From Stick-Built to Modular: Saving Time, Money — and Knees PATH Case Study

Click here to visit the PATH website. The Owner/Builder: Frank Dusick Mustang Builders LLC Eau Claire, Wis. Dusick has been in the building industry for over 40 years. He founded Mustang Builders in 1981 as a stick builder, but switched to modular construction in the late 1980s. He currently builds eight to ten homes a year, selling between $150,000 and $200,000. Builder Type Small custom modular builder The Technology: Modular construction The Project: A two-story, 4,000-square-foot home built with six modules and a stick-built great room. Why he uses modular construction: "It's faster, improves my profit margins, is built to higher standards, reduces callbacks, and is much less of a hassle to build with than stick-built construction. "Picture this: If you were to take your house, and you were able to just load it onto a flatbed truck, and then start down the road at 60 mph, how would your home fare after a couple hours? How many shingles would you have left on the roof or siding on your home? Your stick-built home wouldn't fare too well, but your modular home would be intact. That's how strong modular homes are." Dusick's story Frank Dusick started as a stick builder, but bad knees forced him to look for something different as a backup. "I was getting close to turning 40, and I started realizing that I wasn't going to be able to go running up and down ladders and climbing around on roofs indefinitely," says Dusick. When he found out that Stratford Homes, a modular-homes producer based in Wisconsin, was looking for a builder/dealer in the Eau Claire area, he called right away. He's been building Stratford modular homes ever since. "A long time ago, when you said 'modular', the first picture many people had was the old doublewides. That was a hard mindset to get around. I essentially had to sell the home twice: first to the customer, and then to the financial institution that they were going through. I went to see some loan officers, and gave them pretty much the same presentation I gave the customers. I even offered to take a couple of them to the plant to show them how they were built. "Fortunately, after a few years, the word got out about the benefits of modular homes. The financial institutions now are actually more receptive to modular homes than to some stick-built homes. With a modular home, they know what they're going to get. They also prefer modular because of the shortened construction schedule. The quicker the loan originators can sell off the loans, the quicker they can get their money." Start to finish in 12 weeks or less It takes 10 to 12 weeks from the day a customer comes into Dusick's office to the day he turns over the keys. "Once a customer decides on a floor plan, I e-mail the details to Stratford," says Dusick. "In six to seven weeks, the house will be completed and shipped from the plant. During that time, I'll get the permits, build the foundation and do the site work. Once we get the home on site, it takes about three to six weeks, depending on the size. And that's it. This is much quicker than the three to six months it took me to produce a stick-built a home." Lower costs, guaranteed pricing "It costs me on average about 10 to 15 percent less to build a modular home than to stick build it," says Dusick. "But I can sell the home for the same price as a stick builder, because a stick-built and a modular home get appraised at the same amount. This has led to bigger profit margins for me. "In addition, the first time people come in to see me with a floor plan, I can normally price it out right to the penny. That's a big advantage, because when you're stick building and people come in with a floor plan, the best you can say is that it's going to run you about so much a square foot. But customers want to know how much their home is going to cost. "I can do this because I know definitely how much the house is going to cost me, and I'll know what my onsite costs will be because they are pretty much the same on all the homes. Once you've done a few jobs with a plumber or electrician, they can give you a price as to how much a hook-up is going to cost. Then I can price out the house and guarantee it. That's the other thing: once I order a house from Stratford, no matter what pricing does in that six- to eight-week period when we're waiting for the house to be built at the factory, the price is guaranteed. That's a big deal in this day and age." The casual observer can't tell the difference between a finished modular house and a stick-built house. Site preparation and installation "Proper site prep is very important," Dusick says. "You need to compact the soil where the crane will be. You have a 100,000-pound crane lifting a 20,000- or 30,000-pound module. Your site has to be able to hold that weight. You don't want the crane to be slipping or sliding around. If the homeowner is there, that will make them really nervous really fast. "Also, it's important to make sure that the foundations are square and true. Each module is exactly square and level, so you'd better be sure that your foundation is too. There's little room for error. "Once the modules are assembled, the home is 95 percent complete. They arrive drywalled, taped and textured. The plumbing fixtures are already installed, as are the cabinets, trim, and light fixtures. All I have to do is connect the mating walls, where the modules come together. And there may be doorways to drywall and tape and texture, but they always send texture material to match what they use in the rest of the house. "The plumbing, ductwork and wires are already run through the floors, so once the modules are set on the foundation, you just have to hook them up."   1 | 2 | 3  NEXT