Happening now: From Utah to Las Vegas to Admiral – installation under way for prefab green-built home

As mentioned in today’s West Seattle Friday calendar preview, a home-building project in West Seattle is creating a stir today. It’s more like “home-installing.” A North Seattle company called Greenfab built the 2,300-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom house in Utah, trucked it to Las Vegas for a show during which 7,000 people toured it, and then brought it here, where cranes are installing the home in five pieces on a lot in North Admiral.

Go here to see what it will look like – more classic than modern, built to a stringent sustainability standard – “LEED Platinum ready,” according to the official brochure. Greenfab’s Johnny Hartsfield says once it’s installed – the last piece might not be added until Saturday morning – there will be at least a month more work, and then it will go on sale, for a price likely around $785,000.

This is Greenfab’s first project in West Seattle, and might be the last one for a while, with its next few projects slated elsewhere in the city; Hartsfield explained that they acquired this site because of a relationship with its out-of-state (former) owner, who had contacted them about a custom project elsewhere. The previous home on this site was torn down more than a year ago. Greenfab welcomes visitors as this project proceeds today and even has an info tent set up across the street (50th SW, which is closed south of Waite because of the crane and truck activity). Meantime, we’ll be adding a few more photos – and you can see progress reports on Greenfab’s Facebook page; they’re also shooting a time-lapse of the installation and expect to have it done within a week or so.

15 Replies to "Happening now: From Utah to Las Vegas to Admiral - installation under way for prefab green-built home"

  • Jim P. July 26, 2013 (1:08 pm)

    Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just build it out of stacks of bundled money?

    Three-quarters of a million plus? Sustainable my hind leg.

  • Diane July 26, 2013 (1:11 pm)

    fantastic; prefab is truly wave-of-the-future, especially in green/sustainable built homes; thanks to Greenfab for welcoming neighbors; be down soon

  • trickycoolj July 26, 2013 (3:45 pm)

    Wow so very different from the double-wides many of my friends lived in as a kid. Neat concept!

  • anomie25 July 26, 2013 (8:02 pm)

    Sure would be nice if WSB would help market some of the ordinary homes us regular folks have for sale in the neighborhoods. This blog borders on some real questionable practices with respect to marketing its advertisers and favorites while forgetting the rest of us. What’s that, 785K? Surely, not for everyone!

    • WSB July 26, 2013 (9:25 pm)

      What? Untrue allegation. We disclose all sponsor relationships in all contexts, and you will not find any other media organization that does that. We knew nothing about this project until hearing about it from a neighborhood resident who told us about it during last night’s Summer Concerts at Hiawatha. No relationship whatsoever with these folks. We have exactly three real estate advertisers, all in the sidebar, and have not written about any of them any time recently. Cite an example and I will be happy to correct any mistaken impression you have. – Tracy

  • HC July 26, 2013 (9:49 pm)

    @ anomie25 – what’s up with that comment? What are you bent out of shape about? Sounds personal.

  • Tracy White July 26, 2013 (9:55 pm)

    I would think that local assembly would be much greener than trucking whole assemblies down the freeway. I hope that they grow to incorporate this in the future….

    • WSB July 26, 2013 (10:22 pm)

      They did say they manufacture other places – Idaho for one. We didn’t converse in detail – this was a story mostly because it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a home get moved, either in this way or from another WS site where it was built (you might recall the house from 42nd on the Oregon 42 site, which also came over to Admiral – almost exactly three years ago: https://westseattleblog.com/2010/07/happening-now-moving-the-house-from-4516-42nd-sw – TR

  • Matt July 27, 2013 (5:51 am)

    Really? The Blog is supposed to sell your House for you!? Wow! I’ve heard it all.

  • Rick July 27, 2013 (7:33 am)

    Sounds like somebody needs a bit more fiber in their diet.

  • dco July 27, 2013 (8:54 am)

    There have been three prefabricated homes similar to this one installed in Arbor Heights in the last 4 years. I looked into where one of the was made and I am pretty sure it was in western Washington.

  • Fred Johnson July 27, 2013 (9:19 am)

    A very clear example of “green” really being about bragging rights for the rich and very well-to-do.

    Until ALL associated transportation costs and impacts are included in measuring supposed greeness, you really don’t have a complete picture.

    It is a nice pre-fab.

  • resident July 27, 2013 (11:39 am)

    I build houses and let me tell you the amount of waste is insane. If you build in a factory you have impeccable drawings and can use up just about every bit of raw material. More than makes up for transport and crane time.

  • BRF July 27, 2013 (11:43 am)

    Tracy White – You might think that trucking a house across the country would be wasteful. In fact one of the truckers told me that it costs $1200 for gas to drive a big rig from here to Utah. When they were done yesterday they had three empty trucks, so they split one. One carried the tractor back on its trailer and the other one carried the trailer…on its trailer! But if you think about it, by your reasoning it would make sense to build everyone’s car from scratch in their garage. Once you do all the math, constructing a house in a controlled, repeatable environment makes sense.

  • Blinkyjoe July 29, 2013 (2:58 pm)

    Prefab built offsite and delivered in sections and assembled in one fell swoop is way greener. Also, it ties up the site and surrounding environs for much less time. But oh, the price. I love prefab, but they’ve got to make it more affordable. Check out http://www.marmolradzinerprefab.com/ for some really cool designs.

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