Prefabricated homes are 15 percent cheaper than regular homes, according to "USA Today."
A prefabricated house is made from components manufactured in a factory. A growing number of home owners who cannot afford an architect to build an environmentally friendly house are turning to prefabricated housing, which is cost-effective, easy and fast to mount. Such homes range from a simple cottage to luxurious, $1 million abodes.
Modular Homes
This type of a home is a sectional fabricated dwelling made of multiple modules. While it is factory-manufactured, it is different from a mobile home in that it is not supported on steel beams and it does not have wheels or axles. What makes this type of home environmentally friendly is that it is factory-manufactured resulting in low waste. Such a home is super insulated to ensure energy efficiency. It can be used both as a temporary or a permanent home. Parts are manufactured from natural, nontoxic and sustainably derived materials. They are made in specially equipped factories that ensure quality, lower construction cost and less waste.
Glidehouses
The glide in the prefab house refers to both "the wall of the sliding glass on one side of the building and the bank of storage on the opposite," according to Treehugger.com. The glass wall helps with lighting and heating, resulting in lower electricity consumption. Such houses range in size from 670 to 2,000 square feet. Glidehouses are crafted from renewable and recyclable materials, such as bamboo floors, and from lightweight concrete derived from recycled paper and fly ash. Windows are designed to to maximize ventilation. The roof has a provision for solar panel installation. Outside the house, the walls are made from low-cost, low-maintenance material such as cement board.
Rammed Earth Homes
This type of house is build out of rammed earth with recycled steel prefab. Most such houses are designed for do-it-yourself construction. Materials include fired clay, compressed dirt and a mixture of clay, sand, straw and water. The roof is calculated to maximize heat intake in winter while minimizing heat gain in summer. The thermal qualities of the rammed earth walls and dark-stained concrete floors "stabilize temperature swings from night to day and mitigate the need to run an air conditioning unit during the summer," according to Inhabitat.com. These features are boosted by a "high efficiency geothermal radiant floor heating system as well as soy-based insulation in the roof and walls."
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