Factory-Prefabricated House Construction

Factory-prefabricated house construction is a modern house-building method that involves breaking down a building into independent modules, prefabricating them in a factory, and then transporting them to the site for assembly. It offers advantages such as short construction periods and controllable quality.

Core Processes and Technical Features

1. Modular Prefabrication
   Components such as ceilings, floors, and water and electricity pipelines of the house are prefabricated on the factory assembly line. Each module comes with an 'ID card' (including project name, product model, and production date) to ensure traceability. The design accuracy requirements for modules are extremely high, with the error in the position of steel bars needing to be controlled at the millimeter level to ensure precise docking during on-site assembly.

2. On-Site Assembly Technology
   Modules are lifted using equipment such as cranes and connected using a 'convex-to-concave' mortise-and-tenon joint, with nuts tightened to secure the main frame. For example, a South Korean construction team once completed the main structure of a prefabricated house in 14 days, with the second-floor frame taking only half a day. In the Shenzhen affordable housing project in China, 5 high-rise residential buildings of nearly 100 meters were assembled from 6,028 concrete modules, reducing the construction period from 2.5 - 3 years to 1 year.

3. Structural Reinforcement Measures
   The joints between modules are reinforced through methods such as sealing with foam glue, secondary grouting, laying steel bar meshes, and pouring concrete. The foundation adopts a non-reinforced concrete cushion combined with a threaded steel bar mesh frame, and the nodes are tightly bound into a solid whole using binding machines to enhance earthquake resistance and load-bearing capacity.

Advantages and Challenges

• Advantages

  • Shortened Construction Period: The factory's parallel operation mode combined with automated production lines reduces the construction period by more than 60% compared to traditional construction.
  • Controllable Quality: Standardized production reduces human errors, ensuring uniform module quality that is easy to inspect.
  • Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection: Factory prefabrication reduces on-site construction dust and noise, and the material waste rate is reduced by about 30%.
  • Convenient Maintenance: Modules can be disassembled and replaced, facilitating later maintenance and upgrades.

• Challenges

  • Technology Dependence: It requires a well-established technical system, production system, and industrial cluster support, with high initial investment costs.
  • Design Limitations: The modular structure imposes certain constraints on the flexibility of architectural design, and transportation and lifting paths need to be planned in advance.

Market Prospects

It is predicted that by 2030, the global market size for modular construction will exceed $142.8 billion, with wide applications in fields such as residential housing, hotels, and hospitals. With technological advancements and policy support, prefabricated houses are expected to become one of the mainstream models in the future construction industry.