When looking for the best way to build a house it is common to compare several solutions. But just by replacing concrete, steel or masonry in a cost spread sheet with wood you can end up with a seemingly higher price. However when you look deeper you start to notice the many ways construction becomes different with wood. And prefabricated wood buildings actually give you a better price for a quality result.
First of all, if you look at the implications of time, wooden panel houses save you 50-60% of construction time. That is a vast amount of time. No matter if it is a real estate developer looking for the best project profitability or someone building a family home who will have to pay for two properties, namely the future and present home, for a long time – wooden panel houses let the customer complete the project significantly faster and start recovering investment.
Secondly, timber elements weigh just a quarter of brick or concrete equivalents. That means that the building requires lighter foundation as well.
Thirdly, the building is produced in a controlled factory environment by specialized professionals in standardized procedures. The panels are assembled by experienced professionals means that buildings are accurate. So all the follow on trades like plasterers, electricians, windows etc. are more straight forward.
Therefore, if you look at the construction process as a whole and choose an experienced wood panel houses producer with a proven track record you will always pay less for a quality house than with other systems.
Wood panel houses offer the best value if the project has been designed to utilize the best properties of timber from the beginning. Therefore it is best to choose an architect who is familiar with timber frame construction. Or your architect can consult a wood house producer when developing drawings. That will allow to optimize the building for best value.
Regarding the lifespan of the building energy is obviously a cost. The more energy efficient the building is the less operating costs will be. Passive energy efficiency technologies are very developed for wood panel houses. And that allows to provide excellent thermal insulation properties. Therefore lower operating costs can be achieved with less investment in mechanical energy saving devices like photovoltaic, solar thermal etc. that require maintenance in the future.
