TechPractices: Lido Homes, Silvercast Western Homes, Newport Beach, CA

PATH's Technologies in Practice are large scale housing projects throughout the U.S. where innovative technologies are being installed and used. Information is presented from the viewpoint of builders and remodelers who can use these examples as models for projects of their own.

Summary

The new two-story homes at the Lido Peninsula Resort are designed by architects and built by factory workers on an assembly line. The homes, plus new streets and landscaping transform an aging and run down mobile home park into a dynamic, upscale neighborhood. And, these factory built homes are below median home prices when compared to median townhome prices in the surrounding suburban community.

Details

The Lido Mobile Home park needed rejuvenation. Built in Newport Beach, a Los Angeles suburb, in 1948 with 30 x 36 foot lots that were crammed even for the smaller mobile homes, the park was outmoded. In response, the owners installed a new type of manufactured product that looks like a stick-built home performs better than most conventional houses but costs less. The new building effort is coupled with infrastructure upgrades and a dramatic landscaping plan that results in far more than a facelift.

The owners considered several alternatives to remodeling. Replatting the parcel to larger, more generous lots was financially risky and could have taken years to negotiate through the approval process. A change to business or commercial use was deemed unprofitable. The owners decided that housing was the most appropriate and best use of the land, and that a make-over was in order. As a result, park manager Dick Bressire worked with an architect with innovative ideas about house design and community planning, and contracted with Silvercrest/ Western Homes, an industry leader in manufactured homes, to build the unique, two-story homes within the tight confines of the existing subdivision.

Once the decision was made to renovate the park, the owners decided on a phased redevelopment rather than making a clean sweep. Their strategy is to redevelop in phases with as little displacement of existing lease holders as possible. In the first phase, the building solution is a two-story 1,000 square foot "cottage." The second phase involves larger homes. Eventually, all 253 lots will be updated with the new homes.

Builders and developers may be surprised to learn that factory built homes can be two-story structures built with attractive finishes that belie their mobile home origins. The 1,000-square-foot cottages are two-bedroom, two-bath dwellings. Exterior walls are sided with fire rated Hardiplank siding to help achieve a one-hour fire rating. Windows are double glazed vinyl with low-e coating and are trimmed out with Smart Start engineered wood trim boards to look like traditional two-story wood-sided New England saltboxes. These homes are sold at $107,000 and feature vaulted ceilings, attached wooden deck/ carport, kitchen appliances, and other amenities. Although residents at the Lido Peninsula Resort pay an average land lease charge of $1,000 per month, this is still below the median townhouse price in the very costly southern California housing market.

Innovative design is not limited just to the new homes. Staying with the existing tight site is counter to prevailing trends towards more spacious subdivision layouts. To alleviate the problem, the roads are slightly wider, sidewalks are included, utilities are underground, new landscaping provides privacy between units, and a community center with pool and hot tub offers a resort style gathering place. The before and after photos show dramatic change. The owners leveraged their site upgrade costs by offering limited paint and landscaping improvements to the older mobile homes still remaining in the development. Most lease holders took up their offer and spent several times more out of their own pockets for additional landscaping and site improvements to their property.

Installation/Construction

To build this project a number of new techniques were incorporated into the standard factory process. Since the height of these units exceeded assembly line clearances, the line had to be raised to accommodate taller cranes and lifts. The steel frame floor required special wrenches and screws to attach the wood decking to the frame. This floor frame also functions as the attachment for the wheel chassis. Not only does an 8" channel steel frame allow for a thinner floor, it greatly increases the buildable volume of the units. (A conventional perimeter frame chassis rides 24 inches to 30 inches above the road. The Lido homes ride only 11 inches above the road because of the unique chassis design.) That, coupled with a 2-inch to 3-inch thinner Lido floor, means that a larger unit can be shipped from the factory.

The Lido units' road height was critical to the two-story concept--every inch saved meant that a more economical product could be built in the factory, translating into savings. Recessing the transport wheels into the floor panels helps these tall boxes travel close to the road. Once delivered to their destination, wheels are removed and the wheel holes in the floor are patched with appropriate materials. The chassis remains because it is part of the floor system.

