The Carolina Contractor Show
The Carolina Contractor Show
Stick Built vs. Modular Homes: Making the Right Choice
The age-old question of modular versus stick-built construction reveals surprising truths in today's housing market. General contractor Donnie Blanchard brings 20 years of expertise to this deep dive, shattering common misconceptions about both building methods.
Most striking is how the traditional cost advantage of modular homes has virtually disappeared. "The modular home cost is pretty much neck and neck with us," Donnie reveals, noting that on recent quotes, the difference was merely $20,000 – and that's before adding customization options that quickly escalate modular pricing.
Beyond dollars and cents, the fundamental differences become clear. Stick-built construction offers unmatched flexibility, allowing homeowners to make changes throughout the building process as they see their space taking shape. Donnie shares how this hands-on approach incorporates local labor and creates truly personalized homes where walls can be moved and features adjusted even during framing stages.
Modular construction maintains its speed advantage, typically completing in 3-5 months versus 7-12 months for custom homes. However, this comes with significant trade-offs. Many buyers don't realize they'll need to handle their own foundation work, driveway installation, and utility connections – essentially becoming their own contractors for critical aspects of the project.
Quality perceptions get challenged when Donnie shares a personal experience working on a family member's modular home. Despite claims of precision manufacturing, he found walls out of square and design flaws like dormer windows positioned too close to roof lines, creating snow and water intrusion issues. "Every wall was out of square. I had to do so much framing, shimming, trimming... it was not at all what I expected."
Whether you're planning your forever home or considering resale value, this episode provides the insider knowledge needed to make an informed decision about which construction method truly aligns with your priorities, timeline, and vision for your dream home.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with your host, General Contractor Donnie Blanchard.
Speaker 2:Get a hit crush.
Speaker 1:Shut up. So you don't know much about Bull Durham, do you, Donnie? I was stunned today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a little bit before my time, man, I was surprised that you got me on that, because I know I've seen it, but I just didn't know the names of the characters.
Speaker 1:Me and Donnie were texting back and forth and long story short, he thought that AI was so strong that it took this generic script information that Donnie wrote and inserted his name and his company name automatically. And I texted back. I said that was me, you hayseed. And then I said to you I feel like I'm the Crash Davis to your Nuke Lelouch. And Donnie says who are they?
Speaker 2:Oh, I was hurt. That is funny, man. You know Crash Davis. Actually there was a guy when I was in middle school. I guess he failed a couple of times and all I remember from Crash Davis was he got his license in eighth grade and somebody made a sign for him outside. So that's where my mind went. But yeah, yeah, I need to revisit Bull Durham. In all fairness, I know it's an amazing movie and I remember liking it as a kid. I just didn't know the characters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for people out there, if there is more than Donnie who haven't seen that movie, bull Durham great movie to watch. Of course, donnie, you know, do not watch it with your girls around, and I would say that to anybody. It's not a kid-friendly movie in parts, but I think it's the best baseball movie. Second place would be Field of Dreams, also Costner. I'm not trying to sound like a fanboy, but Bull Durham is just. I quote it. As I told Donnie earlier today, I probably quote that movie at least once a week. It's got all the best lines.
Speaker 2:I wonder how many people know what you're actually talking about.
Speaker 1:I'll just give them one line that I used to have up on a board in an old office and it said don't think it only hurts the ball club. And that was for reps that would come in and say I think I have an idea, that can, I think we should. And I would just point at the picture of Crash Davis talking to Nuke Lelouch, which is who he said that to. There's your teaser. Go rent the movie and see it on your own. Hey, donnie, we're like the new Siskel and Ebert of DIY. It's the Carolina Contractor Show. My name is Eric Smith. I do inside sales and spew lines from movies like Bull Durham for home builders in Wilson and Greenville.
Speaker 1:Donnie is a general contractor who was unaware of my reference earlier today. He's also the owner of Blanchard Building Company, also the owner of Sure Top Roofing, and what we do on the show is not review movies or talk about it. But pop culture sometimes makes an appearance. But we like to talk about your house, as I used to say the inside, the outside, the top, the bottom, underneath it, electrical plumbing, fire pits, barbecuing appliances, things like that. And we have Donnie on because as a general contractor he actually knows what he's talking about. So I'm just going to supply the smart ass remarks and some information I might be able to relay. But for the most part, donnie knows a lot more about houses.
