14 ms·

Modular Homes for Under $50k

369 points by yehudabrick 5y ago

hitekker 5y ago
Edit: I stand corrected, see below. Sadly no in-unit washer/dryer. Interesting that their product is called "casita" since the company "Kasita", which also specialized in tiny homes, recently folded. https://www.kasita.com/ https://www.kasita.com/
- readflaggedcomm 5y ago
  "Casita" simply means small house in Spanish. Also, the front page lists "washer/dryer" under "out of the box".
jhloa2 5y ago
I really want one of these and I don't know why. I'm struggling to come up with uses for this other than for AirBNB style short term rental places or pre-planned communities for helping homeless people get back on their feet or something. Doesn't seem as portable as a mobile home, and doesn't really have enough of a rustic look for me to want to consider this as a cabin. I feel like I'm missing a big use case here, but unless I planned to live in this full time, what are the benefits over buying a sprinter van or something.
- gurchik 5y ago
  In one of the videos on the site it is explained that they are currently targeting people who want to build "backyard houses" or "ADUs" that are popular in some places like in California. Family members can live in them or you can rent them out, provided it has a foundation, power, plumbing etc.
  - jcims 5y ago
    Probably a way to industrialize it a bit. Run a management company that leases these out, handles site prep and paperwork and offer the homeowner a buyout option after a few years. Add an Airbnb service on top that markets, cleans and maintains it for those that want to dip their toes into it. Then start stacking them on top of each other until something gives.
  - pinkrobotics 5y ago
    To me it's a modern cabin. And a place to live while a primary residence is being built. And then it'll be a place for visitors to stay. I absolutely love this, and I really want one. Have you sold many/any yet? What stage of development is the company at? Also, what sort of time frame can I hope to just order one and have it show up in a month or two?
- nabilhat 5y ago
  "Starter home" is the niche this fits. It wasn't all that long ago that sub-1000 square foot houses were a normal thing people bought and lived in until they could afford (and had a reason to) to move to a house better suited to support spouse/kids/etc. I also want one of these, because I want starter homes to be that again, not just an impediment to scrape off of the lot to make way to build the largest house that zoning allows. It's nice in some ways that ADU options like this seem to be prying open that niche again.
- notahacker 5y ago
  The UK is full of these in holiday parks, either as homes for middle class retirees downsizing to a nice little community in the country (the economics aren't quite as impressive when you consider the annual charge for the park land and facilities...) or as holiday lodges, including holiday lodges exclusively used as summer/weekend retreats Technically these are all "mobile" but they won't move after delivery. examples: https://www.tingdene.co.uk/residential-park-homes/our-homes https://www.tingdene.co.uk/residential-park-homes/our-homes
outside1234 5y ago
And then $80k to install between new electrical box, getting raked over the coals by your local water/sewer district, having to build a foundation, stairs from door, etc., etc. And your property taxes will go up.
- eddy_chan 5y ago
  This comment deserves to be higher. People just think you can put these anywhere but you need water connection, sewer connection, electrical, telephone line/cable, permits and red tape, by the time you're done it'll be double. And I don't think these solve any of our housing affordability problems, the land in a desirable area will be far more expensive than what's on top.
  - Kosirich 5y ago
    So my question is, if you had a piece of land, concrete foundation, electrical, water and sewer connection, is it possible to get something better for 50k?
    - dagw 5y ago
      is it possible to get something better for 50k? If you are willing to do a lot of work yourself and value your time a $0 and aren't in a hurry, probably. Otherwise, this looks pretty good.
      - EricE 5y ago
        >If you are willing to do a lot of work yourself and value your time a $0 and aren't in a hurry, probably. I wish I could vote you up more than once. If they are taking advantage of economies of scale they should be able to obtain for higher quality materials (and in looking over their materials this is not stuff they are buying at Home Depot). Couple that with the advantages of building all this stuff indoors, sheltered from the weather while under construction and that they can afford to create specialized jigs and tooling to not only speed the construction time but also produce far more consistent and higher quality results they should be able to do things that you simply can't do on site in the field. Transportation of prefabbed housing has always been the major issue, which is why they spend so much time talking about how they are solving that :)
thesausageking 5y ago
This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?
- hytdstd 5y ago
  In the bay area, $250-300/sq ft is a more realistic low-end of the range.
  - prepend 5y ago
    So about the same as this. I love the idea of modular houses, but they seem so expensive. Especially when factoring in the inability to sell the same as houses, etc etc.
  - sabujp 5y ago
    please do tell which contractor charges $250-300sq/ft?! I've contacted at least 10 different contractors and they're all in the 400-500 range
    - hytdstd 5y ago
      These are numbers from 5 years ago. I didn't increase them to be conservative. 400-500 today wouldn't surprise me.
      - foobiekr 5y ago
        A friend is getting a master bathroom redone. $100k. The bay area is insane.
- pacetherace 5y ago
  The construction prices you quoted are not correct at least in the Bay Area. And I am guessing $150/sq ft achievable at scale. Pricing ADUs is tricky because the some of things in a house cost same for a small to medium size home. For example, the costs of plumbing, electrical, kitchen, bathroom, etc are more of less the same between a 500 sq.ft. house and a 1000 sq. ft house.
01100011 5y ago
Instant ADUs... Great, an easy way to increase the density of suburban neighborhoods that weren't designed for it while enriching wealthy landowners and providing sub-standard housing to the lower class. Shower thought: when will we see a company like Amazon or Costco experiment with providing an entire city, leveraging their efficient production chains and cost-cutting techniques? Would you live in a pre-fab town engineered to your demographics (even if Amazon owned all your data)?
- buf 5y ago
  Did you see the latest Loki? In the year 2050(?), they had a town in Alabama owned and operated by a company named Roxxcart.
- hytdstd 5y ago
  >providing sub-standard housing to the lower class. Can you elaborate on the problem with this? I don't see how adding an ADU to the market hurts the lower class.
  - musingsole 5y ago
    > sub-standard housing > increase the density of suburban neighborhoods that weren't designed for it GP's vision of how this hurts the lower class seems readily apparent.
    - hytdstd 5y ago
      If the ADU is sub-standard, then the lower class can choose to not live there. I didn't ask about the density statement, I understand the argument the GP made.
      - lovich 5y ago
        > If the ADU is sub-standard, then the lower class can choose to not live there. Buddy, not for nothing but that sentence could be a textbook definition of a synonym for “Let them eat cake” Are the lower class supposed to use their vast sums of savings to choose more expensive housing? If a 20 year old Toyota Corolla with 200k miles is substandard for them can they simply choose to buy new?
tomc1985 5y ago
How about we bring back Sears' prefab housing?
- mywittyname 5y ago
