I don’t mean double-wides, I mean quality modular houses.
Modular would be more popular if it didn’t cost as much as standard construction. It’s bizarre how expensive it is.
Lots of processes need to be sorted out. Need steady demand. It’s an interesting business.
Modular or not, when there’s 10-12’ of storm surge and/or river flooding, it doesn’t matter. Houses built today generally handle cat 3 and even cat 4 storm winds without much problem. It’s the flooding that’s the killer.
I’m talking about reconstruction afterwards.
People have been trying to make modular housing work for awhile, with limited success. For various reasons, it’s a lot more challenging than it seems like it should be. One of the problems is that the US doesn’t really have a single national regulatory regime for building codes, they are mostly local and regional. You can’t really design a house that works everywhere so the economics are a lot different than selling something like a car or a washing machine.
I think a large part of it is consistent demand, and that must be regional because of the size and shipping of the final product. Hurricanes solve both to some extent.
If you can make modulars out of concrete instead of balsa wood that would be great. Otherwise, bring on the shipping container houses…
Shipping container houses are terrible ideas. You want insulation, windows, plumbing, etc. They don’t work well in those small steel containers.
I was hoping for a trend in less green house gases but this sounds like the next best idea.