Tamlin is a general contractor of custom residential homes which gives us a huge advantage when we are designing and shipping our house packages to remote areas or out-of- province destinations. Here is some information on how you can benefit from our thirty years plus of design and construction experience.
Some of you may have heard, that a house package is simply a “pre-built structure, prefab unit, or panelized shell” delivered to your site. Not true at all.
Every manufacturer has their own unique building approach. Some suppliers offer basic walls and roof structures, while others offer more customized options. Most will deliver to your site but it is important to ask details about the package. A house package from Tamlin is better described as a custom-building system. Each house design is carefully thought out and designed to meet or exceed all local building requirements. Typically, all permit plans, construction plans, and engineering are provided with technical details which are communicated to the homeowner/builder. This saves significant time and money trying to coordinate between engineers, designer/architect, homeowner, and carpenters. When materials are delivered to the site (often on one or two large trucks), construction can be done immediately, without the usual running back and forth to the lumber yard, hardware store and calling for deliveries… then waiting. Then finding out that your materials are on back order! Or how about getting your windows the wrong size and you have to stop construction and wait while they are manufactured! Or what about the benefit of having ONE shipment arrive on a remote island by barge or ferry, and compare this to 30 or 40 smaller deliveries? There is less materials wastage on site since many components are pre-made, pre-stained or manufactured at the factory. Valuable time is saved in building especially if the weather is poor, construction time can be reduced by 20 percent or more. With Tamlin, we even have a detailed ‘Bill of Materials’ which lists every component and where it is installed in your home for easy reference. And technical assistance or supervision is only an email or phone call away! If you are considering being the home-owner builder or general contractor of your project, an established and dependable house package system will save you thousands of dollars and quite often tens of thousands of dollars in time and money.
Another typical myth about house packages is that they are “prefab kits” which are not good quality compared to traditionally stick framed homes. Also untrue!
“You get what you pay for” is the usual answer to this. There are many cheap prefab kits on the market and the quality is usually representative of the price. usually you are limited in choosing a “standard” design and any changes take time and cost extra. Homeowners should compare the quality of materials and warranties first. Also ask about installation details, maintenance and options for designing. Tamlin has a full warranty package with each home, including a 10-year structural warranty, and our homes are designed to last decades. With our timber frame and log home packages, we are also the experts in custom wood architecture, along with natural and eco- friendly building practices. Ask about customizing a “prefabricated home package”. Our answer is that we can completely customize your home package, whether it is 850 square feet or 8,500 square feet! “Customization ” to us, means thinking outside the box and providing a unique dwelling which has the OPTIMAL building systems for your needs. This may include a “hybrid” approach to manufacturing easy to assemble, high quality wall panels (with plywood and solid wood studs), and combining this with a conventional roof system or upgrading to an engineered, pre-insulated roof system. And if you like wood, then companies like Tamlin who have their own post & beam timber manufacturing, can integrate simply fabulous wood architecture into your dream home or cottage.
And lastly, a house package is ‘chosen’ only from a list of limited designs, sizes, and styles. Not true again!
The typical selling restriction of a prefabricated home is that the owner must choose from a number of pre-designed plans where there is little room for customization or modification. These are often designed to save money with a lack of uniqueness. When you compare suppliers, ask about the ability to modify and customize. This is very important because lot access, setbacks, and other building restrictions will often dictate how the design of the home needs to be customized for the lot. Decks, patios, walkways, basements and also potential future additions should be considered. While Tamlin has numerous “standard” plans we find that it is almost impossible to choose one plan without modifications. Tamlin has an experienced in-house design team and interior designers who will help develop the “vision” for your home. Custom designing your home can go through many adjustments until it is just perfect and meets all of your needs. Planning, designing and building a home is a huge investment so why would you want to be limited to a standard design? Investing your time to customize your biggest investment (your home) will add significantly to the overall value of your property for the future. Ask any real estate person – location is important but DESIGN sells! Why live in a house that you do not like when you can design it properly to suit your CURRENT AND FUTURE NEEDS?