  The standardization in the building trade didn't exist back in the Sears catalog days. For example, 2x4s come in 8ft lengths, using 16 on center studs, 8 2x4s will provide 8 foot of wall, and two sheets of drywall will cover it. And you can order all of the cabinetry, trim, shower enclosures, etc in a form that's ready for installation. A Sears prefab home would not be cheaper today because the inefficiencies that they solved in the early 1900s are no longer a problem. That, and it's infeasible for a person to construct their own house anymore, given building codes and such. Cookie cutter homes can be ridiculously cheap to build if done correctly. In really large developments, it's common for teams to move from house to house every day. Almost like an assembly line. This cuts down on a tremendous amount of wasted time.
  - bigthymer 5y ago
    > it's infeasible for a person to construct their own house anymore, given building codes and such What has changed that this is no longer possible any more?
    - bluGill 5y ago
      You need to be a licensed plumber to touch anything that connects to the public water supply. While there is nothing hard about plumbing, doing something stupid could poison the whole town and so towns are paranoid. For everything else, you can do all the work yourself if you have time. I've done framing as a job so I have the experience to build a wall about as fast as any professional crew. I do my own electrical work but it takes me much longer than a real electrician (it passes intersection, though I'm more likely to need to fix something and get a second inspection). I can plan and schedule all the contractors for anything I don't want to do myself, but my inexperience means I would need to pad the schedule a lot more than a general contractor (and the fact that I'm not a regular customer means I'm not top of their list to get my job done) Each city and sometimes inspectors have their own codes. Sometimes they are good things (going beyond the basic codes), sometimes the inspector is just making things to enforce even though there is no engineering reason for that. There is no reason you can't build your own house (except plumbing). However it will take a lot of effort. Professionals are up on all the codes and the latest tricks and so will be a lot faster.
vit05 5y ago
This company is popular for being the company chosen by Elon Musk[1]. He's supposedly living in one in Starbase, Texas. I guess it's also a study to understand the dynamics of living in a small space as any dream of inhabiting some other planet passes necessarily by the adaptation of a lifetime in a tiny space. [1]https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-50k-house-texas-pictures-video/ https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-50k-house-texas-pictures...
- golemiprague 5y ago
  There are millions in Tokyo who live in a 15sqm apartment or something like that, you don't need to invent anything new to "study" it.
- qayxc 5y ago
  > I guess it's also a study to understand the dynamics of living in a small space How out of touch must one be to even consider this? News flash: the vast majority of mankind lives in what a North American would consider "small places" [0]. Same goes for population density - North American and Australian urban sprawl is largely unknown in most areas of the world. If you want to "study the dynamics" of living closely together in tightly packed spaces, just move to Hong Kong or Singapore for a year. [0] https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5e7b2a4310380d0006fc0a82/960x0.jpg?fit=scale https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5e7b2a43103...
  - vit05 5y ago
    I'm talking about him. I didn't say it was a scientific study about the world. He, one of the richest men in the world, is experiencing living in a small space with houses from this company. This company has also demo videos about houses on mars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvtJPDpAY7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvtJPDpAY7c
coderintherye 5y ago
I imagine the margin isn't there for it, but I wish someone would target the <= 120 square foot market. You would think the cost to build such structure would be less because it doesn't need to pass any code and has less features, but for some reason there doesn't seem to be anything between a $2000 tool shed from Home Depot and $45,000 options from companies like Boxabl. The closest I've found is Bunkie which has a Basecamp model but even at its base feature set is still almost $30k when including delivery. I'd have to guess the market just isn't there for it, maybe everyone else just doesn't mind dealing with the building codes and permit requirements for larger units?
- benjohnson 5y ago
  There's an economic problem with well made smaller homes - they have all the detail of a larger home without the square footage. Hence the cost per square foot is much larger than you would expect.
  - pjerem 5y ago
    This ! What I learned during the construction of my home is that the structure is really only one part of a construction. It’s a lot of raw material of course, but relatively cheap one and the construction of the structure is pretty fast. What takes months and a lot of money is just everything else : networks, windows & doors, walls, finishing …
  - harmmonica 5y ago
    I’m in the middle of trying to figure this out with a friend by building an off-grid tiny house and this is pretty accurate. With our labor at a nominal rate (30/hr) it’s coming out to about $250 per square foot. We think on the next one we might be able to get down to $200 maybe $175. Interior is not done yet, but exterior is: https://imgur.com/gallery/KbPlbPR https://imgur.com/gallery/KbPlbPR That 250 psf includes everything you need to live from the get go except you have to fill the 50-gallon water tank.
  - ctdonath 5y ago
    I’ve heard an aphorism to wit: length is cheap, corners are expensive.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Glyptodon 5y ago
For the multistory ones how do you get between stories?
- gangstead 5y ago
  In one of the carousel of images they show more box layouts [coming soon](https://www.boxabl.com/more/ https://www.boxabl.com/more/) including a "stair box" with a stair case leading up in the back, but there's no accompanying "upstairs" layout with a hole in the floor, so I think multi story boxes are more of an idea for the investor pitch deck at this point. I think all they are selling right now is the one layout.
- DonHopkins 5y ago
  Tesseracts.
rtpg 5y ago
I wish some of these interior designers would check out European or Japanese apartments for the layout. You could do a lot better (and I would never want to have to use the sink proposed in that clip on a day-to-day basis). That A/C location is just plain wrong (the kitchen is where you'll spend the least time). And that shelf splitting the living room + the bedroom? What? Meanwhile you have like... storage for plates for 20 people as if you could ever feed more than 3 people at once. And that double-door fridge... I imagine that if you're in a more rural area it's more necessary but there's a lot better choices here if you are actually trying to make a livable space, instead of a place that offers good shots. This looks a lot like a "set up your own AirBnB" thing. So much so I wouldn't be surprised if AirBnB made a strategic investment in this.
- Thlom 5y ago
  Similar concept in Norway with better interior design I think. Some pictures if you scroll a bit down. https://www.lampholmen.no/rom-for-a-leve/lampholmen--mikrohus-norge-as/ https://www.lampholmen.no/rom-for-a-leve/lampholmen--mikrohu...
- kbenson 5y ago
  > This looks a lot like a "set up your own AirBnB" thing. So much so I wouldn't be surprised if AirBnB made a strategic investment in this. In another video they talk about how initially they are targeting the recently lessened restrictions on backyard units in CA, so yeah, AirBnB and people looking to rent out granny units are the current target I think. > Meanwhile you have like... storage for plates for 20 people as if you could ever feed more than 3 people at once. Assuming you can't have outdoor furniture and and host people outside? One of the benefits of a small house might be more usable outdoor area. In Northern California, you generally get at least 3/4 of the year with good weather you can be outside fairly comfortably, and you get quite a bit more in Southern California. I've heard Arizona is quite nice all the time except for the summer months.
