Custom Capabilities
While factory building 10 or 100 of the same home is far more efficient in terms of cost, time, and materials, most modular companies still are able to build custom homes more efficiently than could be accomplished by building on site.
“As the industry has evolved, the ability to customize and build completely unique floor plans has grown,” says Thayer Long, executive vice president of the Manufactured Housing Institute, parent organization of the National Modular Housing Council. “Our manufacturers are suffering a bit as this housing crisis has come on, and you’ll find that they’re willing to build any home. And they certainly can. Just like site builders, they build at any price point and any level of customization and amenities.”
Haven, for example, has partnered with many custom builders and notable architecture firms over the years to produce award-winning residences and show homes. “We have a very broad custom capability,” Smalley says. “We have demonstrated that if you can build it in lumber, we can build it.”
Meridian, Sandy Spring, and New World Home all have well-thought-out, optimized modular home plan collections, but each also offers custom modular capabilities. Production timelines increase in relation to the amount of customization a client chooses, and a project easily could push past the typical two to three weeks needed to produce a semi-custom home by as much as three to four months, according to Schmetterer. “And it will cost more because you’re consuming more labor and design hours,” he adds.
Learning Curve
Over the past decade, the housing industry has become more open to using new technologies and building systems, but change still happens slowly. Nevertheless, proponents of the systems-built process believe that modular construction is poised for fast growth when the new-home market recovers, and that it will gain greater acceptance within the larger housing industry from production and custom builders alike.
But most builders still don’t understand the potential modular construction holds, Thayer believes. “They may, wrongly, feel threatened by it, but modular manufacturers need builders. That’s who a large part of their customer base is: builders who will use their technologies to build homes,” he says.
Schmetterer and Jupiter see local builders as their company’s partners. “Wherever we build, we hire local builders and contractors to do the finishing work, because they know the codes, the code officials, and the best subcontractors,” Schmetterer notes.
When a modular home arrives on site it’s anywhere from 45 percent to 80 percent complete, depending on the complexity of the design. So after the factory’s set crew cranes the modules into place, the builder’s team still needs to button up the envelope, repair anything damaged during transportation, make plumbing and electrical connections, and do any remaining installations and finish work.
Custom builders may be hesitant to take on a building system that many people associate with cheap mobile homes rather than high-quality construction, and working with the wrong modular manufacturer certainly could be disastrous. But for builders who have already expanded their businesses into different types of services—home energy retrofits, remodeling, home maintenance programs for clients—offering modular construction is just one more form of diversification. Forging partnerships with responsive, design-focused manufacturers, educating your clients, and embracing modular construction as a process—not a product—are keys to success.
More articles about modular and prefab housing from CUSTOM HOME:
Read about the benefits of modular constructionhere
Read more about Sandy Spring Buildershere
Read more about Haven Custom Homeshere
Read about smart, green prefab houseshere
