Prefab housing: As a real estate consultant, I have recommended several such proposals in the past. Best way to do it is to set up a fabrication plant in the New Orleans area staffed by existing home fabricaters from outside the area. FEMA could provide startup capital for training local labor and setting up the plants for a lot less than paying for cruise liners.

Back in the late 80s I designed 16 different homes in the prefab construction designs suitable for the rebuilding of the towns in the Katrina area. Even 4 2 story homes. These homes are built like in an auto manufacturing plant, sections placed on my special trucks, sent to the building lots and erected fully ready to move into within less than a month. I have tried to get the funding to erect and start making these homes, but alas, noone seems to be interested in funding my dreams. Projections at the time were for 1,000 homes a year from one shift, and other shifts could be added to make more homes.
Look at my designs on the computers, move the interior walls around to suit your needs, but then the numbers are sent to the plant, the house constructed in wall pannels, lifted into my special trucks. Even the foundations are manufactured in the plant. Full erection of the basic house of 1,000 sqft would take only two days and allow another week to finish the interior with cabinets, rugs, tiles, etc, and then moved into within the two weeks allowed....finished. I designed them to be built so that they could be taken apart and moved and reerected again at a dfferent locations. The sections fit together like a picture puzzle...each part helping to hold the other in place so they do not destruct in a hurricane, tornado, or flood.
I still have the plans if anyone might be interested. Steel studs, rafters, steel floor trusses. Electric designed like auto plugs and wiring; Plumbing prefabbed to fit each different house.
I would let the designs be used by others...the only thing I would ask for in return is a small royalty on each house built(mainly because I am too old to do the work myself and want the income.)

where are the pictures of the trailor prefabs and is chaney and Halabirten ahead of it

WHOA!!! If the [yellow]house in the photo is one of the pre-fabs costing $100.00 (and up) per s/ft, somebody is getting screwed big time!!

You can buy modular homes (much better than 'manufactured' aka: mobile homes) for less than $70.00 per s/ft.

'Contempry Homes' (Pickneyville, IL) built a 1900 s/ft home for under $70,000, several years ago, that rivaled many of the $100,000 site built homes.

Modular construction has been around a long time, and is vastly superior to site built structures for a multitude of reasons.

I suspect that these prices have been inflated grossly based upon one simple human fraility: GREED!

The "pre-fab" home, or manufactured home is a affordable solution for a quality home, especially if people are replacing a destroyed structure. My husband and I purchased a triple section modular home, built to IRC codes, a little over a year ago in a rural area near Colorado Springs. Our 2640 sq ft home was built in Nebraska and shipped via tractor trailer, removed from the trailer and placed on a concrete crawl space. It cost us, with the foundation, $62 a sq foot (didn't include the land, well, septic tank and electricity). We even did about $15K worth of construction upgrades, including upgraded inulation and house wrap, concrete fiberboard lap siding, flat 9' ceilings and a 6-12 pitch roof. It certainly doesn't look like a "manufactured" home; everyone who visits is surprised to find out it is. We also own a site built home, on a basement, that wasn't built as well as this house. The material and contruction quality are superior and we wouldn't hesitate to purchase another; in fact, we are considering doing just that to add a guest house to our property.

There is this company I found in New Orleans that makes Modular homes that look just like the old historic homes of New Orleans. This may be a great solution to Katrina not just for New Orleans but the entire gulf coast. Yall should check out hometimellc.

That was several years ago! It may as well be 100 years ago. Prices for building materials have gone up tremendously in 2 years. Say 30% to 40% and then add labor costs also increasing at least 15% to 20% per year due to insurance fraud, lawsuits and dead beat unemployment costs. You get to $100 per foot.

There is another option for building;
WWW.CONTAINERCITY.COM

I called FEMA in Washington D.C., the office of senator John McCain,and the staff of Senator Orrin Hatch about this web site. NOBODY gave me an opinion on this concept.

I am a builder in high priced Oregon where labor is a lot more expensive. I build custom homes for less per sq ft than these pre-fabs. Somebody is ripping someone off and probably at the tax payer's expense. Who's pockets are we lining this time?

You have to keep on top of house const. prices going up, up, up. When we built our 5000 sq. ft. house 10 years ago it was somewhere around $57.00 sq. ft., when it burned in '03 the insurance policy coverage had not kept up with price increases, in Spring of 05 it was up to around $127.00 sq. ft. so we had to pay out of pocket for the difference to get same size house. When the storm hit it was under construction and was badly damaged by wind and water so now what is it going to cost to start over? I really liked the manufactured home shown and as long as it has all it takes to help survive the next storm then I would certainly consider this as the way to rebuild.

$100/sq ft. is ludicrous for this type construction. In non "rip-off" conditions you can build a luxury home on the coast for these prices. More crackpot solutions from looney tunes types on governor's commission!

