A lady architect may have figured out a way to outsource your construction jobs in the U.S. to Canada… Article at the San Francisco Gate website on a modernist factory built home. Doesn’t look too bad. Don’t know about the Corten steel exterior cladding, however. Some of the past Breaktime posts indicate that the rusting of the Corten doesn’t always stop at the point it just gives a uniform rust color. The price listed doesn’t seem all that cheap to me, but I haven’t priced factory builts lately:
“Six models are available, from an $81,000 one-bedroom bungalow to a three-bedroom, two-story city house priced in the low $200,000s.”
If you are in the Bay Area, you can even visit a sample of the house this weekend at the Sunset Magazine annual Celebration Weekend event at their headquarters in Menlo Park.
S.F. Gate article on the house at: http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/lloyd/
Sunset webpage at: http://www.sunset.com/sunset/web/marketplace/events/cw_2004/intro.html
Replies
I have contended that the GCs and carpenters who are dead sure they will have a job, 'got to have us to build the houses', are going to be largely out of luck in another ten to 25 years.
Modular houses are on their way to becoming the preferred building method in the US. Partially because of the reduced cost and the increased ease of quality control the factory setting makes possible. These are also becoming more like stick built house and less like mobile homes. A lot of custom features, previously unavailable in modular units, are becoming common in higher end units. In part because of the modularization, usually into 2' blocks, of the individual trailerable blocks and the computerization of the ordering process.
The advent of world wide high-speed communications has made it entirely possible to have the factory in China (A lot of easily controlled, docile and underpaid workers there.) while having people order and preview, by way of virtual reality, the product in Boston.
Give it a decade or two and most of the people presently in new construction will have to compete for an increasingly small, because homes will go down in price and so easier to replace than remodel, remodeling or maintenance market.
Modular houses are on their way to becoming the preferred building method in the US.
What percent?
For all their practicality ..... they are but a small drop in the bucket in new housing anywhere near here.
Plus .... let's remember .... "GC's and Carps" ..... remodel too.
That's not going away ... sooner or later ... those Mod's are gonna need remodeled.
Add a zero to the end of that 10 or 25 and you may be onto something.
JeffBuck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
A number of modular houses going up around here and almost no stick built construction. In Oregon, modular houses get preferrential treatment - reportedly there was a law passed some years back to encourage them. Don't know the particulars, but I was told that if I stuck a modular home on property, I would not need the kind of architectural reviews that I will face with the house I am planning. Everyone seems to assume that I will be putting in a modular, but I just don't like the looks of the ones I have seen - plus I am obsessive about fire resistance and any modular I have seen would go up like kindling. About the only remodeling I think is practical with the older modulars that I have seen is with a large excavator and a scoop loader...
People can't give the older modulars away. There was an article not too long ago in the local paper about the number of people with the modulars they own sitting on rented or leased spaces and they can't even give the things away. And many still owe a lot of payments on them...
There's an affordable housing group here putting in about 10 factory built houses, built somewhere in Canada. There are a couple of the notable local custom home builders on the board of that group and they were quoted as saying that the modulars are better quality than custom homes. I saw them come into town on flatbeds but haven't seen them assembled yet. There's tons of older modular/mobile stuff here and people can't seem to give it away.
Today they are an almost imperceptible percentage of the overall housing market. Give it time. There are a lot of forces moving in this direction.
As for remodeling modulars. It is seldom done.
I think we're talking two different kinds of "modulars" ...
I ain't talking about oversized trailer park homes.
There are "real house" modulars out there ...
JeffBuck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
Think you nailed it. Pun intended. Depends upon the area of the country. Tho I've seen some great things in mags, tv and the like, around here all you get is a double wide. Ugh.
I followed the links on the original post. Read all the specs. After reading the lastest Houses issue and seeing what you get for $125/sf in Northern CA, these things should sell like hotcakes. What I didn't understand was the testimonial from a customer in MO. Would seem to me that site-built there would be a better deal. There's a detailed list of finish materials on the web site. Fairly ho-hum subdivision stuff. Design very clever....I love clever.
ShelleyinNM
FWIW, a friend moved to Oakland, CA to work for a company that put up those modulars. Had fair pay and bennies but not enough to buy or rent well. He sublet a place for about 1,700/month.
Came back less than a year later when the business took a hard turn south. Orders were way down with little indication for a bright future.
Also read, not too long ago, about extreme negative reaction to the modular concept, as in "not in my backyard". Seems the permitting process and construction went well but the neighbors sued to force the removal/demolition of the modular. Although the finished product was a good fit for the neighborhood (so I read) and really looked like a site built home it was still perceived as a glorified mobile home and condemned for that perception alone. Don't know who won that skirmish.
"Although the finished product ...really looked like a site built home it was still perceived as a glorified mobile home and condemned for that perception alone.
That's pretty much what I meant when I said it would take a long time for change to be accepted. Perceptions will have to change first.
I've even run into the same problem with selling panelized walls sometimes. Some subdivisions ban modulars, and they group panelized walls in with that.You go to a psychiatrist when you're slightly cracked, and keep going until you're completely broke.
Orders were way down with little indication for a bright future
It would seem like the problem would be finding vacant lots to put new construction on--which are allready at a premium in the Bay Area. I imagine, too, that if you buy a half-million "tear down," the neighbors will not want to see a $220K modular--no matter how nice--go up in the same location.
In my town, $110/sf will get more than a 2/2 built--or very nice 2/2. But prices & wages are lower than in Cali, too . . . Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
The factory built home concept includes a wide range of size, sophistication and quality. From dirt cheap house trailers to bombproof concrete industrial units to high end homes that once together are as well built as any and indistinguishable from most on the market today.
To further confuse the issue the low end manufacturers are playing word games. What used to be known as house trailers became mobile homes. Some are calling theirs modular homes as a double wide needs to be assembled and is in some ways 'modular'.
IMO the problem is that there is no real standardization of terminology. I hear there are some rules but from what I see they are not enforced or adhered to very often. Partially because there are so many ways these things can overlap.
As far as the modular homes that I was referring, usually a pretty standard house divided so it will fit on a trailer and designed to be removed and bolted down, these have been on the market for decades in Japan. The house comes in sections that are craned into position and bolted together. The electrical and plumbing sometimes get made up with Molex connectors and quick disconnects. I have read accounts that say that once the slab is poured the house goes together in an afternoon.
"Modular houses are on their way to becoming the preferred building method in the US."
I think you're right, but I think it will be a long, slow process.
There's always resistance to change, which will slow down the process. And people will have to change their perceptions about modular units.
But it seems to me the process started a long time ago. Almost all doors are bought as pre-hung units now. Windows are no longer assembled on site like they were 50 years ago. Studs are pre-cut instead of being cut on the jobsite. And roof trusses go on 60% of the new houses in the country. (That's the latest figure I have)
I think price pressure will have a lot to do with it. How many of you guys here have said there's less money in new construction than there is in remodelling? People want cheap houses. And they can be built cheaper in factories.
At least that's my take on things...Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. [Howard Aiken]
"Modular houses are on their way to becoming the preferred building method in the US."
And Apple Computers are going to knock Windows PCs out the door. At least 95% of the houses built in south Florida are CBS. I can't wait to see the modular version of those.
try this website ....
http://www.avisamerica.com
This is the site of the factory I toured. Also visited the home of the sales rep ... one of their modulars ... set in a plan of stick builts ....as he drove down the street ... he asked us to spot his mod-home in the midst of stick built houses ... we couldn't ....
JeffBuck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry