Modular Homes - A waste of wood

I went and looked at some of these modular homes, and found they are very costly compared to stick built homes. But the sales people insisted they are better. I was allowed to go to one of the sites where they were placing a home on the foundation. What I saw was a house built of all sorts of oddly sized lumber covered with lots of particle board. The roofs are hinged and when they are lifted into place, they are extremely flimsy. The siding is plastic, and looked cheap. The amount of damage that occurred during setting the home on the foundation was hard to believe. They cracked some of the sill plates, busted off the pvc sewer drain pipes, ripped out some wiring and crushed at least half of the furnace ducting. The walls cracked noticably, and when the roof was hinged into place, several rows of shingles were torn and damaged. The guys doing the work said this was all normal and they repair everything after the house is set.

I dont know about you, but a new home should not be patched together and require a hundred or more repairs.

I also noticed that they joining walls end up being almost 10 inches thick and consist of way too much lumber. In fact, in order to keep these homes in one piece during the move, they all consist of way too much lumber. In the end, the house looks attractive, but they are not structurally sound, and are filled with flaws, patched items and other defects.

I decided that I will build a stick built home which will be superior and in the end, much less costly. I know my home will outlast all of those modulars too.

J Tamier

Reply to
JTamier
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I went and looked at some of these modular homes, and found they are very costly compared to stick built homes. But the sales people insisted they are better. I was allowed to go to one of the sites where they were placing a home on the foundation. What I saw was a house built of all sorts of oddly sized lumber covered with lots of particle board. The roofs are hinged and when they are lifted into place, they are extremely flimsy. The siding is plastic, and looked cheap. The amount of damage that occurred during setting the home on the foundation was hard to believe. They cracked some of the sill plates, busted off the pvc sewer drain pipes, ripped out some wiring and crushed at least half of the furnace ducting. The walls cracked noticably, and when the roof was hinged into place, several rows of shingles were torn and damaged. The guys doing the work said this was all normal and they repair everything after the house is set.

I dont know about you, but a new home should not be patched together and require a hundred or more repairs.

I also noticed that they joining walls end up being almost 10 inches thick and consist of way too much lumber. In fact, in order to keep these homes in one piece during the move, they all consist of way too much lumber. In the end, the house looks attractive, but they are not structurally sound, and are filled with flaws, patched items and other defects.

I decided that I will build a stick built home which will be superior and in the end, much less costly. I know my home will outlast all of those modulars too.

J Tamier

Reply to
JTamier

I heard rumors these homes are of poor quality. They look great on the outside. Posts like this can save you so many problems if you take the time and do some research.

miker

Reply to
miker

Posts like this typically represent nothing more than the rantings of a paranoid low end site builder and are utterly worthless.

Just like with site builders, quality varies tremendously which is why you have to carefully investigate any builder you are considering, whether they are site built or modular. Whether site built or modular, outside of the few builders using SIPs, both type are "stick" built.

The modular are "stick" built inside a very large building using accurate jigs and cutting and are protected from weather. This means that despite the false claims of "waste" and excess material at section joints, they actually save material by eliminating the typical site built waste from mistakes and less than ideal cuts.

The modular do have the limitations of transportable size to contend with, but this doesn't affect quality, it only affects design options. Even here, the high end modular homes often include site built portions for design elements that are too big to transport effectively in a factory built configuration.

Since everyone builds to the same building code, all of the homes whether site built, modular or hybrid are entirely safe, structurally sound and to code. High end homes of either type typically exceed code requirements by a significant amount, giving the impression that the lower end homes are sub standard, but this is simply not the case.

For any given quality level a modular home is often superior in measurable ways, from more precise framing, to faster construction with lower labor costs, to the elimination of the risk of having your freshly framed house rained on before it is sheathed and closed in. It even eliminates most of the builders and subcontractors risk of tools stolen from the job site.

Reply to
Pete C.