Speaker 1:The website, thecarolinacontractorcom is a great place to start. We're putting these things up on YouTube so you can see past episodes in all their glory with the video and audio. If you want to listen to the podcast, you can go to the website and download it there. It's on any of the formats that you prefer it. Delivery vehicles.
Speaker 1:You might say Ask the contractor Do you have a question for Donnie? Again, as a general contractor, he can answer the questions you have about your house. Submit them right there. If you have an idea for a show, guest or a subject, submit them at that same spot. You can do it there. Man, we put up stuff from past shows and cool pictures or videos and things like that. That's where all our social media is too. So again, thecarolinacontractorcom is the website. So again, thecarolinacontractorcom is the website. Now today's subject. As I just said a second ago, donnie, you know a lot more about building and construction than I do. I work in a job that supplies the materials but you know more about actually putting them together like a puzzle and building something that people want to live inside. And so today's subject I'm going to lean on you for, but we're going to be talking about modular and stick built building, and you pretty much just do stick built right.
Speaker 2:Yep, stick build is, in terms of most custom builders, that's all they do is stick built. We don't have the manufacturing capability to build anything modular.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to start out by saying of course, I'm going to lean towards stick built. That's perfectly fine, but it means you also know a lot about it, and that's why I'm glad we have you on the show, as usual, because you can get that insight. Let's start off with a basic description of each, if you would do that, donnie.
Speaker 2:So stick built construction is what you primarily see with a custom build or even in a track build situation where people are throwing up houses. You know, trusses may be a common part of a track built home but even still the majority of the house is stick built and the definition there really is no set definition for stick built. But a stick built home goes piece by piece and I'll start with the foundation. Of course. That goes brick by brick and when you get to the floor system it's joist by joist, stud by stud and rafter by rafter. So each one of those goes on one at a time and you basically build it from the ground up.
Speaker 2:The difference between that and a modular is that most of the components from a modular home are built off site in a controlled climate atmosphere and they're built inside. So where you're exposed to the elements with stick build, you're not exposed to the elements with a modular, and there's pros and cons to each and we'll get into that. But most of the people out there and where I live and where you live in Wilson, stick building is the most common method. When you get towards the bigger cities like Raleigh, which is right between the two of us, you see a lot more modular and track building, where they use trusses and several components of the house that are built off site. What?
Speaker 1:got you into stick built versus modular, or is there never really something? You go into modular first, you go into stick built first and maybe decide to do modular.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I would think that if you get into modular, if you're going to school to be a contractor, more than likely your curriculum is going to be tailored around stick building because they're going to teach you the pieces and parts of traditional contracting. And modular is not traditional contracting, that's just something that was kind of born out of the manufactured home, and that's the difference between manufactured and modular. Manufactured is more like a double wide, so it's a different process. But I think they took manufactured homes and they just beefed them up and so they manufactured homes gave way to modular. And maybe that's not fair to say, because if I had to give credit to modular homes in any way, shape or form, it would be that modular homes got their start in the early 1900s.
Speaker 2:So we had this huge immigrant population come into America, we had all the soldiers coming home from the first world war and they needed somewhere to live and they needed that place fast. You know, back then they had a lot more kids than we have today. So I know we've talked about in past episodes the Sears catalog house and that Sears catalog house was the very first modular home. So they built the walls offsite and of course they had the insulation in the walls. I guess they had insulation back then. A lot of houses I see did not but any kind of wiring or anything that would go in the walls before the shipping process was all done offsite and they just shipped those to the job and put those together like a puzzle. So I think that the modular home concept was definitely beneficial to our country as a whole. You know, a hundred years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're not here to make any disparaging remarks about modular, because it's a very fine way to build a house. We just want to give listeners and those watching us on YouTube an idea of what the differences are. So let's jump into that. There's pros and cons to each and let's break them down into the two groups, and again, I'm so glad that I have you here, because you're going to be able to talk about it with much more authority than I can. Let's start with stick built homes. Give me some of the advantages of those, donnie.
