[Flaken]

Interesting question, CCMoe! Not at all a fan of current stick built houses. Seen quite a few in Denver at all price ranges that were so shoddily constructed with the illegal migrant labor force there to make one shudder. This concept shown here by Jere39 & Scout is one I'm unfamiliar with but it reminds me too much of mobile home type structures. They look just great for about 10-15 years before literally falling apart. The modular construction and materials also take a different set of skills to maintain than stick built.

Personally, I'm a fan of the ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) and/or reinforced concrete construction for strength and durability. As was widely shown, I was told, on news reports after Michael landed at Mexico Beach, FL in October 2018, the only house left intact was an ICF one. All of the stick built ones surrounding were removed to their foundations. When one thinks of all the natural weather we get from tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, blizzards & cold, earthquakes and the like, it seems like a better solution than stick built.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/us/hurricane-michael-florida-mexico-beach-house.html

 

[Jere39]

Hey folks, I finally stood a safe distance from this construction to capture a complete rig, lift, swing, and set of one of the modules. As I mentioned these were careful folks, and it took quite a while. So, I edited my iPhone video down to a kind of a jerky 10x speed. A few times during this quick 35 second video you might notice how the Tyvek was flapping in the wind. It was a cold and windy day. Scout and I will stroll down there again this morning and see what if anything is going on. The cost of having that crane on site was no doubt very expensive. I don't know if that cost is absorbed into the cost of the modules so that the manufacturer can dictate the use of operators and equipment they are confident with, or if the builder was on his own to contract the haulers, riggers, setters, . . .

Enjoy:

 

[Flaken]

Certainly, we don't know about the logistics of the builders, whether they own the crane outright or if everything is rented. If rented, the crane & operator for that size runs roughly $2,500 a day. That doesn't include transport to and from the jobsite. The builder would likely have their own crew of experienced riggers and other personnel that set the panels in place. Usually with the new construction methods, the manufacturer requires and provides training of the personnel of the builder for their systems.

https://www.howmuchisit.org/crane-rental-cost/

 

[JoeZeppy]

A friend of mine had a modular put up about 13-14 years ago. It's a traditional colonial and came in 4 sections. It was quite the scene watching those modules swing on the crane! About a year after it was finished one of those hinged eaves flipped up in a strong windstorm - turns out they forgot to secure it properly. When it flipped up, it not only damaged the shingles but much of the fascia and soffit as well. The company made good on it and other than that he has not had any issues with the house. It seems very well built and the windows seal well against winter temperatures.

 

[Joe/GA]

Personally, I'm a fan of the ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) and/or reinforced concrete construction for strength and durability.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/us/hurricane-michael-florida-mexico-beach-house.html

I never could afford it, but I would love to have a steel reinforced concrete house. When you travel through Europe and see all of the houses that are hundreds of years old, they are not wood. They are concrete! Years ago, after one of the many California forest fires, I saw a news program featuring a concrete house. Like the house in Florida, it was the only one standing in its neighborhood. The only work the owners would have to do is to pressure wash the soot off of the house. The owner said he felt bad that his house was OK and his neighbors lost everything.

Close to 50 years ago, my sister and her husband bought a modular house. They poured a regular concrete foundation and set the house on it. I don't know how many modules it was, but it was not a large house. My brother-in-law has since added on to it with a huge family room. They live in upstate New York and average about 200 inches of snow a year. The house is still standing and surviving the extreme weather.


Thanks for posting this thread, Jere. I'm really enjoying it.

 

[Jere39]

Back from my morning inspection tour with Scout. They are focusing on closing up the roofs today, using the crane to flip the hinged top and bottom on each surface and then patching out the shingles.:

Here you can see one of the hinge lines across the face of this roof surface. A couple crews are up with air guns nailing in the shingles to repair those lines. Probably just me, but in a cold morning I hate to flex that top preset row of shingles to shove the nailer up under it to nail in the new shingle. These guys look like they've done it a time or two before, but I see shingle fibers being stressed in my mind:

They have what appears to be three relatively hollow modules to comprise the garage to set yet, and I expect the crane will be gone by the time I get back from some adventures with my grandson. All in all, there were 9 modules set in a day and a half:

In a very small gesture to make sure the world knows how powerful local municipal government is, they showed up this morning with a demand that a safety flag be mounted on top of the crane. I know I feel safer already.

