| Why
Buy A Modular Home
History
Industrialized, factory built homes are not a
recent phenomenon. They have been built in this
country for many years—in fact, since the
1890's. Americans began buying industrialized
housing out of mail-order catalogues as soon as
they could ship the materials cross-country by
railroad. Sears took advantage of this and sold
about 100,000 mail-order homes from 1908 to 1940.
The use of production line techniques again picked
up after World War II and made a sizable contribution
to reducing the housing shortage that developed
after the war.
The distinction between prefabricated homes and
"stick built" homes is not as clear-cut
today as is sometimes believed. Fewer than 12%
of all new homes being built today technically
qualify as "stick built" homes. It is
just too expensive to stick build the old-fashioned
way, and construction usually takes too long.
Almost every house today uses mass-produced, factory
built components. For example, nearly all homes—stick
built as well as modular—use pre-hung windows
and doors, roof trusses, floor joists, baseboard
trim, sheetrock, and kitchen and bath cabinets
made in factories. More and more aspects of home
construction are being completed in factories
because the factory environment helps to organize
the construction process. By using construction
process. By using automatic assembly equipment
and repetitive assembly-line techniques, factories
assemble component parts more quickly and with
greater consistency in product quality. This is
true whether the components are assembled to make
a window or an entire house.
Actually, many historians argue that the organization
of today's stick built construction resembles
that of an assembly line. It is certainly true
that very few stick builders use the hand tools,
which defined the craftsman carpenter of 75 years
ago, since power tools greatly increase efficiency.
It is also true that few contemporary builders
have developed the craftsman's skills, since such
skills are not needed to install the factory built
components. On the other hand, all modular homes
are actually built by hand, as well as by machine.
The personnel who build modular homes are trained
to do very specific tasks. Although these men
and women are not experts in all aspects of home
construction, they are specialists who have acquired
a high degree of skill to carry out their task.
The use of modern technology and factory production
systems is only part of the story at a modular
factory, since all modular homes still require
the hands-on effort of experienced carpenters,
electricians, roofers, and plumbers who take pride
in their work.
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Quality
Champion System Built Homes
offer better quality for less money. The structural
integrity of a Champion System Built
home is its main claim to superior
quality. Here are some of the factors that produce
superior quality:
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Better Equipment:
By design, Champion System Built
factories are able to use larger, more powerful,
and more sophisticated equipment. Because all
main components are assembled with jigs, precision
control is ensured. This means that every home
is built exactly as it was designed. In stick
building, the carpenters often have to use "creative"
techniques to make things fit because measurements
are seldom exact.
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Climate
Control: Building in a modern modular
home factory means building under climate-controlled
conditions. This enables Champion
System Built Homes to eliminate
two problems, which plague stick builders. First,
it allows them to avoid weather-related defects:
moisture saturation by the lumber, drywall and
insulation; warping of walls and doors; freezing
and cracking of brittle materials; and other ravages
of the elements. Secondly, a factory environment
enables Champion System Built
companies to avoid weather-related delays that
prevent the Customer from keeping his or her move-in
date on schedule.
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Materials:
Only the highest quality, kiln dried lumber is
used, because warped, badly knotted or splintered
pieces would compromise the integrity. This means
that better materials, applied with tighter specifications,
go into Champion System Built Homes.
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Better
Construction: Because Champion
System Built Homes have to be shipped
over the road, they are built stronger than more
conventionally built homes. Major components,
such as walls, floors, and ceilings, are not only
nailed together, as in stick built homes, they
are also bonded with a special adhesive. This
double fastening enables modular homes to be sturdy
enough to withstand miles of travel, something
no stick built house could survive without serious
structural damage. Another advantage of using
adhesive to secure walls and ceilings is that
they are less likely to be plagued by annoying
nail pops.
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Tighter
Construction: The tighter construction
of Champion System Built Homes
greatly improves their energy efficiency. For
example, caulking around electrical fixtures and
caulking along exterior sheathing seams helps
to eliminate infiltration of cold air in the winter
and hot air in the summer.
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Quality
Control: Superior quality in Champion
System Built construction is first
ensured by the manufacturer's compliance with
national, state, and local building codes. To
verify this compliance, each building plan is
inspected by a state-approved third party inspection
agency, which certifies that the house will meet
the most stringent state construction standards.
Stick built plans rarely receive this much expert
review.
Once construction begins, Champion
System Built Homes are subjected
to far more inspections than stick built homes.
At each stage—from framing to finishing—there
are quality control stations set up to monitor
the quality of the workmanship. A full-time, seasoned
quality control inspector travels from station
to station with extensive checklists of performance
standards. In addition, a specially trained inspector
form the state-approved third party inspection
agency inspects every home as it moves down the
line. The additional costs incurred by this system
are more than compensated for by the reduction
in service work in the field.
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Time
Typically, Champion System Built homes
are delivered to the site in 8 to 10 weeks, and
they are ready to "move into" in another
2 to 4 weeks, depending on the size of the home
and amount of required on-site finish. This means
that the Customer can usually move into his or
her home in about 3 to 4 months. Today, it is
fairly common for an anxious buyer to wait 6 months
to a year for a stick built house. Even the most
efficient stick builder is significantly limited
by a 3 to 5 man crew, which must travel from job
to job, rather than the modular manufacturer's
150-man crew, which always works at the same location.
Furthermore, delays due to material backorders,
no-show subcontractors, poor weather, etc. make
it hard even for the most conscientious stick
builder to keep the Customer on schedule. This
often presents a serious problem, especially to
a buyer who has already sold his or her old house
and is pressured for early occupancy by the new
buyers. Absorbing the costs of a motel or a rental
property or coping with the stress of a few months
in a relative's home is something most people
prefer to avoid.
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Cost
The purchase price of a Champion System
Built home is less than that of
a conventionally built home because the factory
is able to reduce its costs. The savings come
from volume purchases of materials directly from
the manufacturer (eliminating middleman markups),
lower assembly line wages, and a reduction in
lost and damaged materials caused by on-site weather
conditions, pilferage, and vandalism. Imagine
what an automobile would cost if it were built
from scratch in a mechanic's garage. The only
way a stick builder can match the cost of a modular
home is by building with less expensive, inferior
materials, by employing unskilled labor, or by
paying for fewer man-hours. This of course results
in poorer construction, craftsmanship, and service.
In addition, with less labor required at the
job site, overall construction time for a modular
home is far shorter. This not only reduces on-site
construction costs, it also reduces the number
of days the Customer must pay interest on his
or her construction loan.
The costs are not only lower with Champion
System Built homes, they are also
known in advance of construction. The Champion
System Built manufacturer can offer
prices that will not fluctuate. Most Champion
System Built homes are 90% complete
when they are shipped from the factory to the
building site. The Customer knows the exact cost
for the modular unit in advance--even when the
home is customized. In fact, the price is guaranteed,
regardless of cost increases to the factory for
materials and labor. Consequently, there is less
possibility of significantly miscalculating costs,
which means there is less chance of unaffordable
cost overruns.
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Summary
Modular construction has become the construction
method of choice for the quality conscious and
cost conscious house buyer. Champion
System Built Homes are not just
as good as the vast majority of stick built homes;
they are better built. The advantages are many,
from better materials, to state-of-the-art construction
technology, to superior finished quality, to saved
time and money. And the Customer gains all of
these things without sacrificing amenities.
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