Customer Reviews

PreFab Home

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"PreFab Home" is an interesting read for anyone considering building a home, prefab or not. In it, designer and author Michael Buchanan follows one modular house through the design, building, and decorating processes. However, if you know little to nothing about modular homes, you might be disappointed with the scope of "PreFab Home."

"PreFab Home" is divided into five chapters: History of Modular Construction; The Language of Modular Construction; Design Recipe for a Modular Bungalow; Updating Arts and Crafts Detail; and Creating the Look for Less. As you can see from the chapter headings, the book is as much about designing and decorating a home in general as it is about prefabricated/modular homes specifically. Personally, this came as a bit of a disappointment to me - when I borrowed "Prefab Home" from my library, I expected to find a guide that focused on modular homes: how to choose a dealer and a model, how the construction and installation processes progress, how to shop for a contractor and finishing crew, etc. Decorating a modular home is the same as decorating a stick-built home, so I didn't anticipate much design advice. I wanted to learn about prefab homes, and the title of the book IS "PreFab Home," so I didn't think that my expectations were unreasonable!

Buchanan does touch upon the issues unique to modular homes, including the ones mentioned above. But be warned: his discussion is usually superficial. This is certainly helpful for the merely curious, but if you're really serious about building a modular home, you'll definitely need to purchase additional books to guide you through the process. In many ways, "PreFab Home" is like a glossy brochure for the modular home industry: Buchanan spends more time trying to convince readers that prefab homes can indeed be Fabulous, and less time explaining how exactly you should go about designing, choosing, and building one. A noble cause, yes, but kind of pointless, since anyone who buys a book about modular homes is probably considering buying or building one already!

Also, because the book follows one home from start to finish, Buchanan focuses on one style ad nauseam: the Arts and Crafts bungalow. While he does offer some practical decorating tips that anyone can utilize, in many ways, "PreFab Home" reads (and looks) like an Arts and Crafts tribute album. This is great for fans of the period; not so great if you're less than crazy about frilly, cluttered interior design.

Overall, "PreFab Home" offers a decent introduction to modular homes for newbies. If you know nothing about modular homes and are curious, "PreFab Home" is a nice, light read. If you know nothing about modular homes but are considering building one, "PreFab Home" may or may not be helpful; there are some great photos, but not a lot of practical, hands-on, how-to advice. If you already know the prefab home basics and/or aren't an Arts and Crafts fan, pass this one up.

I've known of moduler homes for a long time and have basically rejected them as sort of a house trailer without wheels. Then a few years ago I regularly passed by a lot on which a house was being build. It followed the traditional pattern: earth work, foundation, and so on. One day as I drove by, I noticed a lot of trucks with big house components parked by the site, and a big crane. I was busy so I didn't stop. The next day the whole house was there and it didn't look like a house trailer at all.

I stopped by to talk to them. The contractor, a specialist in this type of construction asked me: "Do you notice what you don't see around here." "No," I had to answer. "A big dumpster - Modular houses don't produce the waste of a stick built house." "And all this stuff just fits together," I asked. "Yup! It's all built inside a factory where they have jigs and fittings to hold everything to square angles and exact dimensions." Then you look at buying in bulk rather than just a few sticks at a time, and it's substantially lest costly.

This is the first book I've seen that goes into this kind of construction from start to finish. It covers every question I could think of to ask from start to finish. Anybody thinking of building or buying a house of any size should start with this book

About half of this book (from page 97 on) is devoted to decorating advice, which just isn't what I wanted. In fact, there's very little information here at all...the type is huge and there are many photos (though often the same thing shown from several different angles -- how many photos of room shells being lowered in to place do I need to see to understand how it works?).

The book starts with an intro to prefab housing, which is fine, but better covered, IMHO, in the book Prefab Modern. The next section deals with the actual house construction, which was more useful, but still lacking in helpful detail: for example, the book talks about how they decided to "extend this roofline" but nowhere does it show you the floorplan for the house! There's a sentence that said "Other design alterations had to be made due to building codes, wind velocity, shipping and factory capabilities" -- like what? If I'm thinking about building a prefab home those are the questions I'd like detailed in more specific.

The bottom line, to me, is that if you know anything about how a prefab home works (because you've done online research or read another book like Prefab Modern) there will be little in this book that is new.

As an interior design "hobbyist," I subscribe to many home magazines and read many design books. Michael Buchanan's PreFab Homes was no run of the mill book with lots of pretty pictures though. It was a breath of fresh air because it taught me something new. I was unaware of the potential for building (or redesigning) a true dream home, but on a budget within my means. Michael tells you where you should spend money, and where you can cut corners, to achieve a look that evokes a "wow" factor from friends without sacrificing comfort. His useful design advice is applicable to either your existing home, or new construction.
If you are thinking of building from scratch, however, this book is a must read. I, like many I fear, was under the erroneous notion that a prefab home was some sort of modular, plastic-like trailer-home; good target practice for hurricanes, perhaps. Boy was I wrong - all prefab means, is that the home was constructed inside a factory first, instead of outside on site, and then shipped in large blocks to the site. Site built and modular are both constructed in the same manner using the same materials - stick built using wood, concrete, drywall, etc. Building inside a factory, by contrast, brings all material and workmen together in one location, taking weather totally out of the picture and bringing volume discounts in. That means giant cost savings to me, the home buyer. After reading about the author's successes and learning curve with the prefab medium, it's easy to see how this methodology can be used to create dream homes for americans that have realistic budget constraints. And, yes, the pictures in the book ARE pretty AND instructional, a rare find. Thanks

I am not happy with the purchase. It is a chronical of his journey in doing a Prefab home. Not much else. Not much help in my understanding the overall pluses and minuses of going the prefab direction and what is available.

The book was too specific to add significant value to my decision making process. It is not a stand-alone book for people weighing the burden/benefit of prefab homes. In fairness to the writer, I may have been looking for something that this book wasn't meant to deliver.

If Michael Buchanan is so successful and such a good designer why does he produce such poor quality items?

His website has out of service numbers and fails to respond to requests for explanation. Does actually exist? I wonder as his site seems to be eight years out of date.