photo by Lee Celano
Its unfortunate that it takes a disaster like Hurricane Katrina to convince people of the efficiency of modular building. Nevertheless, that’s what’s happening in the Gulf Coast right now – as no other form of traditional stick building seems to be up to the crucial task of quickly rebuilding homes and the lives of victims. Of the thousands of homes damaged and destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, only a fraction have been replaced.
The price of building materials has skyrocketed, and the services of even mediocre contractors can be hard to come by. This is why cheap housing that can be put together in a matter of days are becoming so appealing. First the Katrina Cottage took the region by storm, and now all sorts of building companies are going modular down in the Gulf state region, including Mississippi’s Safeway Homes, which has already has built 250 houses in the region, and can erect up to 3 houses a day. The New York Times has a great article on the growing modular movement down south.
Check it out here >
If you scroll to the bottom of the Safeway homes page you’ll find a video about modular homes in the south. Naturally Inhabitat readers won’t find much of interest aesthtically, but there are a few worthy bits in the piece.
Send some information please! Have cleared slab in Pearlington, Mississippi and will rebuild very soon.
Hmm, as someone who is working on reconstruction in the Gulf Coast, I can tell you that the Katrina Cottages have taken only the national media “by storm”. No one is buying them down here. As much press as they have recieved, there is little evidence of them here, aside from a demonstration site where people can visit them.
As the GSM for Safeway Homes of Lexington, I deal with investors, developers, and contractors who have taken a trend toward using our home in their own projects. To date we have close to 500 homes in the Katrina disaster region. We are currently in place or permitted in every major city and municipality on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and have recently expanded our territory to include Louisianna, Alabama, and Florida. With our innovative design we have bridged the gap between factory built homes and conventional site built perks. Our homes are the only modular designed to sit on a conventional slab foundation making it more receptive with code offices, mortgage institutions, and insurance firms. With the highest wind rating of 160 mph winds for a wood frame structure we have been spot lighted as the formidible solution to hurricane prone areas. Safeway Homes prides itself in making quality a standard. As disaster victims ourselves, we understand the importance of having a home that you can feel safe in.
I would personally like to thank all who have made our product such a huge success. For more information on Safeway Homes of Lexington email me at bobby@safewayhomes.net. Thanks again
I cannot find information on price and plans for the safeway modular hurricane proof house
Do you folks know where the hell Ricky Newcomer is. I have been trying to find him to see if he has a slab foundation plan for his Katrina Double Cottage II.
I just watched the feature about Safeway Homes being built in Mississippi. The concept of building hurricane resistant homes in a very short period of time is great. What worries me is that the show stated thet over 500 pounds of construction adhesive is used on every home. That means the house is saturated in glue! I hope this is non-toxic, no or low VOC adhesive, or I can envision a lot of people becoming sick and having resoiratory problems after inhabiting the homes. I can’t seem to find anything on the Safeway site about the contents of the adhesives. Anyone out there have any information about this?