One guy experience living in prefabricated wooden modular house

We have a 40 year old wooden prefabricated modular Swiss house and we find it is today, still very good quality.

I lived in a prefabricated wooden odular house for 15 years. I loved it, the only reason why we sold it is that we wanted something bigger. It is not a mobile home!!! It is just built in a factory and delivered in pieces to your property. I do not remember the company who built my house. But we never had any problems with it.

Aren’t most cookie-cutter homes in modern subdivisions prefabricated modular homes? That’s what we live in right now and the wife is happy with it. Not too big and not too small. Just right for a family of 4.

Quality – thousands of inspections throughout the modular build

I live in a prefabricated wooden modular home. Have for about 14 years. I’m also a contractor. You can get a Modular home for about 60% of a stick built home. Both homes will meet or exceed building code. As far as Hud standards. I’ve seen a house meet Hud standards and it had a single panel outlet in a double panel hole in the kitchen wall. The difference between a mobile double wide and a modular is that mobile double wide does not have to meet UBC. The prefabricated modular does. My prefabricated modular home is 1600 sq ft, has 2×6 outer walls, R-19 insulation, everything. If you take a modular and put it onto a foundation and strap it down, it will withstand all the wind loads, and snow loads that a stick built house will handle. The biggest thing is, have you ever seen a team of QA inspectors on a site built, stick built lot holding inspections periodically all day long? Neither have I. Building inspector inspects, foundation preparation, foundation, framing, electricity/plumbing, and finish on a stick built. A modular, has thousands of point inspections throughout the build.

I just had a custom prefabricated wooden modular house built and set on 4 acres in St. Clair County over this last summer. The buying land for new construction thread was by me.

The price per square foot argument is moot when building IMO. You can’t compare the cost per sq. ft. of building a new home to what’s currently on the market. A significant portion of your cost is going to go into site work for new construction so comparing cost per sq. ft. is kind of silly and misleading. Better to just set an initial budget and stick tight to it and forget about cost per sq. ft. IMO. And there are pros and cons to stick built on site vs true prefabricated modular house. I’ve seen stick built homes around here that have sat with unfinished exteriors, no windows, etc. for almost 3 years. Can’t imagine there is a plumb surface in that home after being exposed to that much weather.

A TRUE prefabricated modular house is simply stick-built in a climate-controlled warehouse versus site-built. There should be little if any difference otherwise.

I have heard good things about General Housing. My in-laws have a prefabricated modular home in Lewiston from them, though can’t remember the name of the builder up that way who set the house.

I am very happy with the quality of my prefabricated  modular house so far. We are getting some drywall cracking but the drywall guy is on top of it. Seems since the dry winter air set in the cracks really started to show up. Not the end of the world, just annoying. Our master bath in particular seems to be the biggest offender. I’m sure it has something to do with moisture from the shower.

 

Refabricated modular homes survive hurricanes

I would check on the manufacture and the codes applied in your area. My experience with prefabricated modular homes was in coastal NC in which they had to pass 100 mph wind codes or better and while I was there they got tested living in hurricane Alley as we called it (Wilmington area) and stood up with no structural damage. I will agree that most didn’t have the best of everything but their still there the last I checked. I can truthfully say that prefabricated modular houses were built better than anything I’ve seen stick built in the area that I now live in. So do the research.
I spent 20 years as a carpenter building to coastal codes in that area and they do in-force them.

Same problems as with any other type of house

We are the second owners of a 1991 prefabricated modular house (not a doublewide) and unless you knew what to look for you’d never know. On average we don’t have any more or less problems that a comparable cost stick-built house. We did have problems with the Peachtree Windows and our inspector had seen the same problems in a few other houses both prefabricated modular and non-modular. We had typical builder grade cabinets identical to a couple other houses we looked at. There’s some odd construction in the attic due to the roof being lifted after arrival on site and we don’t have the typical beam hanging down in the basement. Our prefabricated modular house sits on a full poured basement. This house had the nicest trim and interior doors of any house we looked at. It’s the way houses are built today unless you go really, really custom.