- EricE 5y ago
  That AC location easily covers the entire main room. You could put it on any wall and it would be effective in that tiny of a space. If you put it on the opposite wall now you potentially have plumbing on the front of your house, or longer line sets to tuck the exterior unit around the corner - increasing complexity and cost. As for the kitchen I know this may shock a lot of people but there are ways to feed yourself that don't involve restaurants, take out or delivery. If anything I'd prefer a slightly larger stove/oven even if it intruded into the other space more. I enjoy cooking for myself so a decently sized fridge and pantry storage is more than superficial. Heck there are two story four bedroom houses that were built in the 70's around here that have similarly sized kitchens - it's insane when most RVs have better kitchens these days. I do agree the TV shelf thing seems more like an opportunity to be clever with a rotating TV but that's a relatively minor quibble - the rest of the layout is actually quite functional.
rmason 5y ago
Surprised no one here has mentioned that Elon Musk is living in a Boxabl house in Austin, TX. This has totally perplexed the people who follow his every move. https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/elon-musk-texas-house-boca-chica-16278768.php https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/elon-musk-texas-hou... I think that he might possibly be doing his homework. Can you imagine a Boxabl house outfitted with a solar roof, a Tesla battery and a Starlink dish? I could see people having a remote cottage not hooked into the power line. I just know that Elon Musk doesn't do stuff without a reason.
- gdsdfe 5y ago
  that would be cool, I would buy that
- johnnyfived 5y ago
  "I think that he might possibly be doing his homework." I believe you're dead on, this guy's an absolute baller of a CEO (running 3 totally game-changing startups) and completely immerses himself in his work and research.
  - postpawl 5y ago
    “The coronavirus panic is dumb” -Elon Musk (March 6th 2020)
    - squarefoot 5y ago
      Everyone has the rights to behave as an idiot, including Musk. To his partial defense, he minimized the risks, got Covid, then it seems he changed his stance on the matter. A bit late, but better than never. "To be clear, I do support vaccines in general & covid vaccines specifically. The science is unequivocal. In very rare cases, there is an allergic reaction, but this is easily addressed with an EpiPen." — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2021
  - decebalus1 5y ago
    I admire your admiration of him, it's a sign you haven't reached the level of cynicism required to classify him in the 'snake oil salesman' category yet.
Shank 5y ago
Cover [0] also has a similar business based on this. They're focused on ADUs too, but their intent seems to be to scale up over time. They're starting at $81k. I really want a modular home ala Japan in the US, but it just doesn't seem like this market exists yet. It's much faster and efficient to build modules and assemble them onsite than it is to build "from scratch" each time. [0]: https://buildcover.com/ https://buildcover.com/
sakopov 5y ago
Recent interview with the founder. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck685sVmdkk&t=2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck685sVmdkk&t=2s
bstockton 5y ago
These have piqued a lot of people's interest around me. My friend recently quit a steady job to go work at Modal https://livemodal.com https://livemodal.com I have wondered about the necessity of a crane though, seems like a pretty big limiting factor.
- prawn 5y ago
  I thought about the crane too, but assume you need a truck and crane to get it delivered anyway?
synaesthesisx 5y ago
We need to be building units like this for the homeless, in lots with services/resources. The faster we can meet offer everyone a “bed”, the faster we can legally ban urban camping. Encampments are growing out of control in SF, LA, etc and we need a housing-first approach.
- jonfw 5y ago
  If you're building these in large quantities doing it on site would be way cheaper. You can achieve similar economies of scale, and you don't have to design the houses to be mobile and you don't have to actually move them
dirtyid 5y ago
https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/folding-at-home https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/folding-at-home Good recent summary on state of foldable construction.
arichard123 5y ago
I don't think it compares that well to a static caravan. The price here likely includes VAT (20%) https://www.abiuk.co.uk/our-collection/the-roecliffe/ https://www.abiuk.co.uk/our-collection/the-roecliffe/
- alkonaut 5y ago
  Aren’t caravans quite poorly insulated so if you heat it year round and don’t have extremely mild weather like most of UK then you’ll waste a lot of money keeping warm (or cool)? The attraction of a modular home to me would be that it can have proper construction with heavy triple glass windows and so on.
  - arichard123 5y ago
    I can't tell you the specifics. I know from holidays that they have improved a lot. The newer ones have much better insulation and double glazing. Sure, they are geared towards a UK climate.
- leoedin 5y ago
  Every static caravan I've been in has been a horrible building. The walls are paper thin, the whole thing shakes when you walk around, it's poorly insulated, the furnishings are cheap. I'm not sure how much of that requirement comes from weight limits due to road transportation vs cost cutting vs target market, but those things are just horrible to spend time in. Houses need to feel solid.
  - EricE 5y ago
    Dunno why you are getting voted down but you are spot on. Mobile homes have MANY severe compromises to keep the weight down that this solution does not have to worry about. It's laughable that people think they are even remotely comparable.
agumonkey 5y ago
Curious about how reversible the unpacking is. This means near no house destruction on site.. you remove your stuff, fold it and lift it away
CalRobert 5y ago
This kind of thing is great, though for areas where homes are expensive it's clear they'll be made illegal to remove competition for the housing cartel.
tut-urut-utut 5y ago
Doesn't look much cheaper than a regular home. Maybe faster to build, but not necessary cheaper. It would not help battle the overvalued property prices, since in most expensive areas it's the land that drives home price up, not the building price itself.
bunkydoo 5y ago
It’s funny how people have this hate of trailer parks and you can just hear it in the way they talk down on it. But somehow tiny houses and modular homes that cost even less are somehow completely acceptable and beloved.
jmcgough 5y ago
How does this compare to mobile homes in terms of price and use case? Many mobile homes are only "mobile" in the sense that it's delivered and installed somewhere - 90% are never moved again, because it's costly and complicated to do so. The modular idea is neat, but I'm not sure how practical it is, and there are laws in many states that prevent you from moving homes without a licensed professional.
- Ensorceled 5y ago
  It looks like the delivery crane does the unboxing, so I would presume the delivery would be done by some one licensed to move it. I think this is also not considered mobile. Not sure how you would even have this as a "take out" option.
- h2odragon 5y ago
  Dunno if the "mobile home industry" is actually useful to compare against anymore; they seem to be dedicated to selling the cheapest possible crap as an excuse to rope people into horrible financial schemes. "no down payment with land" is pushing some deals that'd make payday lenders feel moral qualms. Not that mobile homes were ever a place to find quality construction, but now it feels like outright fraud.
ktzar 5y ago
There's been similar concepts in Europe for decades: https://www.alucasa.com/viviendas-residenciales https://www.alucasa.com/viviendas-residenciales
LightG 5y ago
