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September 11, 2018

How modular building practices are changing the construction industry

 

When most people hear the word “modular” with respect to buildings, they often mistakenly picture cheaply built mobile homes sitting atop flatbed trucks cruising down the highway. In other words, modular is regarded as somewhat of a four-letter word.

But modular construction practices aren’t equivalent to manufactured homes, and the industry in North America is finally waking up to the fact.

“We’re starting to see it trickle down, and I think we’re finally changing the ‘M’ word,” says Ken Semler, president and CEO of offsite construction company Express Modular, Martinsburg, W.Va. “That’s the problem with modular—everybody’s confused it with mobile or manufactured for a lot of years, and I think the internet’s kind of been our best friend. People are doing the research and finding out we’re not what they thought we were.”

So, if it’s not mobile homes, what is it?

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By way of definition, modular or offsite construction “involves the process of planning, designing, fabricating, transporting and assembling building elements for rapid site assembly to a greater degree of finish than in traditional piecemeal on-site construction,” according to the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Off-Site Construction Council, Washington, D.C. Additionally, NIBS notes the modular industry consists of two, distinct industry segments: re-locatable modular, referring to temporary structures for short-term use, and permanent modular construction (PMC), which is prefabricated single or multi-story whole building solutions in deliverable module sections.

According to the Modular Building Institute (MBI), Charlottesville, Va., though PMC has been flourishing for a decade or more in Europe, it still is an emerging market in North America. However, a 2011 Sage report described PMC as “the stealth division of the nation’s construction industry.” At that time, PMC accounted for roughly $2 billion in annual revenues in the U.S. and Canada. “The industry has since emerged from the shadows,” an MBI white paper suggests. To be sure, PMC firms earned roughly $3.3 billion in gross revenues in 2016—a 61.8 percent increase from 2015.

Given the growth and prevalence of this trend, what does modular offer over traditional construction practices, and what are the opportunities for existing building retrofits? 

Keep reading on RetrofitMagazine.com

 


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