Amazon selling prefab "houses" for £20k...

Is that effectively just a "fold out" empty shell?

Any links aren't working for me.

A working link would be good, there's a bazillion fancy sheds on there no idea which one you're on about.

It’s oddly not a new thing , they did house kits  in the 1900’s in America in the Sears catalog 🙂

The Normans had prefab castles in 1066

Guessing at...

Movable Expandable House 2 and 3 Bedrooms, Prefabricated Modern Home Luxury Villa, Folding Expandable Holiday Home, Outdoor Shed, Guest Room, Warehouse or Mobile Home (Black Wood 20x20ft)

The Normans had prefab castles in 1066

Well, they would go with flat pack with their Scandinavian heritage.

Meet any building regs ? Planning constraints ?

Baring in mind that even a shed once it becomes "habitable" needs planning.

I'm just imagining my amazon driver dragging it down the driveway singlehandedly

Or hoofing it over the fence into the wrong garden.

cookeaa
Full Member
A working link would be good, there’s a bazillion fancy sheds on there no idea which one you’re on about.

Yeah, sorry, not sure why the link is broken but piemaster has the right one. 👍

trail_rat
Free Member
Meet any building regs ? Planning constraints ?

Baring in mind that even a shed once it becomes “habitable” needs planning.

Not a clue to be honest but very valid questions of course. Prefab/tiny feelings  are very on trend of course these days and I hope that they might provide one of the solutions needed to allow the next generation home ownership.

hope that they might provide one of the solutions needed to allow the next generation home ownership.

I don't  . Those are not homes.

Just reading about the post war prefabs with a cost given of £1218 in 1946, adjusted for inflation £42k/£43k.

I don’t . Those are not homes.

Id happily live in one. Technically I've lived in something far worse when I was a baby. My mum and dad basically eloped and our first home was a caravan on Hoo Marina down here in Kent. 😁 Then my parents sold it on cheaply to my half sister and her now husband. Muddy jabs been riddled with asbestos and probably cold as hell.

I believe there is a place for such dwellings. Not everyone wants a huge mortgage and bricks and mortar.

These aren't being sold by Amazon, or even delivered by them I think, the company are just using the Amazon website as a storefront.

zilog6128
Full Member
These aren’t being sold by Amazon, or even delivered by them I think, the company are just using the Amazon website as a storefront.

No doubt, I just found it odd but also interesting that you can buy a "home" through Amazon.

Might get one through planning as an annexe but no such thing exists in Building Regs definitions, so it depends how friendly your Building Inspector is…

Not a cat in hell’s chance of getting one through B.Regs as a new dwelling.

believe there is a place for such dwellings. Not everyone wants a huge mortgage and bricks and mortar.

Where as I believe the market should be accessible without the need for a massive mortgage.

Poorly insulated fold out prefabs are not the answer

Where as I believe the market should be accessible without the need for a massive mortgage.

You'll get no argument from me on that one. 👍

Good timing.... Currently looking at prefabs for my sister and a customer in Germany and stumbled across this set up for 29k.....

https://www.pineca.de/kleines-holzhaus-kaya-1-isoliert-44mm-holzverschalung-48m2.html

I look forward to these being squeezed into back gardens of existing rental properties in the SE and extortionate rents being charged...

I'm liking that house that @alpin has linked to, but price does rise when you add the flooring, windows, guttering and doors...however, it looks good to my eye.

Yup, but still under 50k with lots of extras.... Adding 3 layered glass is 10k, but that would pay for lots of wood or fuel.

Have a look on their site and they buildings with greater meterage for not a lot more.

Just reading about the post war prefabs with a cost given of £1218 in 1946

My mum grew up in one in Essex. Her mum lived there all her adult life. The thing is still standing, has a preservation order on it and those in private hands go for silly money, in part thanks to the massive gardens. They were only meant to last ten years!

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/EFC01/01/05/024/24015

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/essex/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8170000/8170323.stm

In France "Tiny houses" (tinneeows) are popping up in lots of gardens. The planning regs allow it here.

Someone mentioned uninsulated, the one I poked around when picking up some free wood was made of a wood and 100mm polyurethane sandwich. That's better than R4.5 whereas a typical UK cavity wall with polystyrene beads in the cavity is R1.5. Tiny houses are cosy.

Some are used for Booking/AirB&B which is far better than a buy to let being used which takes a dwelling off the long-term rental market.

Some are on wheels so class as a caravan/mobile home and can be parked anywhere a caravan can with no building regs; just electrical, water and sewage hook ups needed.

I'm all in favour, affordable eco-responsible housing.

Some are on wheels so class as a caravan/mobile home and can be parked anywhere a caravan can with no building regs; just electrical, water and sewage hook ups needed.

Mate is currently building himself a tiny house on wheels as a way to get around German planning laws.

His electric is 12v solar, water is collected from the roof and he has a composting toilet (a proper one, not a bin bag with some saw dust) outside and the rest of the waste water runs into a reed bed filtration.... Only uses biological soaps, no chemicals.

Bloody hippy.

Mate is currently building himself a tiny house on wheels as a way to get around German planning laws.

I've seen some great builds on TV over here, on wheels as you mention, to get around planning regs. I think they have to be moved to another bit of the plot within 28 days every month from memory.

Some of them are bloody superb. I totally get the attraction but I am a bit of a shaven headed hippy at heart. 😁

Someone mentioned uninsulated, the one I poked around when picking up some free wood was made of a wood and 100mm polyurethane sandwich. That’s better than R4.5 whereas a typical UK cavity wall with polystyrene beads in the cavity is R1.5. Tiny houses are cosy.