Speaker 2:Hey, before I get into this, don't sell yourself short, man. I know you say that I know all this stuff, but you've come a long way. We've been doing the show for five years and now you're in building supply and I think you knew a lot before you went into building supply. So I know that you over there being modest, but, to everybody listening, eric's got his ducks in a row when it comes to construction. I think, matter of fact, you might be able to build a house.
Speaker 1:Here's why I do that, donnie, and I'm going to give away the secret now. Low expectations make everybody surprised, but if I come across saying I know all this stuff and then I say something stupid, then they go. He's an idiot. So I always like to lower that bar. I call it my good lucky feeling.
Speaker 2:It's got me a long way through life, under promise and over deliver. I hear you Boom.
Speaker 1:You got it Okay, all right, so stick built. Give me some pros.
Speaker 2:Advantages are that you can customize a stick built home pretty much as much as you want. And as you go through the process you know it takes a little longer to stick build. So if you're a homeowner wanting your fingerprint on that house as the framers are going through, once you physically see that space and you see the walls go up and that envelope closes the house up, you can say, hey, this might look good over here, this might look good over there. So you have the ultimate flexibility and I think that you know that gives you. It gives you so many more design options. And, like I mentioned during the framing phase, if you want to move a wall or if you want to change the size of a tub or a shower, you have the option to do that. And another thing that I like is that you're incorporating local labor. So you're giving all these people locally a job.
Speaker 2:And people say that folks just don't want to work. I don't find that to be the case where we are, because we have very high quality subs, we have very high quality in-house workers and all those guys. They've shown up for 15 years seven o'clock in the morning ready to put in a 50, 60 hour work week. So, uh, it gives me a lot of pride to incorporate local folks into all of my builds. But, um, I'd say, uh, structurally speaking, a big advantage would be that, um, if you trust a roof or you know, of course you have a manufactured home they have little to no attic space.
Speaker 2:So when you stick build a home, of course you're going to use two by tens instead of a two by six truss with a bunch of bracing and all that stuff, but you basically triple the size of your attic space. So that's a really big deal to a lot of people where that's their only means of storage and I don't want to get into this on the show, but we put a beefed up pull down stair in there. That's insulated very well In the case where we don't have spray foam in the attic. That insulation is super important for your heat loss and heat gain. But the last thing I'll say as an advantage is that you get better homeowner insurance rates. So stick building is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of your homeowner insurance rates and I think that over time that's just one of those things that pays for itself.
Speaker 1:Real quick. I want to deviate into that extra space and you talked about using a pull-down step. Are there a couple of quick things people need to know of how to turn a bonus room, what it requires to then be considered an actual bedroom? You?
Speaker 2:have to add a closet. So most building inspection municipalities they say that you have to have a closet to consider it a bedroom, which is easy enough. But in a bonus room situation you often have those 45 degree angle walls where the roof is the ceiling, not to quote Michael Jordan but you have the 45 degree angle walls where you know you have to make use of that and figure out a creative way to actually have closet shelving. If you do in fact incorporate that into that bonus room.
Speaker 1:Could you in theory have an extra bedroom that uses pull down steps to get to?
Speaker 2:it Not if you tell the inspections department so it's, you know that'd be, that would be, that would be like your least favorite kid. So, hey, you know I'm sorry that you're going to have to do this every day, but you know, put the stairs back up when you go to bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it, and then you could lock it. No, I'm just kidding, please, we're not going to padlock the doors.
Speaker 2:All right, let's go to some uh some of the stick-built homes.
Speaker 2:Donnie, yeah, like I mentioned before, they're very time-consuming. You know, when you get into a stick-built home you're at the mercy of the elements and you know weather is never your friend when we are. Of course North Carolina doesn't have bad weather, but you know when it's raining you can't necessarily do the same thing. It's not just that it's raining on where you're working, it's making the job site a muddy mess. And of course that you know, especially when you get towards the finished part of the house, that just makes everything bad. If you have a lot with really nice, really nice dirt, that that translates to red mud everywhere. And so, um, people often think that a disadvantage or a con is the cost.