Reminds me of the Stacks in Ready Player One ... Sure, maybe these are good as temporary accommodations ... maybe a garden shed or home office ... but take the new-home glaze off of them, and add the patina of life, and these will eventually be classified as slum housing.
desireco42 5y ago
I will not comment on the business, just the website. It is bad (not quite terrible). It is actually responsive, but it came from some cheap template. I am not sure why is that. Does agencies charge way too much for their work, so they didn't want to pay 150K for website, but spent 150 instead. There should be a room in-between for this.
- maximus-decimus 5y ago
  You judge websites based on how expensive they are?
  - desireco42 5y ago
    Not how expensive they are but how much budget you spend on making them. You have to spend money to make good website.
    - maximus-decimus 5y ago
      But what do you think isn't good about their website?
youngtaff 5y ago
Know it's not a like-for-like comparison as the boxabl units come with a mini-kitchen etc. But think I'd far prefer something like the smaller units from Heb Homes – https://www.hebhomes.com https://www.hebhomes.com (Pricing is public but unfortunately need to register for plans)
myphs 5y ago
This doesn't look like it's sustainable at all. But as they say themselves, it can be very useful for disaster situations.
Dorothy59 5y ago
That's a contrived example. I assume someone rich would hire a construction firm to make a fancy treehouse. The target audience for these are squeezed between owners of trailer parks and cheap shacks. https://www.advancedmd.run/ https://www.advancedmd.run/
- Ensorceled 5y ago
  Why is there a link to AdvancedMD in this comment? Also, it's a copy/paste of an older comment, just spam.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
protomyth 5y ago
Does anyone know of any kits that would work in a northern climate with occasional high winds that would be suitable for a small family?
samuelizdat 5y ago
You WILL live in the pod
mosselman 5y ago
"Accessory Dwelling Unit" seems like the perfect name for this dystopian live in coffin.
iso1631 5y ago
Not bad price, although doesn't seem to exist at the moment, it's about half the price of a popup house in the UK (Shown UK price includes tax at 20% - so 5m*7m is £75k plus tax, or $104k) https://www.theannex.co.uk/garden-annexes/annex-1/ https://www.theannex.co.uk/garden-annexes/annex-1/ Be interesting how quality varies
foolinaround 5y ago
Is it as easy to disassemble and move it to a different location? From what I see, it seems the setup alone seems to be optimized, but once done, it seems more or less permanent?
nickelcitymario 5y ago
Am I blind, or is this home missing a toilet?
- runnerup 5y ago
  I am wondering the same.
dadro 5y ago
I have a 40 acre plot in Maine and ordered a "camp" hand built by Amish craftsmen using decent timber for 12K delivered. Granted, I have to build out the interior but when all is done I'll be into it for < 25K. https://themainelandstore.com/camps-sheds-for-sale/ https://themainelandstore.com/camps-sheds-for-sale/
debacle 5y ago
Someone I know is looking into building tiny home communities for the impoverished. He has not been impressed by the available resources. Overwhelmingly, these tiny/modular homes are hype. If you want to build a tiny home (or really any home), do it with 2x6s and nails. You can get cheaper roughing with rammed earth, CMUs, etc, but finishing is more expensive. Timber homes at that size can almost compete on price (because most of your members are under 12'), but some of the new energy saving building codes are not timber frame friendly. You can buy a prefab SIP home, but generally it will always be cheapest to just build the thing in place. Especially if you are planning on building more than one at a time.
- uncensoredjrk 5y ago
  If your friend would like to crank out multiple tiny homes, they should look for a company nearby that has automated Light Gauge Steel Framing machines. An example of a manufacturer of such machines is https://www.framecad.com/ https://www.framecad.com/ Once your design is done, they can easily spit the parts out in an automated fashion, the parts form the wall and roofing panels. The panels are easily trucked to the site and erected.
  - harmmonica 5y ago
    Not sure if you have in-depth knowledge about this so I can avoid doing a deep dive on the linked site, but what's the cost of something like this? If you were going to do a 20x20 footprint, what would those 4 walls cost if you assume 3 penetrations for a window on each wall and a door on the 4th wall? Totally get it if you say "go to the website" but if you're involved with one of these companies maybe you could answer that more readily than I can figure it out.
- nine_k 5y ago
  Timber prices have quadrupled last few months. There is an economy of scale and efficiency in building large prefab pieces of a house on a factory, as opposed to the ad-hoc local conditions. Machines can do a lot on a factory which they cannot do on a traditional construction site, and human labor is not cheap in the U.S., especially if you want licensed contractors to build a house according to the code. Also, these homes don't look the cheapest edifices you can produce. A part of their value proposition is deployment speed. IDK if it's an important differentiator for that market segment. I also suppose that such homes can be rolled back nearly as efficiently as they are deployed, several times, so they can serve as mobile homes for disaster relief, construction in remote parts, etc.
Deadsunrise 5y ago
I love the fact that they setup the house in just one day. And those big windows are a huge plus for a person like me.
pyrophane 5y ago
There is so much marketing to the effect of "millennials love tiny homes!" I can't help but think if regular homes were even slightly affordable for the average 30-something, there would be no tiny home trend.
- EricE 5y ago
  I don't think so. I'm currently in a 2800 square foot home full of stupid shit like a formal living and dining room that get hardly used. But it's trendy, "everybody wants it" and so that's all you get unless you are willing to be your own general contractor and oversee building a completely custom home. The only people benefiting from two story houses or formal living room/dining rooms are the builders and realtors that get more for money because of the padded extra square footage. I'm getting ready to relocate - and I will more than likely be targeting an older, more reasonably sized home this time. Ideally I'd love to find something with good bones that just needs updating - drywall may get cheap again someday - if it does rip it off, run all the networking and other cables I want, upgrade the insulation then re-drywall. Get a better than "new" house the way the vast majority of them are half-assed constructed to minimum code :p
HNfriend234 5y ago
I live in So cal and this is a super good idea. What many people don't know is that the cities have been big advocates for building Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU). These are smaller homes that are basically built in people's backyards. It is seen as a way to increase housing units without doing any significant rezoning of traditional zoning. I was looking on google maps satellite view and noticed that the vast majority of homes with large backyards do not have an ADU so the potential here for investment is pretty significant I would say. We are also in a housing crisis and rents are soaring.
iso1631 5y ago
Are brick homes common in the US? I see lots of mention about wooden frames when discussing tradition vs pre-fab, but nothing about brick. Typical new house in the UK is two layers of brick (with filled cavity) with a wooden roof with tiles on the top.
- bluGill 5y ago
  Not common. Wood is a lot cheaper, strong enough (brick is hard, but it isn't actually very strong). Wood is also easy to modify in a few years when you want to make changes.
unethical_ban 5y ago
>Are they wind resistant? >Yes. Boxabls are rated for hurricane speed winds. They can handle the worst wind conditions in North America. The entire tone of the FAQ took me from "Neat!" to "I'll believe it when I see it."

