Kit Houses – Then And Now

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In the late 1800s and early 1900s one could purchase the parts of a house from a catalogue. &nbsp;The components would then be delivered to the homeowner &nbsp;by train. Most often the homeowner would put the house together themselves according to detailed instructions. Depending of course on the ability of the builder, many of these houses were very well built and still standing today.

Those catalogue kit houses were very inexpensive, by todays standards, &nbsp;but are no longer available. Sears, Roebuck and Company successfully sold pre-cut mail-order &nbsp;houses through their catalogs from 1898 through 1930. Aladdin Ready Cut houses also successfully sold kits from 1906. &nbsp;It is said that the Aladdin Company’s houses in 1918 accounted for 2.37 percent of all housing starts in the United States. These houses provided much needed housing for workers during the industrial revolution. The Great Depression brought&nbsp;the end to&nbsp;the boom in&nbsp;demand for these catalogue homes, although Aladdin continued to produce catalogues until 1987.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The modern prefabricated kit homes came along in the mid 1900s post WWII. Lindal Cedar Homes, one of the companies at the forefront of this type of construction, began operations in 1945 delivering do-it-yourself (DIY) prefab exterior home material packages. Today they ship much more sophisticated homes locally and internationally, most often constructed&nbsp;by professional contractors.

The kit homes of today, in general,&nbsp;are beautiful, more diverse and way more sophisticated than they were in the earlier days.

Components&nbsp;of &nbsp;kit homes today are cut in factories in ideal controlled&nbsp;environments by professionals who build a multitude of houses each year. The&nbsp;prefabricated parts are shipped &nbsp;tightly packed and unlike modular components, they are not shipping &quot;air&quot; along with their parts, making it easier and less expensive to ship to further distances.&nbsp;Michael Harris of Lindal Cedar Homes, one of the companies at the forefront of kit house construction says the company can ship a 3000 square foot house on one truck. Their houses are &nbsp;shipped &nbsp;from Washington State by train to the East coast and cargo ships to Japan and other parts of the world. Harris claims that with kit homes&nbsp;consumers have more flexibility&nbsp;and&nbsp;predictability than with other types of construction.

Another company producing kit houses is&nbsp;Zip&nbsp;Kit&nbsp;Homes, located in Utah and Idaho. Owner Chris Jaussi says he tried several other types of prefabrication before beginning to build&nbsp;kit homes;&nbsp;he found kit homes to be the most efficient way to build. He says that typical houses today are being built the same way they were 50 yers ago and haven’t modernized their method of production as other industries have. He claims that in building his homes he creates 80 percent less waste than a typical site built house would. He sites the advantages of building in a controlled environment with&nbsp;more automated machinery, four times faster than site-building and with less waste as&nbsp;important factors in the&nbsp;success of his business.

Kit housing has come a long way from the early days when kits were sold in catalogues. I continue to believe that kit housing&nbsp;along with other forms of prefabrication are the future of home construction.

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In the late 1800s and early 1900s one could purchase the parts of a house from a catalogue.  The components would then be delivered to the homeowner  by train. Most often the homeowner would put the house together themselves according to detailed instructions. Depending of course on the ability of the builder, many of these houses were very well built and still standing today.

Those catalogue kit houses were very inexpensive, by todays standards,  but are no longer available. Sears, Roebuck and Company successfully sold pre-cut mail-order  houses through their catalogs from 1898 through 1930. Aladdin Ready Cut houses also successfully sold kits from 1906.  It is said that the Aladdin Company’s houses in 1918 accounted for 2.37 percent of all housing starts in the United States. These houses provided much needed housing for workers during the industrial revolution. The Great Depression brought the end to the boom in demand for these catalogue homes, although Aladdin continued to produce catalogues until 1987.  

The modern prefabricated kit homes came along in the mid 1900s post WWII. Lindal Cedar Homes, one of the companies at the forefront of this type of construction, began operations in 1945 delivering do-it-yourself (DIY) prefab exterior home material packages. Today they ship much more sophisticated homes locally and internationally, most often constructed by professional contractors.

The kit homes of today, in general, are beautiful, more diverse and way more sophisticated than they were in the earlier days.

Components of  kit homes today are cut in factories in ideal controlled environments by professionals who build a multitude of houses each year. The prefabricated parts are shipped  tightly packed and unlike modular components, they are not shipping “air” along with their parts, making it easier and less expensive to ship to further distances. Michael Harris of Lindal Cedar Homes, one of the companies at the forefront of kit house construction says the company can ship a 3000 square foot house on one truck. Their houses are  shipped  from Washington State by train to the East coast and cargo ships to Japan and other parts of the world. Harris claims that with kit homes consumers have more flexibility and predictability than with other types of construction.

Another company producing kit houses is Zip Kit Homes, located in Utah and Idaho. Owner Chris Jaussi says he tried several other types of prefabrication before beginning to build kit homes; he found kit homes to be the most efficient way to build. He says that typical houses today are being built the same way they were 50 yers ago and haven’t modernized their method of production as other industries have. He claims that in building his homes he creates 80 percent less waste than a typical site built house would. He sites the advantages of building in a controlled environment with more automated machinery, four times faster than site-building and with less waste as important factors in the success of his business.

Kit housing has come a long way from the early days when kits were sold in catalogues. I continue to believe that kit housing along with other forms of prefabrication are the future of home construction.