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REFINANCING | FINDER | VALUE | STORE | FORUMS | NEWS | NATIONAL MLS |
CREDIT REPORT | STORE | QUOTE |
Designing a
Modular Home
A brief summary of Chapter 3 "Designing
a Home" (55 pages) in
The Modular Home
by Andrew Gianino,
President of The Home Store
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REFINANCING | FINDER | VALUE | STORE | FORUMS | NEWS | NATIONAL MLS |
CREDIT REPORT | STORE | QUOTE |
Designing a
Modular Home
A brief summary of Chapter 3 "Designing
a Home" (55 pages) in
The Modular Home
by Andrew Gianino,
President of The Home Store
Once you have decided to build a new home, you need
to select a plan that meets your needs and expresses your personal style. Most
modular dealers try to steer you to one of their standard offerings, and most
customers can usually find at least one standard plan that comes close to
meeting their needs. Dealers like to work from standard plans because they save
them time and simplify their job, since the design, engineering, and pricing
have already been done by the manufacturer. Customers benefit accordingly;
standard plans are engineered to be built economically, and the price can be
estimated quickly.
When standard plans do not work, ask dealers if they
will help you design a custom home. If you already have a plan in mind, find out
if it can be built as a modular. Many plans drawn up for stick-built houses
cannot be built with modular construction, although the dealer may be able to
come up with a very similar design. If your plan cannot be built as a modular
home, ask dealers to show you plans offering similar features.
Some customers do not have any idea of the type of
house they want to build. What then? You certainly can work with an architect.
You can also visit a few model homes. Seeing a home and walking through its
rooms tells you more about what it would be like to live in that design than
looking at its drawings. In addition, you can create a list of your likes and
dislikes. This chapter helps you create a list by asking you a series of
questions about your preferences. Here are a couple of examples:
Do you prefer one-story or two-story living?
How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you need?
Do you prefer an informal family room separate from
a more formal living room?
Do you prefer an informal eating area ("nook")
separate from a more formal dining room?
Do you need a study or home office?
Do you want the laundry on the first floor, second
floor, or in the basement? A modular home is created when one or more modules
are transported to a building site and assembled on a foundation. Each modular
section is a semi-independent structural unit, essentially a box that is built
to interconnect with other modules. Whereas "sticks" are the basic building unit
in stick construction, and walls are the basic building unit in panelized
construction, modules are the basic building unit in modular construction.
Modular design, engineering, and construction work because many home designs can
be subdivided into modular sections.
Modular construction, like all construction, has
design constraints. The limits to what can be built are a function of a module's
maximum width, length, height, and structural capability. The limits are
themselves determined more by what can be safely, legally, and economically
built and transported than by what a manufacturer can fabricate. It is
technologically possible to build almost any structure as one or more modules,
regardless of size. But delivering two 30-foot by 40-foot modules from the
factory to the job site would be another matter, as would lifting it onto the
foundation. In spite of these constraints, the design possibilities for modular
homes are countless. Since you need to know what is possible with modular
construction, this chapter will answer the following questions:
What are the possible widths, lengths, and heights
of a module?
How can you combine modules to make different
designs?
What kind of changes can you make to a standard
modular home plan in terms of layout and exterior appearance and how do these
changes impact on the cost of a modular home?
How can you increase the size of a modular home
plan by making it longer or wider and how much does this affect the cost?
How can you open up a floor plan in a modular home
by removing interior walls?
How do you create cathedral and vaulted ceilings in
a modular home?
What do you need to know when you select a modular
home with an unfinished story, such as a Cape Cod ?
How can you use dormers to obtain the additional
space you need as well as to dress up the appearance of your modular home?
What do you need to know when you are building a
raised ranch or split-level modular home?
Can you build a house design with modules even when
it cannot be completely constructed at the factory? Today's custom modular manufacturers, dealers, and
general contractors apply every imaginable exterior finish and flourish to their
homes. They side their homes in wood or fiber-cement board, when requested, and
they trim out the siding with wider corner boards. In a neighborhood of stucco
finishes, they apply stucco. In a neighborhood of cedar shakes, they provide the
same. Depending on their customers' preferences, they accent the windows and
doors with lineals, shutters, or mantles, and they dress up the eaves with
frieze boards and dentil molding. They enlarge the roof overhangs and build
gable returns to give the home a more custom look. They lend their homes more
character by adding stepped roofs, dormers, decorative gables, and Victorian
turrets. Once a modular home's exterior has been dressed up, it is usually
impossible to tell whether the home was built at a factory or on-site.
