As anyone who has read this blog from the beginning already knows, the purpose has been to be as informative as possible in all things dealing with modular homes.  To that end, one of the readers has graciously offered to write a series of posts dealing with many aspects of modular homes.  Allan's perspective brings both knowledge and balance.

 

I have no doubt that you will find his posts informative.  Mike 

                               

MODULAR HOMES 101

 

 

 

An Introduction with Background, Scope of Articles and Definitions

 

 

 

 

This is the beginning of a series of short articles on modular homes.  It is a series of several articles; if my editor, the editor of the blog, permits me to write a few facts, a few cautions and a few of my own editorial comments.  Believe me; I do have opinions when it comes to housing. 

 

I might start by explaining that I titled this series of articles “Modular Homes 101” using the old college idea of identifying a course of study as ‘101’ if it is a basic course.  It is not what we used to call ‘bonehead” something or other.  The bonehead label was given to those courses one should have mastered in high school.  The ‘101’ courses were the basic courses that would launch one into additional college studies and a particular area of expertise. 

 

What?  You think it should be 100, not 101.  Well shame on you, because unless you’ve been living in a cave, you too should have some very strong opinions about modular housing and most of us do.  I certainly do and I’ll express my opinions to you in this series of articles.  I would encourage your response whatever it may be.

 

Background

 

I will present you with a very brief background about myself.  I have several college degrees from accredited schools.  These degrees have been studies in design, engineering and other related matters.  I have been retired now for nearly 10 years and enjoy living with my wife, also retired, at our property in the mountains in the very far easterly portion of San Diego County, California (ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?), in a modular house. 

 

Yes, we have lived in a modular house on 8.5 acres of property for a bit more than two years.  Previous to this residential location we lived in the City of San Diego for 35 years, most of that time in a “stick built” typical subdivision house.  Over the years we remodeled and more than doubled the square footage of our San Diego home from 1,089 SF to 2,200 SF.

 

I’ve spent many hours drawing architectural and improvement plans, framing, lifting trusses on to walls, installing electrical circuits, correcting plumbing systems and just about everything one needs to do for remodeling or new construction.  I’ve also worked for general contractors and subcontractors during my lifetime.  So, I think I’ve seen quite a lot in construction of housing, both good and bad.

 

In our two plus years living in this modular house we have faced a number of problems, some caused by the factory and some caused by the on-site contractor and subs.  So, I believe I have some knowledge of the workings and occasional, “not workings” of manufactured houses.  We’ve learned a book worth of knowledge during the past two years as problems cropped up in our modular house and various measures were taken to fix these problems.

 

This series of short articles will be based on research I’ve done on the internet, reading material, my formal education, practical knowledge and our personal experiences.

 

What Will Be Covered in These Articles?

 

Possibly not in this order, but I hope to cover such things as:

 

1. Helping the owner/customer develop a plan and understanding some of the process toward completion of the modular housing project
2. Stressing the importance of a budget and a schedule
3. Working with contractors and contract documents
4. Care, craftsmanship and cleanliness
5. Factory to site moving problems and associated cost
6. Our collective expectation of a good factory product
7. Federal, state and local government involvement (let’s hope) with your modular house
8. How to debrief yourself of what happened on your long trip to obtain an occupancy permit.

 

There may be other items of interest added or some of those items identified above may be eliminated as we wind our way though this ‘wonderland’ of modular homes.

 

Now, I should warn you that our personal experiences will be limited to those activities of locating a modular house on privately owned property.  I’m sure there will be situations different from ours, but since I have not been involved in those situations I can only make intelligent comments based upon our experience.  Hopefully, you will be able to glean enough general information to assist you in whatever endeavor you are undertaking be it researching, investigating, buying or locating a modular home on your property or in another location.

 

A Couple of Definitions

 

Before I launch into this subject let’s establish a foundation for what is being discussed here and, as we all know, most modular houses must have some sort of foundation. 

 

What is being discussed in a broad sense is housing built in a factory.  Housing built in a factory has many economic advantages in that vast amounts of materials can be brought to one place for assembly.  Inside the large structure of the factory, weather will not affect the construction effort.  And factory labor is much cheaper than on-site labor.  There are also significant advantages and efficiencies in assembling housing in an assembly line manner.  Much like Henry Ford began rapidly assembling cars on an assembly line more than 100 years ago, one-half or one-third house modules exit the factory nearly complete and ready for a permanent location. 

 

Sears Roebuck can be thought of as beginning this housing trend back in 1908 with its famous catalog including housing units, parts and accoutrements shipped to your town by train and then trucked to the site. 

 

You may identify these houses as manufactured, prefabricated, industrial, mobile, modular, panelized, pre-cut (kit) or any of a number of other names.  But for our purpose we’ll call them modular houses. 

 

I find it interesting in a wacky sort of way that in the 1920’s people were buying factory built ‘travel trailers’ and using their cars to pull their travel trailer down the road to camping sites.  Today, large motor (mobile) homes are pulling the cars down the roadways to camping sites.   

 

For the purpose of discussion let’s accept four types of housing and they are:  Manufactured (Mobile) Housing, Modular Housing, Panelized Housing and Pre-cut (Kit) housing.  Mobile type housing is very obvious and we see them every time we drive down a major road.  Modular housing can be sited many different ways with some stacked vertically and horizontally.  Panelized housing are panels to be raised on the site in place by on site workers.  Pre-cut housing can be thought of as pole houses, post and beam type, log houses, “A” frames and geodesic domes. 

 

Each of these housing types requires various amounts of factory construction and on site construction.  A much generalized way of looking at these types is to compare the amount of factory work and the amount of on site work that needs to be done.  Below is my little chart indicating where most of the work takes place.

 

                                                                       Labor In Factory                      Labor On Site

 

1. Manufactured (Mobile) housing                 Mostly                                     Very Little

2. Modular (Sectional) housing                       Mostly                                     Some Work

3. Panelized (Open/Closed) housing               Some                                       Considerable

                                                                                                                        Construction

4. Pre-cut                                                         Very Little                              Most                 

                                                                                                                        Construction

We’ll be zeroing in on Item # 2 above.

 

If you have editorial comments, constructive or destructive criticism, want to add to or subtract from my comments please feel free to do so.  Address your comments to the blog, to the editor of the blog, myself or all of the above. 

 

I look upon this as some sort of a group adventure and an opportunity to share knowledge and comments with you all.  Welcome aboard.

 

With the permission of the ‘editor’ I hope to have another article out in about one or two weeks.

 

Al Mercer

dadamercer@yahoo.com          

 

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