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Thinking about a panelized kit home but not quite sure what you actually get, how it’s delivered, or how it differs from modular and prefab? This episode walks through the practical basics. Steve explains typical delivery timelines (about 4–5 weeks after permits and plans are done), how Landmark can stage multiple deliveries for tight sites, rural locations, and even islands, and what’s included on the truck: the complete wood structure—sill plates, floor system, sheathed wall panels with framed openings, roof trusses, roof sheathing, sub‑fascia, and connectors—ready for your local crew to assemble. He contrasts that with what you don’t get (roofing, windows, mechanicals, finishes) and why Landmark’s biggest value isn’t just lumber, but the full design stack behind it: architectural plans, structural engineering, energy calcs, and site‑specific layouts that align with zoning, setbacks, and permit requirements. You’ll also hear how “standard” floor plans are just starting points that Landmark can fully customize—even down to unusual details like floor‑to‑ceiling closet doors—and how panelized construction fundamentally differs from modular and HUD‑code prefab, while still giving owner‑builders control over their project, budget, and labor.Transcript:
Steve Tuma: And that’s the advantage — our customers are owner‑builders, so they’re able to act as a general contractor or do a lot of the work themselves. We have had a lot of customers where their families are in the trades and they literally build the whole house.
Interviewer: Howdy everybody, and welcome to Episode 83 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.
With me today, as he always tends to be, is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company — a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993 — Mr. Steve Tuma.
Steve, how’s it going, buddy?
Steve Tuma: It’s a great day. You know, it always seems to be a great day when we’re helping people build homes — especially in springtime right now, the weather is pretty beautiful. It’s a good time to build a home.
Interviewer: Yeah, you know, a lot of people get going in spring to start the projects in fall — the actual design and details and get it going through permitting so that when it is springtime, they’re ready to go.
Steve Tuma: Yeah.
Interviewer: So I thought today we would go back to something we’ve been doing over the last few episodes, and that’s get down to some of the basics of panelized homebuilding. And some of these questions — I know, Steve, you’re very patient — but sometimes I have to come up with these questions that are so basic they seem a little… a little juvenile.
It’s important. You know, I know I’m not the only one that’s asking these questions.
So let’s start off with: how long does it take from the time you get your design done to have a home, kit home, delivered to your build site?
Steve Tuma: Well, we can basically get it delivered in four to five weeks from when a customer says, “Hey, put it in production.”
Now, generally we put it in production after the plans are done and permits are issued. Then we say it’s four to five weeks. But what’s amazing about it is customers always ask us how quickly they can get it done — and we can do it a lot quicker than they expect.
But the reality is, is they have to get the foundation and prepare the site. So most of our customers ask us to hold it back. But we’ve got very fast delivery. We have controlled delivery, so we can get it there the day that they need it and make sure everything works out.
So the direct answer to your question is: four to five weeks we can have it on their site, ready to go — and that’s if they want it that fast, as long as their foundation’s in. Because what we want to do is make sure that they have their foundation done, the foundation crew’s left, and our panels show up, they unload them, and then start building the home.
It’s good just to keep the project going. You don’t want stuff sitting around.
Interviewer: Yeah. Is there ever a time where people, like, you know, split their load — like have you deliver part of it at one time?
Steve Tuma: It happens a lot. Yeah, it happens a lot. And that’s the thing — some customers want everything at once, you know, floor system, walls, and roof trusses. And if it’s a smaller home, generally that’s how we deliver it.
But there are some more complex homes, or homes with challenging building sites, or just bigger homes, where they say, “Hey, let’s get the floor system in, then the first‑floor walls, the second‑floor floor system, second‑floor walls, and roof trusses.”
So we can work with customers to make sure it makes sense, because sometimes it’s scheduling, and a lot of times it’s space on the site. You know, if you’re doing a bigger home on a smaller lot, sometimes there just isn’t space to have all the materials laying around.
So that’s a great question actually, because it’s in the coordination of doing this — making it easy for the framing crews, and methodical, and a pre‑planned setup — where we’re able to do it.
We have a unique one — I guess it’s not too unique — but a family’s building in a very rural area, where it’s basically a two‑lane highway, and their driveway is literally a dirt road off this driveway. You know, so it’s not like there’s a bunch of intersections or anything. So what we’re doing is working with them to get a certain type of truck that can get off the highway quickly and traverse through their 900‑foot, winding‑through‑the‑woods, dirt‑road driveway.