And, finally in an acknowledgement to my partner who much prefers the hills and woods to a building site - Scout and I took a sunny morning hike through the woods as usual, and he posed on his favorite log to scout the hill side for ner'do-wells:

 

[BoWoggie]

The section with the dormers sits at a 90 degree angle to the other 2 sections. I have yet to see exactly how the roof lines are going to tie together. If they are to tie together in the conventional way, it seems to me the shingles would have to be removed from the longer sections, so why put them on in the first place. Maybe things will be made clearer in subsequent pics. Thanks again for posting these pics. Very interesting thread. Greg

 

[BoWoggie]

I forgot to ask. In the pics, I can't tell if the foundation sticks out beyond the outside of the walls of the house. If they do it would suggest a brick facade.

 

[Jere39]

I forgot to ask. In the pics, I can't tell if the foundation sticks out beyond the outside of the walls of the house. If they do it would suggest a brick facade.

The module walls are aligned with the foundation walls. Seems unlikely to me they will be doing brick facing here. And, so far they have not integrated all those wall tabs into any connection. But, I would guess they will bend them up, screw them to the module walls, then shimmy the Tyvek down over the seam between the foundation and the module.

The section with the dormers sits at a 90 degree angle to the other 2 sections. I have yet to see exactly how the roof lines are going to tie together. If they are to tie together in the conventional way, it seems to me the shingles would have to be removed from the longer sections, so why put them on in the first place. Maybe things will be made clearer in subsequent pics. Thanks again for posting these pics. Very interesting thread. Greg

They still have a flatbed of roof structure to add, but I think you can see from this that there are compound valleys in several directions. So far they are not building over any shingles, but still have plenty of shingle patching and some new roof line they are building.

Crane is still there this afteroon, it seems to have finished placing the garage modules, but still has some work to do erecting the roof panels and lifting the rest of the roof components to tie the last couple modules together:

 

[Mrlunchbox]

Modular construction is impressive. Had a friend down the road from me do one and its over ten years old with no problems. Thanks again Jere for all the effort you're putting into this. I look forward to seeing the progress every time I log on! ha ha

 

[CCMoe]

Very interesting day, enjoy seeing the progress.

I need to go to manufactured housing sites and look at some of their selling points.

CCMOe

 

[My craftsman 917.27308]

Maybe they will put siding on the house instead of brick facing. I've been seeing stucco on new housing as well.

 

[Jere39]

I think siding is the way they will go.

They finished up the roofing today - this roof has many joins and valleys:

And, the tabs have still not been utilized, though now the Tyvek has been unfurled down over the seam between foundation wall and module, and a couple batten straps have been added to secure it.

 

[Flaken]

Looking good, Jere 39 & Scout! It does look as though there is going to be much more back filling, least up to the windows. The upper left hand of the bottom picture shows the land about equal in height to the height of where the Tyvek is.

 

[Whirly]

Jere.. can u see in any of the windows to peek at the floors.. did they put any in place yet..

 

[HerbsGT]

Jere, I have been following this build from the beginning and really enjoying the build. This looks like the future of house building. Keep up the good work. I am in the local area (Ludwigs Corner area)Hope to run into you sometime in the future. . Herb

 

[Jere39]

Jere, I have been following this build from the beginning and really enjoying the build. This looks like the future of house building. Keep up the good work. I am in the local area (Ludwigs Corner area)Hope to run into you sometime in the future. . Herb

Sounds good Herb - I get around, should be an opportunity to spot each other somewhere around the area. I shop the hardware store, Frames, and Littles often enough.

 

[CCMoe]

Jere,

I'm interested is the garage floor, suppose they are going to set a beam on the center column and set precast floor?

It seems as the build is going real fast but consider construction time at the plant, transport, site prep, etc.

With the declining numbers of people entering the trades, this very well could be the way of the future.

CCMoe

 

[Jere39]

Well, this has been a very interesting learning experience for me. I do not believe there will be a precast floor in the garage. The garage itself was delivered as three practically hollow modules and set together on the foundations walls of the garage. You can see the garage where the entry sill is in this picture. The 'door' is still filled in and Tyvek covered. There is stone backfilled in the garage up to about a foot below the haunches, the sill, and the column. I suppose they could still get a central beam from the left end where the haunches are to the column which sets on the right side of that garage door sill. But, I now suspect the floor will be poured concrete and the haunches and column will be incorporated to prevent settling. But, I've been wrong on a few things already, so this will be a new building practice to me when I see it.

Still plenty of fill on site, and it will be needed to get the grade up where I think it ought to be on those foundation walls to make the setting look right.

 

[BoWoggie]

When my in-laws retired from farming and moved to town, they had a small modular home built. Nothing on this scale of course. Their house had siding on it. The house was mostly sided when it was delivered. If this house is to be sided, I am surprised than none is on yet. Time will tell I guess.