Modular home sweet home.
Cobble Hill's Nexus Modular has been producing both residential single family and multifamily modular housing or just over seven years.
The vision for Nexus Modular began when current CEO's Alan Jackson, and David Slang who were both longtime residents of the area decided to join forces to come up with a solution for the daunting housing market.
Slang had worked for a company called Cadillac Homes for a number of years that did a lot of development in the Southern Vancouver Island area, while Jackson, who owned his own company called Jackson Grills which made barbecues, had extensive experience in manufacturing.
As they watched their own children reach the age where they were looking for their own homes, they wanted to see how their skill sets could provide a more efficient and economic solution for people like like their kids, so they entered the modular housing game.
They believe the future is modular.
Modular housing by definition is a home that is built in a factory setting and delivered to the site.
"Modular housing typically is a process that takes all the efficiencies of manufacturing, design intensive, lots of oversight and low waste, and it is all done inside so we don't have any weather delays or material damages due to rain, or the cold, and we just apply it to the building process," said Nexus Modular business development manager Noah Topps.
"One of our biggest guiding principles is that we just want to be able to house people. We don't want people to have to pay an arm and a leg for something nice. We know that we can build really nice homes without the astronomical price, so we can save money on the efficiency of our build process while at the same time provide an incredible product. That was what got Jackson and Slang started, and we still carry that torch today."
Nexus Modular, which currently has 10 team members, began in 2017 in an 8,000 square foot space in an aircraft hanger in Chemainus which they rented, while their offices were located in Duncan. They've expanded to 16,000 square feet since but it's still a relatively modest operation, as some modular manufacturers work out of spaces as big as 250,000 square feet.
What makes modular homes special is that they are completed in sections called modules and are built off site, typically in an indoor quality controlled setting for precision in the manufacturing process. These sections are then transported to the site where they are assembled by builders and installed into the foundations. Customers can even choose to pre-order their appliance so they are also ready to go inside the home once it shows up.
"What we do is called volumetric modular housing," said Topps. "We actually build the fully-finished three dimensional home turn key. It shows up in one piece, and is placed on the client's foundation, and then it's hooked up to services and ready to go. All the painting is done, all the flooring, cabinets, counters, plumbing, and electrical fixtures are in, the siding and roofing is on, and the windows and doors are all in.
"Ideally for us, the home shows up and the new owners connect it to hydro, sewer, and whatever else they may need and it is ready to move into, and stay at that night. In the modular world, we're still pretty small but we like it that way. It means we get to choose the clients that we work with, and we get to offer them unique and custom options, and do things where we are kind of pushing the envelope a little bit, and that suits us just fine."
Topps, who is originally from Banff, Alberta, moved to the island to escape the cold weather and attend university in 2010. He has now been with Nexus for three and a half years and wears many hats. As the youngest guy in the office he has become the default IT guy and handles website maintenance and compliance, as well as material procurement, contract creation, spreadsheets and most importantly a lot of the initial client interaction.
For the first year and a half Topps was with the company, he notes that the team was split up. But while many places were pulling back during the pandemic, Nexus was pushing forward and built their new space in Cobble Hill which is double the size. Topps said in hindsight they could have tripled or quadrupled their space and it still wouldn't have been enough.
Topps said Nexus typically turns out 16 to 20 single family homes and garden suites a year, however some of the bigger projects that they are proud of include the The Village temporary housing on Trunk Road, and the work they have done with Cowichan Tribes and these projects have affected those numbers.
"This is a really nice range for us because we don't feel we need to be some huge juggernaut that's just pumping out homes," said Topps. "We really like to do a lot of smaller and unique projects, that's our bread and butter. We have done a lot of work with the Cowichan Housing Association over the past few years that has been really rewarding for us. With every project that we do, it's just so great to be involved with the design work, and then seeing it come to life. To be able to provide that solution for people is fantastic."
The partnership between Nexus and Cowichan Tribes began with renovations, and a duplex project, then during the start of the pandemic in 2020, Nexus embarked on constructing three modular two-storey apartment buildings that fell under the federal initiative called the Rapid Housing Initiative which specifically needed to be done modular, and completed in a very condensed timeline.
