Books about Prefabricated from Amazon.com

This is the only book that gives homeowners who are dreaming about building or planning to build a new home the good and the bad on all types of prefabricated houses. Shows that prefabricated can be mainstream traditional design and does not have to look like a mobile home or a modular "Dwell" box.

Prefabulous describes the many systems available for prefabricating all or parts of a new home, including timber frame and log, as well as modular, panelized, structural insulated panels, steel framing and concrete systems, which are relatively new. Prefabulous describes these systems, compares their advantages and disadvantages, and shows beautiful examples of houses built using these techniques. Although all of these "prefabricated" houses look very different, all of them were manufactured partially or almost completely in a controlled factory environment and transported to the home site to be erected. As a group these systems offer a faster, more energy-efficient, and sometimes more cost-efficient method of building.

Includes a foreword by Not So Big House author Sarah Susanka, who writes: "For homeowners who want to know the options, the advantages and disadvantages of those options, and to see how those prefabricated parts come together into a good, attractive home, read this book.".
Price: $14.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Home buyers and house architects agree: the most exciting things on the housing market today are modular homes. They can be built and reach move-in condition in just a few weeks, and they offer a host of customizing possibilities.

Now Andy Gianino, founder and president of The Home Store, the largest dealer of modular homes in the Northeast, has written a comprehensive handbook for prospective modular home buyers. The book is packed with everything you need to know about buying and building a modular home--or a modular addition to your existing home.

Gianino dispels the misconceptions about the limitations of modular homes and shows potential buyers that a modular home can be as good as, if not better than, houses built with traditional stick-frame construction. Then he gets down to the nitty-gritty: choosing a dealer, working with a general contractor, selecting a floor plan, choosing the customized details, even planning the landscaping around the house. Throughout the book the emphasis is on top-quality materials and cost-effective measures to ensure that the buyer gets their dream home at a great price. What's more, this book is equally useful for anyone already in the modular business or looking to get in as a dealer, manufacturer, designer, or specialized general contractor.

Illustrated throughout with a 16-page fullcolor insert, plus a host of house plans, The Modular Home shows home buyers how going modular can expand their choices, save time, save money, and prove to be more durable than conventionally-built houses..
Price: $13.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Prefab presents a series of innovative homes and concepts that boldly demonstrate that this is not your grandmother's prefab, offers a glimpse into the history of prefabricated housing over the last century, and reveals a wealth of practical and attractive alternatives to the status quo. Prefab discusses architects, builders, and designers such as Walter Gropius and Philippe Starck, examines the historical precedents from Albert Frey's Corbusier-inspired Aluminaire house to Kisho Kurokawa's capsules, and showcases the work of twenty-four contemporary architects and designers who are exploring the myriad possibilities that prefabrication offers for housing of the future. From the fantastical digitized aluminum prototypes of Gregg Lynn to the stylish functionality of Ikea's prefabricated apartments in Sweden, Prefab presents a series of innovative homes and space-saving concepts that show how far this building technique has come-and how far it can go. < BR> Allison Arieff is a writer, senior editor of the architecture magazine dwell, and co-author of Trailer Travel. She is also the editor of several books on art and culture, including Airstream: A History of the Land Yacht and Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop. She lives in San Francisco. < BR> Bryan Burkhart is the designer and co-author of Airstream: The History of the Land Yacht and Trailer Travel: A Visual History of Mobile America. As creative director of his own firm, Modernhouse, he has designed books for Taschen, Chronicle Books, and Gibbs Smith, Publisher. Burkhart also lives in San Francisco. < BR>.
Price: $5.53 [Notify me when price goes down.]

An in-depth look at state-of-the-art prefabricated and modular homes—the most popular, economical, and stylish options in housing today

PreFab Now explores the best prefabricated houses on the market today worldwide and addresses the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a prefab home over a custom-built one. This book also covers cost, sustainability, and durability. With a wealth of elaborate plans, drawings, renderings, and beautiful full-color images, PreFab Now is an invaluable resource for architects and homebuyers alive.

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Price: $21.09 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For many, the idea of prefab housing may bring to mind trailers and other less desirable images of home life. But this idea couldn't be more wrong! Rather, the newest trends in prefab has emerged as a great way for a design- (and cost-) conscious generation to achieve the dream of home ownership. Today, prefab houses are manufactured to the highest standards of construction and aesthetics. And with the internet, these houses can be ordered from all over the world--affording people everywhere the opportunity to acquire an affordable home of distinction.

Prefab Modern explores the best prefabricated houses on the market today, from all over the world along with a resource directory on how you can purchase them. Included are case studies from all over the US and around the world, from top architects and designers. Projects featured include:

• The Ikea "Blokok House"
• Michael Graves "Target House"
• Steven Holl's "Turbulence House" in New Mexico
• David Hertz's Venice, CA "Concrete House"
• "SUSI" and "Fred Houses" from Kaufmann, KFN Architects (Australia)
• Jennifer Siegal's "Office of Mobile Design" and "Seaview House"

and many more!

Prefab is the inevitable next step to "cool" housing as the market looks for reasonably priced housing for first and second homes. Prefab Modern is the perfect guide to this undeniable and fascinating trend.

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Price: $15.28 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $9.62 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This is a newly revised and expanded version of The Houses That Sears Built.

This new edition includes more than 20 new photos of existing Sears Homes throughout the country as well as a plethora of recently discovered information.

