A different bird

For the past year or so I've been reading the 'Modular Home Builder' blog. The blog is written by Gary Fleisher, aka Mod Coach. His blog has been a great source of information for what's happening in our industry, but it's also made me realize something. We're a different bird.

Lets start with some basics. Modular Manufacturers come in all shapes and sizes. There are only 6 major manufacturers in New England (we're one of them). There are a whole bunch in Pennsylvania. Some companies (like us) are relatively small (50 - 100 houses a year). Some are big (500 houses a year). Some are family owned and operated (like us). Some are owned by Warren Buffet.

Below is a list of why we're "strange".


1) Builder / Dealer Networks:

Them: Most modular manufacturers sell only through their builder networks (ie, won't sell directly to customers). You call the manufacturer, they ask you where you're building, they give you the name and number of their builder / dealer in your area, end of the conversation with the folks that are building your house.

Huntington Homes: We have a couple of (fantastic) builders that we refer folks too. However, most of our sales are direct to customer. While we recognize the importance of the local builder, we also recognize that the customer relationship is more important. There is nobody that knows what we do better then "we". Why wouldn't you talk to us direct?

2) Sales Staff.

Them: See here for a recent post by ModCoach re: Sales Truths Facing Factory Management
What on earth is he talking about? Sales Reports? Recruitment? YTD Percent of Close to Quote ratio? Outside Sales Training? Prospecting Database? Territories? Sales Contests?

Huntington Homes: Last time I checked we were building houses. Customer wants one. Talks to builder. Builder builds one. . . . . Our Process is SIMPLE. You talk to Duane, Jason, Adam, or Larry. We build you a house.

3) Turnkey Projects

Them: They are owned by an investment group and run by hired guns. They couldn't possibly be bothered with all the miscellaneous details needed to build you a house. . . . they run a factory.

Huntington Homes: If you're located near us, we'll General Contract your project (site improvements, foundation, modules, onsite contracting, heating, plumbing, etc). . . . . As far as I know, we're the ONLY major manufacturer that does this.

4. Dealing with a down market

Them: Most of the other manufacturers are 1) shutting their doors, 2) being bought by bigger companies, or 3) changing their product lines (going commercial, or going "green").

Huntington Homes. Down markets are nothing new. This one is bad, but we've been here before. Rather then throw out 33 years of experience, we're focusing on what we do best. Build well built homes for normal people.

While the others are chasing multi-family and commercial structures, our experience tells us to continue focusing on our core / long-term residential customers. . . . . we'd rather "plant" 10 high quality residential seeds then 200 low cost / high volume apartment units. These "seeds" are a long term strategy.

Mark my words friends. 10 years from know you'll still be able to call and talk to Jason, Adam, or Larry and we'll build you a house. . . It's that simple.

Lighting Retrofit

We've decided that it's time to do something nice for ourselves. So we're going to replace our shop lights.



We currently have 109 400w Metal Halide high bay lights lighting our shop. Running 9hrs a day these fixtures consume roughly 98,000 kWh of electricity a year.


With help from Efficiency Vermont (Vermont's Energy Efficiency Utility) we're going to replace these old fixtures with new T5 Fluorescent High Bay Fixtures.

It's estimated that these new fixtures will save 58,000 kWh / year.

It's also estimated that over the lifetime of the fixtures we will reduce our Carbon Dioxide Emissions by 460 tons.

While the economics of the retrofit certainly stand on their own, incentives from Efficiency Vermont make this a "no-brainer".

Project 9336: Richmond, VT

So it's been a while since we've posted. Here's an update on the Richmond, VT house.





First, the house sold. And the new owners are loving it. So much that we got an invite to their Holiday Party.

Testing is complete on the house, and we received a SILVER rating from the NAHBGreen National Green Building Program.

Here are the Stats for your Energy Dorks.

- Blower Door: 540cfm at 50pa for 26,880 ft^3 of interior space
- 1.2 ACH (50pa). This is 83% Better then IECC.
- HERS Index Rating: 56

We are pleased with these results. The HERS Rating was achieved mostly by the building envelope alone (ie the mechanical / heating system was a typical hydronic boiler and lighting was mostly standard incandescent). No doubt the score would have been lower had we looked at some alternative systems.

The building envelope was basically our standard air sealing details coupled with a (small) upgrade to dense pack cellulose walls and loose fill cellulose (R50) attic. I have no doubt that if builders pay attention to the module-to-module air sealing details most of our construction should test out with a similar HERS Rating.