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Modular Home Construction Basics

In this segment, Bob Vila visits the Simplex Industries modular home plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the Home Again project house is being constructed. Dave Boniello, the Vice President of Marketing for Simplex, gives Bob a plant tour during the construction of the Modular Mountain Retreat project house. Building the majority of a home in a factory and delivering it to the home site to be assembled presents unique challenges. Simplex Industries, a privately owned company that ships over 400 homes a year, utilizes a mix of traditional framing techniques and modular home construction-specific practices to ensure that the transportation of the home from factory to building site can be accomplished without structural or cosmetic damage to the house. Examples include eaves that can be folded up for transportation, extra bracing between walls and floors, metal shielding to protect rough electrical work, and drywall that is glued, not screwed, into place.
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Modular Home Construction Basics

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" They've been -- let me the vice president marketing here at simplex homes and right now. Looks like it's coffee break time so it's a little bit quiet but normally very noisy operation. Now. What box are we looking at here we're looking at itself. Second floor upper roof section that's going to go on top of our berkshires and this is over the front door of the house this will be over the front door with the vaulted ceiling in the foyer area I think a lot of people probably think. That a house manufactured in a factory. Would not have the same kind of wood framing. That a stick built house on the field -- people would think that that's really not a aspect what we're doing here is we're using framing materials. That are very similar to any type of framing materials that you would CNN and the stick built industry. -- you see that we're using some fir rafters here two by twelve fir rafters. It's truss rafter system that's designed for our industry it has special ganged nailers that have hinges built into them that allow us to be able look. Fold back eaves and fold back upper roof section this is my next question is what we're looking at here is really something that'll flip out. In the field to create the overhang the roof overhang. And there you see it and then it just gets fastened down. Let's put it back up what are all these straps that I was looking at down here. Well Bob in our industry what we're doing is they're shipping products that can go anywhere from six miles to 600 miles and the way we fasten things is we nail it and then we follow it up with a strap that takes it from the top of the rafter core down onto the wall. Or floor band. Whatever may be in that case and we're tying it with staples and metal look galvanized straps were kind of plywood being used for your sheathing. -- GP plytanium it's it's a very flexible stable product that is used in our industry. It allows us the ability to -- not happening. Problems restricting us any floor uses that we have yeah you can use any kind of floor product in this thing when you've got a stable flat plywood like that you don't have to worry about. Florists are we -- the fact that we're shipping it down the road there is some flexibility right that's right. This is a gable end wall that was built on the table and run over plates and we've been fastened all of our gable and walls down with -- of the screw and every bag. Some of the other -- that a screw in every -- Down onto the cheating I write down then glazing the blocking that we're looking at here this is a receiver for and it's -- an entire corner -- OK. And then. The blocking at the bottom of this particular product Bob has one by ten baseball and we've added blocking in here to help give us some good nailing. But that base molding on later on OK and you've got the rough wiring going and this happens at this stage I mean at this point you've gotta do all the rough an then insulate and stuff right let me show you we we do over here. In our electrical department we did on our studs in advance. And then we run them from the wires through. And we tie it into a box. There will be placing over into this pre routed hole hole is routed out in advance and have been boxes and placed them all right so the wiring comes through these straps here. And you've already got a -- bra box. So once once the boxes placed in and the wires are are all fastened in place we then we'll take. These metal. Protectors these they don't protectors and we'll put those over the OK go to areas to protect from any nails that might happen in achieving processes excitement. From the now while we can get a good view of our three large windows. -- and I guess you've got insulation process already started yes the after the wiring process we then start to install insulation. We're using up Owens Corning it's a fast bat insulation it's. Great for our industry because of the fact that the drywall this is all on the table in advance this allows us to friction fit this insulation. Without any mechanical fasteners. Terrific -- really speeds things up when there are bacteria got six inch long kitchen walls that this is our 21 not. Break."

" What is this other product that we're looking out appeared on the system it's it's a foam seal system that's made again for the modular housing industry. It comes on the liquid form as you see the foam build up returns in the foam in a matter of seconds it bonds the drywall for the bottom cord of the truss. When this when this fashions and sets up you can't remove this drywall that it replaces all mechanical fasteners are you screws no screws no nothing. From nothing to pop through it's great I like that nominal ignorance and then I noticed in every bay you've got on these metal straps and what he's doing -- metal straps will be placed on that we. Nailed to the side of that truss and bringing that fastening down into the walls and again. We don't want anything to vibrate loose dreadful experience there's -- of these hinges here. And that's what we're looking at here is the rest of the roof rafters right at the top cord of the roof. I think system. We'll be lifted up in place and then there's a knee wall little drop down when this arrives at the site that goes up OK and then over here they're putting in the rest of the -- Right the guys are getting ready to tie this overhang in. To gable end overhang we pre build it and it'll be fastened into the side of that let's try. And that contrasts on the highway actually. NN. That got in front of them right here. But that he -- wants -- stuff that's the upper flip that's built into the -- That will flip over during the set on job site when it flips over that'll extend the roof run all the help it to the -- We are looking at one of how many boxes Dave there's five larger boxes into small boxes and they'll all be completed during the course of -- confidence roughly a week's work here in the plant. And how long will it take you to get a -- tonight. Prepare their mind and we'll of course look at the crosses over the course of several weeks yes thanks Dave thanks Bob."

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