We had four prefabricated modular houses on this farm. They are all different, two were junk, two were ok. I’ve never bought one, but there is an obvious difference between these, and I suspect you get what you pay for. I personally would discount a property if it was prefabricated modular house. That all being said, one of my coworkers just bought a new one, it’s going on the basement this weekend, and it’s better than the old stuff. I think the junk manufacturers are getting thinned out by the economy.

They are not all built the same

I bought a custom built prefabricated modular home in 1977 in Bend, Ore. It had normal windows etc. I sold it 20 months later and visited it several time since then as it was our first home. It’s held up well and the quality was better than most stick built homes.

They are not all built the same. I used to work for two builders that would put a few up now and then. One was very good construction with better than the average cabinets and appliances. The other was not as good with cheaper cabinets, appliances and rugs. I lived in on for around 20 years. The only thing I found in mine was the floor joists should have been 2×10 instead of 2×8 which gave the floor a little bounce in places. Other than that it was OK. I did make new cabinets and put wood flooring down after a while. Prefabricated modular houses are not all built the same. As far as plastic plumbing and if it’s Pex tubing their talking about Pex is the new copper pipe. Much easier to use than running copper pipe.

My current home is a custom build wooden prefabricated modular house. I believe it is very well built, but nothing is perfect. The builder was really quite picky and expected a lot from his workers and subs. I’m starting to question why I want to leave this house because I can’t afford to build again and nothing in my new price range will be nearly as nice. It is really way too big for one person and I would like to reduce my housing costs.

The building process is so quick

I have a prefabricated modular home, its a two story full dormered cape. It’s actually hybrid, the bottom floor was completely finished while the second floor was panellised walls with a stick built roof. The main floor modules were very rugged, the sheetrock in the ceiling is actually glued on with foam. Compared to site built they can be built to tighter tolerances but they also can be subject to shortcuts. Even though drywall screws were standard when mine was built, they used drywall nails in places and I have some nail pops. The electrical and plumbing was also first rate. With mine, the entire electrical panel came connected with a big coil of cables so once the house was in place the main panel was attached to the wall and once I made the main utility hookup I had power.

Some tradeoffs inherent with the prefabricated modular house is the wall between the sections is going to be thick. Any doors through the sections will have extra wide door casings. The two sections move independently. I have had an ongoing battle with cracks in ceiling sheetrock that bridges the two sections. This prefabricated modular house was delivered with 2 foot wide strip of unfinished wall and ceiling so that a 2′ wide piece of sheetrock could be put in place. I have found that it looks good for about a year and then the joints crack. I ended up gutting the wall and spanning the joint with 12 foot sheets and its holding up well but with regards to the ceiling I wish I had just put in fake beam. I am considering having a new ceiling place over the old one to fix it for good.

The big plus is the day this prefabricated modular house is put in place it was generally weather tight with doors that could be locked. I bought mine years ago during a housing boom and it got delivered quite late in the season, actually it was put in place the day after Thanksgiving. The broker made it weathertight and I was living in it in about two weeks as I did all the plumbing, heating and sewer hookups on nights and weekends..

There are all different sorts of quality out there and the only way to figure it out is to inspect several different companies. I also specified and approved known brand windows and doors and required 100% cedar siding. I didn’t spec electrical fixtures and they were contractor grade, look good but not great quality. I would do it again.

We live in a prefabricated modular home which we bought in southern Missouri about 15 years ago. We toured the factory and were impressed with what we saw. 2 x 6 studs, 3/4 inch wallboard, six inches of insulation, 10/12 roof. We ordered our prefabricated modular house in October and were in it in early December. We would have had it sooner but the entire factory closed for all of deer season. We bought upgraded windows, extra insulation, and installed our own HVAC. People never think it is modular. We thought it was pretty smart that the home was built inside, trusses, etc. never exposed to rain, or any weather.