Speaker 2:And what I'm seeing lately is that, uh, the, the modular home cost is pretty much neck and neck with us, and I think they took advantage of the housing market being up and they eased up on their price and they're still selling. Of course that's marketing 101. And the last house that I priced against a modular, I want to say we were about $20,000 apart and that wasn't with a lot of options on the modular. So I think if you're a person that wants a modular with with the options, they really hit you over the head when with with anything that deviates from the standard home. So, um, that's one thing. I would say that, um, uh, other than weather and and time, you know, the the cost thing's definitely not anything I'd take into consideration. So, yeah, it's hard for me to find a lot of cons for a stick built because I really feel like that's the best way to go.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's fair. I mean, we kind of got a guide of some people's opinions. But you're right, Depending on where you are, the climate can greatly affect whether the costs will be on par with a modular. Now, speaking of climate, we talked about how modular homes a lot of them are built in a climate-controlled warehouse. They're sectioned out, so we're not going to address the benefit of having those pieces made. We now want to talk to when they get to the job site. So can you give me some advantages of having picking a modular home? It's now at the job site.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it's funny you say that about the. You know the transportation and getting it to the job site. What I mentioned about the weather they say, well, weather doesn't affect a modular install, but try pulling half of a house on a tractor trailer up there and you've got a crane. He has to mobilize and stabilize and you've got to get half of a house or whatever if it's in four quarters. There's a lot of weight involved, is what I'm trying to say. And if you have bad weather you can't just pull all those expensive machines up there because you're paying those a pretty penny by the hour and expect them to do what they need to do around the weather or if you're the location you're taking.
Speaker 1:that I mean, if you're taking half of a house, you want it up in the mountains or even out in the beach or there's narrow bridges. I forgot about the transportation part. Yeah, and that's going to add to the cost if you've got a tricky move right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, and they're going to charge you for it. I mean, that's the one thing. You're not dealing with a GC, with a modular. So you're dealing with a company and somebody's probably got a general contractor license up the chain somewhere. But you're dealing with a project manager and when they go out and see your site they're going to incorporate it. I mean, they have to pay the trucking company, they have to pay the crane guy to mobilize, so you know they're going to cover their rear end and that cost is just going to get passed on to you as the homeowner. All right.
Speaker 1:So again, we're not trying to bad mouth them. There's got to be some advantages, Advantages to modular.
Speaker 2:I just can't help it. Okay, advantages One One it is faster. So where it may take us anywhere from, you know seven, eight, nine months to build a house and on these larger ones, you know it takes over a year and somebody's building 5,000 square foot house. There's just no way realistically, because each trade takes a lot longer.
Speaker 2:And you and we've talked about subcontractor shortages. It's not necessarily there's a shortage on subcontractors, it's that they can't find good help. So if they a trade or, I'm sorry, a task that would have taken two weeks, five, 10 years ago, that's going to take them three weeks because they just don't have the folks and the owners of the business. I'm seeing them having to get their hands dirty again and they're getting back involved. They're. You know there's 60, 65 year old guys who are having to train new people because you know they can't find qualified help.
Speaker 2:But anyway, I keep getting off on tangents. But they, modular homes are definitely faster, you know, I'd say three to four or five months versus double that for what we can offer, and that's fair. Yeah, and quality control would be the other thing, because if they're built in a climate, controlled atmosphere, you know, I mean nothing gets wet, nothing's exposed to the weather and you know that wall from the outside all the way to the inside, drywall, paint and trim. You know it's all or for the most part it's all site ready when it leaves that factory. So that's pretty much all I can think of Eric.
Speaker 1:No, that's that's fair.
Speaker 2:Two things.
Speaker 1:We got. Part of the disadvantage is transportation costs. Some people say that that's an advantage. It just depends on where you're going. I do think, though, and would you agree, that the perception is that modular is lower quality. Is that a fair assumption, or is that not fair anymore?
Speaker 2:That's a tough question to answer but I'm going to put it out there. And if anybody has a modular home I'm not picking on you because you probably had up until the last couple of years when house prices shot up, you probably had significant savings for going with a modular. But I'll just say that modular homes. I think there's about 120, 130 modular home facilities in the country and I read a funny fact that 25 of those are in Texas. So I guess expect to see a lot more modular there. But big state, so that's fair.
