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November 2020 #12256 Page #114
Polls Done 13 Months Apart Show Covid Is Nudging Builders Toward Off-Site Construction Craig Webb President, Webb Analytics
ike scientists tracking a slow-moving glacier, a leading pollster of America’s builders is seeing signs that contractors’ views are warming when it comes to off-site construction.
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The research by Ed Hudson, director of market research at the Home Innovation Research Labs, suggests there’s been only a small rise in the percentage of builders who plan to increase their use of building envelope components that come out of a factory rather than straight from a timber mill. But it is noticeable. Here are the results of two surveys, conducted in August 2019 and September 2020, in which builders were asked to indicate whether they planned to increase use of certain building techniques in the next five years.
Of these materials, only trusses are widely used now; the Home Innovation Research Labs estimates trusses support about 62% of the area of new roofs for single-family homes constructed each year. For the others, the percentage growth shown above would represent significant gains. While the numbers are up, the September survey of builders by Hudson and his team found only 19% of respondents felt more favorably about off-site construction than they did before the pandemic. Nine percent were less interested in off-site, and 72% reported no change. Continued next page
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