Director's Message: Providing a Solution, Not Just a Product
How Framing with Componentized Floors, Walls, and Roofs Enhances Value
Many people like to paint the construction industry as inefficient, antiquated, regressive, and even archaic. They point to reports from top-dollar consulting firms comparing efficiencies in various industries to the lack of progress in the broader construction industry. What they don’t tell you is those statistics are typically taken from the bottom of the housing downturn, when new construction was at its lowest levels in the last 70 years. Why? While it’s easy to take shots at the broader construction industry, I believe the residential construction industry has made great strides over the last several decades!
The improvements in construction since World War II have largely come in the form of enhanced products. Wall sheathing is a perfect example. Walls were once clad with 1X material on an angle for shear purposes. This graduated to plywood, oriented strand board (OSB), and eventually products with built-in water resistive overlays like Zip. Similarly with insulation, people used to stuff old newspapers in their walls to add insulating properties. This practice was ultimately replaced with fiberglass, cellulose, spray foam, foam board, and other types of insulation, adding energy efficient elements to wall and roof construction.
Beyond this, look at the range of products brought online that are designed to keep moisture out and conditioned air in. Window flashings have evolved from metal trim pieces placed above windows to elastic tape systems. Roof underlayment materials options have transitioned from 15 or 30 pound felt to synthetic UDLs and peel and stick ice and water shield options. Look at what component manufacturers (CMs) have brought to the table. Our industry revolutionized roof framing and allows the most complex roof designs to be efficiently framed in a fraction of the time, cost, and effort compared to stick framing.
Construction material and product companies have been on the forefront of advancing construction but have focused primarily on products and not process. It’s easier to sell a brand-new widget that addresses a specific problem than to go out and reevaluate how all the parts and pieces come together to form a structure. Product companies are incentivized by new markets, growing sales, and achieving code acceptance of their products. Builders have relied on these advancements to drive their performance and have successfully built better and better homes as a result.
Significant improvements to the process of how a home, or any structure, is built are available to builders but many aren’t acutely aware of what they are or how they are implemented. Focusing on framing techniques, most builders are still buying sticks from the local pro dealer and having framers cut them up and build floor systems and walls. Is this the most efficient method? SBCA has repeatedly shown with Framing the American Dream and Innovative Housing Showcase projects that structures can be framed more efficiently with less material and less time than traditional approaches. However, most builders and framers view floor cassettes, wall panels, and roof trusses as three separate and distinct products and not a combination of solutions in a more efficient process.
CMs hold a significant amount of opportunity for builders when they view their services as an improvement in the process of building homes. Componentized floors, walls, and roofs are an incredible solution when implemented with the correct processes that drive efficiency, eliminate waste, and reduce cycle times. Many of our National Framers Council (NFC) members have already realized this in their approach to multi-family construction. Their stories of moving quickly through several stories of apartments in little time are amazing and demonstrate the merits of selecting process over products.
SBCA will continue developing storylines highlighting the efficiency of components, and specifically when all three elements are used in a single process. We are committed to Framing the American Dream in Texas, where we will showcase a side-by-side component build next to a stick-built home in Austin and then demonstrate component-built homes in three additional cities in Texas. We recently completed our third Innovative Housing Showcase project and intend to continue that effort at future events.
While we can lead in several different areas, SBCA cannot do this alone. We need all of our members to promote the differences and advantages of process over product. As you walk the BCMC show floor and sit in on various education sessions this year, think about how you can start shifting the narrative with your customers from one about lowest economic drivers to one in which you are a trusted solutions provider that gives your customers a competitive advantage.
Jess Lohse, Executive Director