About A House - Prefab

As part of the green aspect of this house, prefab for framing was on the table from the get go. Since we were pretty behind schedule by the time we got our permits, framing on site was tossed right out the window!

A couple of local prefab companies were engaged for quotations and we ended up going with Apex Wall Panel in Langley. Their projects are usually multi-family large projects where the cost and time saving of prefab is dramatic. We feel pretty privileged that they are involved in our project as it probably isn't the best use of their resources from a profitability perspective.

The time saver in doing prefab is we can started framing while our foundation was still being constructed vs the conventional way of starting framing only after foundation. The first story of our house was already waiting to be delivered at the prefab warehouse by mid feb.  The second story was started after our slab on grade was poured.  To take advantage of prefab our design needed to be finalized early with detailed drawings available. Once the drawings are submitted for prefab, changes to the design would cause delay and potential errors.

There is no amount of words that can describe how we felt when the prefab framing started. First let's give you a perspective of our frame of mind... up to this point, it took 9 months to get our permits & then we've been watching cement forming out of a mud pit for 2 months.  Foundation was finished on Mar 6. Here's the site an hour after the first floor was delivered on Mar 8...

All the exterior walls for the first floor was up within 2 hours! I love this pictures of when they delivered the wall panels of the first floor. Yes! Finally! The house!! LOL!

The frame of the entire house except the roof is supposed to be done in under 2 weeks.