|
Modular Home Building Wins Wide Acceptance
By Scott Price, Price Communications
Modular homes have been growing steadily in popularity
and home builders are capitalizing on this trend. The modular homes being built today look identical
in nearly every respect to conventionally built homes.
The difference is that modular homes are constructed in
multiple sections, called “boxes,” under controlled conditions
in a factory and then transported by trailer to a
home site where they are set on a permanent foundation.
|
|
The exterior of The Cambridge model home at Westchester Modular Homes in Bethel.
|
Factors behind the steady growth of the industry
include dramatic advances in design and building
methods, the many advantages inherent in modular
construction and growing pressure to build in a more
cost-effective manner. “Modular homes are definitely here to stay,” says
Paul Scalzo, who began building modular homes about
19 years ago. “Years ago we sometimes couldn’t build
modular homes, they had a stigma about them, but
that’s simply not the case anymore.” Scalzo is President of the Scalzo Group, a real estate
services company based in Bethel. The company designs
and builds modular homes through Westchester Modular
Homes of Fairfield County, its modular division. Dick Woodford is President of Scalzo Construction
Group and Chief Operating Officer of Westchester
Modular Homes of Fairfield County. Woodford has
been building conventional and modular homes for over
30 years, and has been heading the Scalzo Group’s
modular home business for the last eight years. “The modular building industry has come a very
long way over the last 20 years,” Woodford says.
“Initially modular homes were pretty much all cookiecutter
designs, but because of marketplace demand,
modular manufacturers began thinking more creatively.
We’ve gotten to a point now where our factory can
build anything that a client or their architect can design.” “As a result, there has been a really remarkable
acceptance of modular home construction,” he says,
“especially in lower Fairfield County.” Westchester Modular Homes of Fairfield County
builds homes manufactured by Westchester Modular
Homes, a modular home factory located in nearby
Wingdale, New York which is widely known for being
an especially innovative and progressive manufacturer. “We build a high-end product with high-end specifications
for our target market,” says John Colucci, Vice
President, Sales and Marketing for Westchester
Modular Homes. Colucci came to Westchester Modular homes in
1989, where he has played a role in the quiet revolution
in the industry. “Companies like ours helped move
the industry into the 21st Century by providing more
of a customized home,” he says. Woodford says modular homes currently represent
about three percent of homes built in the country.
“That’s a small percentage but it’s still a lot of homes
when you consider that there are in excess of one
million new homes built each year.”
Modular Advantages
Over the last decade, the number of modular homes
being built annually across the country has been going
up steadily. This isn’t surprising, in that modular construction
offers numerous advantages over conventional
or “stick-built” construction; chief among these are
speed, quality, cost and convenience.” In most cases, modular homes come from the
factory with plumbing fixtures and electrical wiring
already installed, primed sheetrock on the walls and
perhaps tile on the floor. The home might even
included a complete kitchen if one has been specified. Dramatically reduced construction time is just as
true for the large, highly customized homes built by
Westchester Modular Homes of Fairfield County along
the state’s Gold Coast. “From design to finish,” says Woodford, “one of
these high-end homes would typically take anywhere
from 18 months to two years to complete. We can do it
in less than half that time and so our client is carrying
their construction loan for half as long as they otherwise
would. For a home selling in excess of one million
dollars, not including the property, the interest savings
on the buyer’s loan can be very significant.” A typical modular home is built with 20 percent
more lumber than a conventionally built home. It’s stronger because it has to be: modular homes travel on
trailers at highway speeds and are set on their foundations
with a crane. Additional bracing and special adhesives
give these structures added strength and rigidity. The Federal Emergency Management Agency
surveyed residential building performance during
Hurricane Andrew in 1992, a Category 4 storm. FEMA
found “relatively minimal structural damage . . . in
modular housing developments,” compared with conventionally
built homes, the result of their “inherently
rigid system” of construction (“Building Performance:
Hurricane Andrew in Florida,” FEMA FIA-22). Because they are constructed in factories in protected,
climate-controlled environments using kiln-dried
lumber rather than regular “green” lumber which has a
high moisture content, modular homes don’t experience
the shrinkage that comes from the drying of wet
lumber. They conform to all applicable building codes
and are inspected before leaving the factory. “A typical 4- to 6-box house,” says Woodford, “can
be delivered to the home site, set on the foundation and
then closed in to the weather within a single day. That
enables us to set a modular home in the middle of the
winter when other builders couldn’t even think about
building. Once the structure is closed to the weather,
our tradesmen work inside to finish the home.” Responding to the growing appreciation for modular
construction among the public, many factories have
sprung up across the country in recent years. These
modular home manufacturers can be large or small and
turn out many or only a few homes annually. Established modular home manufacturers work
closely with reputable builders to produce modular
homes specified by the home buyers. Typically, manufacturers
will sell to an approved builder within a
protected geographic area and the builder will buy
modular homes only from that manufacturer. Regional Builders
Westchester Modular Homes of Fairfield County
builds 30 or more modular homes annually. Their
average modular home is about 5,000 square-feet and many are customized with high-end finishes for
affluent clients.
Being a division of the Scalzo Group,Westchester
Modular Homes of Fairfield County is part of a vertically
integrated organization that can handle virtually
every aspect of the home building process for its clients. This may involve finding the client land to build on
through Century 21, its real estate division, arranging
for a construction loan through Sterling Lending, its
lending division, locating a temporary rental if
required, and arranging for the move through Relo CT,
its relocation division. “We offer our clients turnkey service,” says
Woodford. “When it’s required, we’ll do a feasibility
study on their property and we’ll do all the engineering
and testing; we’ll develop the site plans, design the
septic system if required, and we’ll get all the necessary
approvals and building permits. We have our own
excavating division and do our own site work which
saves time and helps keep the job on schedule.” “Depending upon our contract with the client,”
Woodford says, “after the home is set we will either do
all of the interior and exterior work and secure the final
Certificate of Occupancy, or, for the qualified client
capable of finishing the work, we will make the home
tight to the weather and afford them the opportunity to
save money by completing the home themselves.” Westchester Modular Homes uses its own crane and
set crew when setting a modular home within 50 miles
of the factory in Wingdale. “We made the investment,”
Colucci says, “because we provide a 10-year structural
warranty to our home buyers and we want to ensure
the home is set correctly.” Having their own crane also
eliminates delays in the schedule that often occur when
depending upon an outside crane service. Because many of t he homes being built by
Westchester Modular Homes of Fairfield County are
located down-county where real estate values have
skyrocketed, the company has become a specialist in
teardowns. “We have a close relationship with our
demolition contractor who handles the demolition of
existing homes when necessary,” he says. Westchester Modular Homes of Fairfield County
has built over 700 homes over the past 20 years ranging
in size from 1,100 to 12,000 square-feet and will
be celebrating their anniversary and a return to their
roots in the Greater Danbury area with the introduce
of their new Product Selection Center at their Bethel
Model Home in October.
Further Information
For further information about Westchester Modular
Homes of Fairfield County, contact Dick Woodford
directly by phone at 203-790-3250 or by email at
Dick@todaysmodulars.com. Visit their Web site at
http://www.todaysmodulars.com.
|
