THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503280492
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SERIES: Modular House Construction, 1
SOURCE: BY CHRIS KIDDER, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 149 lines
Like the world in the Book of Genesis, Lois Shedlock's house was created in six days. Unlike its biblical antecedent, this 3,300 square-foot vacation home was built on an assembly line.
It was made in Martinsville, Va., by 140 pairs of human hands.
Six days from subfloor to roof - complete with floor coverings, plumbing and wiring, wall paint, windows and doors - may sound like a miracle. But it's business as usual for Nationwide Homes where 17 houses come off the line each week.
You might expect that factory building requires high-tech tools and methods. Or, that looking into the walls and crawl spaces of this assembly-line product would reveal flimsy underpinnings, skimpy components, shoddy workmanship.
In a series of columns (``About the Outer Banks'') for the next seven weeks, we'll lay some of those misconceptions to rest. We'll show you the Shedlock house being built at the Martinsville factory and explain the differences - and similarities - between this modular house and a house built from scratch (stick-built) on site.
We'll take you to the Shedlocks' oceanfront lot in Nags Head where the house was set on its pilings with a 65-ton crane. And, you'll see the work that builder Joe Rhodes and his crew do on site to prepare the house for renters arriving Easter weekend.
Lois and Thomas Shedlock and their daughter Marlo moved to the Outer Banks 12 years ago from Pennsylvania after vacationing at the beach for nearly 20 years.
They understood the appeal - and profit potential - of owning resort real estate, Lois Shedlock says. Deciding to own a vacation cottage ``strictly as an investment'' after watching the market all these years made sense.
The Shedlocks joined with a family friend, Scott Noble, and began planning. They found property they liked early last year.
Buying the lot at the head of Hollowell Street on the Nags Head oceanfront is a story in itself. An old dwelling already on the property had to be moved before construction could begin. The deal didn't close until November.
Over the summer, while negotiations dragged on, the four investors worked on floor plans and ``played with the numbers'' says Lois Shedlock, the group's designated project manager.
The original plan was to build a seven bedroom, 5 1/2 bath, three-level, stick-built home. To maximize income, a private swimming pool and hot tub were added to the plans.
Sun Realty agent Betsy Taylor, who is handling rentals for the house, says the pool increases in-season rents by $500 a week. ``The hot tub is the real factor off-season,'' says Taylor. It means increased bookings of at least 25 percent.
The plans made good sense but the house was over budget. That's when Lois Shedlock began looking at modular construction.
Shedlock had a head start on understanding the product: She works for general contractor Joe Rhodes, who had been building modular houses since May.
When Rhodes asked Lois to consider a factory-built house, she agreed to take a look at the modular houses he'd already built. Shedlock compared the costs. The estimate for the modular house was running $10 to $15 per square foot less than the stick-built.
She looked at the quality of the windows, cabinets and other features installed by the factory. ``I do my homework,'' she says, so the group left the decision to her.
Lois Shedlock decided to go modular: ``It worked out better. We didn't have to make any major changes to the plans. And I feel I'm getting a better quality house for my money.''
When you meet Joe Rhodes, he seems an unlikely candidate for unconventional building systems. Those who know his work say he's a builder's builder. He's a hands-on boss who dons a tool belt and hammers along with his crew.
In the nine years since he started his own construction company, Rhodes & Son General Contractors, he's kept a low profile. There are no sales brochures, no snazzy logos on his trucks. His office is hard to find.
With his slow Carolina drawl, blue jeans and easy ways, Rhodes doesn't appear to be an innovator.
But Rhodes is doing something no other Outer Banks builder has done. Although modular construction is not new to the Outer Banks, he's the first to put his reputation as a quality stick-built contractor on the line with a product seen by the public as cheap little boxes.
When the Nationwide Homes sales representative sent him information about their houses a year and a half ago, Rhodes doubted that factory-built houses fit his business.
``I always thought like everyone else did, that modulars were double-wide trailers,'' says Rhodes. ``I've always been a high-end builder.''
But the sales literature captured his attention. Modular building would provide a more dependable profit margin; it would increase his volume and diversify his client base without adding overhead.
``I followed up on it,'' shrugs Rhodes.
He has built seven modular homes in the last year and has more on the way. ``If I was doing a sales pitch,'' Rhodes says, ``I'm going to talk about price, extras, that the house gets built inside and never gets wet, and that it's built stronger than a stick-built house.''
But the sales pitch doesn't sells the house, says Rhodes. ``Once I take the customer out and show them one of these houses, that's the end of my talking.''
Lois Shedlock and her partners made the decision to go modular last September. Rhodes sent their stick-built plans to the engineering department at Nationwide Homes.
One misconception about factory-built housing is that it can't be customized. But each house must be broken down into modular units of roughly the same size for shipping. Units can be easily assembled from different floor plans.
Although each unit is limited by size restrictions on trucking loads (14 feet wide by 60 or 70 feet long is the general rule), there are no restrictions on how many units can be put together or on how the units are laid out and finished inside.
Rhodes' layout, which included a cathedral ceiling in the great room and a cantilevered fireplace inset, was assembled from floor plans, says John Surratt, Nationwide's engineering manager.
``The trick is to be flexible enough to meet customer needs,'' he says.
Nationwide uses a computer-aided design system with an inventory of dozens of pre-engineered floor plans broken down into modular units. Using this inventory, the company is able to produce drawings for more than 95 percent of the houses it builds.
Once a house is ordered from Nationwide, the factory turnaround time is about two months. Rhodes ordered the shedlock house at the end of November. It was scheduled to go on line in Martinsville in mid-February. A winter storm delayed the start date. The first unit of four started down the assembly line on Feb. 24.
Normal construction time is eight working days. The Shedlock house was ready to ship in seven.
On that seventh morning, March 6, the first unit rolled out of the factory before 10; the other three units were close behind. But on that seventh day, the workers at Nationwide Homes didn't rest: They built three more houses. MEMO: This article is the first in a series following the construction of a
modular house, from its beginning on an assembly line at Nationwide
Homes in Martinsville, Va., to its completion by Rhodes & Son General
Contractors on the Nags Head oceanfront. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by Drew Wilson, Staff
Modular dwelling...
Color photo by Drew C. Wilson, Staff
Construction workers establish the base of the factory-built cottage
by putting together the shipped modules
Color photo by Chris Kidder
The modules are assembled to order at a factory on Martinsville,
Va.
Photo by Chris Kidder
The workers at Nationwide Homes in Martinsville can build a house in
eight days.
by CNB