Here's some pictures of the dozer we rented to pull the trailers around the jobsite. It's a Komatsu D-41E and it has tons of power. I hardly had to turn up the throttle. It was my first time dealing with a Modular Home, tomorrow it gets set and I'll add pictures of that.
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Looks like a muddy site... but very nice pics! Can't say I've seen it done that way, before, but lots to learn!
We had a modeular house put on a foundation the crain came early set up and then very shortly after the boxes ,The put them on and by 4 pm a house was standing and the trucks and trailers went back. Amazing on how fast they go together.
The mud was terrible on this site, but I was on the dozer so it didn't bother me too much. The crane arived an hour late and we were still done by 3:00. I will probably post some more pictures tomorrow. It was really amazing to see the pieces of the house hovering in the air. Now we have to do some minor work and it will be done.
modular houses are really great as far as having to deal with inspectors really cut's the wait time down beacuse you only really need the finish for all except for the foundation work at the begining.But the the draw back is which house gives ya the best bang for the buck we looked at a bunch and some frankly where cheap moble homes they called houses and some well they really were good but they wanted more than a stick built one.The good thing is they are more beefy for the traveling over the road. and the onlu other cost is the crain and set crew.So as a contractor once you put the order in you have to worrie about: 1. foundation/sill 2. electrical/plumbing/and finsihed trim. 3.siding/steps/decks I think once you get a rythem going it goes quite quick. you can get every option that a stick built includes even plaster but that will have to be done on site and then your responsable for doing everything including hanging the cabinets . What co. is that house? We used customized structures up here . but i guess it all depends on where you are to get what co is near you.
a friend had a cape cod modular put up...took about 10 hrs...i think he got a set price of $2500 for the crane/riggers. took awhile to layout the heavy blocking & setting up. it was a muddy area too & it was up on top of a hill. he had a problem with the house...the plastic covering had leaked and they had to tear out all kitchen cabinets & drywall in that area...a major delay in getting it done. I was surprised to see how fast the mold grew. Luckily, we have a friend in the area that has a disaster restoration business, and he got everything else dried out.
We used Simplex Homes out of Pennsylvania. The only real complaint with them is that we were scheduled for delivery in November and it got pushed back to now. For the crane we used Royal Crane and I would NOT recommend them at all. They were more expensive than others, but were the only ones that could fit us in. The operator was good with the crane, but he claimed it took him 2 hours to make a trip that is normally 1 hour and we got stuck with an overtime charge. I don't know who the set crew was, because my dad lined them up, but they were great. Here's some more pictures.
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Last ones. The was an error with the middle set of pictures, it said "upload in progress" so they may or may not show up.
Here's the pictures that didn't load before.
I got a funny story about the set crew we had.Being the general on the job you have to get the foundation and things ready for the house including the sill on the foundation and make sure it's level,well we did all that put the sill on level all that. The house sections come set crew there way before and crain there way before. all set just waiting for the house to come.They put the front box 1st floor then get the rear box 1st floor on there's a gap in the rear corrner about 5/8 " so they say hey it's not level it's up to you meaing me to fill it so I say ok get a piece of wood fill it , so ok done everything running smooth again they put the front box 2nd floor then go to put the rear 2nd floor on can't get it to line up and close and guess by how much. so since they open there mouth and sais it was our responsablity they now had to go and jack up that corner and get it out so they could finish. All could of been avoided if they said hey we will take care of everything if it needs a shim for what ever reason we will do it. so since they said it's not our problem it became there problem in the end. lol
My home is a modular we set in 1990 by Avis homes from Avis, Pa. In that time period around here, homes were being built at an extremely fast pace. The quality in stick built homes became quite poor as framing crews were under great pressure to get a home finished so they could move to the next. I decided to buy a modular as they are built in a controlled climate with everything jigged. All joints are both glued and screwed making a very sturdy home. I'm pretty pleased with it overall, but if I had my preference, I'd like a stick built by a skilled crew with no time pressures. One problem I've had is with the roof. The shingles were stapled on rather than nailed and the staples popped up through the shingles. After 15 years of chasing leaks, I had the roof replaced recently. The leaks had become too many and too often. My house is 4 pieces too, and one piece was 2" longer than the rest. This required almost a week's worth of shimming and sheet rocking to make it look right. The company gave me a little compensation for it, but it wasn't what the job was worth. Royal Crane is one of the more expensive crane services in the area, but they have modern equipment and run a tight schedule. That's what you are paying for.