Garages, porches, and decks are almost always built
on site by the GC rather than at the factory. It is usually impractical to make
them part of the modular assembly, since they are not true boxes. An exception
is when the structure is integral to the module, such as when a porch or garage
is built into the box. (See chapter 7 (51 pages), The General Contactor's Responsibilities, for more information about the GC's responsibility for
building site-built structures.) This chapter will explain how to integrate your
GC's site-built structures into the design of your modular home.
Houses that incorporate the principals of universal
design constitute a growing trend in residential construction. Though often
considered synonymous with "handicapped-accessible" construction, universal
design is actually a much broader concept, intended to create houses that are
usable by and accessible to all people, regardless of their age, size,
abilities, or disabilities. By incorporating features such as level (that is,
stepless) entrances, wider hallways, and larger doors, a universal-design home
becomes easier to navigate when pushing a child in a stroller, moving furniture
in or out, or operating a wheelchair, temporarily or permanently. A home that
features universal design will meet a family's needs now and into the future,
allowing homeowners to age in place without having to consider moving when their
abilities start to slip. This chapter will explain how you can design a home
using Universal Design principles. (See chapter 4 (44 pages), "Specifications and Features", for information about Universal Design features available in modular
homes.) Before your home can be built, the manufacturer will
need to draw a complete set of plans. Even if the dealer has already provided
you with some good drawings, the manufacturer will need to create its own set,
which it will complete with a computer-aided design (CAD) program. This chapter
will answer the following questions:
What should you look for when reviewing your
modular home floor plans?
What should you look for when reviewing your
modular home electrical and HVAC plans?
What should you look for when studying the exterior
elevation of your modular home?
How do you make sure that the drawings of your
modular home also show the drawings of your site-built structures?
Why do you want the exterior elevation drawings of
your home to also show your property's grades?
For a comprehensive overview of what you need to know to build a modular
home, order The Modular
Home (310 pages) by Andrew Gianino. To learn more about building a modular home, watch this web site for
excerpts from the other chapters of The Modular Home, (325 pages) by Andrew
Gianino, President of The Home Store
A modern T-shaped Cape with
character
Due to economic, legal. and safety constraints, modules can
only be so large. This illustration shows the maximum length, width and
height of each module.
A vestibule and double staircase worthy of Scarlet and Rhet Butler
To learn more about modular housing, read these free
excerpts
Chapter 1: Why Build
Modular
Chapter 2: Selecting a
Dealer
Chapter 3: Designing a
Home
Chapter 4: Modular Home
Specifications and
Features
Chapter 5: Selecting a
General Contractor for
a Modular Home
Chapter 6: Finding and
Preparing a
Building Lot for a Modular Home
Chapter 7:
The General Contractor's Responsibilities
Chapter 8:
Building a Modular Addition
Chapter 9:
Financing a Modular Home
Chapter 10:
Warranty Service for a Modular Home
Chapter 11:
Building a Modular Home on Schedule
More Details
Andy Gianino, founder and president of The Home Store, one
of the largest dealers of modular homes in the Northeast, has written a
comprehensive handbook for prospective modular home buyers. The book is packed
with everything you need to know about buying and building a modular home-or a
modular addition to your existing home.
Gianino dispels the
misconceptions about the limitations of modular homes and shows potential buyers
that a modular home can be as good as, if not better than, houses built with
traditional stick-frame construction. Then he gets down to the nitty-gritty:
choosing a dealer, working with a general contractor, selecting a floor plan,
choosing the customized details, even selecting a building lot and financing the
construction. Throughout the book the emphasis is on top-quality materials and
cost-effective measures to ensure that the buyer gets their dream home at a
great price. What's more, this book is equally useful for anyone already in the
modular business or looking to get in as a dealer, manufacturer, designer, or
specialized general contractor.
Illustrated throughout with a 16-page
full color insert, The Modular Home shows home buyers how going modular can
expand their choices, save time, save money, and prove to be more durable than
conventionally-built houses.
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