Safety and Construction Facts
MANUFACTURED HOMES SAFETY AND CONSTRUCTION FACTS
Modern manufactured homes are not the flimsy constructions of popular myth. They are, in fact, engineered and built to be stronger than the most stringent building codes require.
Every factory-constructed manufactured home sold in Florida not only matches the strength of site built homes, but actually exceeds them by as much as 25%.
Factory-built homes manufactured and sold in Florida meet criteria based on the highest wind safety standard of them all, known as ASCE 7-88. Site-built homes must conform only to state or local requirements for strength and wind resistance.
The design and construction of all Florida manufactured homes are monitored through HUD and their agent, Housing and Building Technology (HBT), and by the State Bureau of Manufactured Housing Construction, insuring the highest quality and safety standards. You don’t get this assurance with any site built homes.
The facts proved themselves in 2004 when Florida’s hurricane season was the worst ever! Manufactured homes held up well, even when compared to site-built homes. That this was the case should not really surprise anyone: since 1999, manufactured homes have been built and installed to standards tougher than any but the most recent codes for site built structures. As required by Federal code, all manufactured homes sold in Florida’s coastal counties since 1994 are engineered to withstand sustained winds of 110 mph and 3-second gusts of 130 to 150 mph.
Hurricane Charley hit Florida in 2004 as a category 4 storm. Of the manufactured homes installed according to the most stringent tie down regulations in the country the State Bureau of Mobile Home & RV Construction could not find a single home that had moved from it’s foundation! RADCO, an independent engineering firm, revealed that manufactured homes produced and installed in accordance with the current Federal Standards successfully withstood the effects of this enormous hurricane! Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was quoted as saying “the new construction standards for manufactured homes are working”. News organizations such as Fox news, CNN, and the Associated Press also admitted that homes built to the new codes didn’t budge an inch in the 145 mph winds recorded at Punta Gorda.
Regarding fire safety issues manufactured homes are no more prone to fire than homes built on-site. As a matter of fact, a national fire safety study by the Foremost Insurance Co showed that site-built homes are more than twice as likely to experience a fire than manufactured homes. The study showed that the number of home fires is 17 per 1,000 for site built homes, while only eight per 1,000 for manufactured homes. A report in 2005 by the National Fire Protection Assoc, compared manufactured homes & other dwelling fire experiences in the mid 1990’s. It found that manufactured homes had a fire experience rate per 100,000 housing units that was 38 to 44 percent lower than the rate for other dwellings.
The FACT is that modern manufactured homes, are intelligently engineered and well-built, are fully the equal of other building types when it comes to safety and security.
