Don't call it a trailer!

In the beginning, they called 'em trailers. After all, these things really WERE trailers. Metal sided, metal roof, virtually no insulation, long and skinny. Even the early double wides looked more like two trailers stuck together than anything else. After some time, the industry wanted to change the image- enter the term 'mobile home'. This one gets used a lot even today. I catch myself calling them mobile homes quite often. I should know better- for shame... : ( Anyway, mobile home stuck for quite a while until once again the powers that be in the industry wanted to change the image. Enter 'manufactured' homes. Today manufactured homes apply to homes built to the HUD building code. The other term often used nowadays is 'modular'. Modular homes are also built in a factory, but they are built to the same code as site built homes for a local area. Because of this, modular homes are built differently from state to state. Contact your local authority for building codes for you area. Tomorrow we can discuss a bit further. Other terms that get thrown around include: pre-fab homes, factory built, factory constructed, UBC, IRC.