So we’ve worked with customers on that just to make sure it’s taken care of. We’ve even done homes to islands.
Interviewer: Oh wow, that’s cool.
Steve Tuma: Yeah. So I guess your simple question, I get to complicate it by saying, “Hey, if it’s on an island, if they’ve got a unique building situation, if there’s restricted space to take the delivery and hold materials, we can work with customers to get that taken care of.”
And that’s part of why working with Landmark Home & Land Company is very important — because we’re not just sending a panel saying, “Good luck, hope it works.” We’re looking at the project of what makes sense for what you need — what makes sense for you, for your house, the building department, the contractor, the building site. So it’s pretty interesting.
Interviewer: Hmm. Well I guess that… that was a great question, but look at all the answers. But the interesting thing about it is all those conditions we’re talking about — some customer has it. They’re either in a remote area, there’s a limited lot size. Other times, there’s a huge amount of space — they have people building on 30, 40 acres and they could take the materials and put them down, and then everything’s there when they need it.
The key to it is we can deliver when they need it, in a situation that’s advantageous for them to build their home. That’s pretty cool.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, that was a lot of answers in one question — but it’s always good.
Interviewer: Kill some birds here. What — I know this is another super simple question, but — and I know it’s going to deviate depending on the floor plan and the design and whatever — but what actually comes when that flatbed truck comes into your build site? What comes in that Landmark home kit?
Steve Tuma: Well, that’s interesting. There’s two answers to that, because there’s what we deliver on the truck — but then something I’d preface it with is what we do to make sure what we deliver on the truck, the panels, are done right.
So the actual truck delivery is basically the complete wood structure:
- From sill seal, sill plate
- Floor system
- Any beams a floor system would need
And our floor systems could be dimensional wood — like 2x10s, 2x12s. We can also do engineered I‑joists, and we can also do engineered open‑web floor trusses. We supply the floor sheathing, which is typically a 3/4‑inch tongue‑and‑groove OSB, but we can use AdvanTech or different plywoods if someone wants.
The interior panelized walls are generally 2×4, 16 inches on center. Plumbing walls are 2×6, 16 inches on center. The exterior walls are generally 2×6, 16 inches on center. And we do install the sheathing, and the window and door rough openings are installed with their headers, so it’s a complete panel that can just be lifted in place.
And then roof systems are generally trusses, but if they need rafters for the design, we can do that — the 5/8 OSB roof sheathing, and we can do plywood or ZIP board if someone wants, and then sub‑fascia. Then we supply a variety of wood‑to‑wood connectors, bracing materials, and details too, so that it’s a complete package.
Basically, our customers — their framing crew unloads it, and then they supply the labor, and our customers supply any nails or screws. There are just different screw guns, so it’s better for them to supply. But if someone simply looks at it as: we take care of the wood structure — the skeleton of the home — it clarifies it.
And then they supply locally — they’ll get the roofing materials, windows, doors, cabinets, plumbing, electric, heat, insulation, drywall, finishing trim, flooring, and things like that.
But that’s what people initially look for. The value that Landmark provides — and the exceptional service, and it is not generally available in the industry anywhere that I really know about — is that we work to help someone do the complete design. So it’s not just the design of the home, but it’s also the design of the home so it fits on your land, works in the zoning, works in the setbacks, works in whatever requirements you have, makes sure it sits on the land properly, so that we develop a set of plans that is ready for your building permits.
And that is a huge differentiation that people don’t understand. People don’t always understand the complexity of building departments, the curveballs building departments may have, or the deep details that they do. Now some areas, building departments are very simple; other areas, they’re extremely complex.
So if someone’s searching among different ways to build their homes, they might say like, “Hey, this panel company does this,” or, “This company does this,” or, “People that build in these methods do that.” It’s like, great — they can get you the materials, possibly. But we’re helping with the complete design, so:
- The house looks the way you want
- Structurally it’s sound — we do the structural design
- We do the energy calculations
- We make sure it fits on the land
…and all these other details, so that someone has a real set of building plans that are also used for the building‑permit process.
And that is a point that people don’t understand because not all panel systems are the same, and not all plans are the same. Just because you get an architect and a structural engineer doesn’t mean that magically everything works clearly for your framer and there aren’t unanswered questions.
