Modular homes are not complete when delivered. Finishing touches must be done on site to wrap the construction process. This finishing work will make the difference between having a dream home and a nightmare house that you wish lightning would strike so you can collect the insurance and walk away from it.
Here is a run down of some common finishing tasks for modular homes in Michigan.
Repair Drywall Cracks
No one likes discussing this but it is the truth. There will may be some cracks in the drywall of a modular home after it has been transported to your building site. Since a modular home is transported over roads those drywall cracks are simply exposed sooner. The good news is that since they are exposed sooner they are also able to be addressed and fixed sooner. Your local builder will take care of any possible drywall cracks before you even move in.
Install Siding
Some of your exterior walls will not have siding or will arrive with large gaps of siding. These gaps are where they modules meet are also known as the marriage walls. To avoid this, have a visible vertical line on the side of your home, the manufacturer intentionally does not completely finish the siding on your home. Instead the modular manufacturer will send some of the siding material from the factory to the building site so your local builder can put in place over the seam of the marriage wall. By doing this your marriage wall seam will forever be hidden from view and your siding will match around the house since it will all come from the same source.
Finishing HVAC
HVAC is the fancy way of saying your heating, ventilation and air conditioning. The local builder will take care of making the connection between your new home and the local neighborhood pipes for your water and sewage needs. If you do not have nearby municipal services your local builder will connect you to your won water well and septic system. They will also make sure that the connections between each module to ensure that the heat from your furnace will flow to all rooms and that the upstairs bathtub will flow through the pipes to the outside. Needless to say it is not fun when an inexperienced person forgets to make these connections and you have no heat or worse yet your bathtub drains into your dining room ceiling.