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Hoping to not get lynched too badly on this topic here… bear with me.
My mother is wanting to build a small retirement house on some land she owns. Doesn’t have the $ to do site-built. Considering Modular construction (Not mobile home type stuff, the kind of thing craned into place in several sections, possibly multiple stories, high pitched roof, etc…).
I don’t expect this group to sing the praises of this stuff (I don’t) but do you have experiences with specific manufacturers? (ie. is anyone being called in to fix repetitive problems inherent in their design/construction?).
Things to watch out for?
Things worth getting as an ADD-on to their base product?
I’m looking to help her avoid pitfalls if possible. Her mind is made up.
Thanks,
Stray
Replies
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well.. where do you live ?
Pennsylvannia is like the epi-center of modular housing....on the east coast..
... i think modular is about the best value for housing in America today....but there are a lot of caveats..
*I had been an area vendor with a modular home company based in Maryland about 8 years ago. One of the problems with modular companies are the way they 'package' their products. What seems like an inexpensive alternative can turn out to be somewhat expensive. There were quite a bit of add on costs required to complete a home that were not included in the base price. Things like water heaters, furnaces, duct work, foundations, setting of the home, finish work, excavation, etc; were all over and beyond the original quote. Never did build any.
*Stray,Mike and Micheal make valid points,I live and work in an area that has quite a few modular homes. One of the most important things to watch for is the set up crew. If they do their job correctly the home will look better work better and last longer. If not,you will be dissatisfied with the end product within a few years.Vince
*Make sure they have plenty of homes you can go see and past customers you can speak with regarding follow ups and call backs. As said before, make sure the set up crew is good and make sure the same homes you look at have the same set up crew that would be doing yours. Mike is right, this is (PA), the epicenter of it all, it seems like every home going up around here is a modular,they are only as good as the crews, believe it or not there is plenty of things a bad crew can screw up. Make sure they use cement filled columns to support, not the hollow garbage most use around here. Though I was never a big fan of Modular I must admit, they have come a long way. The biggest problems are with sheet rock, from all that jumping around. Your chimney chase for a fire place is not included most of the time in your price. But buck for buck you cant beat em.
*I'm in Central New York State, about 1hr north of the PA boarder. So perhaps they will travel a little ways from the "Epicenter". Since her budget is so tight, she's wondering if it makes sense to get the bare bones package vs total turn-key. ie. she'd get the well and septic installed, foundation done to the modular outfit's spec, etc.. etc... Do you think she'd save appreciably vs having the outfit act as GC?I imagine the modular folks buy in sufficient quantity that it's cheaper for them to include the DHW heater, furnace, etc...Thanks.Stray
*Can you find a local GC who will work with her on this type of job? It may cost more, but miscommunication and perceived minor errors can be costly to fix. The devil's in the details.
*Unfortunately she doesn't have the $ to hire a GC. I agree that it's money well spent, but it's just not money she has TOO spend. She's done her homework in checking references, looking at houses previously done by these outfits, etc... and has a short list of 2 outfits she's comfortable with (from a starting list of about 12 outfits).She has a level of confidence that they could do the whole package deal well. She's just trying to get a feel for if there are savings to be had being her own GC on the other stuff (well, septic, foundation...) Or do the modular outfits give sufficent volume to the subs that they get a better price on this stuff anyway....therefoer no appreciable saving for her to do it herself (Plus headaches). Just thinkin' out loud here.
*The saving's you will have by contracting the 3-4 other jobs is not worth it. The company you deal with will not garanntee labor on any work they have not contracted. So unless your brother is a mason , your buddy an excavator the saving's won't out way the risks. Good Luck.
*I'd say one of the best things to do is visit the factory where this thing is being built. I once had the chance to visit a modular home factory, and it was impressive; the place I went (I think it was Eagle Homes, but don't quote me, this was four or five years ago), had inspectors who were responsible for each home. As they framed each wall, the inspector, who was helping, stood there and made sure that the windows had correct caulking and flashing, that enough nails were used, that there weren't shiners, etc. But then again, this place was bascially panelizing houses; certainly not bad stuff. It was a far cry from the truss factory I visited where I found guys smoking dope and drinking beer while making trusses (that was, of course, about 15 years ago). Make a day trip out of it and go see your home being built.
