Prefab Building

Prefab building

Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled.

These houses are popular due to low cost and less labour in less time required for  construction  and other restricting conditions such as a lack of power, lack of water, exposure to harsh weather or a hazardous environment are avoided.

The conventional method of building a house is to transport bricks, timber, cement, sand, steel and construction aggregate, etc. to the site, and to construct the house on site from these materials. In prefabricated construction, only the foundations are constructed in this way, while sections of walls, floors and roof are prefabricated (assembled) in a factory (possibly with window and door frames included), transported to the site, lifted into place by a crane and bolted together.

Advantages of prefabrication

1.     High capacity- enabling the realization of important projects

2.     Factory made products

3.     Independent of adverse weather conditions during construction

4.     Continuing erection in winter time until -20 °C

5.     Opportutnities for good architecture

6.     Healthy buildings

7.     Reduced energy consumption

8.     Environmentally friendly way of building with optimum use of materials

9.     Less noise and dust.

10. Cost effective Solutions

11. Reduction in Construction time

12. Safety in Construction

13. Increase in the quality of construction

14. Reduction of Construction waste etc.

Disadvantages

1.    Leaks can form at joints in prefabricated components.

2.    Transportation costs may be higher for voluminous prefabricated sections than for the materials of which they are made, which can often be packed more efficiently.

3.    Large prefabricated sections require heavy-duty cranes and precision measurement and handling to place in position.

4.    Larger groups of buildings from the same type of prefabricated elements tend to look drab and monotonous.

5.    Local jobs may be lost, if the work done to fabricate the components being located in a place far away from the place of construction. This means that there are less locals working on any construction project at any time, because fabrication is outsourced.