I have heard from several other people, not just this forum post that modular homes are not the way to go. Its true that the quality can vary from different builders by having it just meet code is scary. I remember one guy telling me that you can actually break into one of these homes with an xacto knife. The hightech lightweight materials used today make it easy. How knows it these is any thruth to this but it made me laugh.

miker

Reply to
miker

I am not in the business as a builder at all. At the same time I know how to build, and am capable of building my own home except the foundation. I did my shopping and am telling what I found. As far as doing the building inside being easier for the workers, I will agree because there is not the chance of weather issues. I also know that rain can cause problems when building a stick home. On the other hand, people have built stick homes forever and they all survived. If they are built properly, so the roof is covered before any interior work, there should not be any problems.

These modular homes had 2x3 studs on the interior walls, where the units connect together. They leave a large gap in between them. so the end result is about a 10 inch thick wall, which is ugly and the two halves are never fully attached, only the floor. I went back and looked at the place when it was completed, since they had an "open house". The roofing shingles that were patched did not match precisely in color. The patched cracks in the walls were noticable, several cabinet and room doors did nto fit right, the siding showed a noticable patch where the two halves were joined, and the siding on the two halves did not line up well, I saw the broken pipes in the basement had been patched together with fernco couplings rather than solid glue joints, and the crushed furnace duct still contained sections that were dented and had been pounded out. The basement had steel posts every 8 feet or so, which really cuts the basement up. When I asked why there are so many posts, they said that it's required on those homes, which tells me there is no real structural soundness, since must stick built homes have 2 or 3 posts at most. The carpeting which was installed at the factory was coated with mud from when it was set, there was a ton of garbage that was apparently used to protect and reinforce the pieces during shipping (and the buyer does pay for all of that). I could go on with all the defects I saw.....

When they were setting the place, the workers just let things break and really did not seem to care. Sure, there are probably other companies that are more careful, but even if that's the case, I was not at all impressed by these homes, and they cost a fortune compared to traditional construction. I know I will never buy one of them. In reality, they are nothing more than glorified large versions of trailer homes.

Reply to
JTamier

Hmmm.... It sounds like your beef is with the installers....

OTOH, last time I checked, on a square foot basis, these homes cost about 1/4 of a stick built home. You add HVAC, foundation, etc., and the final cost is still about 60% of a stick built home. I'm not sure where you get your figures.

Reply to
CptDondo

Again, mostly rumor spread by site builders and bad experiences from low end modular which is no better or worse than low end site built.

There is nothing wrong with a home that "just meets code", unless you overpay for it. Not everyone needs or can afford an overbuilt mansion.

That concept also applies to virtually all site built homes as well. People try to secure the hell out of the obvious things like doors and windows while ignoring other areas that are plenty vulnerable.

The same hightech lightweight materials use on most site built homes as well.

The truth is that there are adequate homes and there are high end homes and both classes can be found in both site and modular building techniques.

Reply to
Pete C.

What figures? It's all hype and conjecture, perhaps based on looking at a single example of a low end modular home.

Look at a comparable low end site built home and you'll find all the same issues. Look at a high end home, site built or modular and you'll find none of these issues.

The cost comments are of course wild nonsense as any examples of comparable quality construction between site built and modular always show significant cost savings with modular.

If I were to build a new home today, I would build it myself, using ICF construction for much of it. I would rent a warehouse bay in a nearby industrial area and I would "modular" build a good deal in this bay myself to truck over to the site. It would be closer to "panelized" construction so I could lift the sections with a rental telehandler instead of a full fledged crane.

Reply to
Pete C.

It would appear the OP has become convinced that 'modular' homes are not built well?

There is one in our area that was delivered in two sections some 25+ years ago from its factory some 500 miles away. It looks completely normal and apart from an approximately eight inch thick middle wall appeared to be built to normal Canadian housing standards for a 'stick' home. It has served its original and present owners without any problems or sagging etc. It took less than a day to place it on its previously poured concrete basement and no damage occurred. Within a few days the electricity water and sewer was hooked up and people were living in it.

