AMA – Breakthrough Construction Technologies?
Welcome to the Real Estate Espresso podcast, your morning shot at what’s new in the world of real estate investing. I’m your host, Victor Menasce. Today’s show is another AMA episode, that is Ask Me Anything. I love to answer your questions, and if you have a question you think it’s going to be of broad interest, send it in. I’ll answer it live on the air. Send your questions to Victor at victorjm.com. That’s victor at victorjm.com.
Today’s question comes from Steve, who asks, what is the next potential technology that could dramatically change or revolutionize construction? Well, Steve, this is a great question. There’s a lot of innovations in construction that are being promoted as the next greatest thing. The problem with many of these is that they’re often focused on solving a small portion of the construction problem. For example, there are the mass timber folks who advocate using engineered wood assemblies to build very tall buildings. There’s a handful of examples of these 10 and 12 story buildings, but they don’t really save that much in terms of cost and they don’t offer many real advantages compared with steel or concrete. While they may save a little money in construction, because they’re considered a combustible structure, they actually cost more over the long haul in terms of insurance.
There are the 3D printed homes that use a robot to dispense concrete onto the site to assemble the framing of a house in concrete. Somehow these are supposed to speed things up and save cost, but the speed in framing often neglects the extensive setup time for the 3D printer. You see, many of the technologies are not taking a holistic perspective when it comes to the entirety of the construction process.
There’s Light Gauge Structural Steel. This too, offers many advantages, especially if it can be built in a factory environment. There are sandwich insulated panels, there are a few of these technologies available including steel sandwich panels and engineered wood sandwich panels. But these are all just framing technologies. You can frame a building pretty quickly. But then, if you need to bring extra equipment on site to install windows and attach exterior cladding then the time to complete multiplies.
You see, the construction process involves anywhere between 17 to 22 subcontractors, each of them involved in the construction of a building. They generally don’t talk to each other. The key, in my opinion, is to eliminate subcontractors all together and to collapse steps that would have been traditionally performed by separate subcontractors. The more you can do in a factory environment, when you’re working on the ground level, the better. The key, in my opinion, consists of understanding the interplay between the conflicting requirements under the building code, and optimizing the complete assembly process, not just framing.
The key in optimizing construction is not necessarily a new technology. It’s a new way of thinking. If you can eliminate steps in the construction process, then the savings in labor can be significant. And if you can reduce the number of individual pieces that need to be transported on the construction site to their final location, the savings can be huge.
I want to thank you, Steve, for a fantastic question. And for the listeners at home, have an awesome rest of your day. Go make some great things happen. We’ll talk to you again tomorrow.
Stay connected and discover more about my work in real estate by visiting and following me on various platforms:
Real Estate Espresso Podcast:
- 🎧 Spotify: The Real Estate Espresso Podcast
- 🌐 Website: www.victorjm.com
- 💼 LinkedIn: Victor Menasce
- 📺 YouTube: The Real Estate Espresso Podcast
- 📘 Facebook: www.facebook.com/realestateespresso
- 📧 Email: [email protected]
Y Street Capital:
- 🌐 Website: www.ystreetcapital.com
- 📘 Facebook: www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital
- 📸 Instagram: @ystreetcapital
