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Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
May 19 - May 25, 2005 Edition
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Modular
homes shake off stigma, gain popularity The Martha's Vineyard Times May 19, 2005 By Ezra Blair
A look at building projects across the Island shows modular homes going up from bustling Oak Bluffs to sparsely populated Chilmark, where dwellings are typically more expensive and often labeled “trophy houses.” Some of the newest prefab projects are simple, modest designs, but others are sprawling homes on some of the Island’s most coveted real estate. Modular houses are assembled from a collection of boxes, or modules, each constructed off-site at a factory and then transported to the building lot and fastened together into a finished home. All of the materials — from the framing, roofing, and plumbing to the electrical work, cabinetry and finish details— are complete when the modules arrive at the building site. The work required includes attaching the modules and sealing them together. Tisbury Towing and Transportation brings modules to the Island via barge. An employee with the hauling company said that the number of homes coming to the Island has doubled in the last 10 years. He said that in the 1990s, the company brought a house to the Island about once every other week. Today they are hauling at least one house a week. Ken Barwick, Tisbury building inspector, confirms that the pace of modular installations has increased. “They’re popping up more, that’s for sure,” he said. “I don’t know exactly how many, but I can say that generally speaking I see more and more of them being brought to the Island.” Lenny Jason, Edgartown and Chilmark building inspector, and acting Oak Bluffs building inspector, said he has also seen more modular homes coming to the Island. “There are more of both traditional and modular homes, but modular does seem to be increasing in popularity,” he said. So why are a growing number of people buying homes that come off an assembly line? Modular home builders on the Island said that prefab homes generally cost less than traditional “stick-built” houses, they take less time to complete, and they are pre-constructed in a predictable and controlled environment. The most house for your buck Bill Macomber of Edgartown has been building modular homes on the Island for nearly 30 years. He said that he got involved in modular building “for the same reason everyone does” – cost. “When my parents built their stick-built home on the Island in the 70s it was supposed to cost about $100,000. Pretty quickly it went up to $120,000. To me, that seemed to be a bit ridiculous. At about that time, modular was just coming into the picture. What I realized was that modular are much more predictable in terms of cost. Things don’t run away from you so much,” said Mr. Macomber. Mr. Macomber said that 30 years ago a modular home cost about $10 to $15 less per square foot than a comparable stick-built home. Today, he said modular construction costs about $40 to $50 less per square foot. That translates into $80,000 to $100,000 in savings for a 2,000-square-foot house. John Leite 3rd, Oak Bluffs businessman and modular home builder, also said that it was the cost that first attracted him to prefab homes 14 years ago. “The reason I got into modular building was that my sister-in-law was looking to build a house and no one was really catering to that low- to moderate-income market,” he said. When Mr. Leite contacted a modular home distributor, he said that he quickly realized the cost benefits of bringing a prefab home to the Island. “We very quickly put together some numbers that worked for my sister-in-law. I thought that was it, I was going to build one house for her, but there was a need for that type of home, and by word of mouth it just ballooned and turned into a business,” he said. Ray Maciel, Island modular home builder, used to build homes the traditional way, but the cost savings made him switch to prefab building. “Essentially, modular homes allow the homeowner to save money in labor costs by paying for cheaper factory labor, rather than expensive labor here on the Island,” he said. “You also are paying off-Island prices for materials.” Ed Charter, another Island modular home builder, said, “There is no question that the biggest advantage of modular homes for the consumer is it is a better value. You can get a lot more house for your dollar; of course it really depends on the house. You can do a lot with modular homes, more than most people realize.” Options aplenty Modular homes are not new phenomena. In 1908, Sears, Roebuck & Company introduced its “House by Mail,” a prefab house that sold nearly 100,000 units. The common conception of prefab houses as simple trailers came from these early designs. But recently, materials and designs have improved by leaps and bounds. Mr. Macomber said, “My customers used to order out of a catalog, and there really wasn’t much flexibility. They could move a window here or there, but that’s about it. Today we hand them a blank sheet of paper and say, ‘what do you want?’ The possibilities are nearly endless.” Mr. Maciel said that as the modular home industry has grown, the number of options available have increased dramatically. “It really depends on which company you go with, but the fact that there are so many companies to choose from means you can do just about anything you want,” he said. “These aren’t just trailers anymore. You can do multi-million dollar trophy homes if you want to. It’s just like stick building, but most of it is done in a factory.” Along with seemingly endless exterior design options, homeowners can customize the interior of prefab homes as well. Mr. Charter said, “People have this idea that we’re talking about trailers with vinyl siding, but that just isn’t the case. You can choose just about anything you want from siding to flooring to cabinets. You can spec out construction to the most minute detail.” Each builder also stressed that while prefab homes are less expensive than their stick-built cousins, they are not lacking in quality. Mr. Leite said, “Not to put down stick-building, but there are huge advantages of building homes in a factory where you have a controlled environment out of the rain and the snow. You also have a system where every single aspect of the building is done precisely to the manufacture’s specifications. That is something you just can’t ensure with stick-built homes.” Mr. Leite added, “It’s like cars. If you want a new Ford you are going to go and get one that came out of a factory, off an assembly line. You’re not going to build one in your garage, because it wouldn’t be practical. Modular building is just more practical than stick-building.” On Martha’s Vineyard, where it can take years to complete a new home, practicality can be an important asset. While he stressed that every project is different, Mr. Macomber said it usually takes between eight to 12 weeks for a company to deliver a prefab home. He said that depending on the size of the project, it usually takes two to four months to connect the modules and complete the house. “I would say that you’re usually looking at about six to eight months start to finish for a house that could easily take two years to complete from scratch. That is pretty significant from the homeowner’s point of view,” said Mr. Macomber. Mr. Charter said he is “fascinated” by the fact that modular homes arrived on the Island 90 percent complete. “It can be really hard on the Island to get quality subcontractors to build a house. It is much easier when you have a product that arrives so far along in the game. You just don’t need as many people,” he said. Asked what kind of people typically buy prefab homes, the modular home builders said there clients were educated consumer, from high- to low-income and everything in between. Mr. Macomber said, “I have done modular homes in every town on the Island, other than Aquinnah. Wherever people are that is where you will find modular homes, and I think as costs continue to rise, people will continue to turn to modular.” The other builders also predicted that modular homes will continue to grow in popularity. “Overall in this country, and on the Island, there is a trend toward modular that is growing dramatically, and I think that with its many advantages, that the trend will only continue,” said Mr. Charter. |
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