gophergunner;
Good morning to you from the north side of the medicine line, I hope all is well with you and your family on what will be a clear but cool Remembrance Day up here.
Please understand before I launch into this long answer that I'm coming at this from a Canuck background, so for sure there's local and state building codes which will apply for us that don't for you and vice versa.
My background in this is as follows, for 27 years I worked in a cabinet shop which supplied a couple local modular home plants with kitchen cabinets and cabinet doors. After that, I worked for more than 5 years for a local construction company which did stick framing, pre-built panel construction and for the final 2 years modular home construction.
Oh, as well my late parents lived in a modular home made up the valley, our son in law works for one of the modular home plant I used to supply cabinets to, our daughter works in a plumbing and electrical supply dealership who supply contractors of all types and lastly my good wife has worked for one of the larger local construction companies for more than 30 years.
The advantages of pre-building either a modular or panelized structure in a factory are as follows:
One isn't dependent on weather to keep production going, so everyone from the rough in plumbers to the roofers can go full out regardless of whether it's 105° outside or -25° and snowing.
When one is stick framing, the crew battle the elements enough of the time that it does affect the bottom line of the contractor. We always took weather variables into account when stick framing projects as opposed to showing up with pre-built panels and a crane truck which resulted in a house ready for lockup in 2-3 days.
Typically a factory will have purchasing power that only the largest local contractors will approach, so they'll get volume pricing on everything from light switches to hot water heaters and IF THEY CHOOSE can pass that savings onto the purchaser.
Here in BC, we're required to insulate the floor and seal it, we used a blown in, two part foam type insulation which was put in after the HVac, plumbing and electrical was installed - we built the floor upside down, the insulated it and then flipped it for walls. The entire floor then was sheeted top and bottom of the TGI joists.
We found it easier to get trades, especially younger trades folks, to work inside rather than on site in all conditions. They'd often work for less of an hourly rate because of the working conditions and again IF THEY CHOOSE the manufacturer can pass those savings onto the consumer.
Up here, we're allowed to take the consumer through the factory to view their house on the line too, which is something that I'd ask for up front before putting in a down payment. That way it keeps everybody honest, no?
The cons in my view are mainly that the structure is somewhat limited in options because of the construction method. Better said perhaps if you want a tri-floor with odd angles, lots of dormers and such, then perhaps a stick frame is the way to go.
We did a few triple wides too, they're reasonably common up here and they end up being not too bad of a floor plan - again not as many options as as stick built, but workable for most purposes.
Some factories won't give the buyer a lot of trim package options too, so if you're looking for a steam shower, all oak baseboard and wainscoting, that might mean you're going to have to sub that all out and plan for the electrical and mechanical beforehand to do so.
The overall build quality of a modular should be no different from a stick frame build from what I've seen locally. The same tradesmen will work on both types, that is to say will work for a stick builder for a few years, then go to modular or vice versa.
The inspection of the homes is identical for all intents and purposes - up here.
If the foundation is poured incorrectly and/or out of spec, then it doesn't really matter what type of construction goes onto it, the finishing carpenters and cabinet guys are going to pull the remainder of their respective hair out trying to make it look even half ways decent. Been there, wrote the book and used the tshirt for a crying towel after the fiasco was done.....
Anyway sir, that's all I can conjure up for the first volley on the subject. Hopefully it was useful for you or someone else out there in ether space this morning. Good luck whichever way you decide and all the best to you folks as we head into the cold time of year.
Dwayne