This company www.britco.com have been building modular buildings for years you go through their site you can find pictures of the modular buildings they have build. When you buy modular homes they are built a little better because they have to be built to survive the travel to the site. They are also built in a controlled enviroment not like a conventional built house where the framing is getting water logged from the rain. Alot of people here are buying double wide modular homes they are definatly not like the old mobile homes use to be. To build a house here your looking at 200 dollars a square foot the cheapest is 150 dollars a square foot.
I hear guys talk about this, but aren't all of the materials still stored outside, like at a lumberyard? I can't imagine that the materials never see the weather between the time they leave the mill/distribution center to the time they are delivered to the mod co. Most of the material around here arrives by rail, some by truck. My point is that even though the house is being built in a warehouse, where you may not lose a few days during construction due to rain/snow, the materials they use are still stored outside, which is not a controlled environment. Thus they are still out in the elements. Am I wrong?
When you have a manufactured home its built in a heated shop and when you have wood stored outside only the outside lumber in the pile is got the highest moisture content. When you have a conventional stick framed house the framing is exposed to the weather for a week a couple weeks to a month depending on the progress. A manufactured home the framing isn't exposed to the weather. Here on the West Coast it rains allot it can rain for a couple weeks without letting up.
The point is the work crew is in a comfortable climate controlled environment, and the framing is jigged, all of which should encourage better accuracy in construction.
I have to agree with Steve about the workers work better if they are working in a better enviroment. Its not nice working outside in the pouring rain like we have here on the West Coast and the bitter cold on the East Coast. Framed walls built on a large framing table will be far more acurate than building walls on the first deck of the house and tilting them up.
I have to agree quality is definatly better with a controled enviorment and the jigs that help fram the walls and ceilings.
we did a mod house on my friends place in nj all i can say is what a pain it was most of the problem was with the set crew but it happens :bash
I'm sorry to hear that. Our set crew was great, but I can see how they could make for a bad experience if they weren't good.
Our crew was good but had a little chip on there sholders. but i knock that off quick enough lol .
the finish crew sucked worse then the set crew they wanted to get the upgraded cedar shake look sideing so that was put on at the site and all the windows were put in on site what a mess and now that the sideing was put on it is now blowing off wow what fun :beatsme
This thread reminded me during my son's football season there was one of these being built on the way to the fields. One day all of these trailers started getting parked on a small corner lot barely cleared. Then each week I'd notice a few more of them crammed into the lot or piled up. Then finally one week I saw what looked like some excavation finally going on. Looked like a real mess of a way to try to work with all of the modular pieces in the way all over the site & certainly didn't make sense to me. I forgot to see if they ever got anywhere with it until reading this thread, & lucky for me basketball season started this past saturday at the same school. I finally got to count all the pieces as it was too hard to do before with the trees & piles of dirt all over the place, and it usually being dark when I passed They aren't done everything but it seems this thing has a 3 car garage & is 2 full stories with the middle row of the 3rd floor at least. So final tally is at least 18 trailers - 3 across, 3 long for 2 stories. I'll take a closer look at the 3rd floor this saturday to see how that was done & how many of them are up there. I'd never seen one of these made so big before,usually see 4 or 8 of them put together around here.
They can make mantions out of these boxes it's hard to belive it they just configure them in different ways if they are over 14" wide i think .
that's so friggin awesome. do you have a picture or 2 of it when it's done? i'd love to see. that's amazing stuff.
also, what's the advantage to a modular home compared to a regular-built home?
they go up real fast
For the one we put up time and having to deal with alot of inspections plus everything is built under the roof of a factory so nothing open to the weather. The wall and floors and even ceilings are built stronger to be able to travel down the road only draw back higher stairways and matting walls are thicker.
Here's a few that I have of the finished house. I'm just realizing now that I don't have any good updated ones with the lawn and everything, I'll have to get some.
Man, it must be alot of fun installing those. It looks like a good system, too.