Let’s talk “per square foot” prefab home costs

By Logan Ashley

It’s a common question for builders, but is it the right question to be asking for your prefab build?

The reason I decided to write about this topic is because of how often I am asked what our prefab homes cost. It’s a question that is loaded with different answers, and depends what angle you’re approaching your build from.

An analogy I like to use for the “cost per square foot” question is car shopping. When you’re looking to purchase a car, it doesn’t give you the full picture of the value to ask how many seats you’ll get for how many dollars. If you’re towing, you’d probably want to know how much torque and horsepower you will get, or maybe safety is your primary concern, so you look at how the car performed in its safety tests. You could be doing a lot of travel and want something that performs efficiently. You get where I am going with this.

What are the values you want to build your house around?

Now, let’s consider service. Typically, if you’re looking for the best service it’s not going to be the lowest price offer. Some people are happy to pay more for knowledge and experience, if it means peace of mind in purchase.

How much does the home building experience matter to you?

When it comes to building homes, or in our case manufacturing them, we can’t roll them out like cars because they are being installed in a specific area. Every home needs to be designed and permitted for where it is going. The house can hide a lot under the surface that’s likely important to you. Imagine buying a car that looked sleek and fast, but couldn’t get over 80 km/hr and it  guzzles fuel as if it were a V12. I propose we start asking the question:

“what are the benefits I get at that cost per square foot?”

This is the question I get excited about. Let’s talk about benefits. Let’s talk about about value. For instance, below the surface of our builds, you’ll find a high quality building envelope, and quality vapor barriers. You’ll find carbon neutral, cost effective insulation and 9” thick walls. You’ll find a high quality house that reduces your energy usage by 90% and prevents internal temperature fluctuations. You’ll find carefully selected materials with no volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) paired with heat recovery ventilation (HRV’s) to give you pristine air quality, which can prevent or reduce asthma, allergies and other airborne illnesses.

While price per square foot is a popular way of looking at the cost of building, it’s not the whole story. Some of this price depends on the finishes you want to use (30-50% of the cost), and some depends on the size you want to build, with larger houses reducing costs in certain areas (ex: Same HRV required regardless of the homes size). Understanding what you want for the price you’re willing to pay is where the real information lies. Are you looking for quantity, quality, or both?

It’s in this balancing act between quantity and quality that Adaptive Homes has found its place in the market as a high quality home manufacturer. Using the prefab process, we create baseline Step Code 5 homes, that have modern design and finishings. We’re offering a high value, high quality product.

I get excited about sharing this shift in mindset with potential customers, because asking the right questions for their build can be the difference between finding the perfect builder for them, or not.

Carriage Series Model D1.

To explore the cost to construct with us, explore our predesigned home under the models tab.