*you need two things... a good mfr.. and a good local dealer with a track record...too many school teachers building modular on their vacations.. too many people who don't know the first thing about site work and foundation work.. or how to coordinate the things that have to be done on location...
*Mike is absolutely right, most modular home manufacturers don't have anything to do with site work and many dealers try to do there own site work and it's been my experence that most don't know shit about site work and what you end up with is not what you want to end up with.Try to find someone who knows something about setting a house and have it done.Your mom might not have the money now but is she going to have the money to repair the house 2years from now because it wasn't done right to begin with?Vince
*Went to see a modular yesterday. Got a call for a price on finishing siding and trim at the door openings inside the house.Got to the site to look around. Can't get in, the place isn't backfilled yet. The house is set but the second story has no siding and the ends of the house and two dormers have no siding.There's a second story walk out so I assume there must be a deck going up but it's not there yet. There's some sort of framed box around the bottom of the chimney but it's not sheathed yet. Oh, the siding needs to be done right away, the electricians installing the meter box on Monday. I thought I might be able to just side one small spot on Sunday so he can do his job. But, I can't get staging or a ladder set up if the place isn't backfilled, I can't get inside to look at the doorways because of the moat around the house, I don't know what is happening with the chimney and I can't side until I know, I need the deck ledger to at least be installed so I can flash it and side around it.Bottom line: I called her and said no thanks to the job. I could use the work in the winter but it's clear she's trying to GC the place by herself, doesn't know what needs to be done, doesn't know when to schedule each trade, hasn't got alot of details figured out, and it's not going to go smoothly.Unless your mother is up to it, don't let her build her own house.
*Ryan CThere are solutions to getting the electrical panel in and ledger flashed. We do it all the time. Have the electrician mount his panel on an extra piece of plywood the size of the box. You can then flash it and J channel around it. It makes for a better install because the panel sits plumb, doesn't crimp your siding when screwed in and no penetrations in your siding.I rarely get my deck on before the siders are there. I tell the sider the size and location of the deck, say 14' wide. He coils the house rim joist 12" tall and 13'7 wide (14'deck less the 2 outer joists and 2" for decking cut-off) then bends a Z-type flashing at the finished deck height. J-channel that opening and measure down ledger and decking height with 1/2 to spare, then J-channel that. VOILA finished, opening already flashed. In the cases of our decks, its 1-1/8" for decking plus 9-1/2" for ledger plus 1/2" for play. Opening = 10-1/8".This way you're not held up.Steven
*I know it can be done. If I was buiding the house, I'd do it and make sure anybody else comming in knew what to do too. But I wasn't incharge. I needed to do it her way and she didn't have a way planned.I explained that there were several (more then I posted) items that needed to be addressed before I could do the little bit of the project she wanted me to do. She was obviously frustrated and had heard this before several times. She was adamant that she just wanted a price on the siding and triming the doors. If she had said, "Okay, I need your direction, what should I do?", I would have taken the time to point her in the right direction. But she wanted it done her way but she didn't have a plan and I was obviously being too surly by suggesting that there were a few things she hadn't thought of.
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Hoping to not get lynched too badly on this topic here... bear with me.
My mother is wanting to build a small retirement house on some land she owns. Doesn't have the $ to do site-built. Considering Modular construction (Not mobile home type stuff, the kind of thing craned into place in several sections, possibly multiple stories, high pitched roof, etc...).
I don't expect this group to sing the praises of this stuff (I don't) but do you have experiences with specific manufacturers? (ie. is anyone being called in to fix repetitive problems inherent in their design/construction?).
Things to watch out for?
Things worth getting as an ADD-on to their base product?
I'm looking to help her avoid pitfalls if possible. Her mind is made up.
Thanks,
Stray