Maine Modular & Custom Home News

“The Ultimate Home Value with Quality, Durability and Flexibility in Design”, this is the promise from Eagle River Homes in Leola, PA.  Eagle River is a new manufacturing facility based on an old idea - affordable housing.

The management team at Eagle River is a conglomeration of some of the best in the business.  “Walt Young is the proud founding ‘father’ of the plant with an extended family that will make anyone snap to attention. Jim Dunn, of Champion fame is the President of Eagle River, Craig Pike, formerly of Redman is Production manager with Nick Mangano, former GM of Clayton Homes as Sales Manager and Sam Hollister, former GM of Redman as the new VP & General Manager of the plant.”  Their combined experience has prompted them to focus on building the home right, not on the number of homes they produce.

The folks at Eagle River want to offer a flexible package, beginning with a low to mid range priced home.  The consumer can build up from there with a host of available options.  For those “green-minded” consumers an Energy Star home is available.

When production was just beginning in the fall of 2006, Eagle River had 65 employees.  Now, just six months down the road they have already geared up to 109 employees and are steadily producing five floors a day.  Energy and enthusiasm continue to pervade as Eagle River strives to build a home that accomodates the customers needs.

To view a model manufactured by Eagle River stop by Schiavi Home Builders on route 26 in Oxford.

Government regulations - sometimes we love them, sometimes we hate them.  The Maine Manufactured Housing Board was established to regulate the industry and protect the consumer when  “fly by night” companies decided to get into the business.

According to their website: “The primary responsibilities of the board are to examine and license qualified applicants, to promulgate rules defining the qualifications and professional standards of manufacturers, dealers and installers of manufactured housing, to investigate complaints against its licensees, and to take appropriate disciplinary action against noncompliance with its statute and rules.”

To simplify, these are some of the things the Maine Manufactured Housing Board does:

• Requires a pre-license qualifying education program.
• Requires all manufactured home installers to have current certificates of insurance on file with the Housing Board.
• Requires all homes to have a warranty seal from the installer placed within the new home.
• Allows a consumer to file a complaint and receive help resolving their complaint.
• Allows consumers to research their data base for licensee disciplinary actions.
• Allows consumers to research if a builder is licensed.

For the most part the Maine Manufactured Housing Board serves its purpose well.  On occasion the Housing Board has to protect the builder from an unethical consumer, as well as saving a consumer from an unethical builder.  As far as government agencies go, this particular one seems to be right on target.  They take their duties seriously, form their regulations thoughtfully and follow through with enforcing compliance.

Tighter more efficient homes are good news, right?  Yes….and no.  While you may see heat costs decrease with new construction, there will be an increase in air pollutants trapped within your new home that you won’t see.  Better construction makes it easier on your wallet when buying energy, but be aware that along with containing the heat in your home, you will contain moisture, smoke, cleaning chemicals and other pollutants.

The good news is that Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRVs) can solve this problem.  HRVs bring a continuous supply of fresh air into your home and exhaust contaminated air.  The units are built with a special aluminum core where the heat from the air that is being exhausted, warms the fresh air as it is coming in from outside.  HRVs come in different sizes designed for the square footage of your new home.

Schiavi Home Builders recognizes the added value to our clients that an HRV provides, therefore it comes as a standard feature in every Schiavi custom built home.  If you would like more information on HRVs, visit http://www.fantech.net.

If there is a buzz word in the construction industry these days, it’s “green”.  I guess that should not come as a surprise with the amount of press regarding global warming and the potential dangers involved.  So it makes sense to investigate if modular homes can be categorized as green building.  In the broad sense the answer is yes just by definition of modular construction.  A home built in a factory immediatedly satisfies one condition of green building - conservation of materials.  In an effort to make a profit, a factory must conserve materials and limit waste as a matter of good business practice.  Luckily that benefits the environment as well and becomes a win-win scenario.

There are different degrees of building green.  To be classified as an Energy Star Qualified Home, a home must meet a guideline of 15% higher efficiency than than the 2004 International Residential Code in the following areas:

• Effective insulation
• High performance windows
• Tight construction
• Efficient heating and cooling systems
• Energy saving lighting
• Energy saving appliances
• High efficiency water heaters

Most modular homes can include these qualifications just by asking for them when you are in the process of ordering your home.  Ask your builder for more information.