I do not mean to sound down on prefab homes, but I strongly doubt that they could withstand sustained category 3 or higher winds without significant damage. Now, if they can pre-fab solid concrete walls with an entirely steel internal structure that is also around $100 per square foot, then there would be less damage and less claims. In South Florida, the only wood frame homes that survive such winds are made out of South Dade Pine. This is a native pine tree that is so dense that in order to drive in a nail, the hole must be pre-drilled. There are few homes left and very little pine trees left to rebuild them.

Most homes are built here using Concrete Block and Steel reinforcement rods.

Prefabs look nice, but just not for Hurricane prone areas (or Tornado areas for that matter).

i'm sitting right now in a 20 yr. old pre-fab house on hatteras island. we've been hit by numerous hurricanes in the 11 yrs. we've lived here. still has 90% of the origional shingles. also the siding and carpeting are original. a few repairs here and there but nothing major. the many old pre-fabs out here are doing as well as the stick built houses. mabey better than some. the proofs is all around us.

Sadness sets in looking at the yellow example of what $100 per sq ft buys. I am reminded of what is called a shotgun house, considered something kin to an instant slum. How did we get here from there?

In my design class for Architecture, we worked on a project for Katrina Housing. All our designs were based on prefab and were under the contraints of having to fit on a trailer bed for easy moving.

hey....it's a HOUSE...much better than a FEMA trailor...right?

nice looking home

may we have a price per s/f of living area

I agree with GDS. I think the Richmond, VA market averages around $100-135 per sq ft for regular stick built homes...that is TODAY pricing. It seems expensive to me.

What about Steel homes. . . inexpensive and go up quickly. . . coatings make them impervious to salt?

Our 15-year-old double-wide in a holler in Franklin County, VA, is looking tired and wearing out. How wonderful to see affordable alternatives to the double-wide! Go ahead, y'all -- looking good. Innovations abound in VA, too: folks at VA Tech coming up with ideas, and a Roanoke, VA, architect headed up a contest/exhibit last year for 21st century homes suited to the southwest Virginia terrain. What was lost to the Gulf Coast in Katrina is heart-breaking; what CAN be built there offers hope.

part of a solution is action. I think that if the prefab houseing can be organized quickly enough, people suffer less stress, and can go on...sometimes is costs a little more to gain a lot more..potatoe salid building projects just can't compete.

Also that price per sf was based on the California Market not the Gulf Coast Market. But there is probably not that much in difference, just because material and labor are at a premium right now.

This custom home, designed by Dennis Thompson and built by Allen Associates (both of Santa Barbara), is a gift from the community of Santa Barbara to a family in Bay St. Louis. It representss what one community has done to help the effort to rebuild the Gulf Coast and, hopefully, will inspire others in this effort.

This idea is not only practical, its universal and can resolve some immediate housing issues throughout the Gulf Coast and it will hopefully serve to bring some Katrina victims out of their tents, trailers (who are currently trying to cope with winter temperatues) and motel rooms (waiting for months for a FEMA trailer) and back to the Coast (home) where they belong! Let's hope this great idea is not extinguished in some political or bureaucratic quagmire!

In my youth I lived in a Central American banana town on the coast. Our home was about 150 yds. from the edge of the ocean. It was built on concrete stilts about 8 ft. high. Under the home, the ground was paved with concrete. This allowed use of the ground floor for lawn furniture, parties, and hamocks strung between the stilts. In the winter stormy season sometime waves would reach all the way to the area under the home. No Problem! Just sweep away the drifted sand.
Now that I am older I can see the disadvantage of having the first floor located so high above the ground. Arthritis makes it hard to climb those stairs to the first floor.
If it were possible to build a home where the home would sit on the ground in calm weather and then be jacked up to a higher elevation in anticipation of flooding, that would be a perfect compromise.

We live in Key West, FL and own a piece of land that we will be building this coming year. We have already been quoted, and had plans approved for permitting on a 2400 sq. foot, 2 story, 4 bdrm home for less than $100 a sq. foot that is hurricane rated for the keys. These prices in the article seem overly inflated. I advise people to investigate their options in depth.

Yep, my brother and sister in law bought a factory built home in 1999 and sold it in 2004. They bought virtually the same home from the same dealer this year and it had gone up substantially in price. Far more than inflation.

Our city built homes, called pre-fabs, immediately after World War II to house returning veterans and their families. The houses consisted of four rooms and a bath on steel pilings, with no basement. We lived happily in our house for several years. After a period of time paying a rental fee to the city, it came time to dig a basement and finish the attic, or buy another house, since the city wanted title to revert to the individual veterans. Many families converted these pre-fabs into comfortable, fashionable homes and subsequently sold them for a healthy price. Housing of this type is adaptable and reasonable in price and a great solution to a housing problem such as that brought about by Katrina.

www.allamericanhomes.com We bought one six years ago and have never regreted it. It's built better than any built-on-site home that we've ever seen! They have a location in Springfield, Tennessee.

