/8 length. And drywall in 4.5x8 foot sizes for your standard 9 foot tall ceilings.
the above is us. I'm not sure how metric canada house construction is but there are similar sizes for metric regions.
I'm not saying that lumber doesn't come in sizes optimized to save time and material, that's only sensible. But as you've said there is still cutting on site and frankly there's a fair bit of it, despite what you claim. With prefab most of the cutting is done in a factory and there are very few if any cuts on site. Complete modular components are delivered and fastened together, and on site assembly is measured in weeks not months. The idea that this will not ultimately be a better way to build homes just isn't well founded. It's a better way but different and it's going to take time and investment for the industry to change. We have an opportunity here to help our country put people in homes and invest and be a leader in that change, and that's what I'm voting for.
False.