Yes that was me.  So you have poked around a fold out Amazon house ? Interesting.

^^ In fairness I think Edukator is just stating that being a prefab doesn't inherently have to be a bad thing. There are some great prefabs out there, whether the Amazon one is good however, is a legitimate question of course.

I'm sure there are some great tiny houses. Probably don't cost 20k nor flatpack.

I clicked piemonster's link to the £20 000 Amazon one, Trail Rat.

"It has super thermal insulation, which comes from the external wall insulation material. The polyurethane insulation layer used has a thermal conductivity of only 0.018~0.024w/(m.k)."

Small and well insulated equals cosy.

I'd happily live in one of those. I bet it's comfier and more efficient than my 1920's-build cavity wall house.

If they were legal to be registered/used as dwellings I can see a place in the market for them.

It's not a new idea, and it can work well if done correctly..

McDonald's and KFC have been doing pre-fabs for a while.

IKEA are masters at it.

The only reason we don’t see more factory built, pre-fabricated super-insulated homes is that we have a home-building sector dominated by a handful of large-scale developers who have got fat and happy building poorly constructed homes using manually intensive techniques using ‘traditional’ materials.  We’ve also got planning departments obsessed with maintaining a local vernacular. I live in an area with a high proportion of rural pensioners but Argyll and Bute won’t let anyone build a single-storey dwelling - it’s not like there’s no space.

I live in an area with a high proportion of rural pensioners but Argyll and Bute won’t let anyone build a single-storey dwelling – it’s not like there’s no space.

Theres a section of the town I live in, that's also the poorest part of town where people are effectively forced to live with windows that are rotting away, because they cant afford the Timber Sash & Case replacements the conservation area demands. I know some of those windows are effectively sealed shut now, which surely cant meet fire regs.

In Bamburgh, Northumberland, there are temporary prefab homes from over a 100 years ago. They were put there by Lord Armstrong for the workers on his castle restoration.

They sell for over £300k now and rarely on the market.

The only reason we don’t see more factory built, pre-fabricated super-insulated homes is that we have a home-building sector dominated by a handful of large-scale developers who have got fat and happy building poorly constructed homes using manually intensive techniques using ‘traditional’ materials.

Aren’t the uber-trendy Huff Haus just prefabs. As you say if the concept can be used to build a quality product, cheaply, one wonders why it isn’t used more. Could it be we have a home-building sector dominated by a handful of large-scale developers who have helped politicians get fat and happy by building poorly?

Yeah, as long as one of those is under about 28KVM, I could put it in my garden without an issue (here in Sweden that is).

The main issues would be getting the footprint done properly with the forest/rocky ground I have and running power and water to it. And actually getting it to a place it can sit. And the fact that these are common on AliExpress and the quality is super variable

Years ago when on site in London (Stratford, Olympic boom) a block of flats that we were second fixing.... The bathrooms were sealed units that were craned in whilst the concrete was being poured. All that was needed was the plumbing connected and a power connection.

Much easier to build to a high spec and consistently in a factory than on site.

Here's the Sears' catalogue.

http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm

Is this the video you watched OP?

Seems to suggest it's a ISO container based fold out shed. Crap when compared to Sears kits from ~90 years ago.

But Probably fine if you want to plonk and Air B'n'B box in the corned of a field or have a garden office.

The idea of prefab housing appeals to me given the UK's prevailing housing and COL crisis'.

The basic 1930s US concept of a prefabricated house kit has some real relevance today, but Amazon promoted sheds ain't the same thing.

Many French ski resort flats have those fibre-glass bathroom units, Alpin. There was one in the modern art section in Centre Pompidou the last time I walked around.

cookeaa
Full Member
Is this the video you watched OP?

No, the one I saw was some random American guy. No idea why the video came up on my feed! I was interested as I had no idea Amazon were into this. I shouldn't be surprised I suppose, they want to sell everything to everyone on the whole planet.

I’m just imagining my amazon driver dragging it down the driveway singlehandedly

You'll be getting a card through the door "sorry you were out . . ." followed by hiring your own vehicle to collect it from the depot!

Those original sears homes are not pre fab in the modern sense of the word, they simply had the building materials pre cut to size (not assembled together). There's also a lot of survivor bias going on, so the remaining houses are pretty nice.

Prefabs work well for slotting in a single house, but for a mass development barrats and co are surprisingly efficient to build despite all being built on site.

I’ve stayed in multi-story hotels in Japan where the every room was a pre-assembled module - this included the bed, wardrobe and shower.

but for a mass development barrats and co are surprisingly efficient to build despite all being built on site.

Yeah, but the quality is shit.... I should know, I used to build them.... 🤣

I think the thing is when people talk about prefabs (in the UK) they've probably got more of a 'Grand designs' inspired, Huf Haus, on a nice secluded rural plot sort of image in their head, the reality is most people can't actually afford the price tag for a well made, off-site manufactured timber frame structure, plus the site, services, planning permission and labour to "just chuck it up"...

The interest in ISO based tiny homes is all about affordability, the main thing that is missing from most housing options today.

I’ve stayed in multi-story hotels in Japan where the every room was a pre-assembled module – this included the bed, wardrobe and shower.

Halls of residence have been built the same way, Ive stayed in some on conferences years ago and saw more being built