"That was one big project that took up most of their shop for nearly a year and a half," said Topps. "It was a great experience, we have done a lot of work in partnership with Cowichan Tribes, and they are just fantastic to work with.
"Working with their housing department, they have a lot of stories about people coming in to build homes and cutting corners and getting as much federal funding from them as they can, but not delivering great products in return. Very understandably, they are not standing for that anymore, so we are really excited to be working with them to provide something that is affordable, durable and high-quality. They've seen the value in the product that we produce, and have been an absolute delight to work with. They have given us the opportunity to build larger and more unique projects which we are always a fan of, it keeps our work interesting."
This special project led to another one, the Cowichan Tribes Yathuy’thut School, which took up their shop for nearly five months. It was completed in 2023. and unveiled on the morning of May 1 earlier this year. Topps said that they had to put in a bid among others for the project, and based on their past experience, and what they were able to offer, Cowichan Tribes felt they were the best candidate for the job.
Size matters. Nexus builds everything from garden suite homes as small as 400 square feet to both single and multi-family homes ranging from 750 square feet and upward. According to Topps the smaller garden suites will often have some upfront expenses like an HVAC system as well as plumbing for the kitchen and bathroom, and electrical work that all needs to be condensed into a smaller space.
"We build counter-intuitively, the smaller the home is the larger the cost per square foot," said Topps. "You can dilute some of those larger costs by having open living spaces or a bedroom, things that aren't so detailed intensive but are still really important to the home."
Topps said garden suites typically cost $400 per square foot, suites double that size would be $350 per square foot while anything over 1,000 square feet levels off at $300 per square foot. So, the total price for a 750 square foot home would range between $250,000 to 260,000, a garden size suite would run $150,000- $160,000, while Topps said an 1,800 square foot single family home could sell for just under $500,000.
The smaller garden suites can be built in as little as 70 days, while anything south of 1,800 square feet takes 100 days on average.
One of the biggest benefits of going modular over a house that is built on site is the money one will save, the company says, not to mention the efficiency of the process and a quicker timeline, plus the amount of waste being produced is significantly less. Site preparation and module construction occur simultaneously creating a significant reduction in the overall time to complete a Nexus project as compared to more traditional forms of construction.
"We produce 90 per cent less waste than the traditional construction streams," said Topps. Something like our 750 sqare feet show home we can build in about three to four months. So it's not years and years, your site work can happen concurrently to that.
"Your overall build timeline is way shorter, and time is labour and labour is money. In the past the word modular has had a negative connotation, that it's a cheaper quality, but nothing could be further from the truth. We build to the same calibre that you would expect a site home to be built to, we meet all the same building codes and energy requirements.
We are probably even more under scrutiny because we are certified to build Canadian Standard Association accredited modules, so every three to four months their licensing body has a representative come in to audit everything we do and look over our paperwork, so when it comes to the details and documenting everything we are very diligent. It's all rapidly changing for the positive. Institutions are slowly letting go of the negative idea that these aren't mortgageable or insurable or under warranty."
In his experience Topps said that Scotiabank is one of the lending institutions more likely to assist with financing for modular homes.
"Mortgages are easier to obtain for this kind of project, but it does depend on the lender because there are some that are still really set in their ways that when they hear modular or prefabricated that they clutch their pearls a little bit," said Topps.
Nexus works with clients from all over the Gulf Islands and across Southern Vancouver Island and Topps said his favourite part of the job is interacting with clients as they are going through the build. As they go though the process, the client is very involved and can choose their flooring, cabinet finishing, paint, siding, appliances, trim and even the size of their doors and windows, and where they should go.
"Often our clients will just stop, and be like wow, this our house, and that's a pretty magical moment to be involved in," said Topps. "To be able to provide a home for people is something that they are really grateful for and that we are really proud to be involved in."
"What's important to us is that our modular houses still feel like homes even though they are factory built," said Topps. "They're beautiful, and well-made. Modular building in its entirety is starting to get a lot more attention for larger projects and single and multi-family homes as well as for more commercial space like the school we just built. People are realizing more and more that this a really viable option."
