The housing industry is looking for more workers and more materials along with an easier way to build homes if they want to continue to meet their production goals. The answer may be in modular construction.
 
A year ago the Advanced Framing Construction Guideline was published, aimed at helping builders construct energy-efficient homes with lower material and labor costs than conventionally framed houses.
 
The new code stresses using advanced framing techniques to improve the thermal performance of a wall.
 
Modular construction allows for a builders and contractors to build in a factory setting where advance framing techniques are used. Modular construction is also not affected by labor shortages. These two benefits allow modular homes manufacturing companies to show builders the advantages to overall construction costs of modular construction compared to stick built homes.

Modular construction can help the bottom line of the builder and the homebuyer. With modular homes you don’t need estimates, you don’t need a purchasing staff, and you don’t need a lot of site supervision.
 
It is estimated that for a 2,300-square-foot house priced at $300,000 the modular construction and on-site costs total, on average, $77.40 per square foot. Regardless of where the home is built.
 
Stick-built costs range from $73.10 per square foot in the South to $102.70 per square foot in the Northeast. The Northeast region also has the highest modular market share.
 
The differential in price between modular and stick-built has tightened as subcontractor labor has gotten scarcer and more expensive.
 
Additionally, modular homes are delivered to a jobsite 70% to 80% completed. From the time the company gets an order to when the customer moves in ranges from 60 to 90 days.

Builders need to consider that the cost advantages of modular will become indisputably apparent as labor and materials become scarcer. In fact, commercial contractors are already seeing the light.

For more information on modular construction, contact Tidewater Custom Modular Homes.

Original article - Builder