A startup homebuilder that creates fully functional homes in less than 60 days is reportedly coming to North Austin.
According to a report by the Austin Business Journal (ABJ), Onx Inc. is a homebuilding startup company that has been producing homes in Florida in less than two months. The company is planning to make its home-building turnaround even faster in Austin.
The company, founded in 2021, says that using a collection of technologies that it calls X+ Construction, it can build housing in less than 60 days, faster than what it says is an industry average of six to nine months. Onx says that its construction portfolio currently includes more than 5,000 “newly developed homes across Florida and Texas.”
Some of the in-house technologies is a pod configurator, which doesn’t require lifting hooks or external handling abrasions. “Fully automated, it is free of manual errors, achieving the necessary strength in just 6 hours,” the company’s website says.
Rebar production has all the parts “to eliminate inventory waste and facilitate a smooth, efficient process.” In theory, this should work by reducing variations that should also help lead to fewer exceptions and errors. Use of rebar also means concrete-based construction, which is “four times better at resisting fire than wood frame walls and exhibits better resistance to 100 mph tornados than wood or steel.
“Onx dual-layer precast concrete walls are made to achieve a high strength of 6000 psi,” the company says. “The concrete mix is poured into reusable molds that are adjusted to the required specification, then configured into sandwiched panels that provide a greater thermal gradient than solid panels of equal thickness.” The company claims that the panels should withstand 175 mph wind loads.
Insulation comes from a third-party that manufactures it from plant-based materials, using sandwich panels.
Onx uses a patented technology called “X+ Construction” to create and manufacture its homes more quickly. The home components are built off-site in a factory, for the most part, then delivered to the job site once completed. Once at the site, the pieces are put together to form the house.
Because of the accelerated construction timeline, homebuilding requires about 50% less labor, according to Onx. The company takes those savings and makes certain upgrades, such as impact windows and high-quality cabinets and countertops.
Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder magazine. Email at [email protected]
Gary Fleisher, the Modcoach