With Landmark’s system, we work through:
- The complete design
- Structural engineering
- Energy calculations
- Green codes
- Other concerns
…to make sure that your plan set is unified and matches up. And then when we deliver the panelized home package, it matches the approved set of plans.
And the reason I want to emphasize this is a lot of people have this opinion that when you go hire someone — an independent architect, an independent structural engineer, an independent energy‑calculation person — that magically they all talk into, you know, unicorns and rainbows and everything flows together. It doesn’t.
Even the professionals — I hear it so much, and we get so many plans from people that say, “Well, he’s the best architect in town.” It’s like, great, I’m sure he is — but how does it work on your project? Does it match the structural design? Does it match the energy calculations? Does it match your ground?
And that’s the point where people really appreciate what we do. A lot of customers say, “Steve, I searched, I found you because I wanted a panelized home, never realizing the amount of support, planning, details, and knowledge that’s necessary to help get a project going.”
That’s a key element that I don’t know that people always understand — that is of extreme value that we provide as part of our package. It’s pretty amazing.
It’s kind of like, you know, hey, anyone could go to a store and buy a 2×6 — but how do you use it right?
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: You know, I joke with people — it’s like, you know, I’m not a great cook, but if someone went to my mom and said, “Hey, could you make a chocolate cake?” she’d make an exceptional chocolate cake just off the top of her mind. You give me a cake mix, it’s probably not going to come out too well, even though it’s there.
There’s still a science and an art to making things happen. There’s an art to making sure that the plans are done right, they work for the building department, they work for your framer, they work for the panels, and then you end up with a house that you want instead of something where you have to do changes on site or plans are unclear.
That’s the key thing — our clear and accurate set of plans and clear and accurate set of assembly plans. That is extremely important. That’s what Landmark Home & Land Company supplies that not many people realize is extremely important to the success and staying in your budget.
Interviewer: Hmm. And the schedule.
Steve Tuma: It’s all nice stuff. And all of that stuff has to click and come together.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Steve Tuma: But people don’t realize it. It’s weird. You would think, “Hey, you go to a couple professionals, they’re going to magically work together and it’s going to click together.” It doesn’t. But with Landmark, we’re the one‑stop shop that makes it easy for an owner‑builder to:
- Work on their project
- Understand their project
- And then make the design and framing processes as smooth as possible
Interviewer: You know, just to jump where we’re headed here — I want to jump back into some of my bonehead questions.
We talk about “standard floor plans” a lot on this show, but exactly what is a standard floor plan — and more importantly, how customizable are they?
Steve Tuma: Well first of all, Landmark Home & Land Company will customize the floor plan to exactly what you want.
There’s something there because of decades‑old stories or the way tract builders work, or different non‑custom builders work, as they say, “Hey, go with the builder’s plan, it’s gonna save you money.” Well, yeah — if you’re building something and you’re not really concerned about the design of the home, in theory if a guy’s built the exact same home 25 times, in theory — I’m not sure that they do it — it should be a value. But then you’re going in a standard plan that may or may not work for you.
So in our case, we can work with the plan that a customer drew up, something off our website, and we can come up with a complete custom plan so that the customer gets the home that they want. You know, the way I look at it is: if you’re gonna work hard like we do to make a living, you should get the home you want that works in the budget and makes sense for you.
So for us to go through and dress the home up, move windows, move doors, or add complete custom features — that’s what we’re all about. We have a full design team, we have the full structural engineering team to make sure it gets put together.
What’s interesting about it is a lot of people think, “Oh, you go custom, it’s more expensive.” It’s not that the act of going custom is more expensive — it’s that the features in a custom home become more expensive. Like we have a customer — they’re putting an airplane hangar in their house. That’s not exactly normal. I should say, in their community it’s extremely normal, but the typical person doesn’t have an airplane hangar.
So the reality is, we don’t charge more because it’s an airplane — all that “this and that.” It’s like, no, it’s just a big structure, we work through. So if someone has 8‑foot‑tall walls in a house, it’s a cost. If someone has 12‑foot‑tall walls, it’s a cost. We don’t charge extra just because it’s a bigger item — it’s just one of the features we put in.
And that is why working with us — with our design, and our way to control cost and work with the complete structural design to give someone a set and guaranteed cost — that’s the thing that really helps customers understand how we help them.
So, to get the house you want at a set and guaranteed cost for what we do and supply — it’s exceptional. So a customer can understand their budget before they commit to the project.
