Modular Home in Greenwich Started with the Architect

When a Greenwich property owner called and said he wanted us to design a new modular home for his Greenwich property, we were thrilled. It was a 2 acre, flat property, very close to the Westchester airport. We have designed modular for Greenwich residents before, and we’re excited to add another well-built home to our portfolio. Greenwich CT living is something many aspired to. Many large and elegant homes rest among splendid, treed properties with sculpture and arbors.

But the best news about this job was that this customer had built a modular previously somewhere else and was so happy with the strength and quality, that he only wanted to build with modular.

Unfortunately for this client, the modular home he had built previously was not designed by an architect and he was not happy with the esthetic design of that home. He had picked up a cheap, modular plan and brought it directly to a factory who needed the work and was willing to begin construction without an outside architect to supervise all the tiny details that make a house a home.

Yes, there are many plans out there but, be it traditional or modular construction, start with the architect first.

This time, the client brought us a plan he had found for a conventionally built house and asked us to modify that plan for a modular home. He wanted us to capture the general layout from the conventional plan because he was very pleased with previous modular except for the design so this he wanted to start with the architect first.

We modified the conventional plan to make it a modular home plan

• The traditional plan the client provided was for a 3 car garage, 4 bedrooms 5 bathrooms home.
• We rearranged the marriage walls, (imaginary seams) to strengthen the support system
• We moved some rooms around to better suit the lifestyle of the family
• We added some outdoor features like a screen porch
• We added a sweeping staircase, (not typically seen in a modular but when you call the architect first you can get the luxury you want)

It’s Construction Time!

The client chose the factory based upon our recommendations for this design. It was the Signature Company. and we were confident this builder could do everything we required.

Here is a progress report from the factory supervisor:

Looks like all is good with the foundation.  I worked off two sets of plans this week to keep production moving forward on my jobsite.  Ken came by on Wednesday morning to check a few corners and given the situation it was nice to have a second set of eyes on the plans. Concrete guys reviewed Signatures scaled drawings on Wednesday and worked with what we had at the time.  As of this morning We all reviewed Douglas’ revised plans 10-25-17 and checked all boxes to make sure things will line up.  Ken and I spent about six hours on this and my concrete crews worked with us.  At the end of the day we had peace of mind that all of this weeks hard work paid off…”

For our part, we reviewed most of the shop drawings including the foundation plan which is important as it holds the house up and needs to remain strong for obvious reasons. They poured cement the full basement and we inspected the site again before the delivery of the home.

When the home was ready to ship, they made sure there would be no problems with delivery so everyone could stay on schedule. The home was set on the foundation and connected by experts. The outside had windows in place and was covered in zip panel. To keep the house dry, the home had oriented strands of wood glued with a binder/epoxy which is then sprayed with a water-resistant green material to make the house watertight even before the siding goes on. That is what factory built houses are. Built very well out of the weather and once they finally meet wet weather, they are safe!

The client watched his home quickly go up. He is a landscaper by trade and he jumped in here and there so he can plan his future outdoor features. But when it came to the home, the client approved everything and had no significant changes.

When you start with the architect first, it always turns out well.