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

[crazyhen]

I live in one! It was built in 1998. The windows need replacing. They are none level. The flooring needs replacing, it needs more storage space. I would never buy another one if i could help it but money was short. The wall covering is beginning to peele. We did the upgrade package that cost more. We have done many upgrades since. jean Its not a house!

 

[beak]

We almost did the modular thing. They have come a long way. They were going to basically use the plans for the outside shell and do the inside to our specs. It was an extra 3k for engineering but would have been nice. We finally decided against it because of resale values. The modulars tend to resale about 20% less for the same square footage. I'm not talking about trailer homes. They drop just like a car. The new modulars come with 6" studs on the outside walls and have better insulation because of it. I can always tell a modular though. They are always rectangular. Sometimes they add some stuff on to detract from that but if you look they are always rectangular. We might get one when we retire though. Just to save money. Get a little 2 bdrm on 40 acres so the horses have some grazing.

 

[garnet]

one good thing about them is the studs usually run both ways, vertical and horizontal. Most homes only have vertical.

 

[birdnutz]

Quote:
I disagree with this. It really depends on the model you buy. Ours is patterned after an older model. The insurance insisted on the exact replacement since we had the blue prints. Take a look at this link. It also has reviews.
http://www.modulartoday.com/

 

[dacjohns]

I had one for a few years (bought a repo) and would really seriously consider it before I bought another one.

House was a "doublewide", about 26 X 48. 6" exterior walls. Lived in New Mexico at about 7000 feet. Mild summers and winters (did see some subzero) with an almost constant wind. Lived there from 2003 to 2006 and the house was about a year old when we got it.

Cons--
Plumbing. The pipe and fittings are not standard. All the hot water fittings blew out and I had to really do some creative plumbing to fix the problem.

Studs. Many of them were finger spliced lengths. They were not solid. I want to say that all the interior studs were 2 X3, not 2X4.

Dry wall. Since ours was not a top end model the seams were not taped and mudded.

Electrical. Barely enough for the house. Forget about adding anything like a garage/workshop to the house circuit.

Doors. Interior doors are narrower than standard.


Pro--
The price but on the other hand you get what you pay for.

 

[birdnutz]

We tore down our old modular and it had no spliced wood at all. The new house is taped and textured. We just wired our garage to 220. Just measured. Our interior doors are 30" and exteriors are 38".but mine is a modular instead of a mobile home. Plus magnolia is on the top end.

 

[silkiechicken]

Thanks for the many more reviews! This is all interesting.

Quote:
I watched the developments go up on the lot behind the one at home... stick built... all studs were 2x3's, and walls were particle board based! Maybe that is the new standard, but at home our walls were all ply wood based. These homes each sold for near half a million a piece... even though they had a 300 a month HOA tagged on them and were zero lot line types.... Watching them go up, I'd have never wanted to buy one of those things.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I don't doubt that. I can remember when it used to take at least 6 months for a house to be built. Now it seems builders are throwing them up in 6 weeks! I'd take a good, solid house that was built 30+ years ago over some of the new ones any day.

 

[Hobbley_Farm]

I have to agree. My ex was in construction and just because the end result is pretty...doesn't mean it's built well. There is (around the Piedmont) sometimes underhanded things going on with building inspectors. I found out that the house we built (for ourselves) wasn't built to code and could have just fallen in on us during a tornado. Keep in mind, our tornado's aren't exactly like Kansas. They normally just pull some shingles off and drop a few trees and that's it. He was cutting corners on his OWN (ours at the time) house and the people who bought it really suffered when they found out. THey had to drop major $$$ to make it safe and up to standard. This man, MY EX, worked for several highly regarded companies. I do agree that the houses built 30 years ago were built better, however they didn't utilize space very well. Not to mention how many houses I have seen go up to a POINT, then set unprotected in the weather for weeks or months, Rain, Rain, Sleet, Rain, Snow, Rain. That always seemed a little "off" to me. I'm not saying ALL builders are like this, obviously. But I have seen my share of really crappy stick builts.

 

[HennysMom]

There is no such thing as a true 2 X 4 any longer.... those are gone with days gone by - just like a 2 X 6 - not out there.

You have 2 X 3.5 or 3 3/4's and 2 X 5.5 or 5 3/4's...

we live in a house that is TRUELY a 2 X 4 and 2 X 6 construction, but its 148 years old... makes it a witch to match wall studs when the need arises I assure you

as 1/4 to 1/2 an inch makes a huge difference. To match it, we must rip a 2X6 down to size - its the only way to do it.

of course, we're talking wood here - so if anyone has a true 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 made of metal, thats a different story