Benefits of a Champion System Built Home

Quality
Champion System Built Homes offer better quality for less money. The structural integrity of a Champion System Built home is its main claim to superior quality. Here are some of the factors that produce superior quality:

Better Equipment
By design, Champion System Built factories are able to use larger, more powerful, and more sophisticated equipment. Because all main components are assembled with jigs, precision control is ensured. This means that every home is built exactly as it was designed. In stick building, the carpenters often have to use "creative" techniques to make things fit because measurements are seldom exact. 

Climate Control
Building in a modern modular home factory means building under climate-controlled conditions. This enables Champion System Built Homes to eliminate two problems, which plague stick builders. First, it allows them to avoid weather-related defects: moisture saturation by the lumber, drywall and insulation; warping of walls and doors; freezing and cracking of brittle materials; and other ravages of the elements. Secondly, a factory environment enables Champion System Built companies to avoid weather-related delays that prevent the Customer from keeping his or her move-in date on schedule.

Materials
Only the highest quality, kiln dried lumber is used, because warped, badly knotted or splintered pieces would compromise the integrity. This means that better materials, applied with tighter specifications, go into Champion System Built Homes.

Better Construction
Because Champion System Built Homes have to be shipped over the road, they are built stronger than more conventionally built homes. Major components, such as walls, floors, and ceilings, are not only nailed together, as in stick built homes, they are also bonded with a special adhesive. This double fastening enables modular homes to be sturdy enough to withstand miles of travel, something no stick built house could survive without serious structural damage. Another advantage of using adhesive to secure walls and ceilings is that they are less likely to be plagued by annoying nail pops. 

Tighter Construction
The tighter construction of Champion System Built Homes greatly improves their energy efficiency. For example, caulking around electrical fixtures and caulking along exterior sheathing seams helps to eliminate infiltration of cold air in the winter and hot air in the summer. 

Quality Control
Superior quality in Champion System Built construction is first ensured by the manufacturer's compliance with national, state, and local building codes. To verify this compliance, each building plan is inspected by a state-approved third party inspection agency, which certifies that the house will meet the most stringent state construction standards. Stick built plans rarely receive this much expert review.

Once construction begins, Champion System Built Homes are subjected to far more inspections than stick built homes. At each stage—from framing to finishing—there are quality control stations set up to monitor the quality of the workmanship. A full-time, seasoned quality control inspector travels from station to station with extensive checklists of performance standards. In addition, a specially trained inspector form the state-approved third party inspection agency inspects every home as it moves down the line. The additional costs incurred by this system are more than compensated for by the reduction in service work in the field.

Time
Typically, Champion System Built homes are delivered to the site in 8 to 10 weeks, and they are ready to "move into" in another 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the size of the home and amount of required on-site finish. This means that the Customer can usually move into his or her home in about 3 to 4 months. Today, it is fairly common for an anxious buyer to wait 6 months to a year for a stick built house. Even the most efficient stick builder is significantly limited by a 3 to 5 man crew, which must travel from job to job, rather than the modular manufacturer's 150-man crew, which always works at the same location. Furthermore, delays due to material backorders, no-show subcontractors, poor weather, etc. make it hard even for the most conscientious stick builder to keep the Customer on schedule. This often presents a serious problem, especially to a buyer who has already sold his or her old house and is pressured for early occupancy by the new buyers. Absorbing the costs of a motel or a rental property or coping with the stress of a few months in a relative's home is something most people prefer to avoid.

Cost
The purchase price of a Champion System Built home is less than that of a conventionally built home because the factory is able to reduce its costs. The savings come from volume purchases of materials directly from the manufacturer (eliminating middleman markups), lower assembly line wages, and a reduction in lost and damaged materials caused by on-site weather conditions, pilferage, and vandalism. Imagine what an automobile would cost if it were built from scratch in a mechanic's garage. The only way a stick builder can match the cost of a modular home is by building with less expensive, inferior materials, by employing unskilled labor, or by paying for fewer man-hours. This of course results in poorer construction, craftsmanship, and service.

In addition, with less labor required at the job site, overall construction time for a modular home is far shorter. This not only reduces on-site construction costs, it also reduces the number of days the Customer must pay interest on his or her construction loan.

The costs are not only lower with Champion System Built homes, they are also known in advance of construction. The Champion System Built manufacturer can offer prices that will not fluctuate. Most Champion System Built homes are 90% complete when they are shipped from the factory to the building site. The Customer knows the exact cost for the modular unit in advance--even when the home is customized. In fact, the price is guaranteed, regardless of cost increases to the factory for materials and labor. Consequently, there is less possibility of significantly miscalculating costs, which means there is less chance of unaffordable cost overruns.

Summary
Modular construction has become the construction method of choice for the quality conscious and cost conscious house buyer. Champion System Built Homes are not just as good as the vast majority of stick built homes; they are better built. The advantages are many, from better materials, to state-of-the-art construction technology, to superior finished quality, to saved time and money. And the Customer gains all of these things without sacrificing amenities.