I happened to visit the factory on other business and saw nothing that was below standard or seemed to use excessive wood! Just ordinary houses built all year round, each in two pieces etc. inside a big dry ex-aircraft hangar.

I would emphasize this is a 'factory built home' not a factory built sometimes called tow able or flat bed transportable 'mobile' home; some of which are of the flimsy (per the reference to entry with a box cutter utility knife!) construction akin to that of a cheap camper!

As people have built and bought more elaborate homes in recent years the 'factory builts' never seemed to catch on in this province. Also at that time period (1970s) I guess so many of us were willing and capable with the help of a couple of local carpenters to 'build our own'. We did twice (including wells and septic tanks) sticking with single storey construction. And even now in my 70s I can maintain most of it with just a step ladder.

Stick with simple construction; avoiding things such as roof dormers, bay windows. Avoid if possible roof gutters by using a larger overhang to get water away from footings, gutters cause rot in soffit edge board. Make sure you have good drainage 'before' you pour (or concrete block build your basement) Weeping tile and a sump essential most places.

But IMO there is nothing wrong with modular construction. Many were built to slightly more economical standards (e;g. slightly lower ceilings to reduce heating cost) and were shipped to northern communities. Also some 'design' modular homes have been built and shipped from Canada to places such as Iceland, Denmark etc.

Personally have found that wood frame (either 2 by 4 or now more commonly 2 by 6) homes are easy to build; easy to modify and maintain, can be well insulated and stand up well in this cold windy climate. Wood frame, with very occasionally some brick veneer, is the commonest building method here. In our capital city and larger towns there many traditionally built several storey wooden homes which are well over 100 years old. Most of them need ladders and safety ropes/slings to work on their roofs and chimneys etc. We also have some flat roofed two storey homes; some of which were built abutting each other quickly after a major fire around 1895? Still in use but much modified many were built with raw stick flattened on two sides to for nailing to. Some boards are well over a foot wide; don't see lumber like that these days in this norther climate.

Good luck.

Reply to
terry

I've seen stick-built houses the same way. Sheetrock interior, studs/insulation, foam board, then vinyl siding.

Reply to
krw

A friend of mine purchased a modular a few years ago; 2 story, anout 2500 square feet. The house came in 4 sections, and the assembly crew did a superb job. They did NO damage; everything fit together as it should, and worked as it should. Unless you watched the assembly, you can't tell by looking wither inside or out that it's a modular. I can't comment on lasting; it's 8 years old now, and I KNOW they've had no problems.

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Reply to
David Starr

Yep. The US government is actually promoting this in order to reduce the amount of wood used in a typical house, as well as to increase the average R-value of a given wall.

There was an article in Fine Homebuilding a while back.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Friesen

Here's the reality;

Stick-built home.... $250,000

Modular home..... $65,000

We all wish we could afford stick-built.

Reply to
Anonymous

like everything its a balance between money and quality. both build and assembly.

Reply to
hallerb

In article , snipped-for-privacy@mail.usask.ca says... |krw wrote: | |> I've seen stick-built houses the same way. Sheetrock interior, |> studs/insulation, foam board, then vinyl siding. |

The first time I saw this was a new house in 1982. The technique scared the heck out of me.

Reply to
Steven Stone

I saw it shortly after that.

Likewise!

Reply to
krw

Looks to me like he is exagerating grossly the installer. Any purchaser that accepted that disaster would be out of his mind.

As to the description of the constructions standards of that one house he supposedly looked at - that builder would be out of business by the time he sold only a few.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

Yeah, well, remember the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf? I will build a BRICK home and it will outlast the stick-built!

Reply to
lwasserm

I can't see why, as long as they're putting in appropriate diagonal bracing.

Reply to
Goedjn

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