Speaker 2:Anybody who's cranking out houses to the tune of 130 manufacturing plants that are spread out across all 50 states. They're going to have deals with window companies. They're going to have deals with drywall companies, insulation companies, even right down to the electrical wire. So they're not stupid. They're going to put the projected amount of houses that they think they can build in a year out there and they're going to say, hey, window company A, b and C, I know you have all the same R value, you meet the same energy code. How cheap can you go If you want to sell this many windows this year? Who can have the best price and so I see the trickle down from that is that they are going to get the cheapest window to meet the minimum energy code and I'll get into this in a moment because I experienced this personally but they're going to have the cheapest product that meets the lowest code standard possible.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, I don't think that the misconception is wrong. I think that the misconception is people who've lived in modular homes and they've said, hey, we had issues with our windows. Hey, and you know. They've said, hey, we had issues with our windows, hey, we had issues with, you know, our siding, or whatever the case may be. So I think that people who say, hey, this is not as good as a custom, they're right. And me, as a custom builder, the opposite of what I just said is I do my homework on the best products available and we don't always go with the cheapest product, because we've seen over the course of 20 years by the way, this is our 20 year anniversary for Blanchard Building Company, so, yeah, but over 20 years time, we've seen things hold up or we've seen things break down and, of course, if something doesn't pass the test, we don't ever use it again. So my goal is, if a homeowner calls me back, it's just to say hello. So it's definitely a difference in material standards for custom built stick built versus the modular folks.
Speaker 1:Well, I do agree, because with a modular you're basically assembling A to B and B to C and if something happens that you're having trouble with that, you're going to hammer it together. You're going to find a way, we're going to make A connect to B. We don't have the ability to make big adjustments or even small adjustments like you would on a stick builder, a custom, and I want to be careful on custom because it always makes it sound like it's exorbitantly expensive when we're just talking a general stick build. We're going to compare the same type of house if it were modular or stick built. You, donnie, you've done insurance adjusting. You're familiar with the insurance industry. Is there a difference on getting insurance for a modular home than a stick built?
Speaker 2:So there is a big difference on manufactured homes. So double wides, mobile homes, those we talked about. Rcv, which is replacement cost value or replacement cost coverage is the way people word it in a past show and meaning that if you have an insurance claim, they're going to depreciate that claim and if you follow through with the repairs that they pay you for, they give you that depreciation back. It's recoverable and that's what you get with replacement cost value. Most manufactured homes do not qualify for that, meaning if you have damage they do an ACV policy and they keep that depreciation. So that could be as much as half of your insurance claim. So with modulars, I don't know exactly the formula they use for discounting something that if it's modular, but I think that modular and stick builder probably pretty close in terms of insurance rates.
Speaker 1:Well, let's talk real life experience with this, because I know you don't do modular, but you've probably done work on modular homes and you've done enough, whether it's a renovation or an upgrade or repairs that it gave you a good insight of some of the pros and cons of it. But give us a couple real life experiences you have when it comes to work and say on a modular stick, built you know inside.
Speaker 2:now, yeah, I had a family member that wanted a house built, I don't know. It's been five, six years ago and I was so busy that I said, look, it's going to be, I'm a year booked out so I can't do it right now. And they wanted a basement and the modular company gave them very attractive price. And I said, well, roll with it, because they were on a time crunch and they needed to move in sooner than later. Well, fast forward a couple of months from that conversation and they got the basement wall put in. Everything was fine. I was kind of, you know, just subtly sticking my nose in the bill just to make sure that everything was okay. And they come back to me and say that the modular company won't finish the second floor, that we have to hire a contractor to do that. And I said, well, okay, I can take that on. So if they get the house in place, I'll fall in behind them. And and uh, you know hate to admit this, but curiosity was killing me. I wanted to see what they were made of and how they really did this. And the product overall product wasn't terrible. Um, and I'll say that when they set the house, they cracked the basement wall. That was number one, uh, so we had to come in there. You know lots of hassles with engineering. Uh, the response is what I was looking for. So I wanted the modular company to say, hey, we will fix this, no matter what heck or high water, we're going to make sure you're happy and you just don't have that element. With modular. They're they're cranking out, they're a numbers game over there, so they're cranking out as many uh potential houses as they can. And, um, that, when it came to something that that was a real issue, you know, a crack, baseball, anything subgrade with a crack and it's not okay. So, um, and and I was surprised by the attention that they gave the homeowners. But, like I mentioned earlier in the show, they don't have a dedicated general contractor on the job. You know that the accountability just is not the same. So, um, they get the house set, homeowner moves in.
