Lindal Cedar Homes: A Unique Prefab Company

I have been a fan of Lindal Cedar homes for many years and have included a variety of their homes in my various books. The company has a long history going back to 1945, when it was founded by Sir Walter Lindal in the Seattle area. Today it is the world’s biggest manufacturer of prefabricated cedar houses.

Their concept was built on on high-quality materials and innovative designs. Their manufacturing concept is also unique, in as much as they produce kit homes, which is different than all other types of prefab construction. All of the parts of the house are manufactured in their factory, are labeled and shipped to the site where the house will be erected. This method allows the company to ship not only to nearby locations but internationally. Their houses have been shipped home to Russia, Japan, Korea, Canada and all around the United States.

Christina Lindal is now the Executive Vice President and she is a third-generation Lindal and now manages the company. Bob Lindal, Sir Walter’s oldest son and Christina’s dad works in the company but acts more as an advisory role to Christina and senior staff.

I had an opportunity to interview Sig Benson, the Vice President of marketing at Lindal who has had a long history with the company.

How is Lindal different from other prefab companies?

Lindal does not fit into what some consider “traditional” prefab but our clients put us there and we embrace the term. A family owned company we have shipped over 50,000 homes and celebrate our 75th year of business. We are a system-built post and beam home, and delivery system, that enables our homes to adapt to any building site in all climates and topographies and flexible enough to be designed in any size or style.The system utilizes an efficient and predictable kit of highly refined and sustainable components that allow for easy design changes including windows, doors, walls, roof design and more.

We also include a broad palette of material choices, architectural grade lumber products from the Pacific NW, and other carefully selected high-quality materials. We consider our approach to be a better way to acquire a luxury custom home and our years of experience attest to that claim. Clients work with our designers and local dealers in four ways. Clients can select a plan from our library of plans, They can personalize any Lindal plan they wish which includes changing the roof style such as adding a butterfly roof vs. a flat roof, They can work with their local independent dealer and our design team to design a custom home, They can work with Aris Georges of OM studio design for a fully custom home design experience much like an architect would provide. Our designer Aris is very skilled and former professor at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture; he has worked with Lindal for over 8 years. Lindal is not a modular house with limited material and architectural choices, we are not a developer, a builder, or starter home. Our homeowners and dealers work with local contractors to complete their home including electrical, plumbing, appliances, heating, cooling, lighting, etc.

What are some of the biggest advantages to building kit houses?

For Lindal it being advantage is it’s local dealers that can assist with all aspects of the project. We provide a broad palette of finish selection, less waste, some pre-cutting, high-quality building materials including windows and doors that are not always available locally, the capability of having the building materials delivered in one shipment, a lifetime structural warranty which none of our competitors offer. We are capable of providing highly energy-efficient homes as well.

What type of styles does Lindal build?

Most clients think of Lindal as a chalet-style vacation home which has been a substantial portion of our historial business. For the past decade a large portion of our clients have selected a more modern style home that fits well in urban or country environments.

Does a customer need to hire an architect?

Some or our clients wish to go that route and we have numerous award-winning architectural firms that we have partnered with Lindal or customers can provide your own. Most of our clients prefer working with our design system of dealers and architectural designers to save the expense of an architect.

How has the company evolved through the years?

Our history began with simple smaller homes that clients could easily acquire after World War II. A patented Lindal A-frame was featured on the cover of Popular Mechanics in 1963. We have evolved from small vacation chalet-style homes to larger custom designed luxury homes over the years. Some people considered the A-frame to be modern so I guess you could consider that we have been doing modern homes for decades.

This post first appeared on Forbes.com. To see the original, click here.