Judging a Modular Company
Why These Questions
Five questions, asked of any modular company before its price is allowed to matter. Each maps to one of the five tests — standing, depth, honesty, seams, record — and each has an answer a serious company can produce from its standard paperwork.
Which program approves your factory work for my state — and where is your name on its list?
Standing is the threshold question because it is binary: the company is approved for your project's state, through a named agency, or it is not. A strong company answers with the program, the agency, and the list. A weak one answers with its home-state story and a promise to sort it out — which means your project becomes the sorting.
Who, by name and license number, designs and seals my site scope?
Depth you cannot name is depth you do not have. The answer should be a seal map: a licensee per discipline, licensed in your state, each sealing their own sheets. Verify every name on the board lookup — the company that expects the check is the company that passes it.
Where does your scope end — in writing?
Request the scope split and read the edge. Box, foundation, seams, laterals, site-built work: every line owned or honestly marked open. The proposal that prices everything and assigns nothing has priced your assumptions, and assumptions invoice later at worse rates.
Who owns the marriage lines on my project?
The seam question separates builders from brokers. Structural stitching, utility crossovers, fire continuity — detailed by whom, inspected by whom, signed off at what stage. A company with modular scar tissue answers from its standard documents. A company hearing the question for the first time will learn it on your building.
Show me a finished project's file — redacted is fine.
Record discipline predicts your close-out. Approvals, label paperwork, the sets as issued, the seal register, the inspection sign-offs: a company that keeps that file can hand you yours. A company that cannot produce one is telling you what your building's paper will look like at resale, refinance, or audit.
Then Take the Doors
Run the five questions against the companies on your shortlist — including the five evaluated here. The doors below are the firms that publish their answers; the questions work on everyone.