As a modular home dealer in North Carolina, I can assure you a modular structure the same size as shown in the photo, with better exterior trim and as good or better interior features can be constructed on an owner's site for far less than $100 per square foot. Those who continue to decry "pre-fab" are clearly out of touch with the characteristics of modern manufactured housing products. In its early days, the manufactured housing industry dug itself into both quality and public perception holes, and is still trying to dig out on the public perception side, although the product passed into a new realm of quality a few years ago.

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I Pastor a small Church in Daviston, Alabama. The building needs to be replaced. This information on prefab houses has given me an idea. I want to look into building a prefab Church. I believe the cost would be in the range of our "Country Folks" who live in the hills. If the Church grows, we could build a larger building on the same property, and use the prefab building for a Chapel. Someone who reads this, contact me.

It seems some people think of mobile homes when they here the words pre-fab or manufactured. If you ever watch DIY Network, they have a show called Assembly Required which basically shows these houses being designed and built. They are usually pretty expensive, but I think it is because they are built in a factory somewhere and then transported. The price should definitely come down if there was a facility somewhere on the gulf coast. This could also create the jobs that are also needed in the areas hit by the hurricanes.

I think that it is ridiculous that these people who never carried insurance on their homes seem to EXPECT to be given brand new, beautiful homes. I guess I don't understand the mindframe. These people, as sorry as I do feel for their losses, are being GIVEN something that doesn't HAVE to be given. Be happy with what you've been given, and buy some freakin insurance this time!

Maybe some people should learn that if you build near a volcano, flood plane, faultline, or massive pissed off ocean that likes to send volly's of storms at you throughout the year, it might be wiser to spend your energy getting the fudge out of dodge and settin' up roots where they won't be ripped out by 150mph winds of fury. But hey, I'm a cynic. PEACE!

-Dave

I recently purchased an All American Modular Home and they are better built than an on site built stick house. They are Hurricane and Tornado rated and are made of 2 X 6 wood construction on 16 centers with 2 X 12 joists. These are real houses and not double wide trailers. These houses have been hit by Tornadoes and can take a lot of punishment.

How about some websites for pre-fab housing or modular homes. Look's like a faster way to rebuild our future.

Hi Dave in Seattle! Tell me, when Mt. Rainier goes up and takes your house with it or a tsunami comes down Pueget Sound, will you change your thinking about the lower Gulf coast??? Insurance in Seattle is super expencive. Very difficult to get landslide insurance also. My brother had to move to a new house in Seattle in order to get good insurance. Becarful, we don't know when problems will happen to us. PEACE.

Well Put Walt! Some people just don't get it! I lived in a garden apartment in the suburbs of Chicago and it flooded, ankle deep in water. It was not covered by my renters insurance since ACTS of GOD are not covered, now does that mean since I couldn't afford a second floor apartment and had no way of knowing it was going to floor my garden apartment it's my fault?
Stuff happens that no one expects, like accidents, and tornadoes that drop out of the sky can happen anywhere - you really aren't SAFE anywhere. Maybe some places are less risky then others but hey you can walk across the street and get hit by a car too.!
Do you think that you're 100% safe where you are?

I was born and raised in the Bay St. Louis area and now live in Gulf Breeze Florida. My family lost our home last year due to Hurricane Ivan (Sept. 16, 2004). We originally signed up with Jim Walter Homes (what a joke) after waiting almost 10 months, and them telling us it may be another year, we cancelled and found a company (timberlinehomesinc.com) and started working with them in July. They build modular homes. The house we chose was built in a factory in Georgia and them put on pilings twelve feet up and we paid a little extra for a 175 mile per hour windload. We will be mowing in our home at the end of this week. We are very happy with the home we chose and and the builder we were working with. This company is based out of Brewton Alabama, but from what I understand they have a office now in Wiggins, MS.
On another note, I just wanted to say that my thoughts and prayers are with all of you on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Although we went through this last year, from my visit there, I see what you all are dealing with is far worst than what we saw here.

Hmmmm, Pre-fab?
Poured in place Portland cement concrete homes or concrete tilt-up homes could be an option. Fire-resistant, wind resistant, insect resistant, won't float way. Basically bomb proof! Seems like a good bet to me.

PreFab homes might look nice inside & out, but until you get your house badly damaged by a Hurricane like I did 2 months ago by Hurricane Wilma in Florida, you'll think twice about buying a prefab home. You just don't know until you actually go through it. It will be more than a year before my house gets rebuilt & believe me, it won't be a prefab.

