Affordable housing has always been owned by the Mobile home or its close relative, the Modular home. Until now.
Enter the Builder Module.
The Builder Module concept was developed by Home Nation during Covid in 2021 to provide customers with a faster total build time for a home. Covid related supply chain delays meant that it was becoming impossible to deliver a finished factory-built home in under a year.
The ‘Builder Module’ is a partially finished home section that contains most of the mechanicals of the home. It is the only part of the home that is built offsite. It is essentially the ‘Heart’ of the home that contains both bathrooms and utility room with 75% of the mechanicals installed - including the furnace, air ducting, AC, Water heater and Electrical panel with all circuits landed. All the ventilation is installed, including the furnace fresh and exhaust air, bath vents, and dryer and range vents.
The living areas of the home - the bedrooms, living room, family room and dining room - are then built on site around the Builder Module once it is set in place.
“We have kept the real economy of scale by building the Builder Module in the plant, and eliminated 80% of the superfluous shipping and installation costs of a factory built home at the same time - the part that some call ‘high priced air’ to ship” says Paul Comino, the owner of Home Nation. By this means Home Nation has been able to achieve an economy of scale in production with a finished home price point that surprises even veteran site builders.
The Builder Module is supplied with 6 other components of the home build in one very affordable ‘Builders Package’ that provides 75% of the materials for the home (other than the concrete foundation). The package includes all the ICF (Insulated Concrete Forming) Blocks, the roof SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels), the Steel roofing and trim, Cabinets, Windows and Doors and a properly sized A/C equipment package. The entire building system is called the ‘CAT 5’ Home (‘Cat 5’ as in Category 5 storm)
Not only does the CAT 5 Home save customers money to build, but Comino says “The Cat 5 Home is a better home…. It is also hurricane proof, tornado proof, fireproof, bullet proof, soundproof and dustproof.” And, because of the enhanced R-values of the materials used the insulation is superior to every manufactured and modular home on the market today, as well as most site built homes. “This equals savings in both utility costs and home insurance, which could equal as much as an additional $150 - 250 per month depending on the home size and where you live” he says.
Furthermore the site built home gets treated far better by lenders than its poor cousin, the Mobile home. Instead of higher rates and longer loan terms Cat 5 homes score some of the best rates that lenders can offer, which means lower monthly mortgage payments.
These dynamics make the CAT 5 Home ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ (TCO) less than the equivalent TCO for almost every modular home and even some manufactured homes. This is why Home Nation is promoting the CAT 5 home over the Modular (and even the Mobile) home as the ‘New Affordable Home’.
