Prefab Home Utilities

When you are planning your site preparation, besides sun exposure, drainage away from your home, and the general placement of your home, you will need to plan for the installation of your utilities.

You will need electric - you will need to contact the local electric company to drop in service to your property and ultimately to your home. Underground service is the preferred method of service. Underground utilities are less susceptible to failure and outages due to bad weather.

After the utility company does their part, you will need a contractor to connect the service to your home. A note of caution here; make sure you have enough service to carry at least a 200 amp load, even if you only have 100 amp service in your home. You just can't have too much electric. If you decide to add another building or a garage on your property, you will need electric service to it and if you didn't plan ahead, you will wish you did when all of your lights start dimming every time the refrigerator runs.

You will need water - check with the county or province that your new home will be located in. If water is available, they will charge you a 'Tap On Fee' - you will be responsible for the plumbing from the tap-on location to your home.

Water quality will vary greatly form one area to another. In the USA, for example, the EPA regulates the water quality. The standards that they set however are minimum standards. A little known fact is this - 90% of the water that they regulate is used where quality really doesn't matter - for instance - agriculture, manufacturing, etc. Only 10% of the water that they regulate actually comes into our homes, and only 1/2 of 1% is what we actually drink and cook with. With those figures in mind - do you think that the people that are using 90% of the water want to pay for the water to be as clean as we would like to see it? The answer is no! The bottom line is this - plan for a space in your home for a water treatment system. Believe me, it will pay off in spades over time.

If a municipal water source is not available, you will need to have a well drilled. Some words of wisdom here - generally, the deeper the well - the more abundant and the better the water quality. Have your water tested after the well is drilled. You will generally find that well water will have a better taste and smell than 'city' water. Well water is not treated with chlorine and fluoride like 'city' water. These chemicals kill the bacteria in water - but you wont have chemical treatment with well water. So what can you do to protect yourself from bacteria in your water? My suggestion is to install a UV (ultra violet) water system. As the water passes through it, the UV light kills the bacteria in the water. The water then goes through your whole house treatment system that I suggested above for perfectly clean, bacteria free water.

Sewage and waste water - You will need to check local availability and ordinances. If a municipal sewer system is available, are you required to connect to it? Or can you install your own system? Connecting to a municipal system certainly has it's benefits, for instance, it will save you a bunch on front end cost will not require future maintenance on your part.

If you will need to install a septic system, this a whole new ball of wax - minimum requirements will vary from place to place. In many places an engineering study may be required, depending on the size of your land. There is much to consider here. Consider this for instance, lets say that you go out and buy two acres - start your site work, only to find that if you had bought three acres - you wouldn't have needed a costly engineering study to install your septic system. You may have been able to buy more land for what it cost you for the engineering study! This septic system site is one of the most informative ones that I have found. It is full of helpful information that will help to guide you in the right direction. You will also need to check local laws and restrictions to determine what their requirements and standards require.