Several of my readers sent me a link the Builder article of March 14, 2013 entitled “The Labor Factor Revives the Component v. Stick-Built Debate.” 

As I read the article I expected to see the word “modular” somewhere in the article especially since it was about the dwindling labor pool and how more home builders are using components but alas it was not to be.

Then I went back and reread the article again and sounded like it was written a long time ago and just taken off the shelf and updated. I am a huge component and modular home fan and always have been. In my GC days I built all my houses with panelized walls, trusses and floor trusses. I trusted the component manufacturers to deliver product that was accurate and met all building codes and they did.

Here is the NAHB’s own 2009 video about components showing million dollar investments in the machinery to build walls, trusses and floors.

A lot of big national builders, regional builders and local builders are using panels and trusses. Any savings that might have been realized by stick framing or rafter building is offset by the time and labor components save, which to them is money in the bank. Many of these huge builders owned their own panel and truss plants but many were sold or closed when the housing crunch hit in 2008. The article mentions that many panel plants are mothballed and when asked when they might reopen, Mike McCrobie, vice president of installed sales for 84 Components responds “that’s the million-dollar question.”

Reopening mothballed factories depends on when single family housing will return to the numbers of pre-2008. That might not happen for another decade.

So, getting back to this article. Why was it written like it was something new? If the writer wanted something new to talk about, he should have written about how modular construction is to components as components is to stick framers. It’s an evolution that will inevitably come. However, the downside is the residential modular industry itself. No one is championing the benefits of modular.

Neither the NAHB’s Building Systems Councils, which is totally useless in promoting our industry nor the MBSA which hasn’t updated its website in years, are carrying the modular home banner into battle. I understand that the MBSA is getting ready to relaunch their efforts and again champion all things modular.

Bottom line to this article is that when looking at the future of home building in the US, Builderonline is no different than the rest of the housing industry. They simply don’t care about modular. Correction – they do care about commercial modular construction because the commercial modular factory owners promote themselves and their product 24/7 with press releases, national and international meetings, seminars and shows.

Keep sending me articles about residential modular housing and I’ll print them but honestly it won’t happen because there aren’t that many to be found out there.