2009 Modular Home Design Book

Custom Modular Homes are the logical extension of building homes of exceptional quality.

In Connecticut's colonial days it was quite an event to "raise" a home or barn. The neighbors came in and tress were cut and everyone lent a hand to build a structure. This was "sweat equity" at it's best. When your neighbors needed a new home or barn you in turn would help them out in kind. This really was not what we would call green building today but it got the job done.

Over the next two hundred years this type of building was replaced with people that specialized in building homes on site. Neighbors were replaced by subs and the cutting of trees was replaced by lumber yards. Once modular construction came to the market place homes got better and less expensive to build.

  Modular Custom Design

All modular home builders will tell you they have "the best modular home" and obviously want you to buy it based on that claim. Having the best home or modular home is relative to what "best" means. It could be the most affordable home, the best value, the best building time frame or the best home features. Seldom will you find a home that is all of these in one package. The goal is to find the home that fits the term "best" into those categories that are most important to you.

  Modular Home Costs

Building a home in a factory setting certainly took the expensive materials used in a home out of the weather but it also put some tremendous buying power behind those material purchases. This buying power enabled the local builder to offer a far better product with many more features at a cost of less than what he could by trying to build a home piece by piece. Economy of scale became the driver here. A site builder is buying materials for one house so he gets the one house price. A modular manufacture is buying materials for hundreds of homes and obviously gets the hundred home price which gets passed onto the builder and then in turn, onto you, the home owner.

So costs saving for many years has been the reason so many builders have taken their building projects high tech with modular construction. The builders we work with though are not totally driven by a cost savings. These builders are also demand quality.

How about the costs of operating your new home? Visit or energy page at:

www.custommodularbuilders.com

Modular Homes The Basics

The best builders stand behind their work and their product. One superior advantage of modular construction is the dynamics at work when building a home in a factory setting. Just like Toyota and Chrysler have outstanding quality in their products the modular manufactures enjoy this same level of quality control when manufacturing homes. It is far easier to have QA (quality control) inspectors check product on a production line than it is for the builder to visit various sites and see that things are being done right.

In onsite construction the goal of the builder is to get the frame of the house up. Then they want to get a roof on and some sheathing to keep the wind out. Basically they are building from the outside and working their way in. In modular construction we not only control the build process but we control the weather, well at least inside the factory. In modular construction we start with a wall with sheetrock on it. Then we lift that onto a deck or floor system and then the ceiling and roof are applied. At that point there is no "outside" to the home yet. It is all open studs. This is were a big advantage to modular construction comes into play. Having the outside wall open means we can add the wiring, the plumbing and all electrical outlets and then actually caulk each so there are no drafts that sneak in and steal your energy dollars.

Glue. Yes GLUE. When building a home on site builders rely heavily on mechanical fasteners and avoid glue all together. They all know that the glue is a far superior method for connecting the critical items in your home but find it too hard to use. In July they pull the trigger on the glue gun and squirt a stream of it over an expensive cabinet. In January they cannot pull the trigger hard enough to get the glue out of the cartridge. So it basically proves too troublesome to use in spite of the benefits to the quality of the construction. Modular construction provides a climate controlled environment that works well with the use of adhesives. Epoxy foam seal and construction adhesive are used freely to give the product both strength and durability. No squeaky floor, no drafts, no nail pops are all a result of our ability to use construction adhesives on top of our mechanical fastening program.

Energy Saving Homes

All quality builders take special care to build a home with good energy saving features and construction methods. In modular construction we do the same with the big difference being we have more of those energy saving features and methods available to us. On top of that modular buying power at the factory level makes many more products like energy saving light fixtures, bath fans, air exchangers and superior insulation available to our customers with major cost savings.

We encourage you to use the web as a modular home directory to see all that is available in the manufactured home or prefab industry. Nationwide, modular homes are becoming the choice of custom luxury home builders because of the consistent quality, cost savings and time advantage.
 

Modular Homes Building

Modular Home Benefits

Green Building with Modular Homes

Custom Home Design

Modular Home Questions Answered

Modular Home Question? Just ask

Modular Home "How To"

Connecticut Modular Energy Star

Carol Sormrude

Cell 860-303-6442

Office 860-572-9414 Ext 312

Office Address:

Prudential Connecticut Realty

62 Greenmanville Avenue

Mystic, CT 06355

Learn More About the Modular Advantage from BusinessWeek

Before going "green" check out the high performance home features in:

Fine Home Building Magazine-Green Building

Green Energy