Prefab timber house manufacturers

It sells timber at three levels of finish: solid plank kits, panel houses without services or interior finishes, and a few modular ones that leave the factory finished. With the first two you choose the wall, and that decides whether the house works all year round: the thinnest plank cannot take insulation, according to the brand itself, and the panel wall can be reinforced if you are building somewhere genuinely cold. Its panel houses cost more per metre than is usual for a timber structure, and in return they come with the board cladding and the windows included. It suits you if you are going to finish it with your builder.

Here the timber is the skeleton, not the wall: a frame filled with mineral wool and designed for the Norwegian climate, which arrives from the factory with the wall already insulated, the partition walls, the roof structure and triple-glazed windows. Per metre, its shells come out cheaper than is usual for a timber structure, but the roof arrives neither insulated nor covered, and the foundations, services and finishes are down to you. It suits you if you want a very well-insulated shell and are going to finish it with your builder.

It sells solid log kits in which you choose the wall thickness, from a single log to a double wall, and the price already includes transport on the mainland, VAT and the material for the first coat of exterior protection. Per metre it is in the usual range for a timber kit, with those costs included. The wall has no insulation and its starting price is for the thinnest log: to live there all year, add a thicker wall, floor insulation and the ventilated ceiling cavity, which are priced separately. It suits a country or seasonal house.

This is timber in its simplest form: solid Nordic fir planks slotted into one another, which are structure and wall at once, with no insulation. That is why its kits need insulation if you are going to live in them all year. Its large house is sold with thin or thick planks, as the Alcoy house (in Spanish) and the Alicante house (in Spanish): the thick-plank one costs more and holds the temperature better. It suits country houses, guest houses or seasonal homes.

It makes light timber-frame panels in its workshop (walls, floors and roof) and offers the wall in several versions, from the bare structure to one it presents as passive-house grade. Its modular range, finished in the factory, is priced at a single figure per metre, 1,350 €/m² plus VAT and without heating, cooling or ventilation. Transport is charged per kilometre, and delivery and assembly are quoted separately, so that figure does not compare with a turnkey timber house. It suits you if you want a finished timber-frame house and to know from day one what the house costs.

It sells finished modular homes with continuous external insulation, and says it combines timber and concrete. On its model pages, however, timber appears as an optional façade finish, and there is no record of the structure being timber. For a timber house, ask what the wall is made of before anything else.

This is the real log house: the wall is the Arctic pine log itself, which acts as structure, insulation and exposed interior wall at once, laminated so that it does not settle over the years as a traditional log does. It sells the timber package, with the logs already machined and the openings cut, and assembly is contracted separately. It suits you if you want a log house to live in; not if you are after a lot of insulation from a thin wall, which is what a timber frame gives you.

It combines two materials: solid timber posts on an iron chassis, with the wall insulated with rock wool, and the house leaves the workshop finished, with kitchen, bathroom and services. As each module's chassis acts as its base, it does not need a concrete slab: it is lowered by crane onto a perimeter of blocks. Compared with a timber kit or shell, what is left for you here is that base, the building project and the permit. It suits you if you want a finished timber house without coordinating trades.

It has no catalogue houses: it designs each one from scratch, and what it shows are projects built for other clients. Its system is the light timber frame, and what it makes and assembles is the envelope: the structure with its insulation, the membranes that make it airtight and the windows, which is closed up on site in a few days. It says it works to the Passivhaus standard. Services and interior finishes are left out and your builder handles them. It suits a made-to-measure timber main home, if you want it to spend very little on heating and cooling.

Its kits are made of solid pine or fir planks, which act as structure and wall, and insulation is bought separately, in kits of different thickness for the ceiling, walls and floor: you decide how much to insulate according to the climate at your plot, and the brand itself recommends plenty if you are going to live in it all year. Per metre, its Winnipeg model comes to 435 €/m², with the median for timber kits at 403 €/m². The kit arrives with the roof uncovered: the tiles or metal sheet, the gutters and the timber treatment are extra. It suits you if you are going to assemble and insulate it with your builder.