Question re TV house construction
 

We golfed at Mickylee yesterday. While waiting for tee off, I was checking out the nearby new house construction.

Many of them were using precast concrete panels for walls. Being craned into place. So interesting.

Few questions….
The windows seemed to be in place/installed already. Must be very efficient and better quality done in the factory rather than on site.

Seems that some houses still were built by block. I assume some models aren’t in the mix for factory built walls.

Does this type of construction allow for modifications by the lot owner? ie moving/changing windows, door, etc location….

Our Designer home, we built in 2013- we were able to move, enlarge etc. nice feature. Overall I love the prebuilt concrete walls. Seems to be great cost savings plus quality.

From an electrical standpoint, we are still able to make aftermarket modifications to precast model homes. There may be surface mounted materials (boxes, pipe, etc.) in some instances.

The wall plant is in the TV industrial park just East of I-75. GoldWingNut's latest video explains why the developer had decided to limit the options in designer homes. Most stretches are not allowed currently.

Pre-cast homes offer the advantage of "quick build". They lack flexibility (as an Electrician posted earlier) changing plumbing, electrical work, room configurations are all difficult to do. Essentially, when you buy a Pre-Cast (Tilt Up) constructed home, it's always going to be the same home and everything is going to stay where it was when new. Speed is the only advantage in my opinion.

Tilt Up Construction is often used in Commercial applications, where there's no need to modify or hide modifications in the future. In other words, you can have electrical, HVAC, plumbing, etc., visibly run along walls, in chases or in conduit and no one is going to care.

Our Warbler has all 10’ ceilings. Ours was block built in 12/2022. None of the “custom” homes were tilt wall in our village

Moving windows, changing windows... Nope.

Speed is not the only advantage. Poured concrete walls will not be affected by termites and is probably the best wind resistant construction. A property owner can feel a lot more safe and opt out of buying windstorm(hurricane) coverage on their property. Beets the heck out of stick/frame construction with particle board wood walls.

I am in Newell. There are a FEW standard stretches available but NO internal changes. The windows are not put in before the walls are installed. Some houses are still block because of where they are - even if a tilt wall model exists. If you look at Unit 44 site map in Newell there are several lots listed as non-prefab locations.

The question asked, was: "Tilt Up vs Masonry". Tilt Up is faster and less flexible. If there's a "poured concrete" home anywhere in The Villages (or in the USA), I've never seen it. It's not a practical way to build homes.

This type of construction is a cost way saving sway for the Builder to increase profit. If not for the light there would be no shadow of what they are doing. Look for homes that are built in place ground up not prefabricated.

You still have stick built roof and interior walls and other woodwork, so possible termites are still an issue.

As far as wind again the roof can have shingles blow off and drench the house or worse yet the roof can blow off.

So just because you have concrete walls you still have risks which should be insurred



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There are Courtyard Villas in The Villages with poured concrete walls using removable forms. I do not recall that a very large percentage of the Courtyard Villas were built that way. I believe they have stopped constructing them that way, however. Most have been concrete block or framed. There are many ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) homes with poured concrete walls and permanent forms in the US. Whether something is "practical" depends on what you are trying to do. For example, if you are building a high end, custom home with superior energy efficiency and strength then ICF is a good way to go.

The walls of these new homes are built offsite and constructed onsite with a crane. 1 benefit would be a solid wall for insulation purposes and another would be wind resistant, but you would still need to insure them because the windows and especially the roofs can get damaged in tornadoes and hurricanes.
These factory constructed walls are nothing new. I looked into using ISP walls on my 1985 custom home in the north which have superb insulating qualities over stick built.
I also heard that TV is cutting back on major changes that you can do to a house plan, takes longer to build and a more specialized crew is needed

Wind damage
 

You are spot on. Your roof is usually the first part of the house to go in a storm and having block or concrete walls only makes you “feel” safer but “feelings” don’t make it so.

The tilt-up wall homes will soon be almost all TV homes of the future. Our contractor stated it’s much higher quality construction being solid concrete, and built in a controlled environment. Yes, the windows are installed in the factory prior to shipment, along with with many other things. Consequently, this has stopped all the changes to outside walls of a plan. No more. Inside you can still make some adjustments. Higher quality, lower cost, quicker construction. Win. Win.