Tell me about your manufactured/modular home. Pros and cons

[Ferngully]

I have seen 2 story models. More expensive but still less than stick built. Standards are much strickter now and what is available as far a design elements is endemic to your region.

Love ours, cat 3 hurricane code, walls and floor joist are built the same as traditional homes, insulation, just a whole lot less expensive cost per sq. ft. than traditional.

 

[debilorrah]

So.... what is a trailer, or more politically correct, a mobile home?

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

Mine is a manufactured home/doublewide, it was built in 2000, about 1400 sq ft. Live in southeast TN.

 

[HennysMom]

trailers vary - it depends on what year they were built as to what they are called. Older ones are not stick built (meaning with 2X4's) and are mainly studded out with metal frames that are bolted together.

I think it also depends on what part of the country you're from as to what you call a modular or a manufactured home.

A modular home here (VA) is a home that is a doublewide - split in two pieces and turn-key - just bolt it together and set it on a foundation - its ready to go (hook up water, sewer, elec, etc).

A manufactured home is a stick built home that is pre-assembled (walls studded out, roof trusses made prior, etc) and put together on site but is not turn-key so subcontractors must come in to finish the interior (drywall, hook up electrical, etc). Now - you CAN get manufactured homes that have all the electrical and foam insulation put into the studs already and wrapped in Ty-VEK. but it still has to be built on site just like a regular house would be. Its just that most of the work is done at a factory prior to arrival.

 

[Ferngully]

I don't know the difference mobile/manufactured, mine isn't moving anywhere lol. no wheels or axles and concreted into the ground. I think it is now days a matter of symantix of words. Both are made in a plant and moved to your location and "put together" on site. The industry has tried to stray from the word "trailer" and "mobile" because of the negative connotations of homes built in the 70's and early 80's.


Mine is over 2000 sq ft. built in 1997.

Yes, we have made changes to it in the last 5 years. Much as anyone does a home. Travertine tile floors, tile countertops, custom wall treatments, new appliances. Nice thing is a crawl space. Easy to change plumbing, electrical, computer wiring, satelite wiring. Would not have been so easy having to drill through or cut concrete floors.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Yup, a high-classed double-wide is what it is. They just take the axles and wheels off. We've lived in ours for just over 4 years. Had to get out of where we were. (mold was killing me) and we couldn't do any better than the $100 down payment!!!!! The downside is that the builder had to be threatened by a lawyer to fullfill another on the of the promise. (A 52 inch projections tv.)

I love my garden tub. Lots of windows and light. 1200 sq ft of liveable space compared to the 243sq liveable sq ft in the house we were renting. (no heat in 3 rooms!!) Energy efficient. $100 for elect in the dead of summer and I have no trees around the house!

Problems. Walls are paper thin. Don't try to hang anything heavy on the walls. We've had to put up the rods in my closet with 2x4's because they pulled out of the walls. Even with those things you put in the holes to keep the screw from coming out, they still came down. No trees. They cleared the whole blasted place of trees.

I live in a fairly nice subdivision, we don't have a home owners association, although a few residents tried to get one started. It's quiet and most folks are fairly nice. I'm just out of Gastonia, NC and about 20 miles from Charlotte. Far enough away from the big city but close enough for the things I need to get to for medical reasons.

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

Quote:
That one of my biggest complaints too.

 

[DuckLady]

Quote:
We love ours.
You saw it. 1800 sf, one level, built 2002 with a stick built garage attached. We live in Oregon.

We chose this because of the price, reputation of Palm Harbor and the kitchen most of all!

 

[halo]

I purchased a single wide mobile home to put on my acreage when I moved to Florida, because it was all I could afford. I had always planned on building a home when I could afford it, but I didnt mind the mobile home at all. I got a tiny cheap one, but some of the ones I looked at were just gorgeous. The prices of them were gorgeous too, upwards of $100,000. That was why I decided on the cheapest smallest one until I could afford a house; the price (at the time) was nearly the same to build a concrete block house (Im in Florida, the Hurricane Capital of the world) as to get a beautiful new mobile home. The value of the mobile home also went down, as opposed to the house, which the value (generally) goes up. I was very fortunate that I was able to afford building my house, but if I hadnt been able to, I would have gotten a very well built double wide and been perfectly happy with it.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

I lived in a block home in Florida for 40 years before we retired and bought a double-wide, about 2400 sq ft . It is a 2006 model and has all the niceties and a great layout. They altered their basic plan because I wanted sliding glass doors instead of regular doors. Now my glass doors open onto a deck in the front and a 40+ foot roofed screened porch in the back with an additional 20+ foot carport that we use as a shop. It has a fireplace, too. All for about half of what my daughter paid for her 1800 sq ft block house. The total was $104,000--but that included the porch, the deck, the carport, a barn, clearing a road to the barn, fencing, and a few other extras.

The first week we were here, the house withstood high winds--a tornado passed at the foot of our road, taking out 3-4 houses. We had one blown-out screen on the porch. That was all. It didn't even "rock" on its foundations or anything.

We chose manufactured because of Katrina. All the builders were in New Orleans rebuilding and the soonest anyone was willing to start a house for us was a year away. The local Home Depot wouldn't even guarantee enough wood to frame it. Problem was our home in Florida was sold and we had to be out in 60 days. We had the acreage so, in desperation, I looked at a few websites, found a layout I liked, and was told by the manufacturer that it could be turnkey in 60 days. We actually moved in 2 weeks earlier than that!

HTH

Rusty