By the end of this trailYou can decide whether a project is a modular fit, brief a design team from the truck backward, budget the approvals and transport costs a site-built job never incurs, structure a capital stack that survives a 25% material deposit, and interrogate a factory with the questions that matter.
  1. Step 01

    Decide whether this project is a modular fit — honestly

    Modular rewards repetition and punishes irregularity. A wedge-shaped site with 179 bathroom variants is not a modular project no matter how much the owner wants it to be. Screen for fit before anyone falls in love with the method.

    DoCount your distinct unit types. If the answer is more than five, or your floor plate is not a rectangle, write down why modular still makes sense.
    You should now be able to answerWhat share of your units can be built from three or fewer prototypes, and does the site let modules arrive and set without a superload permit?
  2. Step 02

    Design from the truck backward

    Module dimensions are set by highway rules, not architecture. Locking them at schematic design, with a transport engineer in the room, is the cheapest decision on the project; changing them later is the most expensive.

    DoGet a route survey from factory to site before the module grid is fixed. Ask specifically about bridge clearances, escort requirements and night-move rules.
    You should now be able to answerWhat module width triggers oversize permits on your route, and what does an escorted move cost per module?
  3. Step 03

    Map the approvals — the factory's and the site's

    A modular project has two authorities: the state or provincial programme that approves the factory and design, and the municipality that permits the site. They do not talk to each other and neither accepts the other's work.

    You should now be able to answerWhich third-party inspection agency will inspect your modules, is it approved in your destination jurisdiction, and has your local building official accepted that agency's work before?
  4. Step 04

    Build a capital stack that survives the deposit schedule

    Financing, not physics, is modular's binding constraint. Lenders treat factory work as unsecured, cut loan-to-cost by five to ten points, and the factory wants 25% for materials months before anything reaches the site. Know this before term sheets.

    DoModel your draw schedule against the factory's billing schedule month by month. The gap is the equity you need that a site-built project would not.
    You should now be able to answerHow many months of factory billing precede your first lender draw against installed work, and who funds that gap?
  5. Step 05

    Interrogate the factory

    Factory tours are sales events. The numbers that predict your outcome — utilisation, completion at shipping, real transport costs on real routes, the tier the business sits in — are on spreadsheets, not the shop floor.

    DoAsk each shortlisted factory for completion-at-shipping on its last three projects, current utilisation, and who carries its fixed costs through a slow quarter. Score the answers, not the tour.
    You should now be able to answerIf your factory lost its next two contracts, would it still be open when your modules are due?
  6. Step 06

    Get the site ready before the modules are

    The factory keeps its schedule. Projects lose theirs on site — foundations, utilities, crane access, and the due diligence that should have happened before the budget was set. Toronto's auditor documented exactly this.

    You should now be able to answerOn the day the first truck arrives, what is complete on site, who signed off that it is, and what happens to the factory's schedule if it isn't?
  7. Step 07

    Write the contract for a manufactured product, not a building

    Title to modules in production, retainage the factory will refuse, in-transit insurance, mate-line scope, and who owns a defect discovered after set — none of this is in a standard construction contract. Settle it before the deposit.

    You should now be able to answerWhen does title to a module pass to you, who insures it on the highway, and who finishes the corridor between two modules?

Check yourself

If you can answer these without looking, you have finished the trail. If not, the step number tells you where to go back.

  1. State how many unit prototypes your project uses and whether the floor plate is module-friendly.
  2. Give the module width and length you have fixed and the transport constraint that set them.
  3. Name both authorities having jurisdiction over your project and the inspection agency both accept.
  4. Quantify the equity gap between factory billing and lender draws in months and dollars.
  5. Recite the three numbers you got from your factory that were not on the tour.
  6. List what will be complete on site on module-arrival day and who is accountable for it.
  7. Explain when title passes, who insures in transit, and who owns the mate line.