Would definitely buy another in case of relocation

We are living in a prefabricated modular house and would buy another if we ever needed to relocate.Ours was erected 30 years ago, on a 4 acre lot. We bought it 15 years ago – we are the third owners. It is 28×56, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, extremely energy efficient, and the taxes keep going down! Even as the tax rate in our county increased, the value of our home relative to rest of the housing stock has decreased.

We installed a lifetime guaranteed steel roof a few years ago, and we continue to customize the interior, and to improve our acreage.
We have no illusions that our prefabricated modular home will appreciate more than inflation, but it will always be worth a little more than we paid for it.

We measure its value by our delight in living here, its extreme efficiency, and its perfect location for us. We highly recommend a prefabricated modular houses for their energy efficiency, weather integrity, and insurance rating.

Scared stories about modular homes

We bought a prefabricated modular house two years ago and put on foundation. The main problem we have had is the person in charge of installing water fixtures did not tighten them enough. Got some water damage in one of the bathrooms under tub before I became aware it was leaking. Luckily floor is 3/4 inch 50 year ply wood. I was scared of the prefabricated modular house in exact same design after reading horror stories of bowing after several years. The manufactured homes have steels beam supporting whole house.

Quality was stunning

The house I just bought is a prefabricated wooden modular. I am so totally head-over-heels about this house. It is awesome. I can’t wait to move into it. Hopefully it will only be 2 or 3 more weeks.I did research on prefabricated modular homes and decided it was the best way to go for me. You should see how well built it is!! I am thrilled and would recommend a prefabricated modular home any day.

Just had a prefabricated wooden modular house built. It is a 100% custom design. We didn’t make changes to an existing design we started from scratch. So you can do pretty much anything you want. We really like the result but be aware that prefabricated modular homes aren’t completely free of the typical delays in construction.

I have a prefabricated wooden modular home, it’s value is no different than a stick home. I live in a suburb. While there are limits and issues with prefabricated modular houses, they are very comparable to stick built. Take a look at what’s out there for modular builders, go see their homes, price them vs stick and make your decision.

We own a prefabricated wooden modular house and it’s amazing! It’s 4300 sq ft. I’d never heard of a modular so large. When we were purchasing it (2 years ago foreclosure, didn’t build it) the inspector said it was perfect, as all pieced-together type modular houses he inspects. He says they are built better. The framing has to withstand being shipped, then hoisted with a crane, so more is built with 2x6s instead of 2x4s. They’re usually all built to the most strict building standards so they can be put up in any state’s county (hurricane or tornado quality). The factory employs better workers and each stage of the build is closely overseen. Unlike on-site builders that often employ or subcontract to the cheapest worker or bid. He says even the materials are better quality because they are housed indoors before being used, whereas on-site built materials are exposed to or stored out in the elements.

Some things I would do different

I put up a prefabricated modular house almost 17 years ago. As far as quality of the structure it is excellent, 2×6 walls, 2×12 floor joists, 3/4 osb floor, copper water lines, wired heavy enough and enough breakers. Things I would do different: drywall taping and mudding done after house is set, flooring installed after drywall is complete. The houses ship with most of the drywall, trim work and flooring done. Drywall cracks occur when the house is transported. The finish crew is trying to repair drywall next to trim and with flooring already installed, not a great combination. There is plastic down over the carpet and cardboard over any solid flooring but is still gets dirty or damaged.

Where I live, there are tons of prefabricated modular homes, they are all built on foundations, just like stick built, their construction is the same or better than stick built, I have never had a problem getting a mortgage, refinance or home equity loan or insurance with my modular. No one has even asked if it is a modular.

I’m very happy with my prefabricated wooden modular house, the best selling point to me is that it is done so quickly, instead of waiting the years. It might take to build even though the builder says 6 months. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

We have prefabricated modular and were quite happy. You might know more than l did, but bear in mind that even with the packed house the amount of work still required is quite staggering. The one advantage is that once the prefabricated modular house is up and the roof on the timing is more flexible allowing you to work as and when you can. We were happy with our modular but we only built because the area we wanted to live in had very few houses for sale and those which became available we very very old. If we move we will not build again it is simply too expensive and far too much work.

 

Thank you for reading. Hope it will be useful!