An article on a custom home in San Francisco built using panelized construction:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/20/HOGJFQHTT21.DTL
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The first factory-made wood-panel home has just gone up in San Francisco on a hilly lot in Glen Park.
Although it looks no different than any other made from standard wood-frame construction, this new way of building may be so cost-effective that it will change the way people design custom homes in the future.
A panelized system reduces the time it takes to frame a standard 3,000-square-foot home by half and saves more than $50,000 on that one phase of building alone.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/20/HOGJFQHTT21.DTL
There are not enough photos (at least that I went thru) to easily evaluate the complexity of the house... BUT... the framing times they discussed seemed way off to me. IIRC it was slated to take 18 weeks if stick framed and half that if panelized. I helped a friend stack his simple panelized home--two days to frame and sheet the floor, two days to install all the panels, two days to set trusses and sheet the roof. Two guys, six days, one story, 1800SF, medium complexity, easy access. I'm not sure what type of well-planned panelized building would take 9 weeks, and how framing costs of $50K were saved.
I could be talking out my azz.
I also don't see how they could save $50,000 in framing costs. I wouldn't expect the TOTAL framing cost to be that much.Surely that's some sort of typo...
The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children [Clarence Darrow]
Well, no, it's probably not a typo, it's in a newspaper article written in direct collaboration with the owner/architect married couple. Several of the "facts" seemed pretty far off to me. Anyway, I know I could assemble a Boss Hog Panelized House Kit in way less time than they did theirs.
It may have been a typo in the article, or someone could have given the wrong info to the reporter. Or it could be that the reporter just doesn't have a clue. I've been quoted before in newspapers and on the radio, and what they came up with wasn't at all similar to what I had actually said. Maybe I used the word "typo" in too broad a context. But that's kinda what I meant...
Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth. [Erma Bombeck]
I guess what I'm saying is that the puffed-up homeowner was bragging about how much he saved.
slated to take 18 weeks if stick framed
Well, in the Bay Area, you have to add a lot of seismic shear panels & connections, and I'm not sure but what those might require a separate inspection trip above and beyond the "basic" framing inspection.
That, and framing labor probably has a three-hour round trip to just about any jobsite, so that it may be hard for a framing contractor to get 'full' days in the way other parts of the country might.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I lived in the Bay Area and have framed in San Francisco. In most cases our crews had short commutes, maybe up to an hour (crossing a bridge) but often less. When lucky we got parking permits and/or no-parking signs to put up at the job, and you can get lumber delivered there like anywhere else. Yes there can be a lot of seismic details, and maybe moreso with a panelized house and its lack of continuous diaphragms, but it still struck me as excessive or inaccurate.
There was some steel in one photo of that house. It could add a lot of time waiting for a welder and a special inspector while you're sitting on a pile of panels cooling your heels.
In most cases our crews had short commutes
Yeah, but, I'll guess that was before the median house price wandered up close the half-million mark, too. But maybe I'm "projecting" from the gripes of my cousin up in Mendacino Co, too.
There was some steel in one photo of that house. It could add a lot of time waiting for a welder and a special inspector while you're sitting on a pile of panels cooling your heels.
Well, that's the thing that would seem to really make panelizing "pay." I've seen the pre-built load/shear panels for "ordinary" framing. Would seem a snap to pre-install those in panelized. Which ought to mean you could schedule both inspection for the same day. I know that panelized outfits here in Texas can "pre inspect" their panels, so that only the panel-to-panel connection needs a close-in inspection.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Bay Area framing cost:
~$18-22 ft materials
~$25-$45 ft labor
We pay more for everything out here. Not quite sure why.
Working in SF is a nightmare. Parking, access, shared walls. local codes above and beyond UBC. Union inspectors are tough. Fair but tough.
Panelization is a great way to go.
a standard 3,000-square-foot home
?!?
Egads, "standard" for who or whom? Do they "do" basements in the Baya Area? That might make more sense, 2+1 about 1000sf.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I have built about 15 panelized homes. We, the company I work for, figures about five to seven dollars a square foot savings for panels versus stick framing. If seismic is used out htere the savings are probable greater.
Savings are not in the material per se. Savings are in the labor of building it in a factory versus using the "union labor" our company supplies.
Not saying that panel companys pay crappy, but hte union pays good. I do not believe that a small company of framers building a home with regular somewhat limited access would save that much money doing panels. I do believe it is one of the things that lets a company like the one I work for compete for the big customs homes around here, even though there arent many.
My current project is an office building. 7500 sq ft. By the time we got the slab floor and basement poured the walls were on site. I had a crew of me plus 2 journeyman and 2 apprentice. 2 days to stand walls, 1 day to double plate, tyvek and string, 1 day setting trusses, and 1 day decking the roof. Following monday the roofers came, we were dried in 7 days after the frame started on a buliding that is 75 x 100.
There are tons of savings in panels that I have come to see in the past 10 years.
Got questions, fire away cause I got answers.
The bad news is you've done exactly the right things to be exactly where you are today.
"IdahoDon 1/31/07"
"Savings are in the labor of building it in a factory versus using the "union labor" our company supplies."
Based on what I know about the subject, I believe you're right. (At least around here)
Union carpenters in the field are paid more than double what the guys in our shop are. There's no way the union guys can do it cheaper.
On residential jobs, I personally think that panelized is about the same price as stick framing walls. Residential carpenters aren't paid as much as union guys, so the cost is pretty close.
Like everything else, costs vary a lot from one place to another. So what's true here may not be true elsewhere.
Last time I tried to make love to my wife nothing was happening, so I said to her, "What's the matter, you can't think of anybody either?"[Rodney Dangerfield]