Packaged Home Question

[desoleta]

We will be building in 2012 in Hawaiian Acres and are considering a packaged home with some modifications. What's the advantage of buying a packaged home as opposed to having a set of houseplans that your Hawaii-licensed architect modifies? I would hire a general contractor with excellent references and local connections to deal with getting the permits, lumber and hardware as well as sub-contracting various necessary services.

[Kapohocat]

I was all set to answer until I saw "with some modifications". The kit houses as they are drawn have been built so many times by so many contractors that the issues have been greatly resolved.

It's the "modifications" part that we need to know. What kind of modifications are you thinking of making - larger windows? changing a roof line? adding a garage? 12' in the air? Some simple modifications make big changes and some are small.




Blue Water Project Management
808 965-9261
http://bluewaterpm.125mb.com/index.html
"We help make building your dream home a reality"

[desoleta]

Aloha, Cat. Let's say there are no modifications. Could I just buy the house plans and not even deal with the packaged home supplier. I would contract your services as well as a reputable general contractor. This GC would be familiar to the specific model. What advantage would I have buying from a packaged home supplier? Would it be ethical to go around them?

[wyatt]

desoleta, we are on building our second package home her in Hawaii.
We used Honsador lumber for our first home and are now with trojan. Our experience with Honsador was not so good. Trojan is very good to be working. One benifit Trojan offers is that they alter your plan for you,
take $2000,00 refundable deposit. Refundable if you buy the majority of
your packge from them. Trojan picked up extra lumber from our job site at no restocking fee.(Honsador charged a %). We had them run out lumber when we ran short and they we quick and only charge for the lumber. Working with the lumber company does allow you to tap into a knowledge base that comes in very handy.
We did alter our floor plan,added sliders,changed window sizes and elevated the house 10'. We framed it ourselves. I would recommend using the packed homes and advise you to not hesitate to change your floor plan. The lumber company also walks your plans through the permit process for you.

Good luck
Wyatt

[desoleta]

Mahalo, Wyatt. We were looking at Big Island Packaged Homes 1600 and 3039 models. Does anyone have any experience with them? Could I take a plan from Big Island Package and have HPM or Trojan Lumber supply the materials?

[Mike Pritchard]

Desoleta, I just finished building a house for myself in HPP. I bought the plans from Cathy Dumond (kapohocat) and her draftperson Daniel Bono. She also handled the permit process for me (great service, very reasonable) The problem with package homes is your locked into using the finish materials (doors, windows, cabinets, hardware, plumbing fixtures, flooring) that come with the package. Which is usually pretty basic stuff. I was able to buy nicer finish materials and the total for materials on my house was not much more than the package price ( I also ordered my lumber from Washington). If your ok with the finish materials in the packages, the HPM and Big Island Package home packages are really good deals. I've heard mixed reviews of Trojan and Honsador. Good luck.
Aloha, Mike
www.pritchardconst.com

[Kapohocat]

I will second Mike's opinion on the tied into their materials part.

[Bullwinkle]

I used Trojan and Rosebud construction ... I had Trojan make some modifications to the house plans.. added vaulted ceilings, went to 9 ft in the rooms that weren't vaulted etc. no charge no sweat! (except for the added materials) Ray and I sat down and it took less than 20 minutes to pencil in the changes the architect took it from there ...

As to fixtures ... I had them back out the items I did not want and provided my own

Start (grading) to finish the whole project was completed in 5 months, on budget no headaches, the biggest delay was a 30 day wait for the electrical / plumbing inspections before we could close up the walls - I hear things are much better now ...

The folks at Trojan and Bud Turpin of Rosebud Construction handled everything to my complete satisfaction and beyond. Bud has a really good eye and added touches like rounded corners on the drywall - just one of many touches that come only from experience

I had read so many horror stories about building in Hawaii .... I still cant believe how smooth things went ... I think my part in the whole project was about as tough as baking a cake, 1 cup water 2 eggs, a little oil and a package of mix, ready for move in - grin

As an aside, I was really surprised how little waste there was .... everything was carted away in less than half a pickup truck load..

[hpp4me]

The problem with all of these home packages is that they rely upon wood. With mildew, mold, termites, and the contraction/expansion of wood that happens in tropical climates, why bother?

Anyone have success building a concrete/steel building? With stone facing these can look quite nice.

[Bullwinkle]

just my opinion,

I looked into steel reinforced masonry construction .... stick built pencils out much better for me ... based on a thirty year structure life

being that we are in EQ. zone 4 (I was reinforced masonry inspector for a little while in my last life) .... masonry would require a lot of steel, carefully placed, to meet code. and a little extra in the lintels - for me to be comfy inside of of it

we should really be rated as ESQ. + ++++ out here on the BI compared to the other EQ4 zones.

...btw..... have you ever seen old reinforced concrete on the island? I believe there to be just as much of an issue with the steel rusting - concrete cracking as in any high salinity tropical location add a little vog ... and your concrete wall just became a battery - grin

... yup it corrodes out here too , even if imbedded in concrete ---- leading to a much higher failure rate out here than in termperate / dryer climates rock / hollow block would fare much worse for mold imo