Modular homes?

[EdL]

The modular/manufactured home market is price point driven like no other......

One friend has a "cheap" one, doors are non-standard, cheap windows, no drywall, patterened paneling, the trailer it came on is still under it.

Friend #2's uses standard doors & windows, painted drywall. Showed up on special trailers, set the halves with a crane. Other than the simple design, you would think it was stickbuilt.

Ed

[K. L. McReynolds]

Several options. Factory stick built comes in a couple of options. Wall sections delivered and installed jig saw puzzle style(numbered and with the plan), conventional roof trusses/sheathing/shingles or (in the MidWest) the home stick built(less roof peak to clear overpasses), trailered to the site and installed on foundation studs. I've done both types and they are essentially no different than conventional stick built , just faster. My brother had a 83 foot long, 28 foot wide house built in a Kansas factory and set on his foundation. 2x4 walls plywood sub floors, all windows/doors installed---a complete house except finished flooring. Took them 3 days to set, finish the roof, and hook up all the utilities/drains. All he had to do was have flooring installed and build  the front/back porch.

I did the work on a house from the same factory which came in two halves. 2x6 wall studs, 12/12 pitch roof, stone fireplace finished kitchen. The owner hired me to install her doors, the baseboards(after the flooring was installed) and strap the house to the foundation.

CIF, concrete insulated forms. Great for energy conservation as there is hard foam on the exterior and interior and concrete walls. Also faster than stick built. Did a couple of those, easily a DIY project to install the blocks, then have the concrete poured.

SIP, Structural insulated panels. Hard foam and OSB sandwich sections, used for walls and roof.

Those three systems can be designed to make all kinds of shapes/types of houses from Victorian to post modern.

Do a bunch of research on all those(and other newer systems) a they all have good points and less desirable side effects, like hanging pictures/shelving from walls being difficult on CIF houses.

[Cooler]

When Levittown was being built by Levitt & Sons, they would approach all the manufacturers and ask what they had excess stock on and they would buy that at a deep discount.  

So they might get 300 sheets of a wall panel, and the next 30 homes would have that applied to a room's wall.  Or they would get 100 blue wall mounted sinks and the next 50 homes would have blue sinks.  

But these were not necessarily inferior products.  

Levitt did not hire electricians to do the electrical work.  So they needed a licensed electrician to "sign off" on the work that was performed.  For that reason no insulation was put around the wall outlets so that the electrician could see that the work was done to code.  In the winter it felt like a breeze was coming out of those outlets.

Original Levitt homes:

[overland]

There are an increasing number of modular houses in the Chicago area. A few years ago the Museum of Science and Industry even featured one as an exhibit. I quite like them.  Some are very striking, especially if you like contemporary architecture with geometric shapes and simple lines, as I do. These are not trailers like the manufactured housing in the park where my parents spend the winter in Naples.  I imagine there is a wide range of quality, however, from cheap to very expensive. Probably a decent one that is energy efficient and uses high quality materials will cost as much or more than a stick-built home. In any case, if quality modular homes are available in Chicago, I have no doubt they are available in the Pacific Northwest.  I say go for it.

[Aram]

Several options.
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Thank you. Very helpful.

[Cooler]

Sears used to sell kit homes, with all the components ready to assemble.  I wonder why that business model failed.

[JosephP]

My objection is my objection.  It has merit to me.

But I do agree that there is nothing inherent to modular homes that would make it more needy of being integrated with the landscape.  But once having seen it done, (as in Falling Water) the other option seems like weak tea:  Not very tasty.

Here is one that is nicely integrated:



This one is obviously not a modular home but it fits the landscape:

The landscape was changed to fit the home at least as much as (if not more than) the home was made to fit the landscape in 2 of these...

[Cooler]

The landscape was changed to fit the home at least as much as (if not more than) the home was made to fit the landscape in 2 of these...

So you think that the homes were designed first and then a location was sought out that could accommodate the design?

I think that the location was found and then the architect designed a building to suit the environment he was offered.  I can't prove it but I cannot imagine another location that would work as well for these buildings as the once where they are placed.

[Lynden]

Sears used to sell kit homes, with all the components ready to assemble.  I wonder why that business model failed.

Sears had financial problems during the Depression years and stopped selling homes in 1942.

Many companies still sell kit homes. Sears sold a total of 70,000 homes. Lindal Cedar Homes, which I mentioned earlier, has sold more than 50,000 kit homes since they began business in 1945.

https://lindal.com/your-process/#fndtn-tab-3

[Cooler]

Sears had financial problems during the Depression years and stopped selling homes in 1942.

Many companies still sell kit homes. Sears sold a total of 70,000 homes. Lindal Cedar Homes, which I mentioned earlier, has sold more than 50,000 kit homes since they began business in 1945.

https://lindal.com/your-process/#fndtn-tab-3

Doesn't Lindal work through dealers that do the assembly and installation?

I understand that they pre-cut all the pieces though.  It is not clear to me if Sears' homes had all the pieces cut to size or if they simply supplied all the studs and components and you had to do the final cutting yourself.