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Prefabulous

New modular homes nail quick construction, high efficiency, hot design

By Lisa Marshall, Special to the Rocky

Published February 16, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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The Tomeceks' house nears completion at the Barvista Homes factory in July.

Photo by Courtesy Of Brad Tomecek

The Tomeceks' house nears completion at the Barvista Homes factory in July.

The top floor of the house arrives at the building site in August, ready to be unloaded.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol / The Rocky

The top floor of the house arrives at the building site in August, ready to be unloaded.

Flagger Colin Hayward from Highway Technologies directs traffic around the project.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol / The Rocky

Flagger Colin Hayward from Highway Technologies directs traffic around the project.

Workers guide the first floor of the house onto its cement foundation.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol / The Rocky

Workers guide the first floor of the house onto its cement foundation.

Neighbor Pat Kimball has a front-row seat in August as the second story of Christa and Brad Tomecek's house swings above West 32nd Avenue, headed for its lot.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol / The Rocky

Neighbor Pat Kimball has a front-row seat in August as the second story of Christa and Brad Tomecek's house swings above West 32nd Avenue, headed for its lot.

The second story is dropped into place atop the house's main level.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol / The Rocky

The second story is dropped into place atop the house's main level.

Christa and Brad Tomecek, with their son, Austin, stand in front of their new modular house in January. Brad, an architect with Studio H:T, added custom architectural and design touches inside and outside the house.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol / The Rocky

Christa and Brad Tomecek, with their son, Austin, stand in front of their new modular house in January. Brad, an architect with Studio H:T, added custom architectural and design touches inside and outside the house.

Christa and Brad Tomecek relax at the island in their kitchen, which boasts many features of a custom home, including black granite countertops.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol / The Rocky

Christa and Brad Tomecek relax at the island in their kitchen, which boasts many features of a custom home, including black granite countertops.

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The architect is known for his talents in contemporary design. The prefab home manufacturer is known for swift, economical construction.

They made a fine team.

"Our whole premise was: Could we do a cool, energy-efficient modern home and do it modular?" says Brad Tomecek, 35, an architect with Boulder-based Studio H:T. "The answer is 'yes.' "

Take a walk through Brad and Christa Tomecek's sleek 2,700-square-foot Barvista Homes house, in the Highland neighborhood northwest of Lower Downtown, and your preconceived notions of what a factory-built home looks like are dashed. Forget safe, neutral- toned Formica and standard finishes. The kitchen features bold black granite countertops, a colorful glass mosaic backsplash, stainless steel appliances and bamboo flooring.

Black-stained wooden stair risers and a smooth drywall finish add to the contemporary look.

Even the master bathroom is chic, with a riverstone shower basin, ceramic denim-colored tiles and black flooring.

From the outside, the long, thin, ultra-modern design is a stark contrast to the more traditional brick homes in the 150-year-old neighborhood.

"The neighbor on one side hates the house. The neighbor on the other side loves it," says Christa, 31.

And as far as energy-efficiency goes, the Tomeceks are in the process of having the home certified with the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership and Environmental Design program.

The home's unique blend of prefabricated shell and on-site customization represents a marked shift in a factory-built home market long plagued with stereotype images of double-wide trailers or blah cookie-cutter homes sold off a lot.

In reality, most modular homes today are built specifically for one homeowner and "the sky is the limit" when it comes to customization, says Thayer Long, executive director of the National Modular Housing Council, a Washington, D.C.- based trade association.

"It used to be you could only get a basic colonial or ranch-style home. Now we have modular manufacturers building million-dollar mansions," he says.

In 2006, 38,000 modular homes were built nationwide, and 1,400 were built in Colorado, constituting 3.5 percent of the state housing market.

Long notes that there is a difference between "manufactured homes," which are typically pre-built to national code and sold through retailers, and "modular homes," which are typically built one at a time according to local and state codes.

In the beginning, Tomecek didn't foresee building modular, but after buying a long, 25-foot-wide infill site, it looked like a good fit.

"We figured we could save a significant amount of time and probably build for a little bit less," he says. "As an architect, if I am going to advocate this kind of building, I need to understand what the pros and cons are firsthand."

The Tomeceks concede that while things got off to a smooth start, the process was not easy.

Their home was born July 7 in the 103,000-square-foot Barvista Homes factory near Johnstown, just two days after excavators began digging the hole on the spot where it would ultimately rest, 19 miles away.

Within days, the home's walls were up and insulated, and wiring and plumbing had begun.

Within a few weeks, factory workers were installing cabinets and flooring, a pace unheard of on a site-built project.

On Aug. 16, as the whole neighborhood seemed to look on from their front porches, an enormous crane lifted the two long, narrow boxes (roughly 57,000 pounds) and gingerly set them down on the narrow slot between two other houses.

Their projected move-in date of Sept. 15 looked promising.

But then, for a time, things fell apart.

The roof - a custom, more modern alternative to the one typically shipped with the house - didn't arrive for months.

Water leaked through the tarp covering the house, and because it had come with floor, cabinets and drywall already in, there was plenty of damage.

