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We're trying to decide whether to have a house stick-built on site, or to buy a Canadian Ready-To-Move (RTM) house. The RTMs seem to make a lot of sense in our situation, as a contractor will have to travel some distance to our site, plus the RTM builders seem to offer a lot of options (as long as you stay under 34 to 36 feet wide). We've even seen some 2 story RTMs.
If you have a RTM, I'd be curious to know of any pitfalls you encountered.
<font color="blue"> Canadian Ready-To-Move (RTM) house </font color>
By that are you referring to a modular that comes in two halves and is joined at a marriage wall?
The two type I've seen are HUD specs and BOCA specs. HUD ones seem to be built like a mobile home. Thinner walls, smaller trusses, less insulation and set on a steel frame. Whereas the BOCA units are built more like a stick built where they have to conform to the BOCA code, which is our standard building code. They offer 2 x 6 walls, standard trusses, floor joists, etc.
RTMs are trucked as a complete unit, including flooring, cabinets, light fixtures, etc. and placed on a foundation.
Here's a sampling of Canadian companies building RTMs - it'll probably give you a better explanation of their products than I can provide.
www.pioneerhomes.net
www.conquesthome.com
www.townandcountryhomes.ca
The townandcountry website states:
"They are considered by FHA and HUD to be a "stick built" home, which of course they are, and fully mortgage eligible."
Hope this helps.
There will be drywall cracks. Hopefully they are minor cosmetic blemishes. They will happen the most at the corners of windows and doors (the geometry makes a stress riser.) Make sure That someone besides you is responsible for cosmetic touchup. I have seen what the delivery types do and it is NOT satisfactory to me. Make sure they know in advance that they will be paid after they have satisfied you, whenever that is.
The builder is responsible for the quality prior to loading for shipment. Inspect it carefully immediately prior to shipment and have the builder acknowledge any defects. Caution the delivery people that they need to inspect the house prior to loading because they are responsible for any defects after delivery to your site. They should be motivated by this to try to find all defects prior to loading so they aren't held responsible for them later.
I strongly urge you to have this arrangement in writing, signed by a responsible representative of the delivery outfit. Be cautious of anyone who is hesitant to sign such a statement/contract as it indicates their intent to stick you with the responsibility and no incentive for them to be careful to reduce dammage.
All this said, I designed an 1820 sq ft "roll away" stick built house that was built by a friends company. As I have "hung out" at his operation on occasion, I feel qualified to make the preceeding statements.
Another caveat is the foundation. The town of Stratford, OK has 6-8 roll away house builder companies in it. The surrounding area has a few more. They build a lot of good houses that are amazing values. My friend, I feel, is the best around. I formed this oppion prior to becoming frineds and after interviewing what was thought to be the top 6 builders and inspecting samples in all stages of construction. My bud has from 8-15 houses on his lot in various stages of construction nearly all the time. HE is in demand. He has his favorite foundation guy. This guy does foundations for a lot of houses by various builders if the delivery is in his commute area. He has been doing foundations for 30 years. He has ben doing them mostly wrong for 30 years. There is great ecconomic pressure for the builders to be able to quote low approximate costs for foundations to be competitive with one another. Be wary, be very wary. Make sure that your foundation is ENGINEERED for your soil conditions to support the building and don't accept some "one size fits none" econo-non-solution. Saving too much on the foundation is a formula for disaster. I hired a civil engineering firm to design the foundation for the one roll away I have personally done.
In the Oklahoma City phone book there is about a half page of foundation builders listed and about 6 1/2 pages of companies who specialize in repairing foundations. That helped convince me that "the way it has always been done" was not a good way. Sure there are knowlegeable people out there but there is great pressure to "quote cheap" so be careful.
Other than the above, the house worked out pretty good. I upgraded from a regular A/C with electric heat to a heat pump ($500) and upgraded to a higher SEER unit (another $800). If electric prices hold, the upgrades will pay for themselves in 3 to 3 1/2 years. If electricity goes up (not too likely it will come down!) then the breakeven will come sooner and savings will be bigger sooner. It is an all electric home with backup heat from a direct vent propane gas log. Three adults with electric cook stove, electric water heating, ran A/C all summer, stay warm in winter, bake fairly often, lots of showers and there is a Jacuzzi tub in both master suites (3 br 3 bath). Monthly electric cost is a double humped curve with one peak in Jan/Feb and the other in Jul/Aug. The shape and height of the humps are about equal and symetrical. Peak bills for cooling are approximately equal to the peak bills for heating, about $102-$117 per month for the hottest and coldest moinths and significantly less for a couple months in spring and again in fall. Heatpump is used a lot for about 8 months a year.