Energy efficiency is achieved with "off-the-shelf" technology. Walls are insulated to R-19, ceilings to R-38, and floors to R-22. The efficient windows, doors, and shell insulation of these units assure that heating and cooling costs will be modest. The MicroTherm "tankless" hot water heater uses 20% to 50% less electricity than a conventional tank. It is 99.3% efficient and is capable of heating three gallons of water per minute 63o higher than ambient temperature. Because this device uses up to 7,000 watts of electricity, it requires additional breaker space on the electrical panel.

What makes these homes special to owners and buyers alike is the architectural quality achieved in the 27-foot by 27-foot square two-story home. According to Dick Bressire, the biggest problem facing manufactured housing is image. The Silvercrest homes are so unlike the conventional image of a mobile home that he sometimes has to point out some small distinguishing detail to a disbelieving prospective buyer to proves its factory lineage.

The house construction is a two part process: the units are built in the factory under the modified floor conditions and are trucked to the site over back roads where overhead clearances exceed 17 feet. Because the Silvercrest factory is only 30 miles from the Lido Peninsula, transporting is done over back roads in the early morning hours. Once on site they are lifted into place by crane, joined at marriage lines, and anchored to the concrete foundation wall by welding the frame to steel plates embedded in the wall. (Instead of a conventional HUD-code pier system, a perimeter concrete foundation wall is necessary to achieve the fire separation required by the zero lot line arrangement.) In this way, earthquake resistance is achieved despite the inability to access anchorbolting and the unsuitability of a pier system. Wall and floor joints are sealed, joined, and finished in the same materials as adjoining surfaces. The only remaining work to be done is outside landscaping, paving, and deck/ patio work and utility hookups. Standard two-story units can be installed and completely secured to the elements in a single day.

Benefits/Costs

Comparing the cost of the basic Nantucket model two-bath home at $107,000 to the average townhouse in Newport Beach at $317,000 can be misleading. The relatively low Lido selling price is increased by an average $1,000 per month land lease charge that is collected by the park owner to pay his taxes and infrastructure costs. This brings the total monthly housing costs before taxes and insurance to about $1,500 per month.

The owners see the changes at Lido as a harbinger of what could happen all across the country.

Code/Regulatory

Several favorable code interpretations were critical to the construction of the new homes at Lido Peninsula. Perhaps most important was the California Codes and Standards Division's decision to sit down with Bessire's team and discuss ways to allow the code to protect life and safety without stifling good design ideas. Travis Pitts, the former director of the Codes and Standards Division, was key to adopting this broader view. Probably the most positive ruling to the success of the project was the acceptance of the principle of zero lot line development in mobile home parks. Because the average lot is 1,080 square feet, maximizing usable coverage is critical to the project success. The developer/architect convinced the California Mobile Home Division to permit zero lot line development if they built a full-height fire wall separating units placed on lot lines. The building placement ensures that there is always at least 3 feet of open space separating each unit from its neighbor.

Another code variance permits the structural connection of exterior decking to the unit. The State granted "Alternate Approval" letters for this design change for the following reason. Code enforcers agreed that loads applied to outer walls from decks will not cause instability because of the perimeter bearing wall feature of these units. (Most manufactured homes built today still use the less stable, interior bearing design where the exterior walls are essentially cantilevered off of beams. This is a bi-product of the traditional chassis transport system.) Another code regulation regulates the shipping of open, unfinished units to the site. Receiving an "Alternate Construction" letter from HUD on this, Silvercrest is able to ship a taller, factory built unit that is capped off on site with a 3-foot ridge section.

Feedback

Because of the success of the first phase, a larger second phase is now in process. If small to medium sized units will sell well in the remodeled park, they reason, bigger, more costly units should also do well. One code official, convinced that this project has broken into new territory for manufactured housing communities, asserts that the Lido Peninsula Resort "is a model for our nation".

Contact(s)

Do you have a specific question? Try the contacts listed below:

Bessire & Cassenheiser, Inc.
661 Brea Canyon Rd., Ste. 7
Walnut, CA 91789
909-594-0501

Silvercrest
Delaware Western Homes Corp.
299 North Smith Ave.
P.O. Box 759
Corona, CA 91720
909-734-661
http://www.silvercrest.com