Then the gas company couldn't get them hooked up, throwing their schedule off by six weeks.

And there were problems with the contractor charged with doing the custom finish work.

In the end, modular proved to be equally susceptible to some of the setbacks that often plague site-built home construction.

It took longer than they thought it would (they finally moved into their new home in mid-December), cost more than they'd planned (between $13,000 and $25,000, depending on how you crunch the numbers) and led to more than a few minor marital squabbles at the breakfast table.

But would they do it again?

Absolutely.

"In a perfect world you are hitting budget and hitting timelines, but I realize that doesn't always happen," says Brad, who believes they got a good deal in a good time frame.

Christa agrees. "I love the finishes of the house. I love the construction. There are just a few things we'd do differently next time."

The advantages of building modular

* Cost: Because materials (including appliances, cabinets and other finish products) are bought in bulk by the factory, a modular home can cost up to 15 percent less.

* Time: Because site preparation and home building can take place simultaneously, it can take less time. Also, because a modular is built indoors, weather is not a factor.

* Waste: Modular homes tend to produce less waste to begin with, and scrap wood is often recycled to make crates for the factory.

* Energy efficiency: Factory- built homes leave less room for error than site-built homes, so they tend to be tighter and better insulated with fewer places where air can leak out.

The details

* What: Modular home in the Highland neighborhood

* Owners: Brad and Christa Tomecek

* Construction: Barvista Homes

* Cost: Construction: $325,000. Land: $150,000

* Size: 2,700 square feet

How long did it take?

July 5

The hole was dug for the home.

July 7

The factory started construction. The house was completed about four weeks later.

Aug. 15

The house "boxes" were craned into place.

Jan. 4

Move-in day! (delayed for six weeks by Xcel Energy because of backlog)

Comments

  • February 17, 2008

    1:05 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    raybjm1955 writes:

    The article states in part -

    “And as far as energy-efficiency goes, the Tomeceks are in the process of having the home certified with the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership and Environmental Design program. . . * Energy efficiency: Factory- built homes leave less room for error than site-built homes, so they tend to be tighter and better insulated with fewer places where air can leak out.”

    Tighter, better sealed homes are indeed more energy efficient. But for that reason, they can also be more prone to indoor air pollution. That’s why it’s important to specify and install building materials with no added chemicals, including no added formaldehyde. The picture shows the home under construction with pink formaldehyde-bonded insulation, just one source of formaldehyde in the home. The readers should know that Denver-based Johns Manville, a leader in building and engineered products, makes the country’s only full line of naturally white Formaldehyde-freeTM fiber glass insulation. Using products with no-added formaldehyde is one way to follow US EPA recommendations to minimize your exposure to formaldehyde.

    In addition, LEED certification does not necessarily mean that potential indoor air pollution issues have been fully addressed (or addressed at all) to meet the recommendations of state and federal health and environmenal agencies on formaldehyde exposure.

    Bruce Ray, Johns Manville

  • February 18, 2008

    3:02 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    bnoote writes:

    I had a modular home built about the same time of year, but one year prior to the couple in this article. The process went pretty smooth, but with some hiccups. Our delay was due to weather. It took a 90 ton crane to set our home and it had to be placed in newly excavated dirt. We had a 4 week delay waiting for one week without rain (in August) so we could get the crane in place.

    I certainly recommend people check out this type of housing when looking to build. If anyone is looking for more information on the process, a list of modular home builders, things to watch out for, etc. I detailed the process and my experience in a website: http://www.modularhomechoice.com

  • March 19, 2008

    12:23 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    mesa65 writes:

    My husband and I worked all of our life and finally as senior citizens decided to build our dream home. It took all of our money but we decided on the Barvista Home because of it being factory built and would not be weathered. They give you a 1 year warranty but what you don't get is someone from the factory to come out and look at all the mistakes. It is one year later and things are falling apart like bad tile and and dry wall issues. We have to go out now after a year and pay for someone to come in and fix everything. I want to thank you for listening. I just feel that it isn't right to have to pay for additional things that should not have happened in the first place after the warranty is up. We have been in our home exactly 1 year. Thank you again for listening

  • August 1, 2008

    9:46 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Liberty_Modular_Home writes:

    Here is my experience with modular housing. Yes, not all modular homes are built the same... but, here I am. Take a look at what Liberty Homes, Inc delivered to me. www.VeryBadHome.com It is my opinion that the manufactured home industry has regulations, but that rarely do you see them enforced. It would seem that in IL, if you get a modular home with no issues, then you are fortunate. If you get a modular home in IL with issues, then good luck. The IL Dept of Public Health (IDPH) regulates modular housing in IL, yet they refused to enforce any of their regulations in my case. Check out my website. You won't believe your eyes. Also, on my website, a few inches from the top, you will see a link to ABC 7 Chicago’s story they aired about my home – 4.5 minutes of air time. I’ve got signed letters from 11 IL Senators and 36 State Representatives that were sent to IDPH, and yet they still refuse to do anything.