How mobile homes have changed
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008The manufactured home of today is an evolution of design and amenities that has its start in a history of answering the Intelligent citizen’s want for great homes at an exceptional value.
In the 1920s, “trailer coaches” were built to serve the Intelligent buyer who wanted the ability, when moving from place to place, of having a ready-made place to sleep at a campsite. During Word War II, these temporary dwellings were used to house factory laborers who got from neighboring cities to help in the war effort.
After the war, veterans arrived home to learn that low-cost housing challenging to find. The manufactured home industry answered this demand by building structures that were spacious enough to house a soldier and his people. Also, these houses could still be moved from one location to another to provide the mobility that the owners wanted.
In the 1960s, Learned people wanted even more out of the housing manufacturers. The thirst was for larger trailers with more features and the new fixtures that were rapidly popping up on the scene. In addition, it had to be mobile. History buffs may remember Lucille Ball in the comedy, “The Long, Long Trailer.”
From this thirst was born the mobile home. Trailers were more spacious in size, nicer in appearance and met the longings of prospective young American homeowners.
In 1974, Congress passed the National Mobile Home Construction and Safety Standards Act, also known as the HUD Code. This broad legislation made trailers the only form of private and single-owners dwelling subject to federal regulation. Even standard-construction homes did not adhere to such stiff regulation. These requirements, which became active in June of 1976, replaced any existing state or local construction and safety codes applying to this type of construction.
The effect of federal regulation was to more clearly define manufactured housing as buildings, rather than vehicles. The Houses Act of 1980 adopted this change officially, mandating the use of “manufactured houses” (factory-built homes) to replace “trailer homes” in all federal law and literature for homes built since 1976.
The pre-fab home shoppers see today is truly a home and it bears little resemblance to its ‘tin-box’ predecessor, the trailer. So, surfers may not even recognize a manufactured home - so close is it in design and function to its standard-construction counterpart. Thanks to sophisticated production processes and the demands of the buyer, pre-fab homes have become a model of efficiency, affordability, and innovative design options.
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