READ ALL ABOUT IT
Find out what major publications have to say about component building
NEWSROOM/PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
The Kiplinger Washington Letter
Building with Components : UNDISPUTED CHAMPION
Nation's Building News :
-FACTORY-BUILT COMPONENTS BEST BANG FOR THE HOUSING BUCK
-COMPONENTS SAVE BIG ON FRAMING COSTS
Builder Magazine: PANEL MANUFACTURERS GEAR UP
HOUSTON- It was a truly "no brainer" for the thousands of homebuilders who trudged through duplicate model skeleton homes at NAHB. One was built using the antiquated 'stick' framing method, and the other was built using modern component construction technology including factory-built wall partitions, floor and roof trusses.
The "Tale of the Tape" (see next page) could not help but convince the most rock-headed site builder that he's digging himself into a financial hole if he doesn't "go components construction."
The two duplicate homes were built as a major educational promotion sponsored by dozens of industry suppliers and over-seen by the Wood Truss Council of America and the Building Systems Council of the NAHB. Spearheading the framing demonstration was Dwight Hikel, president, Shelter Systems of Maryland, who is also a member of the board of both associations.
Original idea for the side-by-side duplicate framing demonstrations goes back to 1985 when Shelter Systems of New Jersey, Hainsport, NJ, under the direction of Chairman Leny Sylk conducted a similar side-by-side demonstration. In the case of the New Jersey demonstration they were looking for both speed and cost savings, and it worked. Two men built the component-framed house with a crane, and a five-man crew built the stick-framed house. The component-framed house went together 3-1/2 times faster at a savings of more than $1,500.
The January NAHB demonstration in Houston showed that the component-framed house required 63% less than man-hours, generated 76% less waste, and was 16% less costly to build. The only surprise in the results chart was that the lumber for the component-framed house (if they did their purchasing and math correctly) cost $1,529 more than the lumber for the stick framed house. Nevertheless, the bottom-line, as can be seen, the component-framed house en toto ran $3,356 less than the stick-framed house.
Reprinted with permission from the March 1996 edition of Automated Builder
Reprinted courtesy of The Kiplinger Washington Letter
Builders are using more factory-made components in their homes.
One way to cope with a shortage of skilled carpenters and other workers.
Some are cheaper and better built than parts hammered together on site.
UNDISPUTED CHAMPION
Do you know the saying, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out?" Well, it can apply to a component manufacturer's claims when he tells you that his product is superior to dimensional lumber... is it?
Building With Components spoke to component manufacturers to find out what it happening in their plants. We found that components are highly engineered, and designed specifically for each building. For the truss design aspect, we found that not only do manufacturers use the latest software (which provides tremendous design flexibility), machinery and certified truss technicians to design their components, they follow quality-control processes to ensure that their products are the best structural components you can buy.
The manufacturing facilities feature computer-controlled saws (sometimes fully-automated), which make accurate compound cuts; jigging tables for precise and tight joints; and computer-controlled manufacturing processes, which allow for faster set-up times and efficient production.
Read on to learn how component manufacturers use the latest technologies and quality-control programs to provide you with a top-notch building product.
BBL Building Components, Ltd. Loves it when builders ask what makes its wall panels superior to stick-framed walls.
"First of all, we design and build all the wall panels here in the shop," said Allen Morris, operations manager for BBL, Perryville, Mo. "Second, our lumber and the panels themselves are dry-in storage-until they are assembled and delivered to the job site."
Like BBL, roof truss manufacturer, R & S Truss Company, Inc., Birmingham, Ala. also likes to detail to builders the pros of using its components over dimensional lumber.
"You can span up to 70 feet with a truss without any internal bearings, and obviously, this is great when you don't have any internal bearings because you can move interior walls around without threatening the interior structure of the building because they are partition walls and not load bearing," said Michael Balliet, R & S vice president.
Jeff Higgs of Advanced Component Systems In., Lafayette, Colo., said that building components are the norm for builders in his area. "Structures in the mountains can require in excess of a 100-pound snow load, so our technical people look at where the building will be built, what the load should be and design the components to fit this requirement," Higgs said. "We take into account all the variables, whereas with stick frame, all that would be done in the field by less qualified people."
Taking the variables into account is something that all three manufacturers can handle easily thanks to their in-house design technicians, who use the latest software available in component design.
