I remember reading on this site, not that long ago about large US companies regularly block traffic from outside US where they don't ship to or expect purchases. Home Depot was specifically called out.
That's what I thought. Although there would be a learning curve, you could probably build a very similar model of this, that is completely finished, for $44k.
My Favorite part:
*You are required to download the Pre-lim plans from the Additional Resources on The Home Depot website and take them to your local authority for approval and any corrections they require needs to be sent to us BEFORE purchase.
How does this compare to the building cost of dense apartments?
Setting aside land/planning/regulations/NIMBY/unions, for a repeated build, what is the build cost of a modern 3 floor x 4 apartments = 12 apartment building ?
In most of the places where I have lived in the US it would not be permitted to assemble this as a home. Too small, you would not get past permitting approval. So in fact you are right, it is a shed.
That's 50 m², which seems more than enough to me for a single person or even a couple without children if they live in a place where you can enjoy the outside.
This probably means that the cost of space is way lower where you are. That drives all sorts of decisions, such as probably being able to pay people reasonable prices to do the building if you cate about living in something more solid than a mobile home.
I would also not buy this, but on the other hand, it's something that could fit on my property as a place for aging parents without showing callous disregard for my neighbors. The same is not true of the mobile home, as far as I've seen. And that's without talking about tornadoes...
My entering argument is that someone thinks this will sell to someone, somewhere, or it wouldn't have been listed.
You're saying it's crazy where you are. It's crazy where I am. The easier dimension of figuring how the value proposition gets from where we are to where it makes sense is that getting framing done could be very expensive, and this Home Depot kit would presumably take less labor, time, or expertise.
The other dimension is that different things make sense in different places because of how intensively the land is used. When I lived a half mile from the beach in San Diego, people on tiny lots had incredible gardens and sitting areas in their small outdoor spaces. You would almost never see such nice gardens and sitting areas in places where the lots are larger, even at houses owned by much richer places (or by people with more free time, if you prefer.)
If you have a large, low-value lot, mobile homes and broken down cars are understandable things to have in the yard. But you won't see them in expensive places. And you won't see nice campers and luxury cars parked in the yard either. Using outdoor space in high-cost areas is like raising bonsai trees: it looks ridiculous how fussy it is, but it also produces a pretty impressive outcome.
> The issue is not the total space, but the price for the size.
This is my main gripe with tiny homes. It’s not that they are small, but that their price per square foot is so high.
I’m not sure if the costs are truly that high or there’s just a lot of profit because of the trend. Similar for ISU homes. They seem cool, but not when they cost the same or more than traditional construction.
This thing is $80/square foot before assembly and final prep.
Ehh most relative valuation metrics only really stand up when you are talking about good comparables (Like to like)
But, It’s just a fixed variable cost issue with tiny homes for the most part. E.g. the $10k for appliances/mechanical would be pretty similar for 250sqft home and a 1000sqft, but all of a sudden they cost either ~$40sqft or ~$10sqft
I wouldn’t expect most appliances to be in this price. And things like hvac and water heater should definitely be much cheaper in a 500sqft tiny house than a 2000 square foot fixed house.
A video I saw of people hosing down piled bags of quikcrete (bagged concrete mix) really interested me. I calculated it would cost less than $1000 for a 10ft long, 8ft high wall.
Just lay down the bags, stick some rebar through them as you go, than hose them down and you got a solid wall a single man could build little by little.
How well does the concrete end up mixed? I'd be really concerned that it would be a big pile of hollow concrete shells around powder that never came in contact with water.
If you buy bags of pre-mixed concrete then it's already mixed.
What we normally refer to as concrete is a mix of Portland cement, Lyme, and aggregate (pebbles and/or sand). Pre mixed concrete comes as that already mixed and you just need to add water. You don't really need to mix the water in unless your looking to float the concrete to make a nice finished flat surface like a road or sidewalk. Anyone who has accidentally left a bag of pre mix out in the rain knows it hardens up fine.
My friend got a satellite dish put in years ago. The installer could only get a clear view in the corner of his yard, and had to ground-mount the antenna on a pole.
He dug a hole, put the pole into it and emptied a bag of concrete in with it.
He explained to my friend that it would suck the moisture out of the ground and become a solid plug. And it did.
I’ve been on and off interested in pre-fab homes, but they always seem more expensive than the alternative unless you are in a really expensive market like California
I think this is a great plan, but I wouldn't just set this up on the grass as shown the the picture... You need a soil compression test, proper drainage, and a myriad of other things just to survive 6 months.
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