369 points by yehudabrick 5y ago

Edit: I stand corrected, see below. Sadly no in-unit washer/dryer. Interesting that their product is called "casita" since the company "Kasita", which also specialized in tiny homes, recently folded. https://www.kasita.com/ https://www.kasita.com/

readflaggedcomm 5y ago
"Casita" simply means small house in Spanish. Also, the front page lists "washer/dryer" under "out of the box".

jhloa2 5y ago

I really want one of these and I don't know why. I'm struggling to come up with uses for this other than for AirBNB style short term rental places or pre-planned communities for helping homeless people get back on their feet or something. Doesn't seem as portable as a mobile home, and doesn't really have enough of a rustic look for me to want to consider this as a cabin. I feel like I'm missing a big use case here, but unless I planned to live in this full time, what are the benefits over buying a sprinter van or something.

gurchik 5y ago
In one of the videos on the site it is explained that they are currently targeting people who want to build "backyard houses" or "ADUs" that are popular in some places like in California. Family members can live in them or you can rent them out, provided it has a foundation, power, plumbing etc.
- jcims 5y ago
  Probably a way to industrialize it a bit. Run a management company that leases these out, handles site prep and paperwork and offer the homeowner a buyout option after a few years. Add an Airbnb service on top that markets, cleans and maintains it for those that want to dip their toes into it. Then start stacking them on top of each other until something gives.
- pinkrobotics 5y ago
  To me it's a modern cabin. And a place to live while a primary residence is being built. And then it'll be a place for visitors to stay. I absolutely love this, and I really want one. Have you sold many/any yet? What stage of development is the company at? Also, what sort of time frame can I hope to just order one and have it show up in a month or two?
nabilhat 5y ago
"Starter home" is the niche this fits. It wasn't all that long ago that sub-1000 square foot houses were a normal thing people bought and lived in until they could afford (and had a reason to) to move to a house better suited to support spouse/kids/etc. I also want one of these, because I want starter homes to be that again, not just an impediment to scrape off of the lot to make way to build the largest house that zoning allows. It's nice in some ways that ADU options like this seem to be prying open that niche again.
notahacker 5y ago
The UK is full of these in holiday parks, either as homes for middle class retirees downsizing to a nice little community in the country (the economics aren't quite as impressive when you consider the annual charge for the park land and facilities...) or as holiday lodges, including holiday lodges exclusively used as summer/weekend retreats Technically these are all "mobile" but they won't move after delivery. examples: https://www.tingdene.co.uk/residential-park-homes/our-homes https://www.tingdene.co.uk/residential-park-homes/our-homes

outside1234 5y ago

And then $80k to install between new electrical box, getting raked over the coals by your local water/sewer district, having to build a foundation, stairs from door, etc., etc. And your property taxes will go up.

eddy_chan 5y ago
This comment deserves to be higher. People just think you can put these anywhere but you need water connection, sewer connection, electrical, telephone line/cable, permits and red tape, by the time you're done it'll be double. And I don't think these solve any of our housing affordability problems, the land in a desirable area will be far more expensive than what's on top.
- Kosirich 5y ago
  So my question is, if you had a piece of land, concrete foundation, electrical, water and sewer connection, is it possible to get something better for 50k?
  - dagw 5y ago
    is it possible to get something better for 50k? If you are willing to do a lot of work yourself and value your time a $0 and aren't in a hurry, probably. Otherwise, this looks pretty good.
    - EricE 5y ago
      >If you are willing to do a lot of work yourself and value your time a $0 and aren't in a hurry, probably. I wish I could vote you up more than once. If they are taking advantage of economies of scale they should be able to obtain for higher quality materials (and in looking over their materials this is not stuff they are buying at Home Depot). Couple that with the advantages of building all this stuff indoors, sheltered from the weather while under construction and that they can afford to create specialized jigs and tooling to not only speed the construction time but also produce far more consistent and higher quality results they should be able to do things that you simply can't do on site in the field. Transportation of prefabbed housing has always been the major issue, which is why they spend so much time talking about how they are solving that :)

thesausageking 5y ago

This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?

hytdstd 5y ago
In the bay area, $250-300/sq ft is a more realistic low-end of the range.
- prepend 5y ago
  So about the same as this. I love the idea of modular houses, but they seem so expensive. Especially when factoring in the inability to sell the same as houses, etc etc.
- sabujp 5y ago
  please do tell which contractor charges $250-300sq/ft?! I've contacted at least 10 different contractors and they're all in the 400-500 range
  - hytdstd 5y ago
    These are numbers from 5 years ago. I didn't increase them to be conservative. 400-500 today wouldn't surprise me.
    - foobiekr 5y ago
      A friend is getting a master bathroom redone. $100k. The bay area is insane.
pacetherace 5y ago
The construction prices you quoted are not correct at least in the Bay Area. And I am guessing $150/sq ft achievable at scale. Pricing ADUs is tricky because the some of things in a house cost same for a small to medium size home. For example, the costs of plumbing, electrical, kitchen, bathroom, etc are more of less the same between a 500 sq.ft. house and a 1000 sq. ft house.

01100011 5y ago

Instant ADUs... Great, an easy way to increase the density of suburban neighborhoods that weren't designed for it while enriching wealthy landowners and providing sub-standard housing to the lower class. Shower thought: when will we see a company like Amazon or Costco experiment with providing an entire city, leveraging their efficient production chains and cost-cutting techniques? Would you live in a pre-fab town engineered to your demographics (even if Amazon owned all your data)?

buf 5y ago
Did you see the latest Loki? In the year 2050(?), they had a town in Alabama owned and operated by a company named Roxxcart.
hytdstd 5y ago
>providing sub-standard housing to the lower class. Can you elaborate on the problem with this? I don't see how adding an ADU to the market hurts the lower class.
- musingsole 5y ago
  > sub-standard housing > increase the density of suburban neighborhoods that weren't designed for it GP's vision of how this hurts the lower class seems readily apparent.
  - hytdstd 5y ago
    If the ADU is sub-standard, then the lower class can choose to not live there. I didn't ask about the density statement, I understand the argument the GP made.
    - lovich 5y ago
      > If the ADU is sub-standard, then the lower class can choose to not live there. Buddy, not for nothing but that sentence could be a textbook definition of a synonym for “Let them eat cake” Are the lower class supposed to use their vast sums of savings to choose more expensive housing? If a 20 year old Toyota Corolla with 200k miles is substandard for them can they simply choose to buy new?

tomc1985 5y ago

How about we bring back Sears' prefab housing?

