It’s rarely used in North America. It isn’t easy to get in much of the country, and it’s highly labor-intensive (as in expensive) to build with it, with all that cutting and mortaring. Many older houses in stone-rich areas, such as New England, have stone foundations and wooden structures, though.
Cinder blocks. That’s what they call 'em in Europe.
While the discussion on house building materials is fascinating, does anyone have any input on my original post? 
After digging around inspection reports, appraisal reports, sites found with google, and discussions with various involved parties, the key seems to be the type of foundation. Stick-built and modular homes have to have a permanent foundation. Manufactured homes can have permanent foundation, but they’re not required to in all cases. If you’re outside a trailer park, it’s most likely that it is on a permanent foundation.
So I guess my question is now: what’s considered “permanent”? The main foundation support on this house is a pier & stilt system, so it is mounted on concrete pillars embedded in the ground, with steel (I believe, might be wood) posts connecting those to the underframe of the house. The house is also set up with a crawlspace which to me implies some sort of shoring system on the soil around the house perimeter. Although I suppose it’s not necessarily load-bearing. I have not actually been into the crawlspace, which I suppose was a mistake on my part given all this confusion. This appears to be referred to as a “pit set”, and seems to generally be considered more permanent (and at the very least makes the property look less like a trailer).
I am feeling a bit less nervous about this purchase than I was when I first posted, but I’m still trying to pin down any possible future issues with insurance, refinancing, selling the house, etc. I’m also still curious about whether or not “manufactured” status can be upgraded to “modular” in any way (foundation type, garage being attached, remodeling, etc).
Do you mean ‘concrete’ blocks?
I was wondering whether breeze blocks were the decorative kind of concrete block that was used around here back in the fifties…
Oh yes, the OP.
:: blush ::
To me, the terminology seems a bit misleading, but maybe that’s just me. Both ‘manufactured’ and ‘modular’ seem unclear.
Can you find out how the house you are considering was moved to site? Was it moved in one or two units on wheels, or was it built onsite from smaller components? Could it be disconnected from the foundation and moved again?
(Hmm. The more I think about this, the blurrier it gets…)
Adobe is used, but it doesn’t predominate… not real adobe anyway. Faux adobe construction is common: Wood framed, flat roof, vigas even, finished with stucco. Probably 20-50 of these around for every real adobe house.
While the raw material is mud, factory made adobe bricks are expensive, and made-on-site is extremly labor intensive. Bottom line is that these mud huts are one of the most expensive ways to make a dwelling.
I’m not an expert by any means, etc… But not having a permanent foundation equals trailer home, in my opinion. So maybe the only issue isn’t the foundation itself, but other aspects of the construction. You really need to talk with the inspector and find out all the ramifications of this.
My friends bought a manufactored house last year. It was delivered in 2 parts and put together over the basement and foundation that was waiting for it. Amazing to see, the carpet, drywall, wallpaper, everything was practically already there (they splurged) and it just snapped together like a giant playmobile toy. I could discern no difference between it and any other on-site built house.
Definately not a “trailer”.
BMalion, that home had a permanent foundation. The home in the OP does not.
Well, it seems that “permanent foundation” is a fuzzy concept, depending on who you’re talking to.
The inspector and my realtor (and I believe the appraisal report) are stating that a pier & stilt system is a permanent foundation because it is actually embedded into the ground. The insurance company seems to have a little stricter requirements and may require a perimeter foundation (which isn’t always necessary with manufactured homes due to different supoprt structure on the underside of the house) to be considered “permanent”.
Anyone have any aspirin? 
This may be venturing into IMHO territory, but…
If it’s giving you this much consternation, and there are other houses you can afford, walk away. Chances are the person that you sell it to is also going to do a double take, and you don’t want that.
Have you asked your realtor how long the home has been on the market? Make sure he or she does a search of closed listings, to make certain that the home wasn’t taken off the market and put back on in order to “clear the counter” and hide having been on the market for a long time…
Let’s clear up the terms, OK?
Trailers, and double wide trailers: Also called mobile homes, these are often framed in stamped steel frames. Often, they have thin walls, poor insulation, and cheap vinyl-coated wall surfaces. They are typically driven onto concrete pads in a trailer park (sometimes mated to the other half of a double wide) on the wheels. The best anchoring you can hope for is “hurricane straps.” Here in the midwest, we call them tornado snacks, because tornados seem to go out of their way to eat them. Though they are called mobile homes, a ten-year-old mobile home is risky to move. Unlike a real house, they depreciate in value over time.
Manufactured homes: This term can include modular homes, but originally, it meant the National Homes style of house. That was a stack of prebuilt framing, put together on precision jigs in a factory and brought in on a coupla trucks. With a crane, the walls and roof trusses were thrown together in a day, and the drywall, siding, wiring, and such were added in a few days. The plumbing “spider” was cast into the slab ahead of time. It was a cheap, cookie-cutter thing, but it was a real house, firmly attached to the ground.
Modular homes: These go a step further. A house is factory-built in two halves, which are shipped on trucks to your lot. A big crane sets down each half directly on your foundation (slab or crawl space,) where it is firmly attached and the seam between the halves is disguised. Since these houses are built on jigs in factories, the corners are square. Since they are designed to ride on a truck, the studs are closer together than in a stick built house. This is still a fairly small, inexpensive house, but the overall quality is arguably better than a stick-built home of the same size.
