On the real estate thread there was mention of people building modular homes to deal with the real estate crisis. I cannot find out what modular homes are exactly, are they just regular homes built on an assembly line in a factory instead of on site? Do they have the same design, or is each specially made.
They’re glorified trailer homes. Pre-fabricated then shipped to the lot on a semi.
It depends upon where you’re talking about. In the US, modular homes, are indeed, primarily glorified mobile homes, though some of them can and do look like “ordinary” houses. In Japan, however, they’re quite a bit different. There, they’re much like the gas stations and fast food places in the US that suddenly seem to spring up over-night. They’re modular sections which are built on an assembly line and then shipped in sections which are then assembled on site by a construction crew in a short period of time. There’s also a much greater variety available as far as designs go, than there is in the US.
I beg to disagree. Mobile homes are built on a steel chassis and are intended to be supported by stacked block piers, with skirting applied to conceal all of that.
Modular homes are built according to building codes, and have workmanship which is just as good, and in some cases better than stick built. They can bet set on a slab, or on a basement foundation. The limitations which existed years ago are gone, and practically any design can be done in a modular. The amount of fabrication which is done off site offers the addidtional advantage of promoting very quick sealing and making weathertight the exterior envelope.
A glorified trailer? Hardly.
Most of the ones I’ve seen were of questionable worksmanship, although there probably are some that are well-made. I just haven’t seen them.
But how is that different than a trailer? Isn’t a trailer a home built in a factory then shipped to the location? Are the building standards for a modular home the same as for a site built home but because they are not built on site and are built in a factory the overall costs are less?
A trailer is still mobile (for the most part) and can be picked up and moved relatively easily. A modular home like dances is talking about, looks identical to a stick built home. It can’t be picked up and moved without lots of hard work.
Trailer homes typically start with 2 x 3 studwalls. Modulars are usually 2 x 4. Trailer homes have a very cheap electrical system, and plumbing which isn’t much better. Modulars have the same wiring and plumbing as stick built. There are a few advantages to the modular concept. All the lumber and building materials stays inside-dry and under greater humidity control than the tarp covered lumber pile in the midst of a howling rainstorm. Workers are staged, rather than a couple of people spending half the day going up and down ladders. They also enjoy the efficiency of the assembly line-one better than Bill Levitt had done.
We have a new factory here which makes modulars in three pieces: two house halves and the roof. The houses are manufactured under climate controlled conditions indoors - seems better than traditional construction which is exposed to weather - quality control is much tighter and easier.
The home buyer has a lot prepped, and slab poured. All the services (water, sewer, electric) are located in the center of the slab. The modular house has a “cutout” in each half to accomodate this. The two halves are set on the slab and the roof installed. Everything is topped out and the lanscaping done.
You can move in the 3rd day after it gets to the site.
Spinoff question:
If my current home burned down and we replaced it with a modular, how would that affect my property values? Would the house continue to increase in value as has been the norm for my neighborhood or would be seen as inferior because it was modular rather than site built?
Thanks.
I thought I remembered the term “modular” being applied to the style of construction Ryland used in developing Columbia, MD, which was still in a major growth phase 20 years ago when my family moved there. Basically, rather than have a small list of styles of house with a few minor variations (an open foyer vs. a fifth bedroom above the entrance area) they had a list of “kitchen styles”, “family room styles”, “bedroom styles”, and so on, which could be combined in a large number of different ways. IIRC, the parts of the various rooms were either pre-assembled or came Ikea-style. For example, Bedroom 2 has a certain length of exterior wall with a window placed in a particular spot. Either the wall assembly – a ladder-like formation of studs and beams with the wood frame into which the window would go and holes for running electric wiring and power taps placed appropriately – came as a piece or it came as a collection of parts and instructions for how to assemble Bedroom 2 (exterior wall).
This sounds very different than the “two halves and a roof” design other posters are talking about. Am I misremembering the term they used (I was 5 or 6 at the time). Does this sound familiar to anyone else?
They’re built in two pieces + roof so that they can be transported on roadways. The companies can and do customize them. It’s kind of like ordering a computer from Dell.
What you’re describing Mathochist is “panelized” construction. The walls are framed and sheathed, then stacked flat for shipment. A crane or boom truck lifts off individual walls one at a time and the ground crew does the plate and corner nailing. Not as fast as modular, but still faster than stick built.
Another key difference between mobiles and modulars is that (in California, at least) it’s nearly impossible to get any sort of “normal” mortgage to buy a mobile, but modulars are readily financed as they’re permanently attached to the land.
Nevermind that once a double-wide is assembled, it is pretty much impossible to disassemble and move without destroying it.
I was looking to buy a mobile two years ago, and had zero luck. Banks were befuddled and asking questions like “would that be like an RV? We might be able to do that as an auto loan for five years” and the mobile finance outfits were saying outrageous things like 17.24% interest for ten years.
I don’t know about other markets, but around here, what counts is the land. I just saw someone sell a tenth-acre bare lot for $475,000. No view, no water access, nothing but a street in front of it, and houses on all surrounding sides. Oh, and weeds. The specific nature of the dwelling (stickk-built, panels, modular) is fairly meaningless.
Modular homes and mobile homes, though both constructed in a factory, have little else in common. Modular homes meet, and often exceed, local building codes. They are built in a factory facility, so they have much tighter tolerances than stick-built homes (and never get screwed up by weather). And since they have to be transported in sections by truck, they must be built that much stronger than ordinary stick-built houses so that they can withstand the shaking and jarring of transport.
Each module of the house is transported separately on a flatbed truck to the building site–where a traditional foundation, just like one for any other stick-built house, has been prepared–and put into place with a crane. A traditional colonial might be made up of 4 modules–two for the first floor, two for the second story. The modules arrive in different states of completion, dependning on what you pay for. You can get them virtually naked, with just bare drywall inside and tyvek housewrap on the outside, or you can get them fully finished, with all of the siding and roofing in place, full plumbing and HVAC, flooring, carpeting, wall paint, cabinets, and kitchen appliances ready to use upon delivery.
The building envelope is usually completed within 1-3 days of arrival at the building site.
see: http://www.modularhousing.com/
also see: (a $1.3 milllion modular house)
http://magazines.ivillage.com/countryliving/decorate/hoy/spc/0,,660202_660215,00.html
and: (a $350,000 modular house)
http://magazines.ivillage.com/countryliving/decorate/homes/photo/0,12800,615664_615665,00.html
lavenderlemon: Your new modular home’s value would continue to appreciate like any stick-built house. Most people, in fact, would be thoroughly unable to tell that it was a modular home at all, unless they tore down the drywall, and it will have the same longevity, or better, than stick-built homes.
To illustrate how the whole “building modular homes to deal with the real estate crisis” thing works (at least here in upstate NY, where housing developers are more scarce than in other nearby states and undeveloped land more available), consider my next-door neighbor. He needs to sell his current ranch house (divorce dispute) and find a new home. He has looked around in the area anc can’t find any house under $200K that isn’t a total piece of garbage. So he’s decided to sell his current house, take a piece of farmland he inherited from his parents, and buy a small modular home for $100K and place it on the farmland. Luckily, he’s a professional contractor, so he can also do the excavation and foundation, septic, etc., himself, so that won’t cost him so much. But for many people, it’s cheaper and smarter right now to buy a piece of vacant land and put up a modular home (which is brand-new, modern, insulated to modern energy-efficient DOE specs, etc.) than to buy an existing house, which may need a lot of work after you move in, or to buy a new McMansion from a real-estate developer, which may be overpriced and on a smaller lot when compared to the modular solution.