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Modular home company gaining ground locally
By Holly Fisher
Special Projects Editor
It might seem unlikely that a 6,500-square-foot luxury home could be constructed in a warehouse in St. George, but that’s exactly what workers at Signature Building Systems Inc. are building these days.
The house, which will go on the market in Myrtle Beach for $1.2 million to $1.3 million, right now is six separate boxes that will be pieced together on-site where the finishing touches will be added.
Since it opened a facility in St. George five years ago, Signature Building Systems has built about 250 modular homes, which translates into 600 or 700 “boxes”—the pieces that become an entire home, said Scott Bartholomew, vice president and general manager.
This 6,500-square-foot house has all the upscale touches of a house built right on its permanent site—stained pine doors, a kitchen valued at more than $65,000, four bathrooms, five bedrooms, a basement level and three floors of living space.
Signature Building Systems installs windows, doors, plumbing and electrical wiring along with trim and detail work. Once the house is on-site, items like appliances, floor coverings and countertops are added and the interior is painted.
This Myrtle Beach home is certainly one of the largest projects Signature Building Systems has tackled, but Bartholomew said there is no limit to the square footage his company can construct in a modular home. For example, the company has built the components for Sawyer’s Landing, a 17-townhome development on Ben Sawyer Boulevard in Mount Pleasant.
Signature Building Systems leased its 3,800-square-foot facility with the possibility of eventually building its own warehouse. But Bartholomew said a new building would have been a $4 million investment and his company was able to purchase its St. George facility in the St. George New Century Industrial Park two years ago for much less than $4 million.
And the current space is functioning just fine—the company is able to work on three to four houses at a time and a crane system in the ceiling makes moving walls, panels and roof trusses much easier.
The modular home components are built from the inside out in an assembly-line fashion, Bartholomew explained. A spray epoxy glue holds components together, reducing the number of nails used and creating a smoother and more insulated finish.
Signature Building Systems can sell only to licensed general builders, not to the general public. The modular homes undergo inspections by state officials from whichever state the house will end up in.
“We have to adhere to higher standards and build stronger to handle the pressure movements,” Bartholomew said.
Each box of a house is assembled in the warehouse to ensure all the pieces fit properly. Then the house is taken apart and transported to its final destination for another six to eight weeks of finish work.
The modular home stigma
While Bartholomew knows his homes are high quality, he still has to overcome public confusion over modular homes. Many people still think he’s building mobile homes. This is particularly common in South Carolina, which has a large portion of its population living in mobile homes.
“We have to overcome the idea that this is another mobile home plant,” Bartholomew said.
Signature Building Systems, which is headquartered in Pennsylvania, has an easier time in the North, where modular homes are more popular because they can be built indoors regardless of what the outdoor weather conditions are, Bartholomew said.
“There’s a stigma in the South to overcome,” he said. “We’re still trying to teach people this is not a mobile home.”
Yet the market for modular homes is steadily growing in the South, and Bartholomew is targeting builders “who want to make their lives easier,” he said.
The building process is much faster—key in an industry where time is money, Bartholomew explained.
“Our industry takes a little more each year from the stick-built and panelized industries,” he said.
Facing slower times
Much of Signature Building Systems’ work stays in the tri-county area, where Bartholomew said the housing crunch has impacted his business. When work is in full swing, he employs about 50 people; right now he has about 35 on staff.
In the last few months business has slowed down, Bartholomew said.
“We can’t convince people to build a spec house when it can’t sell,” he said. “Right now you almost can’t give a house away.”
Bartholomew is hesitant to move into more commercial work. While he’s done some, he said commercial buildings have stricter building code requirements, such as installing sprinkler systems.
He anticipates the beginning of a residential real estate turnaround in February or March.
“An election year is usually good for the housing industry,” he said. “The Democrats or the Republicans will have to prove they can do something for the economy before the election.”
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