Thanks, AskNott. That’s what I wanted to be clear on. I knew about mobile homes (trailers), but I did not know the differents between manufactured and modular homes. It makes more sense now.
So if I’m going to work one morning and the bus is following half a house down the freeway (as happened one time), it could be a half of a doublewide mobile home or part of a modular home? But a manufactured house would be a stack of components on a trailer?
Sunspace, the clues are in the size and the truck frame. If it looks like half a house on a substantial truck-trailer frame, it’s modular. A double-wide trailer is usually smaller, and it has it own integral frame. Below the house part, you’ll just see wheels. If it has a “wide load” banner, it is probably modular. The National Homes package of wall-frames on a truck isn’t done much anymore, but stick-built homes often use prefab roof trusses, so you’ll sometimes see a truckful of those.
Once on the ground, the trailer’s floor is knee-high above the ground, and the space is hidden by “skirting.” The trailer hitch still sticks out from one end. In a modular home, you’ll usually walk in at ground level.
I build houses for a living so I could be a bit biased.
That said, in my area (SW Oklahoma) A “stick built” house tends to appreciate in value more than a “modular” house. A “modular” house tends to keep its value if it is done well but a “manufactured” house aka mobile home loses value almost as quickly as a car. I will admit there is a bias here because a modular home tends, at least around here, to built to the highest codes in the area and therefore can actually surpass the quality of stick built. But the stick built will generally, unless it is crap, tend to appreciate faster. I have yet to see a “manufactured” house go up in value unless there have been substantial improvements to it, and even then generally no more than the actual cost of the improvements at best.
So, sadly, even a more expensive, less well built stick built home can be a better long term investment than a modular home and is virtually guarenteed a better value than a mobile home.
I found the name in a dictionnary. Yes, they are concrete, mostly empty, blocks.
Here’s a picture
And sory for the hijack…
I’m building a modular home right now. Currently, the modules (there are 4 of them) are almost complete in the factory. The foundation for it is still being finished.
I think the best pragmatic indicator for you is what code it was built to. Mobile homes are built to the HUD federal code, which is different and, I believe, less stringent than the UBC, or Uniform Building Code.
All the inspections for code compliance occur at the factory, before the modules are shipped. The local agency only concerns itself with the connection of the home to its permanent foundation, and of course all the various other permitting and fee requirements for building a new home.
Now, if you’re talking about appraisals, it does seem that you can get dinged just because it is not “site built”. This sucks horribly, because it could well be a much better built home than one that was built on site. For example, my own pre-appraisal got dinged $55,000 (!) just because it’s being trucked in.
The appraisal is still high enough that it’s a worthwhile venture for me, but there’s a lot of horrible bias in my area against this type of thing. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
Since the type of home was misrepresented (mfg. vs modular) when you placed your bid, you may have a valid reason to rescind said bid without losing your earnest money. This is something to discuss with your RE agent, and also request a clarification from the buyers - I would try to get the name of the builder so I could check out the quality of homes from that source.
If you are still interested in the house, you may be able to ask the sellers to lower the price by a few thou. (I agree with some other posters that even well built mfg. and modular houses don’t have the investment quality of traditional stick built, but I think it’s often more a matter of perception rather than acutal quality.) Since you’re buying this property as a long term home, rather than an investment, the ‘mistaken identity’ may be a good thing in the long run.
Let us know what happens.
(IANA home builder, but did some serious research on the mobile/mfg./modular distinction a few years ago while planning a move. We haven’t moved yet, but will probably end up with stick-built since we want to go custom - and SO designs houses for a living. 
)
AskNott: that helps a bit, thanks.
In case it matters, this is a pretty new structure. The original construction was done in 97 or 98 (can’t remember exactly right now), with major remodeling done last year. Unless I’m misunderstanding the terminology of the responses I’m getting from people, it does not have a perimeter foundation, which may disqualify me for getting insurance with the company I’ve been dealing with up to now (although having a “crawlspace” may be some sort of loophole).
Metacom, don’t think I haven’t been considering it. With all the other things that have gone on, my realtor (a buyer’s agent) has said that if I do decide to walk away there is little chance of losing my earnest money. The only non-refundable part of this deal paid out of my pocket so far was the inspection, and I’m certainly willing to eat that cost to save myself future pain.
The house taken as itself does seem to be worth the price I’m paying, and the inspection went smoothly. It’s got a lot of features that I really like, the only downside to the property is a very badly kept yard (which I see as a fun project anyway). It’s all these other things (switching lenders due to the original not underwriting manufactured homes, insurance, appreciation/depreciation of future value) that’s causing the headache. Plus the fact that there was a long period of waiting (the property is a “short sell”, the sale price isn’t going to pay off the current owner’s mortgage) followed by a hectic week of information overload once the sale approval went through. Add to that a case of “big purchase” jitters (it’s my first home), and the fact that people keep telling me that we can close tomorrow ( :eek: ), I’m surprised I’m holding up this well.
While it could be true, is it not concusive. Trailers (aka mobile homes, aka manufactured homes) generally don’t have the ‘hitch’ anymore (nor wheels for that matter).