Speaker 2:I come in to do the renovation of the second floor, which was basically wiring, insulation, uh, drywall, paint, trim and flooring. And, um, you know, I noticed that the windows that they had, uh, they didn't meet the energy code had just changed that year, and the windows that were in the manual, uh, modular, I'm sorry they didn't meet the current energy code, but of course the inspections department didn't call that out. So I don't know if they're in cahoots or what have you, but you know just, it was problem after problem, and when they claim that it's everything is very precise because it's in a climate controlled atmosphere you know they're not bad at marketing is what I'll say to that because they know what to say that appeals to the average person. But every wall was out of square. I had to do so much framing, shimming, trimming, and it was so much work that I'd never expected it, because I thought I was coming into this laser, precise, everything, square, plumb level, and it was not that at all.
Speaker 2:One other thing that we ran into is that the dormer windows were so close to the roof line that when it snowed I think they got 10 inches of snow that year and there was snow up past the bottom of the window so of course the snow melts, the water's trying to seep in the windows, and that's just one of those things where you got to live with it. Because what are you going to do? You can't. You could change the windows out and all that, but you're looking at a repair that's measured in thousands versus hundreds, to remedy that situation. So, personally speaking, did not have a good experience when I encountered my first modular.
Speaker 1:Now there's one other thing we need to consider. When you have a stick builder or a modular, decision to make is down the road we like to think forever home is our first home. For a lot of people they realize going in it's a starter home. Most important thing, when you start off with a small house and you start a family and you need more room, is you got to sell what you're in? I'm just going to make a gut assumption here. Reselling a modular, the return on your investment, your ROI, is not nearly as good as a stick bill.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that is dependent on the market and the area, because I have seen modular sell for more than I ever thought that they would, and that's because there's obviously a housing shortage. When you see the apartments fill up and their max capacity on a big apartment building, then somebody with a decent house with a little bit of land is far more attractive than living with your neighbor 10 feet away. So I'd say that up until the value of the houses jumped up and everybody's moving to North Carolina, that was definitely the case and as a matter of fact, I think we did a show similar to this several years ago and at that point in time manufactured homes actually depreciated. So the point that I made back then is stick built, appreciated and manufactured, meaning the mobile homes double wides. They actually went down in value as they aged. So yeah, that's a lot to take into consideration there. That's a question to ask your local realtor, because they'll have their finger on the pulse for what they've been seeing in recent months. Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Okay, so modern times. That may have changed if the housing issue wasn't what it is today. Yeah, that might change. I don't know if we address this, donnie, about modular homes. So there's one thing that a buyer has to do you can go to a modular home retail and say we like this one, we like these amenities and everything, and then they're going to say we talked about delivery. But they're going to say where's your address? And you're going to be what do you mean? Our address. Yeah, you got to have that, don't? You have to do like your own driveway and even septic or well water if you need that. That's on you, the buyer's responsibility right.
Speaker 2:Yep, I probably should have mentioned that before when you ask about misconceptions for modular, but that is that's probably the biggest one, because people don't realize that they'll give you a foundation plan but they expect you to put your own foundation in, meaning you have to have a footing contractor, you have to line up your foundation contractor. When the house comes into play and is actually set on site, you have to have a plumbing, mechanical and electrical contractor. So PME that we always preach about, all three of those guys have to come in just to hook everything up and I do believe, from a liability standpoint, that they stray from offering those folks. So the modular folks that I've had any kind of interaction with say, hey, if you've got a plumber, call your guy or what have you, because they don't want something to go south with the plumbing, mechanical or electrical guys, and then you know that fall on them.
Speaker 2:Another thing like you mentioned, the driveway. That's a big deal. Can you get a driveway and driveway pipe in there, your well and your septic? The cost of the well and the septic is going to be exactly the same whether you're stick building or you have a modular. And another fine tune point is that where we include appliances in our allowances. So we'll put the range in for you, we'll put the microwave in for you, because we wire for all those. Those wires can't just be hanging out of the walls, uh, with the wire nuts on them. So we have to put all that in, and the modular companies often put that on the homeowner, so that's an extra cost you have to absorb that.
