Setting a Modular Home

The day that your modular home is set on the foundation is the single most important day of the construction of your new home. Your neighbors leave for work one morning and see a concrete hole in the ground and when they come home from work that evening, they see a nearly completed house.

I will detail the day that my modular home was set so that you will know what to expect. The construction of every modular home is a bit different. The number of sections to be set, the method in which it is set on the foundation, the layout of the building site and the type of house being built all play a role in how your home is set on the foundation. These differences make the setting of each modular home unique.

First, all of the necessary equipment and the sections of the house arrive. My home is a ranch style house that came in two sections that were set using a crane on a hilly, wooded lot.

The crane arrived first, along with a truck hauling the out-rigger pads and another truck with the counter weights for the crane. Next, the sections of the house and the set crew from the modular home company showed up. From this moment on, the whole day was non-stop work.

The protective material needed to be removed from the sections of the home. Next, the hardware holding the sections to their temporary trailers was removed. While this was happening, the crane company was getting the crane positioned, outriggers placed on the railroad tie pads they had brought and extending the boom.

Next, the support beam for the house needed to be set in the pockets poured into both ends of the foundation. This beam would span the length of the basement and support the modular home. The beam was set on jack posts which were placed in the basement on the 30 inch square, 12 inches thick concrete pier pads that had been poured beneath the basement floor. The two piece beam was set into place and bolted together.

After the beam spanning the length of the foundation was set into place, the first half of the house was set on the foundation and the beam. Chains were hooked on either end of the house and used as taglines for guys to pull on while positioning the modular home just right over the foundation. After the first half of the home was attached to the foundation, the hinged roof was raised with the crane and nailed into place.

Next, they prepare the second section of the modular home to be set on the foundation. The hinged roof on the second section is raised and nailed into place while it is still on the ground. Then it is lifted and set on the foundation and snugged up to the first half of the house using chain blocks.

After both sections of the home are in place and attached to the foundation, the home must be weather proofed. This was done by temporarily sealing both ends of the house with plastic until the finish crew could come out the following week and finish the home. Everybody loaded up their tools, dismantled the crane and headed home.

It took about eleven hours to transform our hillside lot from a bare foundation to a house with a basement. There was still plenty of work to be done, but this one day made it visually clear how much had already been completed.

Setting a Modular Home

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