Building Innovations Panel Construction Cuts Costs And Reduces Waste
When Paul and Ruth McPherson couldn’t find a contractor willing to build their home within their $160,000 budget, a friend recommended a new company offering something called large-panel construction.
The idea is simple: Wall, floor and roof sections are assembled in a factory, then loaded onto a truck, brought to the building site and hoisted into place with the help of a crane. Besides the obvious advantage of not having to contend with variable weather during most of the framing process, panel construction also cuts costs by reducing waste.
But even when the company, Shelter Dynamics, came in more than $30,000 below another contractor’s bid, the McPhersons were apprehensive.
“If anything about the house made it look prefab,” Ruth recalls thinking, “that would be totally unsatisfactory to me.”
And Paul wondered what attitude mortgage lenders would take toward this relatively unfamiliar building method.
Panel construction may be new to the Inland Northwest, but the technique dates back generations. Swedes developed it in 1927 as a way to make the most of their short building season. It came of age in the 1960s, when the Swedish government undertook an aggressive national housing program. Today, almost all new single-family Swedish homes are “panelized.”
Shelter Dynamics co-founder Mike Nuess made a pilgrimage to Sweden to study the panel process during his nine-year tenure with the Washington Energy Office.
Ever since his introduction to the ideas of inventor Buckminster Fuller in the early ‘70s, Nuess has investigated the potential of assembly-line techniques to improve the quality of housing while lowering its cost.
After attempts to creat a joint venture with Swedish corporations stalled, Nuess and his partners - architect Wayne Marquess, businessman Chris Venne and real estate agent Robert Gilles - launched Shelter Dynamics on their own two years ago.
That’s meant taking a cautious, modestly funded approach that relied on simple tools and basic skills - a far cry from the computer-automated Swedish factories that turn out homes by the hundreds.
But it didn’t mean sacrificing one of the biggest advantages of panel construction: greater precision. Boards in the company’s Airway Heights factory are cut to within 1/16th inch of specifications, compared with quarter-inch tolerances typical in job-site construction.
“The Swedes advised us to start small and stay flexible,” Nuess explains. “They realize they goofed by becoming too automated, too specialized.”
So far, Shelter Dynamics has built two duplexes, two single-family homes and three unfinished residential “shells.” They’ve also shipped a panelized house to Japan, and are bidding other Japanese orders.
Besides taking on conventional stick-frame contractors, Shelter Dynamics competes against the established manufactured-housing industry, which each month turns outs thousands of modular units and homes built on chassis. Also gaining popularity with some builders are rigid-foam panels produced in standard 4-by-8-foot sizes.
Nuess is counting on his energy expertise and Marquess’ architectural savvy to help Shelter Dynamics distinguish itself technically.
“We don’t claim to be the be-all and end-all in housing,” says Nuess, “but we do offer a different mix than other builders.”
He describes the company’s most likely client as “someone who wants a reasonably priced custom home that performs well and is aesthetically pleasing.” Someone like the McPhersons.
When they started shopping their plans around, “the first builder’s bid came close to our budget,” says Ruth McPherson. “But he had eliminated the fireplace, the deck … we couldn’t even have vinyl in the entry.
“At that point we were leaning toward not building at all,” she says, “because we already had a tacky house. We weren’t interested in spending $160,000 and still having a tacky house.”
The Shelter Dynamics team used computer software to translate the McPhersons’ blueprints into appropriate panels. They also enhanced the home’s energy performance enough to qualify the owners for a $3,000 Super Good Cents utility rebate.
But the process wasn’t without hitches. First, last winter’s rain prevented heavy, panel-laden trucks from approaching the muddy building site.
Then, when the walls did finally go up, the McPhersons realized they had failed to include a north-facing window to take full advantage of their rural view.
“With stick-framed homes,” says Nuess, “you have the luxury of walking around (the half-framed structure) and deciding to change the size of a window opening. But with panels, you have to firm everything up in advance, because once you start production - bang - it’s done.”
That lesson cost the McPhersons an extra $200 - the price of cutting a hole and reframing the wall unit.
Even so, the south Spokane County couple voice unbridled enthusiasm for their new home. They got everything they wanted for a price they were willing to spend.
And best of all, they say, nothing inside or out suggests that their home was built in a factory.
A panel home at 2025 E 10th Ave., Spokane, is open for tours this Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Shelter Dynamics at 244-2140.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Color photos