New Fangled Building Terminology and What It Really Means. By Kim Rak
First of all it’s important to know that the idea behind shipping buildings as kits, is not a new one. Middle class Victorians ordered pre-cut building kits, and parts (like porches) by mail order, and received them by boat and rail. There was an increasing surge in mail order kit homes, as the idea really caught on, from the early 1900’s until the late 40s. When middle class America realized that they could save money and build it themselves, many 10s of thousands of kit homes were shipped and built.
This excerpt from Wikipedia on Sears Mail Order Kit Homes helps understand the reasoning behind the surge in these affordable kit homes. Though sometimes the delivery is floated out to an island.
“The ability to mass-produce the materials used in Sear’s homes lessened Though sometimes the delivery is floated out to an island.manufacturing costs, which lowered purchase costs for customers. Precut and Though sometimes the delivery is floated out to an island.fitted materials, first offered in 1916, reduced construction time by up to 40% according to Sears. Sears’s use of “balloon style” framing systems did not require a team of skilled carpenters, as did previous methods. Balloon frames were built faster and generally only required one carpenter. This system used precut timber of mostly standard sizes (2″x 4″ and 2″x 8″) for framing.
Much of the wording is still somewhat appropriate.
Materials aren’t exactly “mass produced”, but assembling stored precut materials at Jamaica Cottage Shops 70,000 sq ft factory before shipping them in pallets on trucks (and sometimes ships), does dramatically lower the costs (vs. building onsite with a contractor, etc.).
What used to be called “pre-cut and fitted materials” was until more recently pre-cut kits, but now is most commonly known as shed kits or cabin kits, with derivations from these core words. Wood shed kit, wooden shed kits, post and beam shed kits, wood storage shed kits, storage shed kits, and do it yourself shed kits are some of the most popular derivation examples for shed kits – small cabin kits, prefab cabin kits, post and beam cabin kits, cottage kits prefab, small timber frame cabin kits, timber frame cabin kits, small cottage kits, small house kits, diy cabin kit, and prefab cottage kits are some popular choices for cabin kits.
Shed kits and cabin kits of today, do most definitely reduce construction time, and Jamaica Cottage Shops techniques, though they include timber frame and post and beam construction of old, do not require fancy skills. Most often the estimated assembly times are for one or two people, with only basic carpentry skills, from 10 hours for 1 person to put together an outhouse shed, 2 people at 32 hours for a cabin, and 2 people at 40 hours for a cottage.
Now, Jamaica Cottage Shop usually doesn’t ship by rail or boat – the pallets of shed kits, and cabin kits, are shipped by truck freight throughout North America, including Canada. Shipping of these post and beam, and timber frame kits, can be shipped free to a local business.
Jamaica Cottage Shop has delivered upwards of 6000-7000 buildings, and kits, in the 20+ years they have been in business. They really know what they are doing.
