Modular Homes Built Here

For years now, many modular builders have had to deal with the stigma the term “modular” has had in the past, mostly due to public knowledge lagging behind the new advancements in that industry.  Many have attempted to avoid the label, choosing “Systems Built” instead, or simply only focusing on the advantages modular construction brings without clearly advertising “MODULAR HOMES BUILT HERE.”  Thankfully, public opinion is finally catching up to modern reality, so modular homebuilders can now proudly announce themselves for who they are.

It seems lately that there has been somewhat of a turnaround in public opinion toward modular homes, as well as opinion in the press, as evidenced by the recent Washington Post article, “The Mansion Goes Modular.” Modular homebuilding has been producing outstanding homes for two decades now, but it’s only been in the last ten years that it has really come into its own.  From mansions set and finished in some of the country’s most exclusive addresses to more mainstream homes in neighborhoods across America, modular designers, manufacturers, and builders have expanded the previous limits of modular homebuilding to allow virtually any design to be possible.  In fact, the true “limits” on modular home designs today are simply dictated by budget and value-engineering (isn’t that the case with all construction?).   As modular manufacturers like Haven Custom Homes who pioneered the “Custom Modular” home continue to push the envelope of what can be achieved through modularization with a can-do attitude, there seems to be no limit to what can be achieved.

With consumers becoming more educated on every subject imaginable through web-based resources, it is fitting that Modular Homebuilding finally shed its former association with bargain-basement products and lackluster designs and take its rightful place among the elite of the homebuilding world.  There are still some misconceptions about what “Modular” means in some consumers’ minds, but that knowledge void is quickly collapsing as more happy owners of modular homes share their experience, and more educated consumers do their own research.  Where once it was easy to tell the difference between a completed modular home and one that was built by traditional methods, today’s modular homes are virtually indistinguishable from an esthetic perspective.  From a structural perspective, however, modular homes stand out as superior in many ways, as they are built to a higher standard in order to withstand the rigors of over-the-road transport from factory to job site, as well as the craning process onto the foundation.  Beyond structural integrity, the walls of modular homes are built in factories with the help of “jigs,” which enable more precise and consistent framing.  Anyone wondering about this claim need but ask a cabinet installer about their experience with modular homes as opposed to site-built homes, and they will learn that the precise construction of modern cabinetry demonstrates clearly that the walls in modular homes are more plum, level, and square than traditionally constructed homes.  For more comparison points on modular versus traditional (or “Stick-Built”) methods, visit Modular Stick Comparison.

Modular versus Stick Built Comparison

Homebuilding is an industry steeped in tradition, and fittingly so:  most architectural styles earned their names during the period in American History when they were made popular (e.g. Colonial, Victorian, Prairie, Modern).  In this industry where tradition is favored often unfairly over new innovation, a certain resistance to change pervades, especially for such a drastic change in construction practice as modular homebuilding presents.  Because the modular industry began with the Sears and Roebuck “mail order home” in the early 1900’s, and largely remained a “what you see is what you get” product until the early 1990’s, many traditional homebuilders have helped perpetuate the notion that modular homes were somehow sub-par.  Thankfully, American consumers—those for whom the homebuilding industry builds new homes—have taken the reins and are deciding for themselves that modular is a good choice for them.  As many modular homebuilders who once built homes the traditional way see it:  “You wouldn’t order a bunch of parts for a car and have someone assemble it in your driveway in all sorts of weather, so why would you have your home built that way?”   It seems that the modern consumer has come to that same realization, despite the nay-saying of crotchety traditionalists.

Tags: builders, Construction, estimate, homebuilding, modular, new homes, residential

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Construction, Modular Construction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.