May 5, 2021
On Point: New Builder Practices Survey Confirms Predicted Growth in Off-Site Construction
In August of 2019, and again in September of 2020, Home Innovation asked a nationwide sample of 300 new home builders to describe their intention to adopt various offsite building practices within the coming 5 years. The findings, as listed in the table below, point to increasing growth rates among offsite practices, most pronounced among roof trusses and factory-built wall panels.
Home Builders Intending to Increase Their Use of Off-Site Practices and Components Within 5 Years
| Roof Trusses |
15% |
23% |
| Factory-Built Open Wall Panels |
9% |
16% |
| Turn-Key Framing |
7% |
16% |
| Pre-Cut Framing Package |
12% |
16% |
| Panelized, Pre-Assembled Floors |
7% |
13% |
| Modular |
7% |
11% |
| Factory-Built Closed Wall Panels |
9% |
10% |
| Precast Concrete |
7% |
8% |
Source: Home Innovation 2019 & 2020 Survey of
Builders on Intent to Use Off-Site Construction
There has been a lot of attention devoted to off-site construction technologies over the past decade. Many builders share the opinion that off-site construction is the way homes should be built, but not as many are willing to adopt the practices themselves. Over that same time, our Builder Practices Survey shows that little growth has occurred in the use of these off-site practices listed, with the exception of wall panelization, which has seen growth in multifamily construction.
In our 2021 Builder Practices Survey, however, a surge of market acceptance of some off-site practices was measured among new single-family homes. Just as the September 2020 survey indicated, Trusses and Wall Panels were seeing the highest increase in interest year over year. The 2021 Builder Practices Survey revealed that Wall Panel share of SFD construction grew from about 5% to 8% of installed volume of walls, and Structural Insulated Panels grew from about 0.5% of the market to 0.9%. Roof Trusses also grew from 62% to 65% of SFD roofs, and floor trusses grew from 20% of floor joists to 22% of SFD homes.
But this growth in not happening evenly across geographic markets. Single-family homes in the Mountain states and East North Central Divisions saw the sharpest increases in wall panelization, for example. For Roof Trusses, the Pacific and New England Divisions saw the biggest increases. And it’s not certain yet that this change is a result of market acceptance of the idea of off-site methods or if it is more a means to use less wood products in the face of soaring lumber prices.
Home Innovation’s newly updated Builder Practices Reports span nearly 50 different product categories and are a key source of market intelligence for building product manufacturers and distributors. Here are our current report categories:
If you want to fully understand your product or material category, how it fared in 2020, and how to thrive in the current market, you need the 2021 Builder Practices Report. Contact us today.
Back to Top