Want to build the energy efficient home of your dreams without the hassle, high cost, and long wait of the traditional material and building process? Then you’ll love getting your hands on one of these amazingly stylish eco-friendly modular homes.

Due to the endless choices of building materials and customizations, the propensity for going over budget, the oftentimes arduous building process, and other unforeseen delays such as inclement weather, permitting problems, and sometimes erratic contractor availability, building a new home from the ground up may feel like it’s taking a lifetime to complete.

However, modular prefab homes, which means mobile, or easily transportable, factory fabricated homes, are quite the opposite. With a narrowed down, yet attractive, list of design options, and a well-honed and efficient manufacturing and site assembly process, it’s not uncommon for an eco-friendly modular home to be completed in just six short months, or six to twelve months sooner than a site built home.

Additionally, these little (or large) gems are really designed to please the gamut of clients wishing for something within their budgets, relatively fast, eco-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing. Some modern fabrication systems can reduce the building waste in a prefab home by up to 50 percent and may even use 50 percent less energy than existing homes. Plus, the premium materials and casework, in tandem with some very well thought out design details, offer clients the ability to make the home their own without feeling lost in a sea of never ending options.

Ranging from around $37,000 to $775,000 and up, there’s sure to be an eco-friendly modular home within your budget from one of these five manufacturers.

1. Eco Cottages

Starting at $37,000, these miniature homes, ranging from 250 to 513 square feet, would work well as tiny abodes, or as studios, offices, guest homes, vacation bungalows, and even workshops. Each Eco-Cottage is built to local residential codes or to RV code for use in a park or resort. Owned by Nationwide Homes, each of the prefab homes offered has a minimum standard of sustainable features which meet the National Association of Home Builder’s (NAHB) Bronze certification and the Energy Star Certified program requirements.

2.GreenPod

GreenPod’s modular home collection begins at $60,000 for around 300 square feet, but can exceed $175,000 depending on the model and features. Beautifully designed, these small dwellings are as versatile as they are eco-friendly. Things like efficient design, minimal site disruption, durable materials, energy and water efficiency, passive solar design, and non-toxic and recycled materials all contribute to the company’s high standards for sustainable living.

3. maModular

Homes from this prefab builder will run you about $150 per square foot, making some of these houses even cheaper than the aforementioned. With seven plans to choose from, these contemporary abodes are perfect for the modern family or individual. Bamboo flooring options, low-voc paint, Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association (KMCA) cabinet certification, and energy star appliances are some of the eco-friendly features found within these homes. maModular also notes that the prefab homes can go from “zero-to-house in 180 days.”

4. Blu Homes

The economical Origin Pod’s California base price starts at $195,000, while the other available prefab home models continue to climb in price into the high $700,000 range. These homes are brimming with eco-friendly features such as motion sense faucets, FSC and Greenguard certified products, LED lights, zoned heating and cooling, and so much more. Blu Homes even offers a prefab garage for all of your stylish storage needs.

5. Method Homes

With eight different homes series, there is something to fit traditional, rustic, and contemporary tastes. $130,000 will buy you the smallest turnkey modular home from Method. Prices can climb well into the $600,000 bracket for larger and more luxurious options. According to the company, sustainable design is a core value for Method. The residential dwellings can be “built to obtain LEED, Energy Star, Living Building Challenge, Passive House, and other environmental certification standards.” Additionally, building these homes off-site allows the business to minimize construction waste to less than 10 percent.

Now that you’ve gotten the dirt on where to find your new digs, we want to hear from you. What’s your favorite feature of a prefab home – size, style, affordability, or something else? Are eco-friendly modular homes a good fit for you? Or would you rather go through the traditional site built home process? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts on the EcoSalon Facebook page!

Related on EcoSalon

Modular Furniture Ideas for Every Room in the House

Every Drop Counts: Low-Flow Fixtures for Kitchens and Baths

Try These 3 Low-VOC  Interior Paint Brands for Your Next Fall Project 

Image of Modular Cabin Home via Method Homes

The post 5 Delightful Modular Homes to Beautify and Simplify Your Life appeared first on EcoSalon.

Not being from hurricane country, every time one of those behemoths slams into a coastal community, I ask myself why anyone would build there. We more or less know the line of fire and wouldn’t be a good idea to stay out of it? I’m sure though, that folks in Daytona probably wonder what’s up with us Left Coasters building on fault lines on in literal lines of fire as they watch homes shake and burn on their television screens. In any case, one company, though it didn’t really set out to to do so, has come up with a prefab home design that seems to be pretty much storm proof. They’re cool looking, too.

Deltec is a Northern Carolina-based – hello hurricanes – manufacturer of prefab, mostly circular homes that can be put together by your local contractor. You can get one for as little 100k for 300-ish square feet, but throw down 500 and you’re looking at about 5,000 square feet. These guys are way big on eco, too, with tons of green built into their homes and a manufacturing facility that boasts one of the largest solar arrays in North Carolina. They’re into extremely low-waste manufacturing processes, as well, and shoot for building with 100 percent renewable energy. They’ve even constructed a LEED Platinum home for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In the end, though, how green you go is up to you, as virtually everything these guys do is customizable. Kinda neat for prefab.

Deltec talks a lot about “kindship with earth” and “treading lightly upon it.” “Circular homes bring another dimension into our lives, one that is often forgotten, the dimension of a beautiful space linking us with our forbearer’s sense of free-living and connectedness to the earth.” Whatevs. Even they admit there’s nothing new about the round house. But round is good in terms of both functionality and strength. These homes have less exposed surface area, which improves durability and energy efficiency, and good aerodynamics. Says them: “There is not enough surface area on any part of the house for pressure to build up.”

Which brings us back to the hurricane issue. Deltac doesn’t claim to make hurricane proof houses, but it seems they do a good job of it – they got some great “still-standing” pics from Hugo, Dennis, Fran, Charley, Andrew and Katrina. In fact, says Deltec, none of their homes suffered any structural damage from the latter’s level-5-force winds, and two were hit by 20-30 foot tidal surges and winds of over 145. Not bad for no claims of being hurricane proof.

The post What Goes Around: Storm-Proof Design appeared first on EcoSalon.