Take a drive in a neighborhood of any city and you’re bound to see a house being constructed. In contrast with a site-built house is the magic of a modular home. One day there’s an empty site that's been prepped, and the next day there’s a fully built house on the lot. We got to take a tour of a factory where a modular home is being made.
We first fell in love with ma modular’s work with their first project, the Luna House, which features two modules and a connector unit to create a fabulous home. We got the chance to tour the latest to come out of KRDB's modular home company with the Ford House at ma modular's partner manufacturing plant, Palm Harbor-Discovery. The Ford House is owned by Joe Etherton and Karen Cotter of Austin and, after completion, will live on a lovely lot in Central Austin.
The benefits of this new ma modular home are the same as many modular homes: site-built homes are built from the outside first, and then all the interior work is done in order to protect the inside of the home from the elements, but ma modular homes are built indoors and can be built in a more streamlined and cost-effective fashion. Factory built modular homes also produce much less waste. According to ma modular, homes in factories produce on average one dumpster of trash/scrap for every three houses versus on-site construction which can produce several dumpsters of trash for one house. Shorter build times also equal less resource usage and expense.
For more information on ma modular's prices, building processes, system, modules and more, check out their website.
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Roll it: Topsy Turvy Modular Housing
Clayton Homes i-house: Green Prefab Under $100,000
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Most of the modular homes we see are in poor neighborhoods with horrible design that looks boxy, windowless, and have numerous issues that pop up after bad weather. I hate them with a passion and wish they would disappear except for the fact that it's the best option for low-income families and much better than trailers.
Ma Modular and Clayton pre-fabs are obviously in a different class while still being relatively inexpensive. I hope this trend continues and we see this level of quality extend down to make good design affordable to the masses, especially in this economy.
It's ironic that so many americans look down on modular houses, as they are built the same, cheap way as most american houses -- wood frames, cardboard sheetrock walls, vinyl siding -- but it is done in climate controlled conditions and often with better equipment than on-site construction.
This is a great post - I like seeing AT going down this road...
...there are a great many quality, modern modular home designers/manufactuers out there - Although it hasn't been updated in a while, I'd check out: http://www.fabprefab.com/fabfiles/fablisthome.htm
Of course with the recession, many of these companies are struggling if they're not out of business/changed ownership (Such as Michelle Kaufman Designs) - and with so many empty/foreclosed houses currently out there, it seems rather silly to build from scratch rather than adapt what already exists for use.
My husband and I broke ground on a new home in July 2009.
We originally planned to buy a modular home but found the company we chose was very rigid about changes. Their sales pitch makes it sound like you can have "whatever you want". In fact, the choices are narrow.
In general we found the entire building industry very conservative. We had trouble finding a contractor who'd handle a modular home. And the modular builder refused to look into alternatives like spray-foam insulation.
I don't think this industry is mature yet, and they turned out not to be right for us.
I agree with Bepsf and mdorothy. I really, really wanted a modern prefab but the price was twice what I paid for my 50s ranch and that didn't include city fees and land costs even in my totally budget friendly neighborhood. I hope the industry can resolve its issues so that maybe my next house will be a prefab.
illegal danish and some others here need to educate themselves on modular homes and manufactured homes. Mfg homes have a steel frame like a single or double wide trailer whereas modular homes are built just like site built with any style you want. One company is r-anell homes, take a quick look. Clayton homes also has a green home called the i house just go to www.clayton.com to see the i house. heres the mod house site http://www.r-anell.net/main.cfm
I know that there are a lot of cookie cutter houses out there but not all