Last week I attended a seminar on building codes and
techniques hosted by PFS Corporation, one of the largest third party inspectors for the
modular housing industry. To be honest, I thought it would be like watching
paint dry or grass growing but what I found instead was another compelling reason
to buy modular or prefab.
First a little background. Every modular home builder, every
modular sales rep and very factory person says that their homes are third party
inspected. This is true however not many of these people really understand what
that means and how important and integral it is to building a new modular home.
As a former factory sales rep, nobody ever sat me down and told me exactly what
PFS and other third party inspectors do. Would it have made a difference if
they had? “You betcha.”
Third party inspectors insure that the house you want to
build meets and exceeds all the Federal, State and local building codes for the
address of the new home. Sounds like it should be easy. Go to a book and look
up the codes. Oh, if were only that easy.
Here is a recap of the first three speakers at the PFS
Seminar #89 in
The first speaker at the PFS seminar is a well respected and
very successful NJ modular home builder talking about the difficulties of
restoring and replacing the NJ’s homes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Getting a
building permit in most NJ counties was not a piece of cake before Sandy but
since it has become a game of dodgeball trying to keep up with all the changes
to building setbacks, mandatory height restrictions and municipality inspectors
challenging just about everything they see.
Here two examples he mentioned that stick out for me. Inspectors
approve an item before construction of a non-modular component and then change
it during the actual construction. The approvals are biased based on the
inspector. Ouch!
The second example is house footprints. Replacing a condemned
home with a new one using the same foundation size which meets the local code should
be a no brainer. Guess again. Both the old house and the new one have heat
pumps with exchangers on the outside of the house. Now the exchanger must be
above the flood level which means that it will have to be mounted to the house
using a 4’ x 4’ platform which eliminates 16 sq ft of living space in the home.
Another footprint problem occurs when the electrical meter has to be mounted
above the flood elevation which in some cases could mean 16’ above grade. Power
companies say they won’t do it because their meter readers can’t see the meter.
Solution: build a deck for the meter reader to stand on along with steps. Oops:
this deck area may be deducted from the living space in some municipalities.
Some NJ counties have upward of 40 different regions each with their own
inspector. A house built in one code area that passes all the building codes
may not pass if built just a 100 yard away in a different code area and they
share inspectors!
The one thing he doesn’t have to worry about is the modular
home being shipped from a factory because all the plans for the house meet or
exceed all building codes, including the local ones. Third party inspectors
have already looked over the plans submitted to them by the factory’s engineers
and design staffs, made the changes necessary and stamped the plans “approved”
for building the home. Site builders would not only have to hire someone to
review their plans, they have to do a lot of the legwork themselves AND still
have to contend with local inspectors about foundation and setback and living
space problems. Modular home builders let the factory and the third party
inspectors handle the home construction codes before it even arrives at the
jobsite.
The next speaker talked about fire separation and noise
abatement assemblies in single and multifamily homes. I have always assumed that
a fire wall was a fire wall and there wasn’t much to talk about. Boy, was I
wrong. As a builder, you have to know what a fire area, fire barrier and fire
partition assemblies are. If you as a builder don’t know, aren’t you glad that
PFS is inspecting that triplex you just ordered? Then he talked about Horizontal
Assemblies and Impact Insulation Class. If you were a site builder, where would
even go to find out about these things and how long would it add to your
building time and how much extra would it cost both you and your customer?
I was absolutely fascinated by this speaker. There are so
many different things to consider when it comes to protecting a home or
dwelling from both fire and sound that it takes a third party inspection
company like PFS to handle all this for the builder. I can’t imagine a local
building inspector knowing all the little in’s and out’s of the codes so that
they can pass or reject a project. If they don’t know this stuff, aren’t you
glad you build with modular construction and all those things are built in the
factory to the appropriate codes. Another plus for modular housing.
The third speaker Norm Hall from Simpson Strong-Tie showing
us the latest and best way to hold stuff down, hold stuff together and keep the
lid on things. Simple strapping is not enough any more to satisfy all the
building codes. Not only do you, the builder, have to know how many nails, what
size nails and what kind of nails or screws to use when attaching strapping and
bracing, the factory also has a ton of different straps, holders and bracing to
use to build the modules before it arrives at the job site. After listening to
Norm, I realized that the site builder, especially the tract builder and site
builders in areas that have labor shortages are probably not paying as close
attention to strapping and bracing as they should. At the factory, it is
expected that every strap and brace will be properly secured with the right
nail and with the right strapping.
This seminar brought a better understanding of what goes
into building a home in the factory and why it just makes more sense to have
your next home built as a modular than to leave it to the site builder working
out of his truck.
If you are one of those modular home builders that calls the
factory’s engineering every hour demanding your stamped plans because it’s been
a week, just try to imagine what is being reviewed and researched by both the
factory and PFS before you see your stamped plans. It will save you a ton of
work to let them do theirs.
