Can you tell the difference between manufactured homes and industrialized or modular buildings? Do you know what codes each must meet? How is each certified? Who is responsible for inspecting them in the field and what parts are supposed to be inspected on site?

If you’re interested in finding out the answers to those and other questions about the design, installation and inspection of manufactured and modular homes, mark your calendar for December 2006 or March 2007. We are preparing programs to cover those topics, starting with presentations in the Fredericksburg area on December 12^th and the Hampton area on the 13^th of December. Following those, in March we’ll present three more programs in the Danville area, in the Harrisonburg area, and in Southwest Virginia.

There will be no fee to attend any of these one-half day programs. As soon as we finalize the logistics of the specific locations for the programs we plan to post those details on our Web site at www.dhcd.virginia.gov and provide for on-line registration. The registration gives us an idea of the number of people who plan to attend. Again, there will be no fees or charges for anyone to attend.

These types of programs are generally well attended by the local building officials and inspectors. We have significantly less participation by the people in the manufactured housing industry. When we provided training programs on the installation and field inspections of manufactured homes a couple of years ago, 216 people attended the programs around Virginia. Of that total number, only 15 people in attendance were from the manufactured housing industry.

When the inspectors who had attended the programs started asking for certain installation information and materials specifications and started inspecting the details called for in the manufacturer’s installation instructions, those 15 people were not surprised. They had heard the same information as the inspectors had heard during the programs.

One of the key subject areas to be addressed in the upcoming programs will be field inspections of manufactured and modular homes. The topics in this area will include the extent of the work done on-site to complete the homes and what parts of that work can or should be inspected by the local inspector. We’ll look at what the inspector should be checking outside of the homes and what sorts of things they should be inspecting inside the homes. This part could be an “eye-opener” if you think the inspectors don’t have any authority or responsibility inside the home that was certified in the factory!

Check our Web site for the details on the locations for the programs. Or, you can call our office at (804) 371-7160 for further information.