Tell us about your project, building type, location, timeline, and scope. We'll respond within one business day with next steps and schedule a free consultation with our engineering team.
Qianwan Hard Technology Industrial Park, Bao'an District, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518101, China
All inquiries receive a personal response within 1 business day. Detailed proposals with timeline and budget estimates are delivered within 5 business days of the initial consultation.
Most modular suppliers reply with a brochure. MODURA replies with a schedule. The table below is the actual sequence every inquiry follows, who owns each step, and what goes wrong when a supplier skips it.
| Stage | What You Receive | Timing | What It Prevents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Acknowledgement | A named contact, not a shared inbox, plus a request for any drawing or site information you already hold | Within 1 business day | Prevents the inquiry disappearing into a sales queue. If nobody owns your file by day two, the project is already late. |
| 2. Scope call | A 30 to 45 minute consultation with an engineer, covering building type, site constraints, module count and target handover date | Within 5 business days | Prevents pricing against the wrong building type. A hotel module and an apartment module are not interchangeable, and a bid built on the wrong one is worthless. |
| 3. Preliminary proposal | Indicative cost range, factory slot availability, and a project-specific delivery schedule | Within 5 business days of the call | Prevents a design fee being spent before the numbers close. If the range does not fit the budget, stopping here costs you nothing. |
| 4. Technical package | Module layout drawings, structural and MEP interface schedule, finish specification, and the certification set that applies to your market | 2 to 3 weeks | Prevents a permit submission built on a brochure. Authorities with jurisdiction ask for interface drawings, and suppliers who cannot produce them stall the approval. |
| 5. Firm quotation | Line-item pricing, payment draw schedule tied to milestones, and the ex-works / delivered / installed scope boundary stated explicitly | 1 to 2 weeks after the technical package is agreed | Prevents mid-project variation orders. Most cost overruns on modular projects are scope that was never written down, not scope that was mispriced. |
| 6. Factory slot booking | A production start date and a reservation on the line, confirmed in writing | On contract signature | Prevents schedule slippage caused by queue position. Modular capacity is finite, and the slot is the real deliverable in a busy market. |
Steps 1 through 3 cost you nothing and are where most projects are decided. A supplier who will not commit to a written schedule at step 3 is unlikely to hold one at step 6, so treat the early stages as your cheapest test of whether the relationship will work. Our how the modular build process works page sets out the factory and site stages in the same level of detail.
Inquiries that reach a firm number fastest are not the ones with the biggest budget. They are the ones that arrive with four facts. Each one below is worth more to your pricing accuracy than an extra week of discussion.
| What to Send | Why It Changes the Number | If You Do Not Have It | What It Prevents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site location and access constraints | Determines module size limits, crane selection, road permits and freight route, which together can move delivered cost by a double-digit percentage | Send the nearest town and we price a conservative envelope, then refine once surveyed | Prevents a quote that is technically correct and physically undeliverable to your site. |
| Building type and unit count | Sets the module grid, so it drives repetition and therefore unit cost more than any other single input | Send the intended use and an approximate capacity; we will propose a grid | Prevents comparing bids that are not for the same building. Repetition is where modular economics come from. |
| Target handover date | Decides whether your project fits the current factory slot or needs a later line, and whether expedited freight is required | Send your latest acceptable date; we will state honestly whether it is reachable | Prevents a schedule that was never achievable. An honest no is cheaper than a slippage penalty. |
| The certification set your market requires | Drives material selection, testing regime and documentation volume, all of which sit in the cost line | Send the destination country and building type; we will state which standards apply | Prevents a compliant-looking building being rejected at permit or at handover inspection. |
If you only have two of the four, send those. A partial inquiry is priced faster than a late one, and every input above is something the engineering team can help you settle during the scope call. Buyers who want to understand the cost structure before starting that conversation should read our modular construction total cost planning guide and the cost per square foot breakdown, which explain where the money goes and which lines are genuinely fixed.
A modular bid is only comparable if the scope boundaries are stated. When you place two quotes side by side, check the following six items. They are the lines most often left vague, and the lines that generate variation orders later.
| Check | What a Complete Answer Looks Like | Common Incomplete Answer | What the Gap Costs You |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope boundary | Ex-works, delivered to site, or installed and commissioned, stated as one of the three | "Delivery included" with no mention of offloading, cranage or connection | The crane and the connection crew are often the largest single line outside the module price. Assuming they are included is the most expensive assumption in modular procurement. |
| Foundation responsibility | Named as client scope or supplier scope, with the tolerance the modules are built to | Silence, or "foundation by others" with no tolerance figure | Modules built to a tighter tolerance than the site slab cannot be landed. Remedial grinding or a redesigned pier grid is a real and recurring cost. |
| Transport and permits | Route survey, escort requirements, road permits and port handling listed with an owner for each | "Freight quoted separately" with no route survey | Abnormal-load permits and escorts are route-specific. An unsurveyed route can invalidate the budget after the contract is signed. |
| Certification set | The specific standards and test reports that will be delivered, named | "Fully certified" with no standard named | Certification is market-specific. A structural set acceptable in one jurisdiction does not satisfy the next, and the retrofit is not cheap. |
| Payment schedule | Draws tied to named milestones you can verify, such as module completion or dispatch | A large deposit with unlabelled progress payments | Milestone-linked draws let you inspect value before paying for it. Unlabelled draws leave you funding a supplier's cash cycle. |
| Interface drawings | Module-to-module and module-to-site connections shown, including MEP tie-in points | Architectural layouts only, no interface package | The interfaces are where modular projects lose time on site. Without drawings, the connection work is discovered rather than executed. |
The same six checks apply whether you are comparing modular suppliers against each other or modular against traditional construction. Our bid comparison guide goes deeper on how to normalise two quotes onto the same basis, and the RFP and procurement guide explains how to write a request that forces the answers above.
Procurement teams raise the same three concerns before they submit anything. They are worth answering plainly rather than leaving to a privacy policy.
| Concern | Our Position | How You Can Verify It |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees our project information | Your inquiry is read by the engineering and commercial team members working on your file. Project details are not published, resold, or used as a reference without written permission. | Ask for a mutual non-disclosure agreement before the scope call. We will sign one, and we can send our template if you do not have one. |
| Will our project be used as a case study | Only with your written consent, and only in the form you approve. Most clients decline and most of our published projects are unnamed. | Ask what we would publish before you send drawings, then send on that basis. |
| Are we talking to the factory or a broker | The Shenzhen facility is our own production. The engineering team that answers your scope call is the team that releases the shop drawings. | Ask to visit the facility or request a live video walkthrough of the line producing a comparable module. |
Once your file is open, correspondence runs by email with the named contact from step 1, and drawings are exchanged under the agreement you choose. Buyers who need a formal procurement route rather than a direct inquiry should start from the quote request page, which captures the same information in a format suitable for internal approval. If you would rather read before you talk, the frequently asked questions covers lead times, payment terms and delivery scope in short form, and about MODURA covers the facility, certifications and export record.
Send us an email with your project details, we'll respond within 1 business day.