If you are unsure how modular construction differs from other types of construction:

What is modular a modular home?

I will describe what a modular home is in the manner in which my wife and I learned while deciding what type of home to have built. 

We were turned off by what we saw being built in all the new subdivisions in our area - very large, similar looking houses crammed together on tiny lots being sold for about twice what the average American salary can readily afford.  In addition, we did not want to have to spend most of what we earn on a house.  We wanted to continue to put a lot in savings and have some left over for ourselves.  These are the type of things that led us to look at an alternative to the traditional stick built house – modular homes.  (This is not to say that a contractor will not build you a smaller site built home or that you can not spend as much as you want on a very large modular home.) 

The first thing we did was to visit multiple modular home builders.  We found two within a couple of hundred miles from our home in the Midwest.  From this, we learned that a modular house offers variety, customization and is built to meet or exceed your local building code – the same as required for a site built house.  In addition, you can act as your own general contractor or hire one if you do not feel that you have the time or expertise to take on that responsibility.

Next we visited quite a few modular home sales offices.  Many modular home sales offices also sell manufactured homes, or what used to be called trailers.  The manufactured homes of today have come a long way, but are constructed to a different set of building codes than a modular home.  Once again a modular home is built to your local building code, which is most likely the Uniform Building Code (UBC) or the International Building Code (IBC) while manufactured homes are built to the HUD building code.  To make a long story short, modular homes and site built homes are built much stronger and are permanently attached to your foundation.  Since manufactured homes are not permanently attached to your foundation and can be moved, they are considered property and not real estate.

After choosing a builder that we were confident in; we had to choose a floor plan, customize an existing one or create our own unique floor plan.  We chose to go with the mirror image of an existing floor plan.  Had we (by ‘we’, I mean my wife), not found a floor plan that we were happy with, there was the option of customizing or creating our own floor plan and paying the extra engineering costs.  Once the floor plan was chosen, we had to layout where we wanted all of the outlets, cable TV connections, phone jacks, data ports and lights then choose the lighting fixtures, carpets, carpet padding, exterior of house,  pitch of the roof, shingles, paint colors inside and out, the list goes on and on.

After we ordered our house, it was completed at the factory in two weeks.  This is not time to obtain your building permit, choose your contractors, dig the hole and pour your foundation, so the site work had to be planned and in motion prior to this.

When the foundation is ready for the modular home, the home is brought to the building site in sections and pieced together.  Our house is 1680 square feet and came in two sections.  Many modular homes are much larger and come in many more sections.  Our house was set on the foundation by crane and permanently attached to it in one day.  After this, the interior and exterior are completed.  Since most of the construction is complete, this takes approximately a month.  During this time, the utilities need to be hooked up, completion of any remaining excavation, patios, decks, etc.

I acted as the general contractor when having our house built.  I am quite sure we saved money by building in this manner, but it is difficult to say exactly how much or what percent - I would estimate approximately 25%.  Since our lot required extensive excavation, we needed any money saved to use for these additional costs.

To sum up, the main differences and benefits as I see them are:

1. Construction quality and strength of a site built home at a savings

2. Speed of construction over a site built home

3. Fewer subcontractors to deal with (since I was acting as the general contractor)

4. Design flexibility