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"Modular 101"
by Michael I. Roman |
An introduction to the commercial factory-built industry.
 Pick up the Yellow Pages anywhere in
the country and turn to "Modular Building." Chances are very good you will find
no listing at all.
Turn back a page and you might find a few entries under "Mobile Offices &
Commercial Units." Look up "Portable Buildings" and you probably will be
referred to "Buildings - Portable." Companies listed there provide storage
barns, gazebos, carports and utility sheds. Look up "Classrooms," "Commercial
Buildings" and "Relocatable Classrooms" and you'll not find any listing. The
bulk of the modular building industry participants are listed under "Trailer
Renting & Leasing" along with U-Haul and Thermo King, alongside road
trailers, storage trailers, and shipping containers.
More than 60 years ago, large highway and real estate construction firms placed
a commercial version of a mobile home at project sites as a field office.
Alternatively referred to as a mobile office, field office or construction
trailer, these buildings are manufactured in a factory with axles and tires
attached for ease of relocation. With roots in the mobile home industry and as
small buildings with their own axles and tires, it is no wonder most people
refer to our products as trailers.
During those same 60 years, factory-built buildings for commercial applications
have benefited from both better construction materials and better construction
techniques. Not long after the adaptation of mobile homes to commercial
applications, building materials were upgraded to enhance useful life. Unlike
mobile homes, which are generally built to be moved once and permanently sited,
mobile offices are constructed with relocation in mind. Not only must mobile
offices be dry, clean working environments, they must be capable of repeated
travel at 70 miles per hour.
Thirty-five years ago, someone decided a single mobile office did not provide
adequate working space under a common roof. Two buildings were constructed,
each missing a sidewall, so they could be joined into doublewide. Together, the
two units provided far more space, and foreshadowed the inclusion of a greater
number of units under a common roof.
The advent of multi-unit buildings introduced the problem of interior supports.
It is awkward and often times unacceptable to have interior space visually
cluttered with mid-floor support posts running up to the roof. In order to
eliminate the internal support posts, the weight of the roof had to be
transferred to the perimeter. The solution was the truss. The truss looks like
a series of connected "W's" running just below the roof, which operate to
diffuse weight to the load-bearing exterior walls. While there are limits, the
use of trusses permits the creation of large, unobstructed interiors.
Just as the industry was experimenting with multi-unit buildings and weight
transferring trusses, the demand for temporary space was fueled by the defense
industry.
TRW, Martin Marietta, Lockheed and a host of other defense contractors
discovered these buildings provided an optimum solution for project-specific
space requirements. Not only could the buildings be easily installed and
de-installed in a timely manner, the users could specify interior layouts and
could lease them only for the period of their contract. Better yet, the lease
payments could be passed through the federal government on a cost plus basis.
Heightened demand from the defense sector increased industry capacity and
provided the impetus in development of the multi-unit factory built office
building. Use of these multi-unit buildings quickly spread to state and local
governments and commercial users outside the defense sector.
As more and more users experienced factory-built construction, requests for
higher-quality construction materials developed. Manufacturers addressed these
requests through rigorous research and development programs. Today,
multi-story, multi-unit buildings can be constructed in a factory from steel
and concrete. The units, shipped to the site either on a flatbed trailer or on
their own axles and tires, are craned into place and joined on site. Once
completed, these high-end, factory-built building are indistinguishable from
site-built construction. There generally are no visual or structural
differences whatsoever. Unless you witnessed the construction project, you
would never know the building was manufactured in a factory. Thus, at the high
end, the method of construction is not readily evident.
 At the same time, multi-unit buildings
have been gaining wider customer acceptance. Demand for the single and
doublewide buildings has grown rapidly in numerous markets. In addition to
construction site field offices, single units are used in a wide variety of
applications such as office/storage units, sales offices, classrooms, banks,
telecommunication shelters, decontamination units, showers and restrooms.
Doublewides are used predominately as supplemental office space and classrooms.
The hallmarks of single-unit and double-unit buildings are speed of
installation, ease of relocation, a long useful life and economically
attractive purchase and lease/rental options.
The singles and doublewides are easily identifiable and disproportionately
shape the image of our industry. While singles and doubles are easily
identified as trailers, higher-end, custom multi-unit buildings are
indistinguishable from site-built buildings.
The term "modular buildings" stems from the lack of precise industry
terminology and the fact multi-unit buildings are comprised of numerous
modules. While the difference between a mobile office (the "trailer") and a
modular building has not been delineated by rule, most practitioners refer to
any factory-built structure with three or more individual modules as a modular
building. Thus, this multibillion dollar industry manufactures, sells and
leases single mobile offices, doublewides and modular buildings.
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