Modular Convenience: Remodeling With Modules Save Time
and Money
Remodeling with modules works for tight schedules and
smaller budgets
Stacey Freed, senior editor, REMODELING.
Life-altering events often touch off a remodeling project.
So it was with a
third child. “They [wanted] four bedrooms and a bath on the second floor and
… to remodel the first floor by converting two bedrooms into a living room
and turning the living room into a dining room,” says Doug Basnett, the CEO of Epoch Homes, in
who acted as general contractor. (Usually, Epoch Homes, which fabricates the
modules as well as designs, builds, and remodels modular homes, acts as a
subcontractor.)
BOX STEPS
An engineer determined that the original house could support
a second story. The Epoch Homes crew then bored a small hole in an exterior
wall to check its thickness, enabling them to match the module to it. They
measured for plumbing pipes as well.
One module has bedrooms and a stair opening; the other, two
bedrooms and a bathroom. Epoch Homes fitted each module with the electrical and
plumbing, running the feeds to the general area of the plumbing below, and a
subcontracted builder worked with Epoch’s designers to determine where to
access the connection points.
Epoch painted the drywall, did the interior trim, installed
R-22 insulation in the 2×6 exterior walls, and strengthened the modules for
travel. “The plywood sheathing and wall sheathing is glued. The drywall is
glued,” Basnett says. “We [use] a lot more fasteners and plates to make it more
rigid.”
FAST BREAK
One of the biggest benefits to using modules is speed. From
design through button-up, this project took just four weeks. The shorter time
span lowers labor costs and, Basnett says, costs can be better controlled.
In general, modular costs about 15% to 20% less than a
traditional remodel. This project cost about $80,000: $65,000 for designing and
manufacturing the modules, and $15,000 in labor for the siding, electrical,
plumbing, and interior connection.
POP TOP
On a Monday morning starting at 7 a.m., a roofing crew
removed the original roof. Epoch’s crew prepared the home by putting a new sill
on top of the ceiling system. The next morning at 8 a.m., Epoch brought in a
crane and set the modules. “We bolt the modules together and then nail the
second floor to the first floor just as you would with a regular stick-built
home,” Basnett says. By noon the attachment was done.
A stair builder built stairs on-site to connect the floors.
A plumber connected pipes from floor to floor, and the electrician dropped
feeds down through a chase and tied the electrical to the existing panel.
Remaining carpentry items included siding the house, adding
a final course of roof shingles (two courses were put on at the factory),
installing a door where the two modules come together (marriage wall), and a
minimal amount of drywall work at the top of the stairs between the two
modules. Epoch also installed more energy-efficient windows on the old portion
of the home to match the modules’ new windows.
