Mobile Homes Vs. Modular Homes: What's the Difference?

Posted: Aug 08, 2013
Author: 1st Choice Home Centers

When in the market for a new home, especially when looking for alternatives to the traditional, on-site constructed houses, it's important to make sure you know exactly what is meant by the common terms of the housing trade. For example, both mobile homes and modular homes are prefabricated houses, but they are, in fact, not the same thing.

A mobile home, also known as a manufactured home, is housing that is constructed almost completely in a factory setting, and then shipped in one or a few large pieces to the final location. The chassis on which mobile homes are set are what make them true to their name: though few mobile homes are moved after their initial installations, they do in fact retain their ability to be relocated.

Mobile homes can be comprised of one, two, or several sections; but the use of several pieces does not make them modular homes. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two is the inclusion of the chassis on mobile home.

Modular homes, like double wide and triple wide mobile homes, are made up of multiple pieces. All of these pieces are constructed off-site, but, unlike the case with mobile homes, the pieces of a modular home are transported to the building site before being put together.

Once the pieces of a modular home have arrived to the building site, they are then pieced together using cranes and other tools and machines. This is where the big difference between the two styles comes into play. Whereas a mobile home arrives to the building site up to 90% finished, a modular home will arrive in pieces that must be then fitted together. This process of construction, however, is typically much faster than the process of traditional on-site housing construction.

Though modular homes are fairly set in stone as to the overall architecture (with some exceptions, of course), the decoration and interior design can be left almost entirely to the discretion of the home owner.

Due to increasing quality and the lower prices of both mobile homes and modular homes, many home buyers are finding one or the other to be welcome options for their future housings.