"We offer builders the confidence that the components are manufactured correctly because we use software, ACES from MiTek," Balliet said. "Our plate manufacturer has an engineering service. We will fax our design information to them and they design the trusses and send sealed truss design drawings, if required, back to us. An architect can't provide you with this quality and neither can a building designer."
State-of-the-art plants
The design staffs of these manufacturing companies aren't the only ones who use technology when it comes to manufacturing components. The production teams use state-of-the-art component manufacturing equipment to assemble the products. Components are a highly designed and engineered product from the word "go."
Once the cutting list comes down from the technicians, the production teams get right to work, with a little help from technology to make their work more efficient. The production teams use computer-controlled saws for compounding cutting. Computer-controlled manufacturing processes are used for the set up of the trusses, which speed up the assembly of the trusses. During assembly, jig tables are used for tight and precise joints. BBL uses a panel table that features dog-ears that fit between the studs so that the walls don't have to be laid on a subfloor.
These manufacturing companies also include the latest lumber materials when manufacturing their components.
"We use MSR Lumber (machine-stress rated) for our top and bottom chords," Higgs said. "We use it because of the quality of lumber, and the stress values that we can design with. With visually-graded lumber there is always a certain amount that doesn't meet grade, whereas with MSR Lumber, the lumber has been run through a machine and you can assign the value to it."
Balliet said that R & S Truss also utilizes MSR Lumber, and it sells laminated beams for some projects. "We begin using MSR for two reasons," Balliet said. "The material is much straighter, you have to cull a lot less of it, it doesn't have the wane you run into with pine and it is stronger." He added, however, that it is an expensive material.
Morris said that BBL uses laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and laminated structural lumber (LSL). "We use TimberStrand and parallam headers, and Versa-Lam from Boise Cascade for our floor framing supports. The products work well because you can't afford to use 2-by-10s and 2-by-12s anymore."
Don't just take their word for it
Manufacturers also back the quality of materials that are used in their components.
"We moisture test materials when they come in," Morris said. "We test for wane, knots, grade marks, everything that the Wood Truss Council of America requires. We also conduct quality-control measures during assembly of the components, and we inspect the teeth of the connector plates."
Higgs said that Advanced Component Systems has its own quality-control program as well. "As a job progresses through the shop we make sure we have the right grade of lumber before the truss is manufactured by the setup people. We make sure the truss matches the shop drawings, plate sizes, etc. During manufacturing, the shop foreman looks at various trusses and takes them off the jigs to make sure the quality of lumber is suitable and that the plates are placed properly."
Reprinted courtesy of Building With Components
FACTORY-BUILT COMPONENTS BEST BANG FOR THE HOUSING BUCK
"The use of factory built components is more cost-effective, environmentally friendly and provides more flexibility than conventional stick built methods."
So summed up Kirk Grundahl, executive director of the Wood Truss Council of America (WTCA), at a Friday news conference to promote the Framing the American Dream II exhibit at this year's Builder Show.
The Framing the American Dream II project, produced by the WTCA in cooperation with NSHB's Building Systems Council, the Canadian Wood Council and Canadian Wood Truss Association, utilizes 10 different methods that show builders how trusses and wall panels built in a factory can optimize lumber use, create greater cost efficiencies and achieve dramatic designs popular with today's home purchaser.
"Our product is extremely well engineered to all loads - wind and snow. It is far superior to stick framing," said Gary Sweatt, president of the WTCA and director of engineering of Trussway, Ltd., located in Hurst, Texas. "This is an education process. Once builders try this, they won't go back (to stick framing)."
This year's demonstration includes trusses in a half-round arch system; a barrel vaulted hip roof and vaulted Dutch hip roof with window and sky-light openings; scissored hip trusses with a vaulted gable; a multiple height cathedral ceiling scissor truss system; West Coast roof system using California hip and valley set trusses with air conditioning and skylight insets; attic trusses featuring bonus room framing; trusses with an inset ceiling with a planter self built in; trusses with a tray/coffered ceiling along with hip ends; and trusses that make a hexagon gazebo using a compression ring system.
"This component construction illustrates the flexibility that manufacturers have," said Leonard Sylk, chairman of Sheler Systems Corp., Hainesport, N.J. "Houses can be built in a factory that can't be duplicated on a job site. The quality of construction saves money, achieves results and is built to a standard that is virtually unachievable on a job site."
