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Comment by eru | Hacker News Reader

You are right that construction is done in artisanal, small batches. That's part of why construction is so expensive.

That's why prefabricating and manufactured buildings are such an important development: they turn artisanal into mass produced. (Alas, manufactured homes are nearly outlawed in the US. See eg https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2012/10/mobile-homes-the... or countless other articles.)

Related: this is also part of the story of why nuclear power plant construction continues to become more and more expensive, instead of cheaper.

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Welding for high stress, corrosive, high vibration, high heat and high safety requirements is extremely difficult and highly skilled labour. And rightly so.

Regarding house building, there is only so much that can be pre-produced. Assembly is still on site, and that will always require rework, nobody can affors the site preparation and parts manufacture at the required tolerance levels to avoid that.

> Welding for high stress, corrosive, high vibration, high heat and high safety requirements is extremely difficult and highly skilled labour. And rightly so.

I didn't say anything to contrary. I am saying that car factories can churn out high quality welds at scale, but construction companies can't.

> Regarding house building, there is only so much that can be pre-produced. Assembly is still on site, and that will always require rework, nobody can afford the site preparation and parts manufacture at the required tolerance levels to avoid that.

Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufactured_housing

It looks like 'only so much' can go pretty far.

Or modified shipping containers. Those, as well as mobile homes, have significant trade offs so.

Yes, they are trade-offs. But I'm sure many of them can be overcome, with some research and development.

Eg camper vans have also become a lot better over the years. They benefit from not being banned in the US.

I think you are unaware of what has been achieved for years already in Europe by companies like Haus - https://haus.tech/, Huf Haus, and Hanse Haus. Assembly of an entire house in 1-2 weeks implies little or no rework.

That's for the woodenframe. Excluding installation of wirong, pipes, heating... At which point we are back to manual installation, and welding where needed, of those things.

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