Interviewer: That’s so interesting — to take something like what you call a standard floor plan and then to be able to give a customer such a wide variety of ways that they can make it more theirs is pretty amazing.
Steve Tuma: I’ll give you an example. I have an apartment home. She said she’s been thinking about it for 30 or 40 years. She’s owned the land for decades — I don’t know how long. She just told me two hours ago she planted, over the time of owning it, 350 pine trees on the land.
And she’s asking for some very, very precise things in her home. And they’re just things that I’ve never been asked to draw in a house. It’s not a problem; it’s just different. So I asked her why.
And one of the things she wanted was closet doors that went to essentially floor to ceiling. Instead of, you know, the top of a door, and then there’s a foot or two or three — depending on ceiling height — to the ceiling. And she said, “Steve, I’m short. If I get on a stepping stool, I don’t want to have to reach around a wall and this and that. I just want to open a door, have a ladder, and be able to reach the medium shelf, the top shelf, the highest shelf, and not have to bend around a wall.”
What’s funny about it is that’s extremely logical, makes an extreme amount of sense, but just because it’s not commonly done that way, people don’t do it.
So we went through a lot of work to make sure the exact way the doors are hung, the opening for the closets are there, so that it’s there. She said she’s in her 70s, she’s shorter — that’s a tongue twister — and then she said it allows her to access what she needs. She’s got file cabinets, hobbies, different things she wants, so she wants to have easy access and not have to have everything laying around her house.
So, after a while, you start looking at a closet door and go, “Why aren’t they all floor‑to‑ceiling so you can access that top shelf?” So it’s kind of an interesting thing.
So in that case, we spent a little time to draw it up, and it’s an exceptionally important thing to her house. And as long as she lives there, she’s going to get what she wants. It’s going to be easier for her to live in. It’s going to be more enjoyable. It’s not really going to cost that much more, and it just took us a little while to fine‑tune the plan.
So by listening to a customer, understanding what it is they’re after, we can then go and adjust the design to make sure the home is more enjoyable for them — and still stay in the price range they want to be in.
Interviewer: That makes sense.
I’m going to ask you something really dumb now — and it’s only dumb because we have covered this a lot on the show, but I still get the feeling that there are people out there who really don’t know the difference between a panelized home — which is what Landmark Home & Land Company does — and a modular home.
So I’m going to ask you one more time — well, maybe not; this may not be the last time — but how is a panelized home different from a modular home?
Steve Tuma: Well, this is an interesting question, because you think it’s kind of a simple dumb thing. I’ve had professionals in the trade, professionals in the real‑estate world, professionals in the building world, that interchange those words.
And I think it all comes from, like, prefab. When people say prefab, it’s kind of generic — it’s prefabricated. Well even a custom home has prefabricated components — there’s probably some prefabricated trusses in there. So it’s just a different building method that, in my opinion, hits different market segments.
So I’ll add one more. You have panelized, you asked about modular, and then I’ll use the word prefab.
So in general, when people use the word “prefabbed home,” I think they’re thinking more of the trailer thing — you know, a couple parts go down, they have a metal frame under it. It’s just a simple word of prefab that’s put together — 80% of it’s made in a factory, it’s prefabricated.
You can’t really customize a lot. You might be able to pick siding colors and an option of a kitchen or a master suite or bathroom or something. But it’s prefabricated — you’re taking an advantage. It’s a completely different quality.
I would say if you’re even considering one of those, really, really check into the quality of it — and if you can even finance it. And if you go sell it, if it’s possible to get it financed. But that’s prefab.
So then there’s modular, which again are like the two halves — or if it’s a two‑story, maybe four quarters. But basically they’ll be like 8, 10, 12, 14 feet wide, and they’ll be meant to be put on a conventional foundation. They do not have a metal frame underneath them, and they’re put together in modules. So it’s like a mega‑huge LEGO — if you’re building a house out of two pieces, you put two pieces together, and there.
So in the case of a ranch, you’d have two halves that are put together. Then on site, they tie the roof together, siding, some electric and plumbing, and go.
Modular is kind of a little bit of a step up from the — what I call — prefab, the HUD homes, the trailer homes, in that it is built to a better code. It’s theoretically kind of a stick‑built theory, but it isn’t. You should always look at the quality of the homes.
You generally cannot make significant changes to them — it’s limited. And way back, there were cost advantages, but from what people tell me now, there aren’t.
