Engineering News by You :: First flatpack homes go on sale in UK

Senior board member | 2007-10-07 21:45:22

This sort of prefabricated concept has been around for a long time. I guess that the Ikea name has marketing appeal and the Ikea people can use the opportunity to sell more of their mainstream product - I was a bit confused by the quoted price - I guess that is a house and land deal. There is no doubting that they do a job - These types of buildings can have real benefit in the aftermath of natural disaster when shelter is needed for displaced people. But this takes us into the realms of foundations and speed of erection and cost for "basic" units and Ikea would probably not sell a lot of their mainstream products in this scenario

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Jonno (92)

Senior board member | 2007-10-08 07:24:14

In theory, there is nothing wrong with pre engineered homes and in fact they should be better quality and cheaper to manufacture. The controlled factory environment should produce a better, more consistent job than a building site and the cost should be much better. So why aren't we building more of them - I can only guess that its an attitude, or a perception or builders are old fashioned and reluctant to change. Thirty years ago I worked for a development company designing modular homes with the modules built from concrete shells. as rooms which were then transported to site and assembled together in big blocks. All fit outs, electrics, plumbing etc was done in the factory and it was simply plugged together - on site - It never took off - too hard to change the established ways - I don't know - can't remember - but potentially a terrific system

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First flatpack homes go on sale in UK

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