MANUFACTURER / TRADE NAME
YEAR OF MANUFACTURE ( Not
the Model Year )
-
Located on
the HUD Data Plate /
Compliance Certificate located inside of home.
-
Located
on a date stamp found
inside the water tank of a bath toilet. (
This method can be used to estimate the year home
was built )
SIZE OF HOME
A single-wide listed as a 18 x
80 ( i.e. Call
Size ) may
actually be 16 x
77 ,
with a 3 hitch assembly and 1
roof eaves on either side.
HUD CODE
The HUD Title 6 Construction Standards Regulation is a
Performance Code effective on June 15, 1976. All
manufactured homes built on or after the above date must be
designed to comply with standards as evidenced by a red
metal label located on the outside of each unit/floor. These
standards are administered by the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD), Washington DC, through a
network of state agencies (SAA s) and independent 3rd party
professional engineering firms (PE s).
This code supersedes all local and state building codes. A
HUD coded manufactured home structure can be offered for
sale in any state. The removal of its HUD label(s), wheels,
axles or frame will not qualify the structure as a modular
home or real property. The removal of its HUD label(s) or
frame is illegal as per the HUD Title 6 Regulations.
HUD CONSTRUCTION CODE LABEL LOCATION
This metal certification label (red in color with silver
lettering) is permanently attached to the rear exterior
siding of each transportable section per HUD Title VI
Regulations effective 6/15/76.
Missing Construction Code Label
HUD does not offer replacement labels from their offices.
However, upon request from an interested party, the national
monitoring contractor, Institute for Building Technology and
Safety (IBTS), will review their records and indicate that,
at the time of manufacture the home was issued a HUD label
number(s). The interested party has the option to use this
information in any manner they wish. This applies to homes
manufactured from June 15, 1976 and newer only.
The serial number for each floor section is required for
request.
You may need the label for:
-
Loans
-
Sale
-
Insurance
-
Relocation
-
Appraisal
-
Utility
Connections
-
Zoning
Inspections
IBTS
505 Huntmar Park Drive
Suite 250
Herndon, VA 20170
(703) 481-2010
http://www.ibts.org
MODULAR CODE
Modular homes are built to the International Residential
Code (also known as the IRC), for one- and two-family
dwellings and townhouses. (With one exception, Wisconsin
wrote their own state code for dwellings)
Commercial (non-dwelling) buildings, including modular's,
must be built to the International Building Code, (also
known as the IBC); used in all fifty states.
There is no such code as the "National Uniform Code". Never
has been. The UBC stands for "Uniform Building Code", and is
not used anywhere in the US any more. Perhaps you were
thinking of the code bodies that existed prior to the
origination of the IBC. The three major organizations
consisted of the BOCA National Building Code (published by
the Building Officials and Code Administrators), and mostly
adopted in the Midwest and eastern states; the UBC or
Uniform Building Code, adopted mostly in the western states;
and the Southern Building Code or SBCCI (for Southern
Building Code Congress International) which was used
primarily in the southern states. These three code bodies
combined and formed the current International Code Council,
which is used exclusively throughout the United States.
You state that the building code is "specification code".
This is incorrect. Both the IRC & IBC are known as
"prescriptive" codes, that is they detail exactly how
something is to be done. Codes which are not prescriptive
are known as "performance" codes. A Performance Code will
set objectives as to what is to be achieved and its up to
the designer as how to achieve the end result.
A good example would be to compare the use of Braced Walls
from section 602.10 of the IRC, in which the exact method of
how to build the home to resist both wind and seismic forces
is detailed, compared to Section 301.1.1, which references
the IBC and one of three other standards which sets out the
end result and allows the designer the ability to decide how
to achieve that result.
MODULAR CODE LABEL LOCATION
Modular labels are sometimes attached under the kitchen
sink.
Modular type units WILL NOT have the red HUD label attached
on the rear exterior siding.
Some manufacturers will also use the HUD data plate form,
but it will list the STATE S MODULAR CODE in place of the
DAPIA CODE.
Most states will require the use of a state label, and are
normally located at the electrical panel, under the kitchen
sink or inside a bedroom closet. Many states require a
separate label on each module of a home. The information on
the data plate is specified by state regulations and is
usually located at the same location as the state label. In
addition, several states require a Third-Party Inspection
agency label also be attached to the home along with the
state label.
SERIAL I.D.
NUMBER
LOCATION
The location of the serial number is specified in section
3280.6. It is prohibited to be stamped into the hitch
(removable). Specifically it reads "Numbers must not be
stamped into hitch assembly or drawbar."
The federal standards require the serial number to be
stamped into the front cross-member; and is always located
directly opposite the point where one of the main rail's
attach to the back side of that crossmenber. (The reason
being, when you stamp a number into a flexible steel frame
part it tends to bounce, causing a weak and sometimes double
stamp. The floor crew will always use the location reference
because it's much more rigid and provides a better place to
stamp the letters and numbers.
As there is no frame under a modular, the only place one can
find a serial number is on the home's data plate
HUD DATA PLATE LOCATION
Not quite correct. Section 3280.5 reads "Each manufactured
home shall bear a data plate affixed in a permanent manner
near the main electrical panel or other readily accessible
and visible location." A HUD guideline requires that if the
data plate is not located at the panelbox, that a label be
placed referencing its actual location.
No size is specified and it can be of any size. The
information on it must be permanent in nature and sealed
with a plastic sheet (if paper) to prevent erasure or
destruction of information.
It very important that an agent look for the data plate (and
certification labels) before signing any paperwork, because
if either is missing, it can take weeks and a couple of
hundred to replace. (I get calls several times a years
asking for assistance in locating a replacement
certification label, data plate or just where to find a
serial number of an older manufactured home. Without a data
plate, it become (in many cases) impossible as the
foundation now blocks the front cross member.
The information actually required to be included on the data
plate, is:
-
Name &
address of the manufacturing plant where home was
manufactured (many corporations have several plants in
different states).
-
Serial
number, model designation and date manufactured,
-
Specific
wordings,
-
List of the
certification label attached to each section,
-
List of
factory-installed major appliances,
Reference to the roof-load zone, and wind-zone maps, and
-
The name of
the DAPIA (Design Approval, Primary Inspection Agency,
the agency which approved the design).