Factory Finish: Indistinguishable from site-built structures, modular houses offer builders loads of benefits.
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Overcoming a bad reputation—or no reputation at all—hasn't been easy for modular housing.
“Some people have never heard of modular, and others think it's the same as mobile housing because it's built in factories,” says Kelly Devin, marketing director for Cardinal Homes, a modular manufacturer.
However, these impressions about factory-built houses are becoming a thing of the past because now they look as good and are as sturdy as stick-built housing. Plus, they offer many cost- and time-saving construction benefits for builders, manufacturers assert.
Looking Good
Most prevalent along the East Coast, modular houses are created in pieces in a factory and are transported to the home site. There, a crane places the modules on a foundation. Some manufacturers offer their modular products nationwide, but others only sell in select regions.
Modular houses have come a long way from the basic Sears kits that were available at the turn of the 20th century, says Kevin Flaherty, vice president of sales and marketing for Genesis Homes, a factory-built home manufacturer.
Modern modular housing really didn't take hold until the 1980s and only took off a few years ago, manufacturers say. That's because design styles, ranging from classic colonials to Craftsman bungalows, have expanded and construction has improved to such a degree that homeowners and pros alike typically can't decipher the subtleties between stick- and factory-built structures.
“Most people can't tell the difference,” says Dave Wrocklage, sales and marketing manager for factory-made Epoch Homes. “For all intents and purposes, we are stick building in a factory environment, so there is no reason modulars should look different.”
What's more, factory-built home manufacturers often offer the same product selections that tract builders do because they frequently partner with big-name appliance, window, and other makers, and tout the brand names on their Web sites and in literature.
Feeling Good
According to Bob Starer of Cape Charles, Va.-based Village Builders, which assembles modulars for clients, factory-built homes blend the very best of on- and off-site construction.
“We use a system-building formula,” he says. “The things that are best constructed on site are done that way and the parts that are best built at the factory are made there so the quality of our homes is unsurpassed.”
