A big economic storm drove Patty Hydock from the modular
home business. A big hurricane brought her back into it.
Hydock, of
had 11 good years of buying lots, putting factory-built houses on them and
selling them. Then the housing bubble collapsed and, figuring she couldn’t
compete with the huge wave of foreclosures it brought, she shut down her
company in 2006.
Six years later, that man-made
natural one along the Northeast coast: Hurricane Sandy. The hurricane had
created a tremendous need to replace storm-damaged houses along the
a different and better business model available for modular home sellers.
After a year of preparation, Hydock relaunched Jersey CoastModular Homes at the start of this year.
Jersey Coast Modular Homes offers a variety of house styles
— ranchers,
two-story — built in sections at two manufacturers in
The home-buying process starts at Hydock’s showroom in the
front of her Victorian home in
where buyers consider options such as baseline- to high-end cabinetry,
countertops, fixtures, flooring and siding.
The elevation of the house is up to the homeowner, but she
encourages buyers not to think of elevations required by flood insurance as a
problem. “It’s giving them space under the house for a one- or two-car garage,
which makes for a nice design.”
Once the construction permits are secured — usually the
slowest part of the process, she said — manufacturing the home modules in the
factory takes six to eight weeks. The whole process is usually done in about
four months.
The online sites for her two manufacturers — Excel Homes and
Icon Legacy Custom Modular Homes — offers houses ranging from about 1,000
square feet up to a palatial 5,000-plus square feet.
An interesting new option with the company’s modular homes
is Eco Red Shield, a coating for the framing, joist, exterior trim and plywood
lumber that “controls the moisture in lumber and protects the lumber from mold,
wood-rot, termites and fire for the life of your home,” according to the
California-based company.
That should be appealing to people replacing flood damaged
homes, Hydock said. Both factories are pursuing certification in the Eco Red
Shield process.
She said the protection will cost an extra $5,000 to
$10,000.