mywittyname 5y ago
The standardization in the building trade didn't exist back in the Sears catalog days. For example, 2x4s come in 8ft lengths, using 16 on center studs, 8 2x4s will provide 8 foot of wall, and two sheets of drywall will cover it. And you can order all of the cabinetry, trim, shower enclosures, etc in a form that's ready for installation. A Sears prefab home would not be cheaper today because the inefficiencies that they solved in the early 1900s are no longer a problem. That, and it's infeasible for a person to construct their own house anymore, given building codes and such. Cookie cutter homes can be ridiculously cheap to build if done correctly. In really large developments, it's common for teams to move from house to house every day. Almost like an assembly line. This cuts down on a tremendous amount of wasted time.
- bigthymer 5y ago
  > it's infeasible for a person to construct their own house anymore, given building codes and such What has changed that this is no longer possible any more?
  - bluGill 5y ago
    You need to be a licensed plumber to touch anything that connects to the public water supply. While there is nothing hard about plumbing, doing something stupid could poison the whole town and so towns are paranoid. For everything else, you can do all the work yourself if you have time. I've done framing as a job so I have the experience to build a wall about as fast as any professional crew. I do my own electrical work but it takes me much longer than a real electrician (it passes intersection, though I'm more likely to need to fix something and get a second inspection). I can plan and schedule all the contractors for anything I don't want to do myself, but my inexperience means I would need to pad the schedule a lot more than a general contractor (and the fact that I'm not a regular customer means I'm not top of their list to get my job done) Each city and sometimes inspectors have their own codes. Sometimes they are good things (going beyond the basic codes), sometimes the inspector is just making things to enforce even though there is no engineering reason for that. There is no reason you can't build your own house (except plumbing). However it will take a lot of effort. Professionals are up on all the codes and the latest tricks and so will be a lot faster.

vit05 5y ago

This company is popular for being the company chosen by Elon Musk[1]. He's supposedly living in one in Starbase, Texas. I guess it's also a study to understand the dynamics of living in a small space as any dream of inhabiting some other planet passes necessarily by the adaptation of a lifetime in a tiny space. [1]https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-50k-house-texas-pictures-video/ https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-50k-house-texas-pictures...

golemiprague 5y ago
There are millions in Tokyo who live in a 15sqm apartment or something like that, you don't need to invent anything new to "study" it.
qayxc 5y ago
> I guess it's also a study to understand the dynamics of living in a small space How out of touch must one be to even consider this? News flash: the vast majority of mankind lives in what a North American would consider "small places" [0]. Same goes for population density - North American and Australian urban sprawl is largely unknown in most areas of the world. If you want to "study the dynamics" of living closely together in tightly packed spaces, just move to Hong Kong or Singapore for a year. [0] https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5e7b2a4310380d0006fc0a82/960x0.jpg?fit=scale https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5e7b2a43103...
- vit05 5y ago
  I'm talking about him. I didn't say it was a scientific study about the world. He, one of the richest men in the world, is experiencing living in a small space with houses from this company. This company has also demo videos about houses on mars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvtJPDpAY7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvtJPDpAY7c

coderintherye 5y ago

I imagine the margin isn't there for it, but I wish someone would target the <= 120 square foot market. You would think the cost to build such structure would be less because it doesn't need to pass any code and has less features, but for some reason there doesn't seem to be anything between a $2000 tool shed from Home Depot and $45,000 options from companies like Boxabl. The closest I've found is Bunkie which has a Basecamp model but even at its base feature set is still almost $30k when including delivery. I'd have to guess the market just isn't there for it, maybe everyone else just doesn't mind dealing with the building codes and permit requirements for larger units?

benjohnson 5y ago
There's an economic problem with well made smaller homes - they have all the detail of a larger home without the square footage. Hence the cost per square foot is much larger than you would expect.
- pjerem 5y ago
  This ! What I learned during the construction of my home is that the structure is really only one part of a construction. It’s a lot of raw material of course, but relatively cheap one and the construction of the structure is pretty fast. What takes months and a lot of money is just everything else : networks, windows & doors, walls, finishing …
- harmmonica 5y ago
  I’m in the middle of trying to figure this out with a friend by building an off-grid tiny house and this is pretty accurate. With our labor at a nominal rate (30/hr) it’s coming out to about $250 per square foot. We think on the next one we might be able to get down to $200 maybe $175. Interior is not done yet, but exterior is: https://imgur.com/gallery/KbPlbPR https://imgur.com/gallery/KbPlbPR That 250 psf includes everything you need to live from the get go except you have to fill the 50-gallon water tank.
- ctdonath 5y ago
  I’ve heard an aphorism to wit: length is cheap, corners are expensive.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Glyptodon 5y ago

For the multistory ones how do you get between stories?

gangstead 5y ago
In one of the carousel of images they show more box layouts [coming soon](https://www.boxabl.com/more/ https://www.boxabl.com/more/) including a "stair box" with a stair case leading up in the back, but there's no accompanying "upstairs" layout with a hole in the floor, so I think multi story boxes are more of an idea for the investor pitch deck at this point. I think all they are selling right now is the one layout.
DonHopkins 5y ago
Tesseracts.

rtpg 5y ago

I wish some of these interior designers would check out European or Japanese apartments for the layout. You could do a lot better (and I would never want to have to use the sink proposed in that clip on a day-to-day basis). That A/C location is just plain wrong (the kitchen is where you'll spend the least time). And that shelf splitting the living room + the bedroom? What? Meanwhile you have like... storage for plates for 20 people as if you could ever feed more than 3 people at once. And that double-door fridge... I imagine that if you're in a more rural area it's more necessary but there's a lot better choices here if you are actually trying to make a livable space, instead of a place that offers good shots. This looks a lot like a "set up your own AirBnB" thing. So much so I wouldn't be surprised if AirBnB made a strategic investment in this.

Thlom 5y ago
Similar concept in Norway with better interior design I think. Some pictures if you scroll a bit down. https://www.lampholmen.no/rom-for-a-leve/lampholmen--mikrohus-norge-as/ https://www.lampholmen.no/rom-for-a-leve/lampholmen--mikrohu...
kbenson 5y ago
> This looks a lot like a "set up your own AirBnB" thing. So much so I wouldn't be surprised if AirBnB made a strategic investment in this. In another video they talk about how initially they are targeting the recently lessened restrictions on backyard units in CA, so yeah, AirBnB and people looking to rent out granny units are the current target I think. > Meanwhile you have like... storage for plates for 20 people as if you could ever feed more than 3 people at once. Assuming you can't have outdoor furniture and and host people outside? One of the benefits of a small house might be more usable outdoor area. In Northern California, you generally get at least 3/4 of the year with good weather you can be outside fairly comfortably, and you get quite a bit more in Southern California. I've heard Arizona is quite nice all the time except for the summer months.
EricE 5y ago
That AC location easily covers the entire main room. You could put it on any wall and it would be effective in that tiny of a space. If you put it on the opposite wall now you potentially have plumbing on the front of your house, or longer line sets to tuck the exterior unit around the corner - increasing complexity and cost. As for the kitchen I know this may shock a lot of people but there are ways to feed yourself that don't involve restaurants, take out or delivery. If anything I'd prefer a slightly larger stove/oven even if it intruded into the other space more. I enjoy cooking for myself so a decently sized fridge and pantry storage is more than superficial. Heck there are two story four bedroom houses that were built in the 70's around here that have similarly sized kitchens - it's insane when most RVs have better kitchens these days. I do agree the TV shelf thing seems more like an opportunity to be clever with a rotating TV but that's a relatively minor quibble - the rest of the layout is actually quite functional.

