{"id":46797,"date":"2018-09-10T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retrofitmagazine.com\/?p=46797"},"modified":"2022-03-22T16:25:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T20:25:57","slug":"modular-building-practices-are-changing-the-construction-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retrofitmagazine.com\/modular-building-practices-are-changing-the-construction-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Modular Building Practices Are Changing the Construction Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

When most people hear the word \u201cmodular\u201d with respect to buildings, they often mistakenly picture cheaply built mobile homes sitting atop flatbed trucks cruising down the highway. In other words, modular is regarded as somewhat of a four-letter word.<\/p>\n

\"AFTER:<\/a>
AFTER: Prefabricated wall panels installed on an existing multifamily building were designed to make the building energy-efficient, warm and desirable to tenants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>But modular construction practices aren\u2019t equivalent to manufactured homes, and the industry in North America is finally waking up to the fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to see it trickle down, and I think we\u2019re finally changing the \u2018M\u2019 word,\u201d says Ken Semler, president and CEO of offsite construction company Express Modular, Martinsburg, W.Va. \u201cThat\u2019s the problem with modular\u2014everybody\u2019s confused it with mobile or manufactured for a lot of years, and I think the internet\u2019s kind of been our best friend. People are doing the research and finding out we\u2019re not what they thought we were.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, if it\u2019s not mobile homes, what is it?<\/p>\n

By way of definition, modular or offsite construction \u201cinvolves the process of planning, designing, fabricating, transporting and assembling building elements for rapid site assembly to a greater degree of finish than in traditional piecemeal on-site construction,\u201d according to the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS)<\/a> Off-Site Construction Council, Washington, D.C. Additionally, NIBS notes the modular industry consists of two, distinct industry segments: re-locatable modular, referring to temporary structures for short-term use, and permanent modular construction (PMC), which is prefabricated single or multi-story whole building solutions in deliverable module sections.<\/p>\n

According to the Modular Building Institute<\/a> (MBI), Charlottesville, Va., though PMC has been flourishing for a decade or more in Europe, it still is an emerging market in North America. However, a 2011 Sage report described PMC as \u201cthe stealth division of the nation\u2019s construction industry.\u201d At that time, PMC accounted for roughly $2 billion in annual revenues in the U.S. and Canada. \u201cThe industry has since emerged from the shadows,\u201d an MBI white paper suggests. To be sure, PMC firms earned roughly $3.3 billion in gross revenues in 2016\u2014a 61.8 percent increase from 2015.<\/p>\n

Given the growth and prevalence of this trend, what does modular offer over traditional construction practices, and what are the opportunities for existing building retrofits? Read on.<\/p>\n

An Outdated Construction Paradigm<\/h4>\n

Why the sudden surge in modular construction? There are a couple major drivers toward the modular construction trend, including skyrocketing construction costs and inefficiencies. But the biggest concern according to experts is the labor pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t go to a construction conference, meeting, seminar, webinar and not hear about labor shortage, and so that\u2019s been the biggest driver [for modular construction],\u201d Semler explains.<\/p>\n

Tom Hardiman, MBI\u2019s executive director, agrees, noting after the recession, many construction workers left the industry and didn\u2019t return. Further, he says the labor situation \u201cis not getting any better\u2014it\u2019s getting worse.\u201d Hardiman predicts when many of these 50- and 60-year-old workers retire, \u201cwe\u2019re going to feel the pain when there\u2019s no labor left to build these [buildings]. That day is coming,\u201d he warns.

\"BEFORE:<\/a>
BEFORE: This multifamily building is about to have prefabricated wall panels installed to make the building energy-efficient, warm and desirable to tenants.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

When it does, it will be far more difficult to address the problems with traditional construction practices, which have scarcely changed since the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to Steven Bolos, president of Renovations for technology-driven offsite construction company Katerra, Menlo Park, Calif. Bolos suggests a historical photo of a construction worker putting nails into a wall and one from a construction site today look strikingly similar because the industry is lagging behind the times. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t changed,\u201d he says. But with respect to modular construction, he notes, \u201cThis is a true evolution of change in the construction industry, of which a lot of the other parts of the world have already been there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardiman echoes those comments, suggesting the industry is among the last to stick to its old ways of doing things. \u201cTechnology has advanced and driven virtually every other industry, and we\u2019re still clinging to [the practice of] shipping materials to the site and get a bunch of guys with a bunch of hammers and put it together\u2014and it\u2019s not going to work,\u201d he says. Hardiman points out the U.S. is nearly a decade behind other developed countries that have embraced modular construction, \u201cand we\u2019re still making up excuses as to why we don\u2019t want to go down this path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benefits of Building Offsite<\/h4>\n

The fact is, offsite construction practices represent a more industrialized and efficient way of approaching building projects with inherent benefits that cannot be ignored much longer. Past and ongoing research comparing the benefits of offsite construction versus traditional onsite construction has proven that modular is advantageous, according to NIBS. Benefits of offsite practices include:<\/p>\n