-Courtesy of Nation's Building News
COMPONENTS SAVE BIG ON FRAMING COSTS
“Components are the future of home building, and the key to component building is automation.”
So summed up Kirk Grundahl, director of the Madison, Wis.-based Wood Truss Council of America (WTCA), during an NAHB panel discussion Friday on “Future Framing.” The discussion introduced builders to a special two-building construction demonstration, “Framing the American Dream,” on display for the convention’s duration in the parking lot at the southeast corner of the Astroarena.
The demonstration features two framed but unfinished 2,200-square- foot homes, identical in appearance but built using different construction methods. One house features wood component systems framing, while the other was constructed using conventional stick framing. Grundahl said preliminary data indicates the component house generated significant savings in labor and lumber costs, generated less waste and required only 148 man-hours to build compared to 401 man-hours to frame the same structure conventionally.
Nevertheless, Grundahl indicated that component construction has so far not received the recognition and endorsement it deserves.
“The auto industry uses robotics left and right, and we don’t think anything about it. But when you talk about automated systems with component building, using pre-planned paneling and precision-engineered trusses, people compare it to manufactured housing,” Grundahl opined. “You’re actually getting a quality house while holding down costs.”
He credited component manufacture with making a builder’s bottom line more predictable: “Your source is not affected by weather. He knows his front-end costs. And he can guarantee a delivery date,” Grundahl observed. “Your quality is going to go up because it’s all been pre-engineered, the loads are known and the design kinks have been worked out with laser technology, enabling you to get plans down without guesstimates.”
“You can build things at two or more different plants and know that they will fit. You can design in a very high quality system.”
Almost to underscore his assertion, Merle Nett, WTCA president and also manager of Richco Structures, a large Wisconsin manufacturer of wood trusses, said that components engineered and produced by his company dovetailed precisely with wall panels and other components shipped to the convention from manufacturers in Maryland and Texas. He added that the demonstration had already indicated builders could save about 15% on their framing costs. “Not only is the framing stage less costly, the builder is actually using less lumber and producing less trash that will end up in landfills,” Nett said.
The component framed house used 5,300 less board feet of lumber in the framing process and generated only four yards of scrap versus 17 yards produced by stick construction. “That’s a difference of 13 yards of scrap going in the dumpster,” Grundahl said.
The demonstration is co-sponsored by the WTCA and NAHB’s Building Systems Council (BSC), and materials and manpower have been donated by a variety of corporate and industry sponsors, according to Dwight Hikel, a Maryland component manufacturer who serves on the boards of both the BSC and WTCA. “We are inviting builders to become better informed about manufacturing and building innovations that have developed over many years to create the most durable and cost-effective houses in the world,” Hikel said in a prepared statement.
At the conclusion of the demonstration and NAHB show, both homes will be moved, completed and sold by Pete Mills, owner of RE/MAX Westside in Houston. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Children’s Medical Network, an organization benefiting children’s hospitals. Several building suppliers have donated materials that will offset the cost of completion.
-Courtesy of Nation’s Building News
PANEL MANUFACTURERS GEAR UP
Reprinted from the May 1999 issue of BUILDER magazine
Hanley-Wood, LLC
"We estimate that within the next 10 years, about 80 percent of residential construction will be done through panelization," says Angela Thomas, executive vice president of Shelton, Conn.-based BT Building System. "Our intention is to establish regional contract with large builders, so we can open more factories in strategic locations."
Even if the latest trends in residential building don't show a major shift to prefab components, a walk around BT's automated factory might make any framer feel, well, obsolete. As a thundering stapling bridge attaches sheathing to panels with 30 nail guns, a small team of about 40 people control the supply of raw materials: OSB, LVL, glulams, and so on. In a single shift, they can produce wall systems for about six 3,000-square-foot homes.
"We are also collaborating with truss and floor manufacturers," Thomas says. "For example, we offer the FastFrame system, which provides a complete structural package."
Some of the strengths of component panels are well known: less need for skilled labor, faster construction time. But as other issues gain importance--lumber costs and quality, disposal fees, even customization--they too are pushing panelization into the mainstream.
"We're geared up for art niches," says Thomas. "We can adapt to each unique need of a project."
To speak with one of our custom home representatives, Mike Rellergert or
Darian Amberger, please contact BBL at 800-455-6675 or ask@bblusa.net.
panelized construction techniques