So the modular are two modules or four modules that come out to make a house. It’s limited changes, limited customization, generally price‑pointed — although people are telling me that they’re getting way up there. They’re not necessarily cost‑advantageous.
Now, panelized is a more efficient version of stick‑building a home. Stick‑building is what customers may see as a conventional builder — he’d go out and get a bunch of 2x4s, 2x6s, cut them up, make a wall, put a wall up, make the next wall, and just build it right on site.
Panelization — our system at Landmark — is a more efficient system in that we’re completely designing the home, doing the structural engineering, making sure it’s a consistent plan so all the details are put together on what needs to be built, and then we’re delivering the panelized package — which I kind of reviewed at the beginning, but basically the wood structure.
So we’ll supply the materials to assemble the floor system on site. We’ll supply all the wall panels for just to be set in place. And then the roof trusses to go through.
So what panelization has done is taken the efficiency of Landmark’s design, Landmark’s engineering, Landmark’s energy‑code processes, to have a more efficient system to get the framing up properly, on a budget and in a set schedule. It’s more control — but also more control on the part of our customer, because we work with them to design the home they want. And we have a lot of owner‑builders, so our owner‑builders control the project. They control the project, the schedule, the price, and what it is they get out of it.
Interviewer: And who doesn’t want to be in control, right?
Steve Tuma: Well, there’s a lot of things going on in the construction world, and we’re finding a lot of our customers have had prior experiences that they want to avoid. So they want to go through and control the project and understand what’s being done. They want to know what’s being done to their home — where the money’s being spent, the quality of materials — and make sure it actually ends up there.
Interviewer: We were talking earlier about that — when the kit actually arrives on the trucks — but after that, Landmark has nothing to do with the actual build, right? Landmark doesn’t provide the labor to build your kit home.
Steve Tuma: Right. And that’s the advantage — our customers are owner‑builders, so they’re able to act as a general contractor or do a lot of the work themselves.
We have had a lot of customers where their families are in the trades and they literally build the whole house. We’ve had others that do part of the work, and others that just kind of manage the construction. So the actual labor is something that you get locally.
We work nationwide and internationally — it’s just easier to work with a local person: insurance, licensing, things, to make sure that the home is put together.
Now, we are 100% of the time there for any support. We have very clear and accurate assembly plans. They say what each wall panel looks like and where it gets placed. So we’ve got a very good system to make sure that the assembly is easy.
And what’s interesting about a lot of people — like, “Hey, I haven’t done a panelized home,” or, “I did one 20 years ago” — they’re amazed at how easy it is, because we do have a great system of design, to make sure what’s designed shows up on site, and the panels are built right, trusses are built right, so that the contractors can go through, finish the home up, and move along.
It’s a pretty amazing process. A lot of people think, “Well, it’s pretty easy.” Well, it’s still a lot of work that we have to take care of, to make sure all the details are put together. It’s one of the things we supply. We work with our customers so that they understand what needs to be done, so that when they’re working through the building processes, they’ve already seen it, understand it, move forward. It’s easier for them. It makes sense.
It actually makes a lot of sense, but I’m not sure that people fully understand how we’re able to help — because there’s a lot of details. It’s not like watching one of these TV shows where you sit back and have a cup of coffee and magically, in 20 minutes, someone frames a house or puts a tile floor down. There’s a lot more detail in it. We supply the support so that people can understand it.
Interviewer: All right. Well, that’s about all we have time for on this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.
But before we let you go, Steve, let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and what you guys are doing over there.
Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is check our website out. It’s at LHLC.com — kind of the initials of Landmark Home Land Company, LHLC.com.
On our website we’ve got thousands of plans. We’ve got pictures. We have videos. These podcasts are there. There’s different conversations on what we supply, what we do, and how we help people along. There are some testimonials on there. So I think people get a pretty strong understanding.
But we are a very customer‑service‑oriented company. So people can send us an email from the website. They can also find a plan they like and send us a message. Or they can just give us a call, and we’ll get them taken care of.
Mike will answer the phone if you call 800‑830‑9788. Again, it’s 800‑830‑9788. And we’re there to help you through the process. And whatever it takes to help you understand how we can help — help you through the process — we’re there to do so.
Interviewer: Fantastic. And there you have it.
Thank you again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.
So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week and we will see you next time.
Thanks, Steve.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, thank you. This is another good one, as they all are. They’re fun. Thank you.
