Ever since the industrial revolution, the process of building a family home hasn’t changed much. The materials might have changed from rubber washers to silicon washers in plumbing applications or using nail guns to replace the hammer, but the process has mostly stayed the same.
Carpenters create the forms for concrete finishers to fill, then the skeletal frame of the house is erected. Electricians and plumbers come in next to install the wires and pipes and then the drywall installers come to cover up the chaos. Finally, the house is given a personal touch with a coat of paint.
At the end of the day, around 22 trades will move around the construction site and you can easily end up with a surplus of steel washers and other building material that you’ll probably never use again or be able to resell for anywhere near the amount you paid. What if a home building plan was simplified and the process was more predictable and far less wasteful?
The Future Of Building
Real estate prices in the US have risen to record highs and fewer people can afford to buy a home. There is a massive housing shortage and it seems that the old ways of doing things just isn’t cutting it anymore. That is where modular buildings come in.
Together with commercial rubber washer suppliers, timber and drywall suppliers, and other manufacturers, companies have created a way for houses to be built much like Henry Ford built cars back in the day, on an assembly line in a factory.
The Cost Of The Old Ways
There is no denying that the construction industry can be a lucrative one. However, construction productivity in the US hasn’t risen by much in the last 80 years. The construction sector generates more than $640 billion in GDP every year.
7 million people owe their jobs to construction and around $1.3 trillion worth of structures are built every year. Compared to the manufacturing industry, which grew by over 1500{9cee231af4442b6aea73d6ab676325b3161b84c5f43230a6f869604305edf9eb} in the same time, and you’ll find the world is missing out on around $1.6 trillion every year.
What Does That Mean For A Homebuyer?
In short, the US fell around 400 000 homes short of what was needed to supply the population growth. When the supply falls short of the demand, the direct result is that property prices increase.
At present, housing prices are increasing at twice the rate of incomes and three times the rate of inflation. If the process isn’t changed and productivity isn’t increased, then demand will grow even higher and sooner buying a house will be near impossible for the average Joe.
How Does It Work?
Modular house companies operate in a warehouse where houses, or rather the sections of houses are pre-manufactured. These prefabricated boxes, panels, and rooms are then transported to the housing site and assembled.
The only thing that modular housing companies need to decide is how much is prefabricated and how densely the modules are assembled. From there on, the sky is the limit. Technology has made the industry much more lucrative, and where it only used to be a pipedream for architects, it is becoming the future of construction.