Off-Site

This week's question was fielded by our founder, principal, and architect extraordinaire, Phil Kaplan... "I sell new construction, and am seeing homes that are steeply increasing in price due to rising costs in materials. Since BrightBuilt is made in a controlled environment, does this help offset some of these increases?" -B. Morrison, New Hampshire

Have you heard about the guy who comes to your house after you’ve purchased a car and builds it in your driveway? We haven’t either. Because it never happens. We know cars are built on assembly lines in factories, and that assures us of consistency, quality, and pricing that is known at the outset of our purchase. So why don’t we apply the same thought process to houses as well?

It’s a mobile home! No, it’s manufactured! Wait, is it modular? Mobile, manufactured, and modular tend to be used interchangeably when talking about pre-fabricated houses (that is to say, homes that are built off-site in a factory and then transported and set on their location). And two of them actually can be used to describe the same sort of house, while the third term is different.

A frigid February day and the snow was creakingly cold, but it was not a challenge for the crew! Modules arrived, were set and connected by the end of the day. That crane, by the way, was about 2 inches from the top of a concrete footing, now that's skillful parking!

The number of building permits issued post-recession has grown steadily nationwide, according to a recent article in Maine Biz. It’s not often that retirees and Millennials necessarily find themselves on common ground, but these two groups are working together to drive this trend. What does this mean for you, a forward-thinking person wanting to build a net-zero home? Open your planner, your smart phone calendar, or just grab a sharpie and write “START PLANNING OUR NEW HOME NOW!”

The cooler temperatures have arrived, so it seemed like the perfect time to have an entire house go up in a day. The photos above show a custom BrightBuilt Home that was just set this week in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Ever wonder how exactly our homes get built? Been curious to understand the crane-lift-set process? With the help of this home's technically savvy homeowner, we bring you a time-lapse perspective of the on-site assembly of our off-site built modules.