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Comment by skookumchuck | Hacker News Reader

Around here houses are still built on site, stick by stick. The only things built off site are the roof trusses.

I don't understand why all the walls, at least, aren't built in a warehouse and then trucked in. It could be built cheaper, more precise, with far less wastage. Holes for electrical, plumbing and HVAC could be already put in. Even windows can be pre-installed.

(I know that part of the problem is architects under-design houses, leaving it up to the contractors to figure out how to route electrical, plumbing and HVAC on-site.)

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It's already done everywhere in Europe. Here is a typical example. http://www.scotframe.co.uk/MainlandUK/Val-U-Therm/Val-U-Ther....

No-one is willing to pay architects/engineers to design houses like airliners which have all the cables and pipes routed in CAD before hand, the margins in the industry are too low to take the time to do this. Sometimes if there is a tricky area where I am concerned that the parts won't fit I will do a reference design to be sure that I have enough space, but contractors almost never build it the way we have drawn it anyway because we haven't specified the systems which they prefer because of the kickbacks from existing relationships with their suppliers. There is nothing more annoying than doing a load of work for free which you know is pointless.

I have worked on everything from individual houses to airports and even with large buildings the contractor's engineers often completely redesign the systems that have been designed by the client's engineers.

Edit: another example. http://www.dan-wood.co.uk

It might come down to culture/demand?

In Japan where it's preferred to make a new home rather than buy a pre-owned one (outside the big city), pre-fab seems to have taken off rather more (13% of new builds in 2013). For example, a house built in a day (customisable, moderately expensive but very high quality):

https://youtu.be/Kzpv47o80eg

Near where I live in Cambridge, MA a four story apartment building was recently built/assembled over a weekend. They moved in modular components that were built in a factory in Maine. I think it was done on the weekend because they could briefly shut down the street (Mass. Ave.) to truck in the pieces. The interiors took longer, and are probably customized for the buyers, but the structure itself appeared in a couple days.

Prefab homes are definitely a thing, even luxury ones: https://www.bluhomes.com/

Same here, there are pre-built houses but they are ugly. It is even forbidden in some neighborhoods to put a pre-built houses.

I guess this is just because there is no company doing it properly and maybe no market for it.

There's no reason the factory cannot build walls for custom houses. The jigs and all will be computer controlled, anyway. Nor does that imply cheaply built or poor materials.

It's got to be an industry ripe for disruption.

Exactly. They already do custom roof trusses in factories along with standard sizes.

Pre-built walls are commonly used in tract houses.

A majority of Hurricane Katrina reconstruction was supposedly manufactured in factories, because it was cheaper.

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