Modular house in Georgia: ordering, delivery and installation in Batumi

A modular house in Georgia is assembled from volumetric units that leave the factory almost finished. Each module has its own floor, walls and ceiling, the pipes and cables are already run inside, the windows are fitted and the finishes are done. The modules arrive on the plot on a lorry, a crane sets them on the foundations, and the crew connects them to one another and to the utilities. We don't have a factory of our own: we order the modules from manufacturers and take responsibility for everything that happens on the plot, from the surveys to the utility connections.

How a modular house differs from panel-built and frame houses

A frame house is assembled on the foundations from timber or steel sections, wall by wall. In a panel-built house, flat walls and floors come from the workshop, and the shell is put together and finished on site: this in-between option is covered on the page about houses built from factory-made panels. A module arrives almost complete: finishes, a bathroom, the kitchen plumbing and wiring, sometimes built-in furniture. It leaves the least work on the plot, but once the order is placed there is almost nothing you can change.

The road sets the size of a module. A module is long and narrow, and a room wider than one module is made by placing two modules side by side with no wall between them. The manufacturer reinforces the open side of each such module with a frame, and the seam is hidden in the floor and ceiling.

Where a module makes sense in Batumi and Adjara

A module comes out ahead where timing and repetition matter and a proper road leads to the plot:

• several identical guest cabins on a large plot in Gonio, Kvariati or near Kobuleti;
• glamping by the forest in mountain Adjara, if a lorry can get there;
• a home for the family or the property manager while the main house is being built;
• a sales office, the reception of a guest complex, a home office on the plot.

A module is less suited to the narrow streets of old Batumi, to a steep slope with no room for a crane, and to a house with long spans and an open-plan layout. If you need a house to live in permanently for many years, first compare a module with a traditional build: how both options behave by the sea is shown in our comparison of a modular home vs traditional home. If the cabins are going to be rented out, we plan the plot as we would for a guest house: paths, parking, shared utilities and space for the service area.

What we check with the manufacturer before ordering

Modules are made both by manufacturers in Georgia and by factories abroad. Before the contract with the factory is signed, we look at the documents and ask the same questions every time:

• whether the modules and their fixings have been calculated for seismic load under the Georgian seismic building code (PN 01.01-09) for your ground;
• how the frame is protected: the zinc thickness on light steel sections, the paint system on hot-rolled steel, kiln drying and preservative for timber;
• how the wall is built: insulation, wind barrier, vapour barrier, the air gap behind the facade;
• what the price of the model includes and what it doesn't: foundations, delivery, crane, finishing the joints, a septic tank;
• what warranty the factory gives on the frame and roof, and under what conditions it stays valid.

If the factory designed the module for a country without earthquakes, our structural engineer checks the connections and writes down what needs strengthening before production starts: on a finished module the same change costs more. In our contract with the manufacturer we require photos of the frame, insulation and service runs before the walls are closed. We forward them to you in the weekly report and then put them in the handover file.

Delivery and the crane: we check the route first

A module travels in one piece, so the road rules out options before the layout does. Before ordering, we drive the route from the main road to the gate: the width of the street and the bends, wires and branches over the road, low bridges, steep climbs where a tractor unit with a long trailer may not make it. The haulier plans the route and the timing of the run for a wide module, and we check that plan against the last kilometre to the gate: the haulier has usually never seen that stretch.

A light module is set in place by a truck-mounted crane on the same vehicle. A heavy module with finishes and a bathroom is lifted by a mobile crane, and the further the house footprint is from the crane, the more powerful the machine has to be. The installation itself usually takes one to three days, but the days need to be dry and calm: a module on slings catches the wind like a sail, and open ends and roof seams can't be left out in a downpour. We set the date by the forecast and agree a reserve day with the haulier in advance.

Foundations for a modular house

A module doesn't bear on the foundations over its whole area, only at the points in the manufacturer's layout: usually at the corners and along the long sides, where the load-bearing beams of its frame run. We ask the factory for this layout before the design starts, and the structural engineer designs the foundations to suit it. If the supports end up at different heights, the module twists, the doors stop closing and the seam with the next unit opens up. That is why we check the support levels with a surveyor's level a few days before the lorry arrives, not on the day of installation.

On a level plot with firm ground we usually make a slab or a strip foundation; on a slope or weak ground, piles tied together by ground beams or a steel frame. When each option is more cost-effective is shown in the comparison of pile and slab foundations. The modules are fixed to embedded plates designed for seismic and wind loads. Pipes and cables leave the module at set points in the floor, so we cast the sleeves for the service entries into the foundations to the factory drawing: if the house stands on a slab, there is no getting at them after installation.

Module joints: where the house leaks and lets in draughts

Each module arrives with its own floor, walls and ceiling, so where two units stand side by side you get a double wall or a double floor with a gap in the middle. The gap itself is useful: it damps sound between the modules. The trouble starts at its edges: in wind-driven rain water gets in through the roof seam, the wind blows through the gap at the facade, and the void at floor level draws in cold. This is how we close the joints:

• we lay a seal between the modules and pull the units together as the manufacturer specifies;
• we cover the roof seam with a flashing that laps onto both modules, and if there are many seams, we build a common roof over all the units;
• we fill the gap along the edge with non-combustible insulation and run continuous cladding across the joint on the facade;
• inside, we close the seam with trims from the manufacturer's kit or finish it on site, and photograph it before that.

Pipes and cables that pass from one module to another are connected where they can be reached: under an access hatch in the floor or in a junction box, not inside a closed wall. The diagram of these connections stays with you in the handover file.

Utilities, septic tank and paperwork

A modular house is connected to water, drains and electricity in the same way as any other house. If there are no utilities nearby, we price a borehole and a septic tank, and how to choose is clear from the comparison of a septic tank vs mains sewer. We apply for an electricity capacity that covers the air conditioners and the water heater. Gas, if you need it, is connected by the gas company.

Factory assembly doesn't make the paperwork any simpler: a residential modular house has its class determined and, like a masonry one, usually needs a permit. How classes of structures work is described on the page about construction in Batumi, and we confirm the class, setbacks and number of storeys for your plot from the registry extract and the zone rules together with the architect and our partner lawyer.

How much a modular house costs in Georgia

A turnkey factory-built modular house costs from 1,830 to 2,100 ₾ per m². The price covers the modules with finishes, plumbing and wiring, and for most models the foundations too. A septic tank, utility connections and delivery are not in every offer, so we check them model by model. A small module for glamping or a guest cabin with panoramic glazing costs more per metre, from 4,140 ₾ per m²: the floor area is small, while there is a lot of glass and many junctions.

If delivery is not included, a run with installation by truck-mounted crane costs from 1,740 to 3,000 ₾, and a turnkey septic tank from 4,140 ₾. For comparison, a timber frame house built on the plot costs from 1,620 ₾ per m² turnkey. Costs go up with a long-distance run, a heavy crane, a slope that needs piles and panoramic glass, and come down with a series of identical modules on a level plot by the road. We send a preliminary estimate from the model and photos of the plot within 24 hours on business days, and the final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed.