|
Today's modular homes are hard to distinguish from those built in-place. Carpenter Todd Christo works on a modular home being finished in Chatham. |
SAGAMORE — The house on Bluff Road does not look all that different from any other small business building trying to blend in with the Cape's typical architecture. It has gray shingles and white shutters and several gables. Stone steps lead from the parking area to the shrub-flanked front walkway. However, unlike the majority of the houses on the Cape which grew from their foundations on a skeleton of two-by-fours, this building was assembled from pre-made pieces like a giant, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.
Carpenter Tony Mendes works on a modular home being finished in Chatham.
|
"You'd never know it was modular," said Don Shulman, president of Realty Development Associates, the modular home building company that occupies the building, as he challenges visitors to find the seams where the individual components of the building were joined together. Traditionally, modular homes have a certain reputation: low on price, but even lower on quality and individual character.
Dave Gates of Gates Masonry in Lakeville builds a fireplace yesterday inside the modular home being finished at 27 Old Academy Road in Chatham.
|
Today, however, Shulman and other modular builders, manufacturers and dealers, are doing their best to chip away at these perceptions and introduce home buyers to what they say is a superior approach to owning a custom home. "The challenge that we've had over the years is trying to distinguish the modular home from the manufactured home or the mobile home," said Steve Snyder, executive director of the Modular Building Systems Association. "Our industry has spent a lot of time trying to educate home buyers and builders and state and local officials." Modular homes are built in a factory as a series of large component pieces known as "boxes." The floor is built first, then wall framing is added. Drywall, cabinetry, flooring, fixtures and rough plumbing and electrical are all installed during the manufacturing process. The roof is built on hinges and folds down for shipping.
The roofs on modular homes are built with hinges, laid flat and then raised when the house is put onto its foundation.
|
Throughout the process, extra materials are used to reinforce the structure and make it sturdy enough to withstand the rigors of transportation. A modular home can use as much as 20 percent more wood than a conventionally built home of similar size, said John Colucci, vice president of sales and marketing for Westchester Modular Homes, the manufacturer with which Shulman works.
She likes the floor plan and openness of the model house in Sagamore and, she said, modular building fits her budget. "We could do the same and even a little more at our price range," she said. "We are really considering it."
Some builders who do not specialize in modular construction expressed respect for how far the technique has come, but pointed to times when traditional stick-building still has an advantage. Conventional building allows for a higher degree of detail work, said Trevor Kurz, the founder of Kurzhaus Design, an Orleans-based builder. "The level of details on the homes we're building — there's no way you could duplicate that in a factory," he said. Despite this reservation, however, Kurzhaus would still be willing to work on a modular project, if it fit the needs of the client. Art Hultin, the owner of Truro building company A.F. Hultin and Co., has worked on both modular and stick-built homes. "The modular homes are fine," he said, "as long as you stay within the experience range of the maunfcturer." Buyers who push for designs more complex than what a given manufacturer has previously built could be asking for trouble, he said. Because the boxes are pre-built then shipped to the site, he explained, the customer could be stuck with any mistakes that were made in the factory. "That's the advantage of stick building," Hultin said. "You recognize your mistakes as you go along." He added, however, that there are certainly home designs for which modular is an appropriate choice. "It really just depends on what you're looking for in a house," he said.
Types of home construction
- Stick-built: Homes in this category are constructed on wood frames, on the site where the building is to remain. Buyer has a high degree of input about the final design.
- Modular: A modular home is built at a factory as a series of boxes that are assembled at the building site to form the final house. Offers a high level of customization. Must meet the same building codes as a stick-built home.
- Mobile: Mobile homes are purchased fully built; buyers have little to no input on the design. Manufactured to different building standards than modular or stick-built homes.
- Panelized: Panel homes are constructured from pre-built panels that are assembled on-site to create the finished home. Must meet the same building codes as a stick-built home.
|
|
