Sorry to hear about your bad experience, If it's any consolation, I know people who had similar experiences with brand new site built homes and manufactured homes falling apart on them in their first year.
Charlie Camp Atlantic Mortgage Satellite Beach, Fl
Actually IRC section 1102.4 requires ALL utility penetrations to be sealed. This includes DWV & NM Cable holes opening into the attic cavity. These are usually sealed with a can of foam caulk. The joints between major sections, such as that formed by the center mating all would need to be completely sealed at the top and bottom with a foam tape (or similar).
The water condensing on the underside of the deck sounds like a lack of ventilation, but there should not have been any cavity with out insulation.
His best recourse is to see if New Hampshire has any laws on the books to protect him. Some states have enacted legislation which protects new home owners for a period of ten years.
New Hampshire DOES have a MODULAR state building program. It's administered by the Department of Safety under the State Fire Marshal's office (603)
371-3294 was the last number I had for their section. All manufacturer's are required by state law to build within the state's building codeIt could prove beneficial for the dissatisfied homeowner to call the State and see what can be done (I'm certain the state will get some action).
We bought a New England Home,Greenland,NH through their assigned dealer(Atlantic Blue Water Modular Homes; "ABW") back in early 2007. The modular (ranch style
15' x 52') was delivered and placed on the foundation on May 23ed, 2007 and its still not completed. It fail twice by Derry Building Enforcement by a walk thru inspection. The remaining onsite assembly of the modular was just thrown together and wasn't even assembled as outline by NEH site referance manual. NEH only repairs defects that occurs while at their factory. Once the modular leaves the factory which is about 85% completed, you are on your own. So when NEH advertises that their modular homes are quality built from start to finish,as a "turn key" home is hog pog. Think twice before you even think about buying a NEH. I know of 6 or 7 New Hampshire home owners that bought a NEH, which they are experiencing the same and even more defect workmanship and structural issues than we are. If you want to take a tour of this NEH and see for yourself, just call and setup a free tour.Firewoodguy.com
-- Firewoodguy
Please I am also fighting Probuilt. If you are in a lawsuit please contact me as there is strength in numbers at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com.
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Like anything, there are good companies and there are bad companies.
It isn't appropriate in this forum to condemn an entire industry. I could just as easily say "site built homes suck" - they leave the materials out in the rain when building it. Depending on who works on them, the doors and windows may be totally out of square/plumb. They're poorly air sealed and insulated. Most of the duct jobs are incredibly bad, etc.
Many, many people have had great success with modular homes. They're built under controlled conditions and in general are of a higher quality and more uniformly built than site-built homes. They usually go up practically over night.
As with anything, it's up to the purchaser to look into the builder and determine if they do quality work and have a good reputation.
Disclaimer: I have no c> jessebelle had written this in response to
Having worked in the modular industry for many years, I'd like to honestly respond to this:
Yes, I have seen some terrible modular and mobile homes, just awful condition. But why?
When they leave the factory door, they are usually in very good condition. They are built on jigs, everything lines up, it is true, level, square, plumb, and all is good. Inspection for each house is much greater than a site-built home, so everything works pretty much as it should. Now what?
Generally speaking, the homes are ready weeks before they are ready to go on foundations. We used to demand that so that if the house was built a few inches over or under, or built to a spec that we weren't told about, we could accomodate that when we did the foundation. All the while this was going on, the house was sitting in a storage lot. The sturcture was usually not sitting on blocks the way it would sit on a foundation, so over time, things started to sag. That sag caused things to get out of square and plumb pretty quick. Doors might start to stick. Cracks radiating from window and door corners start to appear. God forbids it rains a bit during this time. Homes are built in sections. I've done homes that were six sections. All the open parts where sections mate are covered with plastic and in a good wind, that plastic can leak, or worse, tear open exposing a lot of good work to a lot of water. .
Finally, the big shipping day. If it is a short drive, no sweat. I've seen houses go hundreds of miles, and believe me, they can take a beating. They aren't going two miles an hour either. I've followed houses I was working on from the factory and those transporters are doing highway speeds. I've never seen it myself but there are a lot of stories of roof jacks flying off and clobbering cars behind them.
The home arrives at the building site. Now my job begins. The transporter wants to do all he can to unhook and go home. So he generally parks the unit somewhere off the road, hopefully somewhere near the other sections in some organized way, and he goes. I have to get it on the foundation. I either use a crane or a system of rails on blocks, jacks with wheels and come-a-longs. It is slow and tedious work and very scary to be underneath one of this things as it is moved along onto the foundation. Assuming the foundation is level, we tie it down and hook it all up so that you can move in. Sometimes, since most factories do not assemble them at the factory, you get slight differences between sections. I have to fix that. One section went through a much more violent wind and is leaning more than another section. Or the height is slightly different because some of the trusses on section A were built at 2.9:12 and the trusses on section B are 3:00:12. Or the crossover electrical was done wrong and both sections have male ends.
See the problem here? Between the factory and the consumer, there are at least three things that can work against you: the storage area and the way it is stored, the transporters and the installation crew, not to mention the weather.
To say that modular homes, in and of themselves, suck, is to omit many of the things that are really responsible for the bad reputation. I saw an article once that said that 90% of all mobile/modular home problems were the result of poor installation. That is probably correct.
Tim
responding to
replying to Lou, Jellicledoc wrote: Hear!Hear! I'm a bottom line kinda gal. Go Lou!
replying to modularhomessuck, Sam wrote: Stick Built have even more issues and same problmes , it all depends on the company . It has nothing to do with modular method of building , I am in stick built industry and we have same issues in our industry but and yes we have one year warranty. So it seems kind of unfair to genralize your opinion since you are having issues with one company to entire industy.
Why can’t we follow European standards in the use of quality materials, and for goodness sake, a decent esthetic. My mom lived in one of these slapped together cracker- boxes. California has created modular canyons. Cookie cutter designs. Every tremor caused cracking, floors warped, and creaked. Off gassing from wafer boards, and cheap carpeting. The manufacturers use subpar materials for maximum profit. Building codes allow them to cut corners. These dwellings do not age well. Do your research, and buyer beware. We always want the cheapest way out, and pay it all back for the first major repair!
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