Been meaning to ask

[Fla._Deadheader]

Has anyone seen the new? type houses being built, that are delivered in sections on a flatbed trailer???
 I saw a couple being put together a short while back. They are completely built sections, with doors, windows, shingles, siding, wall paneling, and even smoke out of the chimney
 A large crane takes 2 sections off 1 trailer and sets them on
a slab or piers and they are joined together. Then 2 more sections are added for a garage and a porch or a room addition.
 I am familiar with a pre-fab house, where the walls are stacked in an open top trailer and set up, one wall at a time.

 Guess my real concern is, who inspects these things for building code??? If a couple of sawyers lived close together, and had their own lumber inspected, could they not build the same structures and sell them???
 Looks like a way to get some "value added"

[Den Socling]

These houses are built by at least two nearby companies. You're right about them being complete. It's strange to see a section of a house complete with a section of a porch flying down the highway at 70. I believe a lot of building codes apply. They have to cover codes both here and wherever they're going. A guy once said to me, set your house on a trailer and head down the highway at 70. See how long it will last and you'll realize how these things are built.

One thing I can tell you from experience (and nobody in Florida needs to listen), be careful if you follow one down a ramp and onto a highway in the winter. Man, some big sheets of ice can go airborne off the roof. They can take out your hood, windshield and dent your roof in a flash.

[SasquatchMan]

Those so called "modular" homes are popular in parts of the world where temperatures/weather make building difficult, and they're popular out in the countryside, because you don't need a hundred different contractors to build the sucker.  Just drop it and go.  Are they any good?  Depends on the builder.  

Certainly, I've seen some pretty poor ones, but there are entire communities where I live that have nice mods - 2x6 walls, R30 in the ceiling, vinyl siding, good windows etc.
My understanding is that modulars are not individually inspected - but that the "plan" is approved, and it is up to the builder to have quality controls in place.  This might be wrong, or it might vary from place to place.

Either way, they're no better or worse than any other new home (except maybe custom built executive types).  I got out of the industry because so many stupid things get past inspectors (like backfilling against plywood walls).

Better off to have a bungalow built by a Swede in 1960.

[woodmills1]

We have a lot of that kind of building here in the northeast.  I always thought that building them inside a factory with hydraulic presses and forms and jigs for walls and such would produce some well made structures. Once the house sections are placed and tied together you really can't tell a modular from a stick built.  Imagine no rain on the sub floor and framing or no ice under the roof shingles that were put on during the winter.

[Wudman]

We have a modular home builder just down the road from us.  They produce a quality product using quality materials and strict quality control enforcement.  These particular houses are better built than typical site built homes.  The rough construction is all fabricated in jigs that insures squareness.  All subfloors are glued and screwed.  Amenities run the gamut from entry level to top of the line products.......buyers choice.  My wife used to work for the company doing hardwood millwork.  Any home that you can throw a winch line around and swing onto a foundation has to be pretty well built.  Also, with the volume of work that this company does, they get some pretty amazing prices on materials.  The average small contractor cannot compete with them on finished home price.