Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

IBS’s corporate team is led by (from right) by Steve Scheinkman, its president and COO; Rob Ebbets, its senior vp of marketing; and Jack Gizienski, its senior vp of operations. They say the key to their company’s success is and will be the strength of its local factory’s management.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

Mod-U-Kraf’s 168,000-square-foot factory in Rocky Mount, Va., includes 18 work stations, including this one where one of the plant’s 72 hourly employees kicks up drywall dust as he cuts openings for doors and windows into a prefabricated wall.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

Modular construction starts with the assembly of a solid or open-joist floor. “We don’t move the floor until it’s square,” says Jack Giezinski, who is currently running Mod-U-Kraf for Innovative Building Systems.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

A worker at the Rocky Mount plant applies drywall tape to interior walls and ceiling. IBS’s factories have the capacity to virtually complete a module’s interiors if the builder requests that service.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

Water and gas lines are pressure-tested before appliances and fixtures get installed and the module is shipped to a jobsite. Electrical wiring goes through the same testing regimen.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

A worker at the Rocky Mount plant nails siding onto a module that will become an office building. Supplying commercial projects has become a growth opportunity for IBS.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

A worker spray-paints a module’s interior walls.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

A finished bathroom that’s between two bedrooms in one of 42 modules that will comprise IBS’s first passive dormitory, which it’s building for Emory & Henry College in Virginia.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

IBS applies rubber-coated oriented strand board to its exterior walls to reduce air infiltration into its modules, which are like “giant bubbles” when they’re completed, quips Gizienski.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

Once a module is completed, it is stored outside the factory, usually for a few weeks. When the module is ready to be shipped, it’s moved and hoisted onto a flatbed by this mobile crane.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

Down the road from Mod-U-Kraf’s factory in Virginia is its sales office complex, which includes three models and a design center. Pictured is a 2,084-square-foot Craftsman-style, Energy Star-rated home with three bedrooms and 2½ baths.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

A kitchen inside one of its model homes. IBS offers customers a range of choices for cabinets, flooring and appliances.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

A fully furnished bedroom inside Mod-U-Kraf’s Craftsman-style model. The ceiling fan is one of the options made available to buyers.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

The design center includes a detailed layout of each model and explains the benefits of modular construction and design. This is the only showroom among those connected to IBS’s five factories that’s open to the public.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

Customers visiting the design center are presented with options for doors, exteriors, roofing, siding, and faucets. IBS is in the process of redoing the brochures for its 88 house plans.

Modular Builder IBS Quickly Manufacturing National Network

Mod-U-Kraf supplied the modules—complete with exterior brick work—for a dormitory at Ferrum College in Virginia. Company officials say this building demonstrates how modular construction can be customized to fit into any setting.

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