Speaker 1:They're not always upfront about and, donnie, not to put you on the spot, but this is something to homeowners who have to. Can you do that, donnie, or do you have to call somebody to put it in you?
Speaker 2:absolutely have to call somebody. You have to call the underground, locate folks and you have to clear it with the municipality. So oftentimes you have to go through planning, zoning and with septic and well, you've got to go through environmental, health and that's a lot of legwork. That if you have a dedicated general contractor, they do all that stuff for you and they fill out all the paperwork. You have to pay the fee when and that should be expected. But at the same time you know the modular folks really make you play contractor probably a lot more than you're comfortable with.
Speaker 1:And if you're getting near the highway with your driveway or your building and you have to put in special drainage, you got to get the DOT involved because your contractor can't arbitrarily mess around too close to state roads. So now you got another government entity to get involved, and that doesn't make it fun. So, diane, let's wrap it up In a nutshell. We know where you stand. You're a stick builder, but, in a nutshell, what are some of the things you need to consider then? If you're going to get stick built versus modular, I guess really we got to focus on modular.
Speaker 2:Right Timing is really the only thing I can think about. The only area that they can get me on and I will willfully let go is that they can get you in there faster than I can, and the pricing got so close here recently that they can't beat me on price like they used to. And I would say that if you want your own fingerprint of a house, then you know a custom builder is definitely a better option and you know options galore throughout the house. And if you want to change things and I have some wonderful homeowners right now, but, my God, we change things every week and you know I go with the flow I don't really get upset about change orders because I understand that is the position that I've selected to be in.
Speaker 2:I've chosen to be a custom builder and that word, custom, is just that. So if you're going to make changes and I'm not the kind of guy maybe I shouldn't put this out there on the air but unless it's a major, major change, I don't charge for change orders. If it's a phone call and a few emails and maybe you know different materials delivered instead of what we planned on originally, I think it's part of the relationship aspect that you just roll with that, keep your homeowner happy and you know I think that will lead to a lot of business down the road. So that's our take on it and you know, if you can, you can wait an extra few months. I think that you get a much better product.
Speaker 1:I would look at it this way You're in the framing process and you go as the home buyer man, I would have loved to have had a bay window on the end of this house. You can go to your contractor and say hey, man, we're still at framing. Is this possible Versus a modular? Sorry, you've already picked your house. You're going to have to stick with the one you got. Maybe you can call a Donnie Blanchard type to come in and put one in later. But nah, there's no change orders on this, unless you want to buy a whole brand new unit.
Speaker 2:A lot of elements are similar to track building. With that, you know a track build, they try to, I guess they make it look like they're stick building, but they use a lot of trusses, they use a lot of stuff built off site and in the very beginning, before you can actually step foot in that house, you have to make a lot of those decisions up front, which is wonderful for the builder because he has a blueprint for start to finish and he doesn't have to flex or bend for you. But you know track building and modular homes they share a lot of similarities in that aspect. So, like I mentioned before, you're getting a qualified GC and you're getting somebody to hold your hand through the process and who's going to do a lot of the legwork for you. And that 15% to 20% that we charge definitely has some value because you're paying the same amount of money with a lot less decisions as the homeowner.
Speaker 1:Donnie Blanchard, general contractor and owner of Blanchard Building Company. You can find his information on Facebook and on Instagram. See the stuff that Donnie can do. Also suretoproofingcom he owns that also.
Speaker 1:But again, we're not downplaying modular homes, but there are some things that you need to consider when choosing a home. And a stick built does have some major advantages, as we just discussed on the show, and we'll put more information up on the website. But there's a reason you stick with stick built, no pun intended, I guess. Donnie, there you go. Yep, all right, we thank you for tuning in and hope this gave you some inside information on the differences between stick built and modular homes, because there are some big differences and, again, cost isn't the advantage like it used to be for a modular home. You can pay just as much for that as you can a stick build in a custom home. So go to the website, get more information. Thecarolinacontractorcom and I want to thank Donnie for coming in and giving us his expertise on stick built homes and the contradictions and the comparisons and pros and cons to modular building, and we hope to catch you again next week. Have a great day everybody. Thanks for listening to the Carolina Contractor Show. Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.