THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9503300301
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: ABOUT THE OUTER BANKS
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Modular building is not new. But the concept of a factory-built, modular house that offers quality and design flexibility comparable to an upscale stick-built house is just beginning to make headway with the American consumer.
Many modular manufacturers welcome home buyers, prospective home buyers and, yes, the press, to their factories. I spent two days at the Nationwide Homes factory in Martinsville, Va., last month watching the assembly of the second and third stories of a 3,300 square-foot vacation home ordered by Kitty Hawk building contractor Joe Rhodes.
The house, bought by Lois and Thomas Shedlock, their daughter Marlo and another partner, was headed to the Nags Head oceanfront where Rhodes' crew was building the ground floor. Like all houses on Nationwide's assembly line, the Shedlocks' house was a custom order. Most Nationwide homes are built in three units or less; the Shedlock's required four.
Lumber for each unit is pre-cut and wall studs are pre-drilled at Nationwide's component plant. Materials for every house are stored under cover in Martinsville until the nearby factory is ready for them.
``These houses are cleaner,'' says Rhodes. ``They're not getting wet. All the dust and wood shavings go into the factory, not in the house.''
Each unit begins at three separate stationary stations. Walls are assembled while the floor and roof sections are built. Ceiling hoists put the floor on the assembly line's rolling track where walls and the roof are hoisted into place.
To give the unit additional stability for all the hoisting and moving it will undergo, the factory floor frame is double-beamed. This means that where two units join together, the floor is supported by a sandwich of four 2-by-10s.
Once a floor is framed in, insulation is added. Mesh is used to hold insulation batts between the joists. It's a better way to insulate, says Rhodes, but too expensive to use in the field. Like most contractors, he uses metal ``tiger teeth'' to hold insulation in place.
Carpet and vinyl flooring is usually added at this stage. Because the Shedlocks wanted to use Class Act by Image Carpets, an environmentally-friendly cut pile carpet made from recycled soft drink bottles and not offered by Nationwide, most of their floors were left unfinished.
Floors are covered with two layers of heavy-duty plastic (whether or not carpet and vinyl are installed) to protect them as the house moves down the assembly line.
The walls, roof and floor are all built flat on waist-high work platforms. It's an improvement over working on the ground or up in the air, says Rhodes.
Plywood subfloors and roof sheathing is glued, then nailed to joists following chalked lines. Although Rhodes would like to glue and nail on-site (it cuts down on creaking floors and adds structural strength), few homeowners want to pay the extra $3,000 it costs him to build that way.
Nailing everything to chalk lines is another luxury on-site builders would like to have. The advent of nail guns increased productivity but left operators of the gun unable to tell when nails miss their mark. Chalk lines keep the nails on target but, in most instances, aren't practical on-site.
Factory-built walls are glued and nailed to floor units. Nationwide offers a 2-by-6 wall option at about half the cost of the on-site upgrade. Where units join, walls are double.
For houses with factory floor coverings, wall frames are set on top of the carpet or vinyl. It doesn't hurt the stability of the wall, says James Hyler, the company's quality control manager. But it does mean that floor coverings have to be cut out to be replaced.
The most obvious difference between a Nationwide house and a stick-built house is the roof.
Nationwide builds its roofs and gable ends in hinged sections attached to the unit. They ship flat and flush with sides to reduce wind drag and fit under low bridges.
Calling this slick engineering trick a ``pop-up roof'' conveys the gist of how the roof works but may make the roof sound unsubstantial. It's not.
Once on-site, a crane lifts each hinged roof piece, unfolding it into place. Bolts on joists forming each hinged joint are tightened to make the roof ``permanent,'' explains Rhodes, and ``it's one of the things that makes the factory roof stronger.''
Another strong point, in Rhodes' opinion, is the way dry wall is attached to Nationwide's roofs.
Like floor coverings, dry wall comes earlier on the assembly line than it would on site. For the roof sections, ceiling dry wall goes on before the roof is attached to the walls. No nails are used. The dry wall is sealed to rafter joists with sprayed polyurethane foam that expands into every crack forming a tight bond.
``No nail pops,'' says Rhodes. Those are words any builder and every homeowner like to hear. MEMO: Send comments and questions to Chris Kidder at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head,
N.C. 27959. This column is the second in a series of eight. Next week,
we'll look at what the building contractor was doing on site while the
house was finished at the factory.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by CHRIS KIDDER
Factory-built roofs with knee wall supports and gable ends are
hinged to ship flat at the Nationwide plant. Most homes are built in
three units or less; the Shedlock's required four.
GLOSSARY
Modular house: A dwelling built in three-dimensional sections at
a factory to state building code standards, usually on a
conventional substructure. Taxed and titled as real estate.
Manufactured house: A dwelling built on a steel chassis with
wheels to HUD, not state, building code standards. Generally taxed
and titled as personal property.
Stick-built house: A dwelling assembled on site from the
foundation up, although it may contain prefabricated materials like
roof trusses or framed-in doors. Also called site-built.
by CNB