Questions people ask before they call
Short answers here, with the full detail on the page that covers each subject properly. If your question is not on this list, a Build Specialist will answer it in one conversation.
The basics
What this actually is, and who does what.
What is a prefab home package?
A complete set of engineered components for a house: wall panels, roof trusses, floor systems, windows, doors and the rest, manufactured indoors and delivered to your lot. A local licensed builder assembles it. It is not a finished house on a truck, which is modular, and it is not a trailer, which is manufactured housing.
How the three build types differDo you build the house on my lot?
No. Pacific Homes manufactures and delivers the package, and your own licensed builder assembles it on site. If you do not have a builder we can often connect you with one who has worked with our packages before. Owner builders complete these packages too, particularly in British Columbia.
How a panelized home is builtWhat is actually in the package?
Pre-built engineered wall panels, roof trusses, pre-cut numbered floor systems, pre-hung doors and windows, siding and roofing, insulation, drywall and interior finish. Everything arrives together, so your builder is not making repeated supply runs.
The full component listCost and time
The two questions everybody asks first, and the two hardest to answer without seeing a plan.
What does a package cost?
It depends on size, complexity, your location and what you are comparing it against, so any figure quoted without seeing a plan is a guess. What we can say is that design, estimating and engineering are included rather than billed separately, and the package price is quoted once and honoured.
What a custom home costsHow long does it take?
Roughly three to five months from finalised design to move in for a typical build, though permits and site work vary enormously by location. Manufacturing happens while your foundation is being prepared, which is where most of the time saving comes from rather than from the assembly being faster.
The full timeline, phase by phaseAre there rebates or incentives available?
Often, and they vary considerably by province and state. Most are tied to measured energy performance rather than to a construction method, so what matters is the specification you build to. Talk to a Build Specialist about your target before budgeting a rebate, because the wall alone does not determine which tier you reach.
Canadian incentives by provinceWill a lender finance it?
Yes, and generally more readily than modular or manufactured housing, because a panelized home is a site built house for financing and titling purposes. The fixed package price also tends to help, since lenders prefer a known number to an open estimate.
Financing and titling by build typeDesign
How much of the house is actually yours to decide.
Can I change the plans, or bring my own?
Both. More than 95% of the homes we build are customized before manufacturing begins, and plenty of clients arrive with their own drawings or an architect. Because we manufacture components rather than finished rooms, the shape of the house is a design decision rather than a product limitation.
Browse house plansCan I add a suite or a garage?
Yes. Garden suites, laneway houses, coach houses and accessory dwelling units are all built the same way, and so are standalone garages and workshops. The rules on what you may build are set by your municipality and have changed substantially in recent years, so check with them before design.
Garden suites and ADUsWhich style can you build?
Any of them. Craftsman, farmhouse, west coast, rancher, mountain, Spanish and mid-century have all been built as packages, because rooflines, cladding and detailing are drawing decisions rather than product options.
Fourteen styles comparedThe build
What makes a factory built component different from one cut on site.
What is the SmartWall, and is it better?
A wall system with the insulation routered into the framing rather than stuffed between it, which removes most of the thermal bridging that lets heat run through the studs of a conventional wall. Independently measured by RDH Building Science at effective R-21.1, R-27.1 and R-33.9 depending on depth, against roughly R-13 for a conventional 2x6 batt wall.
The test dataIs a prefab home as strong as a site built one?
Stronger in the ways that are measurable. Components are cut by computerized equipment to consistent tolerances in a climate controlled facility, so framing is accurate and lumber has never been rained on. The SmartWall was seismic tested at the University of British Columbia with FPInnovations and performed significantly better than conventional wood wall construction.
The seismic resultHow do plumbing and wiring work in a prefab wall?
The routing is planned during design, before anything is manufactured, so panels arrive with the provision already made rather than needing to be cut into afterwards. Your electrician and plumber do their work on site at lock-up, from documentation showing where every run was designed to go.
How services are routedWhere and when
Delivery, difficult sites, and the season you start in.
Where do you deliver?
Across Canada and the United States, and internationally since 1989 when the first package crossed the Pacific to Japan. Packages have since gone to the Caribbean, South America, the Middle East and Korea. If a truck, a container or a barge can reach your lot, we can get a package to it.
Regions we serveWhat about a remote or island lot?
This is what panelized construction is for. Panels ship flat, so far more house travels per load than a finished modular box, and there are no oversize permits or restricted routes. We have delivered to sites reached only by barge, and the first package in 1981 went to Terrace, roughly 1,200km north of the plant.
Building somewhere remoteCan you build in winter?
Yes, and there are advantages. Manufacturing happens indoors regardless of season, contractors are easier to book and often cheaper when fewer people are building, and permits move faster through a shorter queue. What winter genuinely affects is site work: frozen ground, excavation, access and heating the shell for finishing trades.
Building through winterThe company
How long has Pacific Homes been doing this?
Ken McKinnon founded Pacific Builders' Supplies in the Cowichan Valley in 1959, truss manufacturing began in 1969, and Pacific Homes launched in 1981 with its first package delivered to Terrace, British Columbia. The company has operated from the same site throughout and joined the All-Fab Group in 2019.
The full timelineCan I see the plant?
Yes. The facility is at Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island and visitors are welcome. Watching panels come off the line for a house going up next month explains more than any brochure. Call ahead so someone is free to walk you through it.
Visiting the plantCan I see houses you have finished?
Completed builds across Alaska, California, Hawaii, Ontario, Washington and throughout British Columbia, grouped by region. What owners say about them is on the testimonials page.
Completed projectsEvery one of these has a fuller answer on the page it links to, and most of those pages carry their own questions specific to that subject. All guides and resources.
Ask the question you actually have.
A Build Specialist will answer it in one conversation, including the ones about your specific lot that no page can cover. Design, estimating and engineering are included in the package rather than billed separately.