I design homes in the Denver CO area for a local Wall Panel Plant. We wave built everything from entry level duplexs (1000 sq/ft) to multi-million dollar apartment complexes. We have built homes for some of the top 10 largest builders in the US. Wall panels can be only as good as the company who is building them. Any home buyer who is looking into this type of construction is probally more likely to to get a high quality product than if they get Billy the Builder who is the local handy man. I know the homes that we build here in Denver have to be able to withstand high winds because of the new building codes. Most of the larger builders are starting to prefer wall panel as long as the price is competitive.

I have been looking for a prefab house in Seattle but they end up being so much money. I found good ones from the east coast but not many on the west coast that arent trailer park manufacturers.

$100/sq foot in building costs is a bargain nowadays on the Gulf Coast. If there is a builder on the Gulf Coast who would build for less than that, let me know his name. I need to replace my home destroyed by Katrina. Problem is, there aren't any builders available in Pass Christian and no modular home suppliers either. The only work being done is builders buying damaged homes, refurbishing them, and reselling them. There is no new building on lots where homes have been destroyed. None. I have yet to see one built.

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I stayed in one of Ian Cronshaw's pre-fab houses recently, and it was high-quality, airy, thoughtfully crafted, and absolutely beautiful...believe it or not, far lovelier than most stick-built homes I've seen. After a week in Cronshaw's home, my husband and I began seriously plotting how we might get our hands on one. Seeing the practical use put to this particular pre-fab line after Hurricane Katrina, I'm not surprised at its success. Until you see it for yourselves, don't put it down. It's remarkable.

I heard so much about modular h omes. They say the once the modular homes are put up ,it will increase the value. I have land in florida, I am looking for a high quality modular home company. does anyone know? also, I do not want a modular home that falls apart. What do you look for in a modular home to make sure I do not get ripped 0ff and my modular is solid as a rock. Help can someone gear me in the right direction. (in florida)

There has been strong argument against rebuilding on many of the Katrina sites, particularly those at or below sea level. What to do with displaced residents? Take a look at Lehigh Acres, FL for development. I've owned a lot in the area for more than 35 years and development has been slow. It would be a perfect area to resettle those who would be happy in climate similar to their homes, but out of harms way. The assessment on my land as increased tenfold in the last three years. The market value is about $35,000 for a 1/4 acre "oversize corner" building lot. FEMA would save much more money if it would acquire land from owners such as myself, paying the modest fair market value, and allow the modular homes to be built. Investing about $90,000 each with low-interest loans to those in need would be a real bargain compared with the shameful performance to date and the fraud and mismanagement that cries out for recompense. Give deserving people a real home, not a death trap filled with formaldehyde gas, areas of ongoing stench a decay, and ever increasing potential medical costs for treatments resulting from health hazards for years to come.

I'm looking to buy my first home in Fort Lauderdale Florida, and it's a prefab going for $220K. Is it worth the investment or should I look for an on site construction home. I don't know anything about homes. Any advice would be appreciated.

I run the Built-to-Ship Division for Allen Associates - we donated and built the home pictured at the top of this article, and now work with Clark Construction in Bay St. Louis (southernprebuilthomes.com) to supply these homes.

Let me dispel a few myths:

1) Price - no one is lining their pockets or ripping anyone off with THESE houses. Please check out CURRENT building prices before calling honest builders opportunists (or worse). Price is a simple equation of Cost+Reasonable Profit, period. You get what you pay for. If you take issue with this fact, feel free to contact me directly. bbeltram@dallenassociates.com

We are in partnership with Eddie Clark because we want to help re-build Mississippi. We do not make big profits in this endeavor & keep cost as low as we can.

2)Quality - The house you see pictured is NOT modular. It is a custom, stick-built house, that was pre-fabricated (or pre-built). Same as building a brand new house from scratch, but more efficient. Materials used are quality and eco-friendly, not cheap trash.

3)Please don't confuse this house with other lesser quality houses out there. This is a quality, custom house.

Mississippi has been kicked around a lot and some of us are sincere and want to help out. Please do your research and ask yourself if you are doing more harm than good before pointing fingers.

Respectfully,
Blake Beltram
Allen Associates

I own a company ( SYSTEM BUILT CONSTRUCTION INC)that
installs about 250 modular homes a year, we go from
PA to GA currently, We have put up as many as 4 homes a day. Give me a call.

Email me about modular buuilt duplex in New Orleans,louisiana call504-524-6361

I am planning for building a Comunity Complex in Daviston, Alabama (above Alexander City). Our Church needs two Prefab buyildings. One to be used as a Church, with office space, class rooms, and santuary. Another building for Day Care Center, Social Hall, and a Fast Food Express. I need to meet contractors who build prefab buildings.