October 23, 2020
Strategies to Save on the High Cost of Lumber
With lumber prices soaring in the past several months, home builders are scrambling for ways to keep the cost of construction in check, fueling a renewed interest in alternative materials. While they may still not be cheaper than lumber, the spike in lumber prices is causing many builders to rethink the cost/benefit tradeoffs of traditional alternatives to lumber — steel, concrete, and plastics.
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October 5, 2020
Improved Construction Speed is Primary Benefit Builders Expect from Offsite Construction
During NAHB’s Building Systems Week in late September, I presented “Builder Attitudes Towards Systems-Built Construction,” which summarized the findings of three different recent studies related to builder views and usage of offsite construction methods and factory-built components. Overall, the market is bullish toward use of offsite methods, and some sectors—such as multifamily—have been much quicker to adopt these into housing production.
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