THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 1, 1997 TAG: 9701300240
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: About the Outer Banks
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: 91 lines
No subject I've written about over the past seven years has drawn more inquiries than modular construction. A series of eight articles in 1995 followed the construction of a custom designed house at the Nationwide Homes factory in Martinsville, Va., to its finish on the Nags Head beachfront.
The e-mail request I received recently is typical of dozens of requests I've had since the series ran.
``I am writing to you about a series of articles you wrote about a beach house,'' said my cyberspace correspondent. `` I think it was a modular/kit house, but I can't really remember the details.''
The reader's father-in-law wants to build a house in Upstate New York but can't afford to have the house he wants built completely on-site. He's looked at some modular homes, the reader said, ``but they are very flimsy and not acceptable to him.''
``Do you still have information about the company that designed and built the house in their factory?''
The house I wrote about was a factory-built modular home - not a ``kit'' - built using traditional stick-built materials and standards. While modular construction is better understood these days, many consumers still envision it as the old mobile home. It's not.
The correct terminology for mobile homes - or house trailers - is manufactured housing. (Some years back the mobile home industry did use ``modular'' to describe their product and that has added to consumer confusion.)
Manufactured housing is built in factories using materials and methods more familiar to Henry Ford than to Bob Vila. It's constructed on a chassis with axles and wheels, even though few of these homes ever take to the road once they've been parked on a homesite.
Modular housing is built in a factory with the same materials and many of the same methods used to construct stick-built homes on-site. As with any factory-made product, standardization as well as the economy of scale leads to cost savings.
The reader was correct in realizing that all modular construction is not of equal quality. In North Carolina, at least, modular homes are built to the same building code standards as stick-built homes. That code is a minimum requirement, not the ideal or even the norm.
Typically, in part because of their reputation as a low budget product, modular houses tend to be small and short on frills - and many modular manufacturers, fulfilling both the promise and need for inexpensive housing, build the least expensive house they can.
But the Nationwide house covered in my column was custom designed and luxurious - destined for a prime oceanfront lot with a private swimming pool and expected to earn top rental dollars year-round.
The reader's father-in-law might be very pleased with the quality of Nationwide Homes, but it's doubtful he'll be able to own one in upstate New York. There's a limit to how far a modular house can be shipped: after traveling about 400 miles, logistics and cost become prohibitive.
Although the road trip is the equivalent of a hurricane-force winds and the jiggle and jolt of a major earthquake, modular manufacturers have learned to build their houses to withstand those pressures. According to a Nationwide spokesman, once the modular house leaves the factory, very little if any damage occurs while the house is on the highway.
The problems lie in getting the necessary permits to carry oversized loads over the highways. Every underpass and bridge must be considered; every low utility wire accounted for (and moved when necessary); weights, widths and other criteria matched to the intended route. States and municipalities often restrict travel to certain roads and, in some cases, certain hours of the day.
The houses are securely wrapped against inclement weather, but high winds, heavy rains and icy roads take the trucks off the road and increase the possibility of damage.
The Modular Building Systems Council of the National Association of Home Builders, 15th & M Sts. NW, Washington, DC 20005, 800-368-5242, can provide information about builders that service New York.
Another source of information is the book Manufactured Homes: Finding and Buying Your Dream Home for Less by A.M. Watkins ($14.95, 188 pp, Dearborn Financial Publishing). It's not a great book but it does go over building terminology and manufacturing methods and includes a list of modular builders.
The book also includes suppliers of geodesic domes, log houses and pre-cut wood frame houses, all popular with do-it-yourselfers. I would say it's a misnomer to call these ``kits'' but the parts are pre-cut, labeled and shipped for step-by-step assembly.
Light-gauge steel frame construction lends itself to do-it-yourself construction projects. (Under certain lumber and labor market conditions, simply switching from wood to steel frame construction can save money even if you're not uilding the house yourself).
Residential steel framing is lighter than wood, making it easier for the do-it-yourselfer to handle. Skills needed to assemble a steel frame are less critical: a good command of electric tools counts for far more than technique.
For information on steel-frame housing, contact the American Iron and Steel Institute's Steel Home Hot Line, 800-797-8335. MEMO: Send comments and questions to Chris Kidder at P.O. Box 10, Nags
Head, N.C. 27959. Or e-mail her at realkidd(AT)aol.com