Manufactured homes are affordable and can have all the same great qualities of a site-built home. But let’s be honest, it’s pretty easy to distinguish a standard factory-built home from a site-built home – not that this is a bad thing. However, if you’d like to make your manufactured home look more like a site-built home these ideas may help.
If you are fortunate enough to get to buy a new manufactured home there are a few factory upgrades that will help add value to your home and make it look more like a site-built home.
The most obvious upgrades to make a manufactured home look more like a site-built home are a higher roof pitch, extending the eaves around the home, and larger doors.
A roof pitch of at least 4/12 will help make a manufactured home look more like a site-built home. This helps snow and rain to slide off easier, too, so there’s more than just aesthetic benefits.
Most site-built homes have a wide eave because it helps keep water away from the home’s windows and siding. Traditionally, an eave on a site-built home will be 12″ to 16″ wide.
Manufactured homes will usually have a 6″ eave with a 5″ rain gutter. The wider eaves usually go hand-in-hand with a higher roof pitch, too.
As we talked about in our recent article, 10 Smart Upgrades for Your New Manufactured Home, doors make a huge difference in a home. Going up in size on both interior and exterior doors can make your manufactured look more like a site-built home.
In the most affordable manufactured homes you will likely see exterior doors made of aluminum that are 32″ wide and 74″ to 78″ tall. Your middle of the line models will probably have 36″ wide by 80″ tall exterior doors.
Going to a 6-panel insulated core door that’s 36″ x 80″ will make your home look more like a site-built home. Peep holes help, too.
Interior doors in most manufactured homes leave a lot to be desired. By replacing the hollow, tan boards with plastic door knobs, with a real wood door will make a huge difference in your home.
You don’t see a lot of crown molding in most manufactured homes- it’s expensive and time-consuming to install. Your high-end models will have it but not the more affordable. Manufactured homes can’t be the great affordable homes that they are if the factory can’t produce them at as reduced cost.
If you can add trim along the ceiling and floors yourself , though, you can give your home a wonderful makeover and make it look more like a site-built home. Learn how to install crown molding at HGTV.
If money isn’t an issue and you are installing a new manufactured home you could put it above a basement. New techniques (and equipment) is making this option more affordable than it used to be.
There’s no doubt, putting a manufactured home on a basement foundation is a great way to make it look like a stick built home. This will also give your home added living space and that is always a plus. The manufactured home will require some modifications in order to make the basement area accessible but a good contractor will be able to tackle that for you.
Another idea to make your manufactured home look more like a site-built home is a garage. It doesn’t necessarily need to be ‘attached’ to the home; a nice covered breezeway will create a cohesive look. If you can create an entry way into your home from the garage it would certainly create a site-built feel. The Home Advisor’s cost guide for adding a garage to your home may help.
A porch and some landscaping added to the front of a manufactured home makes a huge difference! Even if you aren’t trying to make your manufactured home look more like a site-built home adding a deck or porch to your home is a great idea.
The right landscaping will work wonders to help blend your manufactured home into the property. Consider a sidewalk, bushes, or a couple of trees planted in the yard to complete the look. Make the manufactured home appear to have been there for years, even if it was installed a month ago.
We hope these tips to make your manufactured home look more like a site-built home will help!
Let me be clear that there’s nothing wrong with an affordable home or a home that doesn’t look like a site-built home. It’s good to be different and unique! Some of us don’t need all the fancy bells and whistles in a home, we don’t need a high pitched roof, or a fancy spa tub, we just need a home that won’t take three jobs to pay for. These ideas are great ways to give your home a makeover and perhaps even raise its value and that’s never a bad thing.
Manufactured homes are so awesome because they provide an opportunity for a regular person like me (and you) to own a home even when life isn’t all candy drops and gumballs. We can have a comfortable, stylish home even if we don’t make a lot of money. They are different from site-built homes because they are more affordable and that’s what is so great about them!
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