rmason 5y ago

Surprised no one here has mentioned that Elon Musk is living in a Boxabl house in Austin, TX. This has totally perplexed the people who follow his every move. https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/elon-musk-texas-house-boca-chica-16278768.php https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/elon-musk-texas-hou... I think that he might possibly be doing his homework. Can you imagine a Boxabl house outfitted with a solar roof, a Tesla battery and a Starlink dish? I could see people having a remote cottage not hooked into the power line. I just know that Elon Musk doesn't do stuff without a reason.

gdsdfe 5y ago
that would be cool, I would buy that
johnnyfived 5y ago
"I think that he might possibly be doing his homework." I believe you're dead on, this guy's an absolute baller of a CEO (running 3 totally game-changing startups) and completely immerses himself in his work and research.
- postpawl 5y ago
  “The coronavirus panic is dumb” -Elon Musk (March 6th 2020)
  - squarefoot 5y ago
    Everyone has the rights to behave as an idiot, including Musk. To his partial defense, he minimized the risks, got Covid, then it seems he changed his stance on the matter. A bit late, but better than never. "To be clear, I do support vaccines in general & covid vaccines specifically. The science is unequivocal. In very rare cases, there is an allergic reaction, but this is easily addressed with an EpiPen." — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2021
- decebalus1 5y ago
  I admire your admiration of him, it's a sign you haven't reached the level of cynicism required to classify him in the 'snake oil salesman' category yet.

Shank 5y ago

Cover [0] also has a similar business based on this. They're focused on ADUs too, but their intent seems to be to scale up over time. They're starting at $81k. I really want a modular home ala Japan in the US, but it just doesn't seem like this market exists yet. It's much faster and efficient to build modules and assemble them onsite than it is to build "from scratch" each time. [0]: https://buildcover.com/ https://buildcover.com/

sakopov 5y ago

Recent interview with the founder. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck685sVmdkk&t=2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck685sVmdkk&t=2s

bstockton 5y ago

These have piqued a lot of people's interest around me. My friend recently quit a steady job to go work at Modal https://livemodal.com https://livemodal.com I have wondered about the necessity of a crane though, seems like a pretty big limiting factor.

prawn 5y ago
I thought about the crane too, but assume you need a truck and crane to get it delivered anyway?

synaesthesisx 5y ago

We need to be building units like this for the homeless, in lots with services/resources. The faster we can meet offer everyone a “bed”, the faster we can legally ban urban camping. Encampments are growing out of control in SF, LA, etc and we need a housing-first approach.

jonfw 5y ago
If you're building these in large quantities doing it on site would be way cheaper. You can achieve similar economies of scale, and you don't have to design the houses to be mobile and you don't have to actually move them

dirtyid 5y ago

https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/folding-at-home https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/folding-at-home Good recent summary on state of foldable construction.

arichard123 5y ago

I don't think it compares that well to a static caravan. The price here likely includes VAT (20%) https://www.abiuk.co.uk/our-collection/the-roecliffe/ https://www.abiuk.co.uk/our-collection/the-roecliffe/

alkonaut 5y ago
Aren’t caravans quite poorly insulated so if you heat it year round and don’t have extremely mild weather like most of UK then you’ll waste a lot of money keeping warm (or cool)? The attraction of a modular home to me would be that it can have proper construction with heavy triple glass windows and so on.
- arichard123 5y ago
  I can't tell you the specifics. I know from holidays that they have improved a lot. The newer ones have much better insulation and double glazing. Sure, they are geared towards a UK climate.
leoedin 5y ago
Every static caravan I've been in has been a horrible building. The walls are paper thin, the whole thing shakes when you walk around, it's poorly insulated, the furnishings are cheap. I'm not sure how much of that requirement comes from weight limits due to road transportation vs cost cutting vs target market, but those things are just horrible to spend time in. Houses need to feel solid.
- EricE 5y ago
  Dunno why you are getting voted down but you are spot on. Mobile homes have MANY severe compromises to keep the weight down that this solution does not have to worry about. It's laughable that people think they are even remotely comparable.

agumonkey 5y ago

Curious about how reversible the unpacking is. This means near no house destruction on site.. you remove your stuff, fold it and lift it away

CalRobert 5y ago

This kind of thing is great, though for areas where homes are expensive it's clear they'll be made illegal to remove competition for the housing cartel.

tut-urut-utut 5y ago

Doesn't look much cheaper than a regular home. Maybe faster to build, but not necessary cheaper. It would not help battle the overvalued property prices, since in most expensive areas it's the land that drives home price up, not the building price itself.

bunkydoo 5y ago

It’s funny how people have this hate of trailer parks and you can just hear it in the way they talk down on it. But somehow tiny houses and modular homes that cost even less are somehow completely acceptable and beloved.

jmcgough 5y ago

How does this compare to mobile homes in terms of price and use case? Many mobile homes are only "mobile" in the sense that it's delivered and installed somewhere - 90% are never moved again, because it's costly and complicated to do so. The modular idea is neat, but I'm not sure how practical it is, and there are laws in many states that prevent you from moving homes without a licensed professional.

