"My
grandfather, Fred Sica, began dabbling in a new home construction in 1948," said
Sica, "and immediately saw the great opportunities in those Post War years and became
a full-time home builder."
Sica continued, "During my developing years, my
grandfather and father taught me the great value and importance of the old-fashioned word
ethic. They also promised to teach me the construction business from the ground up. I
began my career in construction at the age of 13 as a mason’s helper during summer
recess. I continued working in the construction field during my high school and college
semester breaks. After I tackled all the different trades, my final job, before being
permitted to work in the office, was to work along with the roofing subcontractor. They
certainly kept their promise to me!"
Today, Sica is one of the New Jersey’s most
recognized modular home builders. Sica is also a licensed real estate broker, certified
tax assessor, real estate appraiser, licensed building inspector, an environmental
assessment consultant and a land use and zoning expert. Sica is a building systems
consultant to several major modular home manufacturers.
There have been tremendous changes in the family
business and the construction industry since those early years.
"Back in the 1950's we specialized in site or
stick-built construction. In the 1960's we specialized in stick-built and panelized homes.
In the 1970's we began experimenting with modular homes along with our stick-built homes.
Then in the early 1980's, we made the decision to specialize in modular homes almost
exclusively," Sica said.
"The change that I have witnessed in the modular home industry in just the past
several years is dramatic. In the early years, most of our designs were simple ranches and
boxy two stories. The public would sometimes confuse a modular home with a mobile home.
The 1990's consumer demands total design flexibility and customization. Today we can meet
that challenge and build almost anything modular from a modest ranch to an elaborate,
multi-million dollar oceanfront home. The days of a modular home being mistaken for a
mobile home are gone," stated Sica.
A modular home is not a type of home but rather a
method of construction – just like stick or site building is a method of
construction.
Modular and site-built are the same type of home and
both are built to either the CABO or BOCA building codes, which are the approved building
codes for all single-and two family homes in New Jersey.
A mobile home, also known as a "manufactured
home," is a different type of construction and built to a different standard.
A mobile home utilizes some materials, methods and
standards not accepted or approved by either the CABO or BOCA building codes.
Modular homes have a number of advantages over
site-built homes.
All modular homes are built inside a factory under
controlled conditions by a competent, qualified and dependable labor force. The home is
never subject to inclement weather during the construction process inside the factory.
Modular home manufacturers employ stringent quality
control standards and inspections.
Most manufacturers have continuous, on line, quality
control inspections. Third party inspectors monitor the home, on the line, to assure that
each phase of each home meets building code compliance standards. The typical modular home
utilizes 33% to 40% more lumber than a site built home. More lumber means more structural
strength in order to ship the home over the open road and to lift and set the home upon
the foundation. Modular homes are also highly wind and hurricane resistant structures.
Many modular home manufacturers build their homes from the inside out. This enables the
factory crew to caulk, foam and insulate the home in ways that cannot be done in the field
by site builders.
Coupled with 2-by-6 inch walls with R-19 insulation,
Sica’s typical modular home is a highly energy- efficient structure.
Usually, the overall construction time is less than
half the time it would take to site build the same home since the modular home is
delivered to the site 65 to 90 percent complete.
Due to the economy of the manufacturing process,
modular homes are less expensive than site-built homes.
"The home building company that supplies and
finishes your modular home is just as important as the company that manufactured the
home," claims Sica. "You can take the finest built modular home and place it in
the hands of a contractor who is not quality conscience and the final result could be
marginal at best. It’s important to couple a quality manufacturer with a quality home
building contractor for satisfactory results," says Sica.
Sica Industries Inc. specializes in full-service,
turn-key construction for their modular home clients. Basically all the client has to do
is provide or buy a building lot and select a home. Sica Industries, Inc. handles all the
details from that point and they can also arrange mortgage financing for their buyers at
today’s low interest rates. Sica also has a program for the wholesale purchase of a
modular home for the construction savvy do it yourselfer.
