Innovation in Building Products: What Do Builders Want?
By Ed Hudson, MBA
Published Thursday, March 6, 2025
Faster, easier, and more foolproof installation leads builder wish lists, but the supply chain still needs improvement too.
In late 2023, a survey by Home Innovation found that the decreasing affordability of new homes was a top business concern among home builders, outpacing the need to make homes more sustainable, improving indoor their air quality, and detangling the vast offering of “connected” home electronics now available for homes.
In late 2024, Home Innovation fielded another survey of 300 builders to uncover another layer—what supplier-offered solutions best address the affordability crisis by reducing costs of both labor and materials. These questions were developed in collaboration with ProBuilder. Here’s what we found:
Cost of Labor
For labor cost savings, builders prefer that manufacturers develop easier/faster to install products to the other solutions offered in the survey. The chart below shows how builders responded to the nine choices, ranked by popularity:
Effectiveness of Strategies to Reduce Labor Cost
Continuing the One-and-Done Revolution
Decades ago, the concept of pre-painted and easy-to-install aluminum and vinyl siding changed the home exterior industry, providing a good example of the types of one-and-done solutions builders are seeking across all product categories. A more recent example, luxury vinyl flooring, has used the quick-and-easy recipe while improving looks and moisture resistance to fuel the massive resurgence in popularity of resilient flooring.
The findings of this survey imply that builders are awaiting more innovative products and materials to accelerate the “one-and-done” revolution, having much greater faith in this approach of simplifying the installation process (the top answer) than in “training up” installers become more proficient with existing products (the bottom three choices).
Dealer-to-Jobsite Delivery: The “Missing Middle” of Innovation
It’s not just with products and materials that builders are seeking innovation: there is a big need for innovation in local stocking and jobsite delivery of materials as well. Choices #2 through #5 summarize these missing services: orders need to be more accurate and delivered undamaged; materials stocked locally; shorter order lead times; and scheduling deliveries that better fit builder & installer needs. Based on these reuslts, ensuring this convenience and reliability for builders would be the most impactful labor-cost-reduction strategy beyond simplifying installation.
Materials Cost Savings
In a question on materials cost savings, builders conveyed the greatest desire to purchase from lower cost sources—wholesalers, for example—and get discounts for all repeat purchases regardless of volume. In this traditional sense it doesn’t sound so innovative, but a manufacturer who can recognize loyalty this way can entice custom builders to switch to their brand.
Effectiveness of Strategies to Reduce Materials Cost
Following very closely in the #3 position, builders called for more durable products, or those that reduced the number of callbacks. This falls in line with the trends of reliability and convenience that arose in the labor cost responses. In the distant fourth and fifth positions were reducing construction waste and better communication of product specs, design, or composition. Occupying the bottom of the list were longer and better warranties—possibly an indication that many lack faith in warranties ultimately reducing cost of materials.
Translating Innovation to Labor and Cost Savings
In order to truly resonate with builders, manufacturers need to be able to make concrete, verified claims about cost and labor savings. Home Innovation Research Labs has a unique observational research facility specifically designed for evaluating installation efficiency. Manufacturer clients can collaborate with our Market Research experts to conduct research that backs up labor savings, trouble-free installation claims, or other marketing language.
A typical labor efficiency study involves hiring tradespeople to install the industry-standard or baseline product on a life-size structure (like the two-story home currently in our lab, shown to the right). This is followed by the installation of the manufacturer's improved material and method. The entire process happens in our laboratory where the client can observe first-hand from a private observation gallery. The findings of the report may be used to support claims of labor cost savings for the client's intended market.
Here are a few examples of press releases, articles, and websites that contain the findings of our time and motion studies:
If you have a product with the need of real-world, 3rd-party verification of its quicker and easier installation, get in touch. Or, if you need to know whether the buying market will be responsive to specific product or service improvements, we can get the market feedback to need to evaluate your options.