Like all successful companies, this one got clear on its target market, then used that clarity to guide its product changes
by Offsite Builder Staff
Rather than competing with builders who offer traditional design, the company has succeeded with a narrow focus on high-performance homes and modern architecture.
- Dvele started out as a builder of wood-framed modular homes, built to Passive House standards, but has transitioned to stock plans and light-gauge steel framing
- They are also in the process of moving from scattered lot builds to small developments
- The company is making these changes without compromising the quality of their homes or their product specs
- It’s a great example of how a quality-conscious modular builder with a vision can succeed in a targeted niche
There are lots of ways to carve out a profitable niche in the modular home market, one of which is to focus on building a specific home type for a specific customer. LaJolla, California-based Dvele has succeeded with that approach by serving customers who want a combination of modern design, great thermal performance and the latest digital technologies.
The architectural significance of its homes includes clean lines as well as big windows and lift-and-slide doors to let in natural light. According to co-founder Brandon Weiss, the company serves customers in California, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada, most of whom have properties with views. Glass is a big selling point.
He describes those customers as middle to upper class. While they don’t represent a single age demographic, “most are probably younger families.”
High-Performance Specs
All of Dvele’s homes are built to Passive House standards for energy performance (although if the customer wants official Passive House certification, that’s an extra expense.) The goal, when designing to this standard, is for the structure to use 90% less energy for heating and cooling than a typical home, while also being more comfortable and healthier to live in.
Homes are 100% electric, with space conditioning provided by a heat pump system. Each comes with a solar battery.
Achieving Passive House requires a highly-insulated, nearly airtight building envelope. To get there, Dvele uses continuous exterior insulation, European doors and windows with laminated glass and a liquid-applied exterior coating to ensure a good air seal.
Indoor air is kept fresh by an energy recovery ventilation (ERV) system. Before occupancy, homes are tested by a third party for particulate matter, VOCs, radon, mold spores and formaldehyde.
All Dvele homes meet Passive House standards. They have exterior insulation, an exterior air-sealing membrane and European windows and doors. Indoor air quality is verified by an independent testing company.
All homes are wired in the factory with the proprietary “Dvele IQ” digital control system. In addition to heat and humidity control, the system will monitor internal CO2 levels and ramp up the ERV if those levels exceed a pre-determined threshold. The company also embeds sensors in walls and ceilings that alert the homeowner to moisture issues. System control is via a phone app or a wall-mounted touch screen.
According to Weiss, the company’s homes are also designed with resilience in mind. For instance, attics and crawlspaces are unventilated to keep burning embers out of the structure in a wildfire scenario. And the waterproofing system will resist rain that’s driven by winds equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.
He says that modular construction has made it possible for the company to offer these specs at a consistent quality level. “The quality control made possible by the factory environment makes it easier to achieve the level of quality we need,” he says.
Evolving The Product
High-performance modern architecture is something most people associate with the custom home market. Indeed, the architecture and performance of Dvele’s homes would lead one to assume they’re a custom builder. They’re not.
However, custom is where they started. Weiss was a builder of high-performance homes in the Chicago, Ill. area where he completed some of the first LEED-certified homes in that market. But, while he was getting good results, replicating them on each project took a lot of work. “I wanted to find a way to mass-produce these types of homes,” he says.
Doing so would require partners with complementary skills, which Weiss found in former modular builders Chris and Kurt Goodjohn. Together, they launched Dvele in 2016.
While the long-term vision was always to build repeatable products, the company didn’t give up the custom market until this past year. It took until then to figure out exactly what their buyers wanted. “We’re now at the point where we have collected enough information and have worked with enough clients to know what will work for them and what won’t,” says Weiss.
The 2,342 square foot Laguna Blanca plan is in the mid-range of the company’s stock plans.
Today, they build a menu of stock plans that range in size from a 430 square foot, one-bedroom cottage to a 3,523 square foot home with 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths. Customers can choose from limited options that include siding and interior colors. Starting prices are listed on the website, then a rough budget is generated once the customer enters their option choices, specifies their geographical location and chooses from a list of site conditions like slope and the availability of utilities.
Now that they’re building stock plans, Weiss and his partners are looking for ways to increase volume. While the company has always delivered homes to scattered lots, they understand that to really grow, they need to be building communities. “We’re working on some smaller developments with under 30 homes,” says Weiss.
Adapting Factory Efficiencies
The way Dvele builds homes has also been guided by market conditions. For instance, their Loma Linda, Calif. factory started out building wood-framed modules but changed to steel when lumber supplies became a challenge.
“We have transitioned to light-gauge steel,” says Weiss. “We can source all the coils we need within 10 minutes of the factory.” Of course, steel’s thermal conductance can be a challenge, but they use enough external insulation to eliminate any potential thermal bridging problems.
The plant’s 84 workers can build 250 modules a year. It’s a largely manual operation, but the company will layer in automation as needed.
Labor has been as much of an issue for Dvele as it has for everyone in this industry. One way they have made their existing workforce more productive is by emphasizing cross-training that qualifies each worker to do more than one job. “That’s more important today than in years past,” says Weiss.
Like most stick builders who come to modular, Weiss is very pleased with the time and cost efficiencies. “We can build a home in 6 months that would require 12-16 months for a site builder,” he says. And, while building in a factory doesn’t reduce hard costs, the time saved is worth a lot. “We save a lot of soft costs.”
