In your research of possible home alternatives for your block of land, you may have come across sites offering kit homes and other sites that offer modular homes. This may have left you pondering what the differences are between the two.
To help you better understand this, let’s focus on what each type of home involves.
What Are Kit Homes?
Kit homes are just like any other type of kit that you have to assemble yourself. Most kit homes come to you in pieces and you have to put them together.
In most cases, some of these pieces have already been preassembled so all you have to do is put them together by following a set of instructions that come with the kit.
In other words, putting together a kit home is very much like assembling a piece of furniture that you’ve purchased from Ikea except on a much larger scale. All the essential parts are there, but you have to connect them all together.
For example, all the wall frames will come preassembled for each wall section and all you have to do is bolt them together to create the external frame of your house. Similarly, the roof trusses will come as trusses and you just have to position them and bolt them onto the tops of the wall frames.
One of the primary benefits of kit homes is that they’re very affordable because they still rely on you to put in the effort for complete assembly. You can either do this yourself or project manage the assembly and get local tradespeople to do it for you.
What Are Modular Homes?
Modular homes are built completely in the factory. They are often also referred to as transportable homes or relocatable homes.
With modular homes, everything is completed including the wiring and plumbing as well as the kitchen and bathroom fittings. The home is then transported to your property on a large truck or crane and placed on the house pad that you’ve already prepared.
All that’s left for you to do is to have the services such as water, sewerage, and electricity connected to the home and you’re ready to move in.
What Are The Benefits Of Kit Homes Over Modular Homes?
One of the most important benefits of deciding on a kit home rather than a modular home is cost. Kit homes are by far the cheaper option because they require you to assemble them and put in all the final touches.
Generally, kit homes are also much more customisable than modular homes which generally only have a few available floor plans that you can choose from.
Kit homes also offer you the flexibility of how the home is finished. You have complete freedom when it comes to choosing fixtures and fittings, floor coverings, and paint colours.
That’s because you’ll be installing all of these yourself once you finish building the framework of your home. Ultimately, this gives you another opportunity to save money by keeping your eye on the sales and purchasing your fittings at a discount whenever you can.