modular homes?

[shortbus]

Has anyone had any experience with modular homes? My wife and I are looking into having one built. Modular home builders say the product and end result are superior to stick-built homes. Of course, builders of traditional homes say modulars are junk. Modular owners, share your thoughts.

am i right in thinking a modular home is what i would call a pre fab home ? well i am a builder joiner to be procise so i dont like them

[JaKaacH]

They are just like other manufactured "products". There are good companies that make great houses, and there are some that look to cut corners every chance they can.
Like any product research, research, and research.
If you do go with a modular, try to find a good one that is built close to where want to set it up. The fewer miles in transit the better.

I have seen several that if you did not know it was a modular, you could not tell the difference between it and a "stick built".

[shortbus]

Originally Posted by adampc22

am i right in thinking a modular home is what i would call a pre fab home ? well i am a builder joiner to be procise so i dont like them

You can call it pre fab, just don'e call it a trailer. Do you not like them due to the quality, or because assembly line built products take work away from traditional craftsmen?

Originally Posted by shortbus

You can call it pre fab, just don'e call it a trailer. Do you not like them due to the quality, or because assembly line built products take work away from traditional craftsmen?

a bit of both mate some prefab houses are so easy to put up a person with no skill at all that has only done a bit of diy on the weekend can put them up i wouldnt wana live in a house like that FYI mate we say caravans here not trailers lol

[XTRazzer]

Modular doesn't equate to "trailer" in my mind.

I think of modular as the homes where the large panels or cube sections of the house are trucked on site and assembled. Then the exterior is covered on site. In some cases, the wall construction of these systems can offer better insulation and structure than a stick-built.

A buddy of mine priced out both methods (stick vs. modular) recently, and there was minimal difference because of the large size of the home he wanted to build.

Not to be disrespectful, but I also know a lot of "contractors" and "builders" that are complete hacks.

[shortbus]

Most all builders in my area (north-central Texas) want $100-$120 per square foot. I found a builder who charges $63 per square foot and his finished products look nice. Went to look at one of his homes that is two weeks from completion and found a crack in the brick that runs from roof to slab. Makes you wonder what's inside those walls. We can go modular for $60 per square foot, but then we have to pay for foundation, septic, and water/electricity hook-up. Still, a 2200 square foot modular with a 40x6 porch comes in $20,000 less than the cheapest builder in the area.

Off to do some more internet research.

[Opusfxd]

Let's not forget that the modulars have to be built a bit stronger to sit on a truck and be hauled to the site for assembly. I remember in high school watching a stick built townhouse setup being built across the street from the modular setup and the modulars went in quicker and to this day look nicer than the other.

I've thought about it in the past but now am thinking of buying something older as they come with the craftsmanship of old and also some yard to play in.

Just my 2 cents.

[N2Advnture]

My parents retired 8 years ago in a rural area on the water. At the time, the local builders were swamped and expensive. To build a stick built home would have taken them nearly 2 years.

So, they went the prefab route with a company out of Richmond, Va (Cardinal?). Having an architectural background myself, I was VERY skeptical.

In short, they did a lot of research, called references and visited customer's homes. After it was done, color me impressed. You would never know it was a "prefab" home. They used 3 sections on poured foundation walls and after 7 years, there are fewer nail pops and cracks than in any stick built home that I've ever owned.

I believe research for a builder is key (whether prefab or stick built).

I hope this helps

~Mark

[cbsmokin]

Just a thought, but the negatives associated with modular homes, whether accurate or not, will affect your resale.

[TideRoll]

There are a variety of factory fabricated housing products. They are not as easily pigeon-holed as one might realize.

"Mobile homes" in the industry definition of the term have not been made in years, decades in fact. The only mobile homes being built these days are actual travel trailers.

A modular home is factory fabricated in sections which are then transported, usually on a trailer as opposed to having the tongue and axles attached to them to create a trailer, then assembled on site. Modular homes can be indistinguishable in the marketplace from site-built housing or they may be readily identifiable as manufactured. It just depends on how the thing is done. There are modular homes in many areas which the market regards equally with site-built housing and which do not show a measurable difference in market reaction or values to site-built housing of comparable quality. They are functionally the same as site-built homes, at least as durable, and indistinguishable visually from the exterior and interior. In addition, in many if not most jurisdictions, modular housing of this type is considered real estate as opposed to personal property immediately for legal and financing purposes. Modular housing is often regarded as suitable and legal for residential-zoned areas which otherwise exclude manufactured homes. They often have expected building lives in line with site-built housing in the areas where they are placed. So, a modular home is not automatically the same thing as what most people think of as a mobile home. Is some areas, they may occupy a slightly lower rung in the ladder, in some areas they may not, but they are different than a manufactured home.

A manufactured home is a factory fabricated unit which to most of us is going to look like what the general public still refers to as a mobile home. These are often more or less a rectangle in the form of a single, two or three wide building (i.e. single-wide, double-wide, etc.). They usually arrive on a site with axles and a tongue which may or may not be removed once installed (these days the axles usually leave). Even if they are a triple wide or have tip-outs, in most cases they are easily distinguished within the marketplace in terms of visual cues, market perception and values. Manufactured homes often do not appreciate at the rate of site-built housing (and in the case of single-wide units often do not appreciate at all). They often must be confined to specifically-zoned areas, and they are often financed in a different manner and at different rates from other housing. They have a lower expected physical and economic life compared to many site-built structures.

This said, the lines are being blurred by the manufacturers as they fight for market share and refine their products. There are manufactured housing communities in quite a few states where the finished products do not have any visual cues that they are factory built. They can have numerous offsets, attached garages, tile roofs, even multiple levels. Their developments can have pools, club-houses and look like any other garden home community. These properties are best considered by a local expert in terms of what they mean in the marketplace.

In terms of strength of construction, there was a subdivision some years back which had a mixture of modular homes and site-built homes north of downtown Birmingham. It was a section which local geography and weather patterns for a few years seemed to place in the path of tornadoes on an annual basis. Finally, one stayed on the ground through this development. The modular homes were glued (and nailed) together in their pre-assembled sections, along main structural junctions. As a whole, these homes actually fared better than the site-built homes which were only nailed together. Not that they were able to completely withstand an Alabama tornado, many were destroyed, but many more were only damaged and they were damaged in such a away that it was obvious that the structural members that were glued together their entire length held the entire structure together where others were obliterated.

A local appraiser or broker/agent might be a good source to determine how modular housing of the type being considered is treated within that market. Subjectively, I would prefer a modular home over a manufactured unit.

I don't think they are any stronger. What's more important than the type of home is the quality of the foundation.
if want to know more on modular home you can go to:-http://homecontractorsdirect.com/