A few weeks ago we blogged about the Q1 Commercial Construction Index prepared by the US Chamber of Commerce and USG corporation. Building upon that post, several of the report’s data sets provide a powerful cautionary tale for building owners and developers interested in modular construction – you won’t get it, if you don’t ask for it.
On one hand, approximately nine out of 10 contractors say that prefabrication/modularization increases onsite efficiency and improves labor productivity. Yet, more than one-third of contractors report their reason for not using prefab/modular in a project is either the owner didn’t ask for it, or the architect didn’t design for it.
So, as an owner or developer interested in shaving months off your construction schedule and overcoming labor shortage hassles, remember to tell your architect and GC you intend to use prefab/modular. In the case of modular bathrooms, to fully get the value of using SurePods, the decision should be made as early as possible – and, no later than design documents. The later in the process the decision goes, the more likely the architect and contractor become comfortable in doing things the “standard” way and the harder it is to introduce something new like pods to the process.
An early decision to go prefab allows for a preliminary cost analysis run to validate the economic decision. Then, the project team can set guidelines for how much the schedule can be accelerated with prefab bathrooms. If the indicator lights are green after these items are reviewed, then sign up the pod supplier in preconstruction to assist with scoping the prefab elements to assist the architect and contractor.
The pod supplier in the pre-con phase can walk the architect and contractor through the small, but important design elements that are impacted in going with pods, such as performing a Revit conflict analysis to ensure there are no MEP conflicts, or assisting the architect with the drawings to ensure the sizes of the pods are reflected correctly in the framing details.
The key is to ask! Contact us today