This major revision also includes reproductions of newly-discovered original documents from the Sears Modern Homes Department as well as compelling interviews with men who worked at the Sears Mill in Cairo, IL. You'll also hear the fascinating stories from Sears Homeowners who actually built their own Sears Kit Home many decades ago!

Want to learn how to identify a Sears Home? This book contains new graphics, photos and easy-to-reference bulleted points that will tell you and show you - step by step - how to identify a Sears Home.

It also includes four brand new chapters, such as "Chapter 3 - The Amazing Mr. Sears; A Brief Look at The Handsome Genius and His Store," "Chapter 5 - Milling About Sears Homes, A Look Inside the Sears Mill at Cairo, Illinois," "Chapter 8 - Homart Homes, The 'Other' Sears Homes, "Chapter 11 - Those Dandy Houses, Testimonials; Trivia and Reminiscences of Building a Sears Modern Home."

Since the first edition of The Houses That Sears Built was published in Spring 2002, the author has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning News, PBS's History Detectives, A&E's Biography and WGN-TV News, as well as the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News and more than 50 regional publications. As a result of this publicity, Ms. Thornton has received more than 1,000 emails and letters from readers all over the country, telling stories and sharing precious memories about their own "Sears Modern Homes," and she incorporated many of these stories into this new edition.

This new edition of The Houses That Sears Built is more than a revision - it contains a tremendous amount of new information and trivia and wonderful photos that the Sears Home enthusiast will treasure and enjoy!

About Sears Homes: Between 1908-1940, Sears customers ordered about 75,000 houses out of the Sears Roebuck and Company mail-order catalogs. The houses were shipped by rail to city lots and farms all over the country.

Each "kit home" contained 30,000 pieces, including 750 pounds of nails and 27 gallons of paint and varnish. A 75-page instruction book showed home buyers, step by step, how to assemble those 30,000 pieces of house.

Only 10% (approximately) of the Sears homes in the country have been discovered.

Because of this, our communities' best architectural treasures - our grand collection of Sears homes - are being damaged by remuddling and worse, demolished.

There is tremendous interest in this topic and hopefully, The Houses That Sears Built will spur that interest even further.

When you have finished reading The Houses That Sears Builtyou will be your community's expert on Sears homes. You'll learn how to identify Sears homes from the inside, outside and from courthouse documents. You'll learn the interesting details of Sears homes' construction. One chapter is devoted to the $1 million order of Sears homes that was shipped to Carlinville, Schoper and Wood River (Illinois).

Another chapter is devoted to "The Lost Sears Homes." These are Sears homes which appeared only once in obscure Sears Modern Homes catalogs and were not included in "Houses by Mail: A Guide To Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company," by Katherine Cole Stevenson and H. Ward Jandl..
Price: $19.90 [Notify me when price goes down.]

It was the American Dream by Mail Order —Smithsonian Americans have ordered from Sears, Roebuck just about everything they have needed for their homes for 100 years—but from 1908 to 1940, some 100,000 people also purchased their houses from this mail-order wizard. Sears ready-to-assemble houses were ordered by mail and shipped by rail wherever a boxcar or two could pull in to unload the meticulously precut lumber and all the materials needed to build an exceptionally sturdy and well-designed house. From Philadelphia, Pa., to Coldwater, Kans., and Cowley, Wyo., Sears put its guarantee on quality bungalows, colonials and Cape Cods, all with the latest modern conveniences—such as indoor plumbing. Houses by Mail tells the story of these precut houses and provides for the first time an incomparable guide to identifying Sears houses across the country. Arranged for easy identification in 15 sections by roof type, the book features nearly 450 house models with more than 800 illustrations, including drawings of the houses and floor plans. Because the Sears houses were built to last, thousands remain today to be discovered and restored. Houses by Mail shows how to return them to their original charm while it documents a highly successful business enterprise that embodied the spirit and domestic design of its time. "After decades of obscurity, Sears houses have become chic." —Wall Street Journal "These were … spacious, solidly built homes." —Parade "Don't be surprised if your own cozy bungalow turns up [in the book]."—Philadelphia Inquirer "A nostalgic and informative look at the tastes of Americans in the years before World War II."—Publishers Weekly "The bible to researchers of Sears' ready-cut homes."—Saturday Evening Post.
Price: $16.56 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Prefabricated construction is a hot topic in architecture these days, and for good reason. Prospective homebuilders around the world are gravitating to prefab as an environ-mentally responsible and cost-effective way to achieve that holiest of grails: an affordable, well-designed house. If you're hoping to jump onto this bandwagon or are just interested in what prefab building really entails, Prefab Prototypes is required reading. While other prefab books on the market show what can be done, dangling pretty pictures of affordable homes before your starry eyes, Prefab Prototypes takes you to the next step it shows you how.

Architects Mark Anderson and Peter Anderson have been working with prefab buildings for more than fifteen years. With Prefab Prototypes, they break prefab down into six systems, from most flexible to most complicated panelized wood framing, sandwich paneling, steel framing, timber framing, concrete systems, and modular systems. Each chapter delves into the benefits and drawbacks of its respective method, and features detailed plans, sections, and photographs of projects they've completed that use each of these systems. The resulting book is both a lush depiction of their prefab output as well as an in-depth analysis that will prepare you for taking the plunge into prefab building. If you're familiar with the prefab trend and want to graduate to the next level, Prefab Prototypes is your guide..
Price: $25.91 [Notify me when price goes down.]