Historically, conventional US homebuilders had an “Us Against Them” mindset when it came to offsite construction. For years, our niche was the red-headed stepchild of the building industry. I am sure much of the problem was because of the confusion generated by the words we chose.
In the case of modular construction, that confusion had to do with the term “modular”. It was too easily confused with “mobile” and “manufactured” homes (our affordably priced, factory-built cousins).
But the truth is that offsite construction has been slowly winning over conventional builders. It started small, with simple prefabricated components such as roof and floor trusses. It eventually grew to include more complex components such as dormers, porches and decks, prefab concrete foundation panels and open or closed wall panels.
The point is that a builder doesn’t need to be using full volumetric modules to be doing some level of offsite construction.
Almost every home today makes use of prefabricated roof trusses. Many homes are also built with prefabricated floor trusses. They are engineered to be stronger, better and cheaper than their site-built counterparts. Why? Because they are made in a factory using high-quality materials and under controlled manufacturing conditions. They must also undergo rigid inspections to ensure they meet quality and code requirements.
The next step will be hybrid offsite construction, which uses multiple building systems to deliver high-quality, energy-efficient, sustainable buildings at a better value and in less time. New design techniques combine volumetric modules, prefabricated panels and other manufactured components — both simple and complex — to create higher-quality projects and faster delivery timetables than would be possible from any single off-site building system.
In fact, when builders first started using offsite construction, they tended to focus on a single system, and a lot of them still do. But that is limiting. To get the full benefits of today’s building systems, builders need to combine them. A builder who uses a single system can push it beyond its capability, and if there’s a problem the builder will likely blame the system for failing to meet expectations.
The power of offsite construction lies in intelligently combining the many building systems available to maximize design capability and to deliver true value to the client.
Offsite construction isn’t competing with builders or developers who do all of their construction on-site; rather, building systems are the next step those builders and developers can take in growing their businesses. Now is the time to evaluate offsite construction and learn about its capabilities. Study panelized and component construction. Learn more about modular construction.
Most of what we all own is already built in a factory, so if you’re in the business of building homes, why wouldn’t you strive to deliver that same manufactured quality and precision in the homes you build for your clients? Offsite construction is only your competitor if you let one of your current competitors adopt it first!
