MA, 04/29 ( Harwich Oracle )- Industry statistics indicate the modular home sector has captured 15 percent of the home building market, and the prediction is that by 2012 the number will jump to 50 percent.

Jacques Lapointe gives credence to that claim.

The president of Pleasant Bay Homes Inc. has been out straight building, or pieces together, homes. He just won Dealer Of the Year award from his company in Canada, Pro-Fab, and his office in East Harwich is a jumble of plans, photographs of homes, and magazines full of ideas.

Behind him on the wall is a map of the Cape, with red pushpins marking where he has built a home. There is quite a scattering of red on the Lower Cape and there are more pushpins waiting in the wings.

"This place is a zoo," he said happily.

Lapointe had just returned from a trip to Canada and spent most of the day working on a home in Harwich that just arrived the night before.

"Right now the Cape is busier than ever," he said. "Modular is here to stay for sure."

Lapointe has seen his business increase steadily. When he first started in 1999 he built four houses. This year he'll complete close to 15. It's clear that Lapointe loves the work. He had about 100 different models, including various Capes, Colonials and ranches. When he came back from Canada, he brought an additional 35 designs. He can even do modular apartment buildings.

"We have more to play with," he said, grinning broadly. "We can do just about anything."

Richard Bailey of Wellfleet, who is waiting for his home to arrive, appreciates the flexibility.

"In the past you had to buy their design, sort of off the shelf if you will," he said.

When Bailey was originally looking to build a new home, he had a local contractor come over to talk about the possibilities. The man asked if he had ever considered a factory-built home.

"And I said, 'No, definitely not,'" Bailey said, using a snobbish false falsetto voice in jest.

The contractor said he would have felt that same way about five or six years ago, but the industry had made a lot of changes in the last decade and Bailey should look into it.

Sometime in May, Bailey's house will leave Quebec and travel in a six-vehicle convey. The home "pieces" will spend the night behind the Wellfleet movie theater before they are assembled the following day.

Bailey said a modular, or pre-fabricated, home made sense. For one, the house would be about 20 percent cheaper than if he had it built on Cape.

"A challenge here on the Cape is that builders are so expensive. So many people are building trophy homes it's hard to compete with them," he said.

And the home will be built much quicker. It takes only 4 1/2 days to build it in the Canadian warehouse, he said.

"You want it to arrive on May 10, and it arrives on May 10 within reason," he said, adding that firm deadlines aren't something to which the Cape subscribes. "The Cape is like the West Indies. Tomorrow is a long time in coming."

Bailey isn't the only one who has been convinced that modular houses make a great home.

Brewster Building Inspector David Thyng said his daughter and son-in-law bought a modular home. Thyng said his department is seeing more and bigger modular homes. It may have to do with the shortened time frame and the quality of materials.

"They are governed by the state building code," he said, adding that inspectors will check for structural soundness, but can't check for quality as much as they would like to.

He added that in the modular units, some of the work is concealed in the walls, but local inspectors need to see the certificates of inspection that were done in the factory. And the manufacturer needs to be certified by the state, he added.

There are some things they can't do, Bailey said, explaining that he is having the fireplace installed on the Cape, as well as a big glass window. The company won't ship 108 inches of glass over the roads.

Lapointe works with customers to choose the type of home they want and what changes they would like to make. They also talk about what the owner wants for countertops and cabinets, or whether they want a Jacuzzi or a tub with feet, all of which comes complete with the house.

He pulls out an industry magazine and rapidly flips through it.

"It's got like 10 trillion doorknobs, (including) 18-karat gold! It doesn't have to be boring," he said, looking as though he wouldn't tolerate a moment of boredom himself.

Lapointe also helps owners fit their house into the neighborhood, and situate the home to take advantage of the sun, for instance.

"We play with curves as much as possible," he said, adding that costs can run from $115 a square foot to $150.

Lapointe readily admits that he doesn't do it all himself. He has about 25 or 30 local subcontractors that are essential for completing the house. He depends on Rick Roy Construction in Orleans and Breakwater Construction in Brewster, uses Baxter cranes to put the pieces in place and buys lumber for garages and decks (which don't make the trip) from the lumber yards on the Cape.

Lapointe said he started out "stick building" on Cape Cod in the 1960s and 1970s. He had left Quebec, where his family had a women's clothing factory, to learn English so he could help with the business. He came to the Cape, fell in love, and had a child, but moved back to Canada in 1974.

"Everything fell apart," he said. "Construction died completely."

He returned to the Cape in the late 1990s to enjoy retirement, but in his trips back home to Canada, he was struck by all the modular homes he saw on the roads.

Paul Langlois, of All Cape Modular Homes in Chatham, had a similar idea. A stick builder for 30 years, he moved to the Cape, which he had been visiting for close to half a century, from Western Massachusetts to take it easy, but was bitten by the modular bug.

"It's the only route I am going to go with," he said. "The bank absolutely loves them. With a stick home, there are changes constantly and changes cost money."

And these aren't your parents' modular homes, he said, and people on the Cape are realizing that.

"The industry has grown considerably. At first you had just a box, and it wasn't a really good box years ago," he said. "Now, with some companies, you get a superior product."

Langlois said like anything, people have to realize you get what you pay for. There are companies on the Internet that can slap a house together for $40,000.

The company he works with, Chelsea Modular Homes out of New York, is known for its high quality, he said.

They are so flexible someone can even custom build a modular trophy home. With two state police cars required for each box, that's "quite a parade," he said.

The appeal of modular homes stretches from trophy homes to affordable homes. Outer Cape Community Development Corporation's new affordable homes on Old Wharf Road in Wellfleet are modular.

Langlois said he can have a home installed within eight weeks of ordering. He added that you still have to "button it up," which includes such things as finishing the wiring (most of which is already in the walls) and completing the septic system.

He finds modular homes much less stressful on the home owner and on himself.

"I don't have to go yelling and screaming for someone to do the work," he said. A lot of times with stick building, subcontractors don't show up, so that pushes everyone else back as well.

Lapointe said that having the homes built in a factory is the wave of the future. There aren't enough builders out there.

"Sweating is not as cool as it used to be," he said with a grin.

He paraphrased a favorite quote he had heard that said, if you don't build a Lexus outside, why build a house in the rain?

Langlois said he still gets a kick out of the building process. Especially when it moves so quickly.

"Someone going to work that morning comes home and sees the house up," he said.