Our climate is termed "mixed humid." We get significant periods below freezing and significant periods abouve 80 (over a hundred with high humidity is not unusual) 33-34 inches of precip per year at latitude 35 degrees.
Hope some of this might have been useful to you. I did 3 winters in Minot, ND and would not be afraid to have this house up there but would add more ceiling insulation and would have opted for the form fitting insulation behind the vinyl siding as well as perhaps a layer of ridgid foam board over the OSB sheathing. Need higher R value up there.
It might be tough to get someone to build a roll away with what I am about to suggest but it is a sound approach. Build the exterior walls with 2x4 studs instead of 2x6 ... B U T build a double wall (one inside the other) with the studs on 24 inch centers and staggered. Space the two wall layers for an equivalent stud size of 2x8 or 2x10 or greater. You will have few thermally conductive bridges from the outer wall to the inner wall and a cavity depth to hold adequate insulation. Batting is less expensive for equivalent R values but gets too thick for "standard" wall cavities. 2x4 studs are often used as loss leaders to attract folks to Lowe's, Home Depot, or wherver. Careful shopping will provide wall costs for double 2x4 walls for the price of 2x6 walls and much higher "effective R values. The studs of a conventional wall conduct a lot of heat and prevent you from getting anywhere near the R value of the insulation. Windows have this effect too and can be over done. R-50 wall insulation might make a wall that performs at a R-7 to R-10 level (or worse) with conventional framing methods and lots of windows. There are framing details, especially for corners, that reduce thermal bridging way below the style of corner detail many framers use.
Since most roll away homes are "crawl space" you need to consider insulalting the stem walls and foundation, especially in a climate with extreme temps (hot or cold). With a properly insulated foundation and stem wall, insulalting the floor is not required. You will form a "heat bubble" in the ground below the house, so insulalting the sides of the foundation is smart. A positive side effect is that when the house is heated and the foundation/stem wall insulalted, the under-floor plumbing is held above freezing. In extreme situations (likek Minot, ND) I would probably put a vapor barier down on the ground under the house and lay out some EPS to hold more heat in the crawl space and keep all the crawl space plumbing warm. I have several vents in the crawl space but they are automatic, closing when it is cold and opening when it is warm enough. I recommend them for vented crawl spaces.
There are high quality roll away homes being built that are very good value for the $ spent. Some are of lesser quality and not so great a bargain. Choose wisely. Manufactured homes (come in sections and have metal plates identifying the mfg and date of mfg etc.) are worth about $10,000 less after delivery than on the sales lot. Don't believe the sales folks, look in the paper and check used prices. On the other hand, once delivered and set up, a stick built roll away home has no stigma and begins to appreciate just as if it were site built on its foundation. I could have the same home built by the same outfit at our site for about $4000 more and 3-5 months longer time. Delivery and setup was about $4000 so the cost was the same but I gained in schedule, a very important factor to people living in a pick up camper set off the truck inside a metal shop bld (almost 9 months).
Best of luck to you,
If you have any specific questions, I'll try to answer or get an answer.
Patrick
Nodak:
I would agree with Pat's lengthy and excellent reply. My wife and I recently installed a Unibilt Modular home that is similar to the houses shown in the links you provided. Since our home is in Ohio, it was build to the Ohio Basic Building Code which is a BOCA compliant code.
Overall, my wife and I are extremely happy with the home. We researched multiple builders and finally decided upon Unibilt after and extensive tour of both model homes and the manufacturing facilities. I would recommed that you perform a similar program and both models and factories give you an idea of what each builder can make.
Just as important is the local builder that will finish the house. Becuase it comes in sections (four for ours that is a two-story house), the local builder will perform finish work. Once again we like the Unibilt local builder since they had been installing these houses for over 20 years and were well liked by previous customers.
If you need any pictures or other information, just drop a line in the forum. Good luck and take your time, it will pay off!!
yes I bought two story rtm from B & B Homes, Delisle, SK & No any pitfalls I encountered. B and B homes built our home on time, within our budget, with excellent attention to detail and high levels of service and communication.