" We're touring the plant here with Dave Boniello, who is the Vice President of Marketing. And this looks like pretty traditional work that they're doing here, ripping down sheets of plywood, but boy, we're out of the weather."

" Oh it's great, Bob. What we're doing here is, we have parts list that are, that come down from my Engineering Department that give these guys a work list of they're days work and they're basically taking all different sized plywood, half a 3 quarter cutting it to the sizes and the quantities that are required. Putting it on buggies and shipping it over into other departments."

" Okay."

" And again it's great. It's out of the weather and there's no [unk]."

" What happens with all the waste?"

" Well, we have a strict recycling program. We work with our lumber suppliers on lumber and plywood and a lot of that stuff is putting buggies and shipped back to them when they're delivering us material."

" So it's recycled?"

" Yes."

" Tell me something, there's so much lumber, how do you keep track? I mean, how many houses are being built at one time?"

" Well, in the entire building Bob, we're working on anywhere from 8 to 10 houses a day and these guys could be generally cutting lumber for 1 to 2 houses at a time."

" Wow. Let's talk about the framing table. There are 2 platforms here that are, how long?"

" Well, we're building walls anywhere from 30 to 64 feet generally for any of the houses we built."

" Yeah."

" So, they're quite large walls."

" Yeah."

" And table here is usually the outside wall which is always a 2 x 6 wall for our products and then the mating wall or the marriage wall as we call it, which could be a 2 x 3 or a 2 x 4 wall is generally built on that other large table over there."

" Okay. So is the box always the same height?"

" No. We're building 8 foot ceilings, 9 foot ceilings. We've even gone as high as, built some things with 10 foot ceilings."

" Well, our particular house has a high ceiling in some sections."

" It's a custom box and it's not 10-foot high stud but it's very unique studding."

" Right."

" So just like on a regular job, they lay everything out. They put all the studs on 16-inch centers."

" Typically, Bob, we're building products for different market places and we do build 16 and 24 on center products. We are flexible depending on the market place for building."

" Now, Dave, what's the purpose of all the metal that's stapled on here."

" Again, it's something you need for our industry, Bob. What we're doing here is we're putting metal plates on the headers and tying to the jack in full stud and again on the sill, tying it to the jack and full stud. And the beauty of this is it's gonna help prevent any stressing and pulling in the transportation and the setting of the units that could add to dry wall cracking."

" Great."

" So this is unusual, we're actually putting the dry wall onto the surface of the stud wall at this stage."

" Yes Bob, again, it's something unique for our industry. What we do is, we actually build a house from the inside out and in the stick-build industry, you build a house, you frame it and sheathe them from the outside in."

" Yeah."

" But we're gonna place the dry wall on again. It's on the table. The wall's been squared up and then we'll place the dry wall on top of the studs and screw it down. It's actually glued and screwed down."

" What kind of adhesive is it that you're using?"

" It's a PL200 adhesive."

" Okay. Well, it's pretty impressive the speed at which they're working around here and of course the dry wall screws are mounted in this magazine and the air guns just put them in there, very quickly. Now, you're just reaching a point over here where you got a window opening."

" Right."

" And, I guess, 2o things, do you sheath right over it and then cut it off?"

" Yes, we will, Bob. We'll actually sheath over the entire wall, take a router with a cutting bit on it and just get a nice clean cut around the windows."

" Uh-huh."

" Now, this is pretty impressive. You've just basically put in these big eyebolts in here so that you can crane the thing away."

" Exactly."

" So what happens next?"

" We pick it up with a hoist and we bring it up and we store it over into that wall storage."

" And then tomorrow they'll be put together."

" They'll be picked up again and hoisted over onto the assembly line and drop down on top of the floors."

" Right. It takes some good planning."

" Alright. Now Dave, we're basically looking at the assembly process here where you're putting the brief manufactured walls together to create a box. What's the first step?"

" Well, the first step like anything else is starting with the floor system and were building basically a rectangle, sometimes with some odd cut-outs in it but basically it's a rectangular floor and we'll frame it out of either 2 x 8's or 2 x 10's depending on the framing designation for that, Bob."

" I like this term marriage wall. This is---- since were putting together a separate boxes wherever the boxes are joined together, you call it a marriage."

" Marriage wall or the mating wall. Yes."

" Now, what about the roof frame?"

" We're building our roof systems on a table and we're basically putting the dry wall face down and framing on top of that."

" Let me ask a question about inspectional services. I mean, if you're selling manufactured houses in Massachusetts, how do they sign off on wiring and plumbing and the like?"

" Well, that's a great question. I mean, the building inspector isn't able to come here to the factory and check the boxes out, so we use an independent third party system. It's unique in our industry. It's done and it's accepted in all states and that third part is basically reviewing our plans and then taking the plans out onto the production line and making sure that the boxes are built in accordance to the plan which they review and they approve."