Re:Why hasn't prefab construction taken over?
by andy_ppp on Tuesday October 13, 2020 @03:46AM
(#24763239)
Getting on site to realise X is completely wrong is so standard most architects spend probably 20%+ of their time talking to builders. This level of QA never happens in a factory.
The buildings also look horrendous by default, artificial and cheap looking with a complete lack of character. I’m all for prefab in theory but it’s like building a whole piece of software without testing any of the interfaces fit together or that say logging and error handling are plumbed in without testing them. It’s clearly a recipe for disaster even with the best organised prefabricator.
I've worked in traditional construction and the plans are never accurate with hundreds of omissions/errors/interferences. Those can be corrected in real time when something is field built, but are nearly impossible when the house ships wrong but nearly finished.
I can see it working with cookie cutter housing - first ~5 will be garbage as they find bugs then slap a thousand identical copies up cheaply. For custom it's a mess.