How is the quality of Cavco & Schult?

[Marion]

How does the quality of a Cavco and Schult stand up to the Karsten? We want a good quality home for our retirement in New Mexico.

[Randy Eaton]

Hello Marions,

Cavco and Schult homes are built about the same and are considered to be good homes. The Karsten home is built better and more expensive. But to be fair you can up-grade the Cavco and Schult homes also to compare with the Karsten home. My criteria for a well built manufactured home are:

2x6 exterior walls 16” on center
Double or triple pane vinyl windows
Energy saving installation packages
2x8 floors… not necessary but recommended
Plywood sheathing if budget allows
Headers above exterior windows and doors
2x6 top and bottom plates on exterior walls
Electrical out-lets secured to wall studs not sheet-rock
Taped & textured through-out, ½” sheet rock or 5/8”
Quality plumbing fixtures with shut off valves at each fixture
Solid wood cabinets, oak, maple or pine
Transverse floor system

Have a Happy New Year and God Bless

Randy Eaton

[Terry]

Marion, Let me advise you STAY AWAY FROM CAVCO! this company doesn't pay attention to the construction of their homes. This is why one of their factory was shut down in Belen, New Mexico. The Durango Plant in Phoenix builds their highend home but the quality isn't their. Let me tell you why. I have a friend who owns a triple wide by Cavco and when it was assembled together the floor had a 1" gap in between and they couldn't even align the marriage walls together. They had to use cheater strips to build the walls even and covered it up with sheetrock. I even asked one dealer in Arizona who used to sell Cavco and he told me they ruined his reputation because Cavco has a very poor reputation for servicing their homes it's like a Cadillac with a Hyundi motor. And he also told me their homes never align together very well. This is why he sells another brand from California. The other brand you mentioned Shults is a very good brand. This company has been around for more that 40 years and builds great homes from their Buckeye, Arizona plant. They also manufacture the Marlette homes from their plant also. If your looking for the residential series or UBC coded homes this company is the one to knock on. The nice features about Schult/Marlette homes is the residential look of the home. The roof pitch is 56" and 1/2" sheetrock thru out the entire home with textured walls and the dual glaze windows and they don't race your home thru the factory either. Check out their shingles they use the architectural shingles and real black felt paper for the underlayment and Cavco doesn't they use the cheap paper. When Cavco and Schult puts their double wide homes together they screw the rim joists together and the roof line also is screwed every 16" o.c. and the Karsten homes they bolt the steel outriggers together and this is the nice feature about their homes. Say one side of the home started to separate the floor rim joists will eithe split in half and the roof line will do the same, but if you have the outriggers bolted the steel will withstand the seperation of the home and this is the nice feature about the Karsten. The nice feature about Karsten is the construction process and how the home is built in the factory. Yes I've been to the Cavco, Schults, and Karsten factory and I really admire the Karsten Homes because one thing is the home is leveled at all times thru out the building process. They start with the steel I beams and leveled on jacks and the jacks roll on this steel rail thru out the factory. They use real 2x6 exterior walls and 2x4 interior walls with 1/2" sheetrocks textured and finished. The roof is a 4:12 pitched and use architectural shingles and galvanized roof is an option. They use a very top quality hardboard siding also that could handle the stress of the siding. This company also uses a top quality cabinets and the tile or marble floor in their homes and they also use real 2x6 eaves around the entire home other companies only cover the eave's with 1x6 with 1/2"x6" maysonite hardboard as the eaves. So let me tell if you wanted the best quality built home for the money I would go for the Karsten Homes of Albuquerque, New Mexico. and they won't forget you after the sale either because they stand behind their homes. Another nice feature is the recessed frames at each end of their homes you can place the home on a permanent foundation. If you want to see it for your self tour their factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico and you will see the difference for yourself and be amazed at the building process of their homes. So good luck and compare them together.

[James Gulick]

Looking for an opinion on Patroit Single wides
anyone have any info/experience with them?

Thanks