Ensorceled 5y ago
It looks like the delivery crane does the unboxing, so I would presume the delivery would be done by some one licensed to move it. I think this is also not considered mobile. Not sure how you would even have this as a "take out" option.
h2odragon 5y ago
Dunno if the "mobile home industry" is actually useful to compare against anymore; they seem to be dedicated to selling the cheapest possible crap as an excuse to rope people into horrible financial schemes. "no down payment with land" is pushing some deals that'd make payday lenders feel moral qualms. Not that mobile homes were ever a place to find quality construction, but now it feels like outright fraud.

ktzar 5y ago

There's been similar concepts in Europe for decades: https://www.alucasa.com/viviendas-residenciales https://www.alucasa.com/viviendas-residenciales

LightG 5y ago

Reminds me of the Stacks in Ready Player One ... Sure, maybe these are good as temporary accommodations ... maybe a garden shed or home office ... but take the new-home glaze off of them, and add the patina of life, and these will eventually be classified as slum housing.

desireco42 5y ago

I will not comment on the business, just the website. It is bad (not quite terrible). It is actually responsive, but it came from some cheap template. I am not sure why is that. Does agencies charge way too much for their work, so they didn't want to pay 150K for website, but spent 150 instead. There should be a room in-between for this.

maximus-decimus 5y ago
You judge websites based on how expensive they are?
- desireco42 5y ago
  Not how expensive they are but how much budget you spend on making them. You have to spend money to make good website.
  - maximus-decimus 5y ago
    But what do you think isn't good about their website?

youngtaff 5y ago

Know it's not a like-for-like comparison as the boxabl units come with a mini-kitchen etc. But think I'd far prefer something like the smaller units from Heb Homes – https://www.hebhomes.com https://www.hebhomes.com (Pricing is public but unfortunately need to register for plans)

myphs 5y ago

This doesn't look like it's sustainable at all. But as they say themselves, it can be very useful for disaster situations.

Dorothy59 5y ago

That's a contrived example. I assume someone rich would hire a construction firm to make a fancy treehouse. The target audience for these are squeezed between owners of trailer parks and cheap shacks. https://www.advancedmd.run/ https://www.advancedmd.run/

Ensorceled 5y ago
Why is there a link to AdvancedMD in this comment? Also, it's a copy/paste of an older comment, just spam.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

protomyth 5y ago

Does anyone know of any kits that would work in a northern climate with occasional high winds that would be suitable for a small family?

samuelizdat 5y ago

You WILL live in the pod

mosselman 5y ago

"Accessory Dwelling Unit" seems like the perfect name for this dystopian live in coffin.

iso1631 5y ago

Not bad price, although doesn't seem to exist at the moment, it's about half the price of a popup house in the UK (Shown UK price includes tax at 20% - so 5m*7m is £75k plus tax, or $104k) https://www.theannex.co.uk/garden-annexes/annex-1/ https://www.theannex.co.uk/garden-annexes/annex-1/ Be interesting how quality varies

foolinaround 5y ago

Is it as easy to disassemble and move it to a different location? From what I see, it seems the setup alone seems to be optimized, but once done, it seems more or less permanent?

nickelcitymario 5y ago

Am I blind, or is this home missing a toilet?

runnerup 5y ago
I am wondering the same.

dadro 5y ago

I have a 40 acre plot in Maine and ordered a "camp" hand built by Amish craftsmen using decent timber for 12K delivered. Granted, I have to build out the interior but when all is done I'll be into it for < 25K. https://themainelandstore.com/camps-sheds-for-sale/ https://themainelandstore.com/camps-sheds-for-sale/

debacle 5y ago

Someone I know is looking into building tiny home communities for the impoverished. He has not been impressed by the available resources. Overwhelmingly, these tiny/modular homes are hype. If you want to build a tiny home (or really any home), do it with 2x6s and nails. You can get cheaper roughing with rammed earth, CMUs, etc, but finishing is more expensive. Timber homes at that size can almost compete on price (because most of your members are under 12'), but some of the new energy saving building codes are not timber frame friendly. You can buy a prefab SIP home, but generally it will always be cheapest to just build the thing in place. Especially if you are planning on building more than one at a time.

uncensoredjrk 5y ago
If your friend would like to crank out multiple tiny homes, they should look for a company nearby that has automated Light Gauge Steel Framing machines. An example of a manufacturer of such machines is https://www.framecad.com/ https://www.framecad.com/ Once your design is done, they can easily spit the parts out in an automated fashion, the parts form the wall and roofing panels. The panels are easily trucked to the site and erected.
- harmmonica 5y ago
  Not sure if you have in-depth knowledge about this so I can avoid doing a deep dive on the linked site, but what's the cost of something like this? If you were going to do a 20x20 footprint, what would those 4 walls cost if you assume 3 penetrations for a window on each wall and a door on the 4th wall? Totally get it if you say "go to the website" but if you're involved with one of these companies maybe you could answer that more readily than I can figure it out.
nine_k 5y ago
Timber prices have quadrupled last few months. There is an economy of scale and efficiency in building large prefab pieces of a house on a factory, as opposed to the ad-hoc local conditions. Machines can do a lot on a factory which they cannot do on a traditional construction site, and human labor is not cheap in the U.S., especially if you want licensed contractors to build a house according to the code. Also, these homes don't look the cheapest edifices you can produce. A part of their value proposition is deployment speed. IDK if it's an important differentiator for that market segment. I also suppose that such homes can be rolled back nearly as efficiently as they are deployed, several times, so they can serve as mobile homes for disaster relief, construction in remote parts, etc.

Deadsunrise 5y ago

I love the fact that they setup the house in just one day. And those big windows are a huge plus for a person like me.

pyrophane 5y ago

There is so much marketing to the effect of "millennials love tiny homes!" I can't help but think if regular homes were even slightly affordable for the average 30-something, there would be no tiny home trend.

EricE 5y ago
I don't think so. I'm currently in a 2800 square foot home full of stupid shit like a formal living and dining room that get hardly used. But it's trendy, "everybody wants it" and so that's all you get unless you are willing to be your own general contractor and oversee building a completely custom home. The only people benefiting from two story houses or formal living room/dining rooms are the builders and realtors that get more for money because of the padded extra square footage. I'm getting ready to relocate - and I will more than likely be targeting an older, more reasonably sized home this time. Ideally I'd love to find something with good bones that just needs updating - drywall may get cheap again someday - if it does rip it off, run all the networking and other cables I want, upgrade the insulation then re-drywall. Get a better than "new" house the way the vast majority of them are half-assed constructed to minimum code :p

HNfriend234 5y ago

I live in So cal and this is a super good idea. What many people don't know is that the cities have been big advocates for building Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU). These are smaller homes that are basically built in people's backyards. It is seen as a way to increase housing units without doing any significant rezoning of traditional zoning. I was looking on google maps satellite view and noticed that the vast majority of homes with large backyards do not have an ADU so the potential here for investment is pretty significant I would say. We are also in a housing crisis and rents are soaring.

iso1631 5y ago

Are brick homes common in the US? I see lots of mention about wooden frames when discussing tradition vs pre-fab, but nothing about brick. Typical new house in the UK is two layers of brick (with filled cavity) with a wooden roof with tiles on the top.

bluGill 5y ago
Not common. Wood is a lot cheaper, strong enough (brick is hard, but it isn't actually very strong). Wood is also easy to modify in a few years when you want to make changes.

unethical_ban 5y ago

>Are they wind resistant? >Yes. Boxabls are rated for hurricane speed winds. They can handle the worst wind conditions in North America. The entire tone of the FAQ took me from "Neat!" to "I'll believe it when I see it."