Modular vs. Stick Built

As we say throughout this website, we are builders not dealers. We run our business like builders do, not like a sales center that sells homes for you to build yourself. As builders we have constructed buildings many different ways: stick framed, log, timber frame and modular. We have also done a lot of steal and masonry commercial building construction. The process is always the same. Design it, spec it, and build it.

We all use some modularization

Technically anything built and bought off site is modular. Stick builders modularize parts of the home too. Items like pre-hung doors and windows, and cabinet units, are modular as opposed to built on site. Stick builders use them because they can be built better and more cost effectively by specialists in a factory than they can be built on site from raw materials. We look at modular homes the same way. They are made of sections built in a factory because it drives down cost and time while improving quality controls, and the rest we build on site.

That was then this is now

In the early days, modular construction sprung from the manufactured home industry and was focused primarily on driving down construction cost. The consequence was cheaply built houses. They were “cheap” from a cost perspective and “cheap” from a construction quality perspective, and that became the expectation from modular construction. The industry still has the ability to build low price homes; however it also has the capacity to build state of the art construction.

How different is the construction today?

It is not! We have built traditional on site construction for many years before becoming modular builders and still do a lot of it. Most modular companies are using exactly the same construction techniques and materials as on site builders are. Factory construction allows for much tighter construction, temperature, and moisture controls and quality assurance oversight not found on a field build. The modular companies we have selected were chosen because the construction techniques and material selections they use meet our high expectations.

For fanatics only

If you have some construction experience or are a builder with discriminating expectations, we can meet them. Custom built means “Custom”. Selecting paint colors is not custom building by our standards. We let you select the floor joist (2x10, 2x12, TJI or Joist 2000 open web) the sheathing (5/8” plywood, ¾” OSB or ¾” Plywood), windows from M&W, Pella or Andersen, insulation values, and snow and wind load capacities. The customer specs out everything. That is custom construction. We are confident that when you are done you will feel as good about it as you would have if you drove every nail yourself.