Category Archives: Home Construction

House Building Cost Guidelines

If you’ve always dreamed of owning your own home and you’ve weighed the pros and cons of whether to build or purchase and you’ve decided to build these house building cost guidelines will help you through the building process.

The average cost to build a house is $428,000. That estimate is based on a 2,800 square-foot, single-family house which makes the cost to build a house about $153 per square foot.

It’s important to note that the cost to build a house is based on changing factors like size, location, labor, materials and current real estate trends, which make it difficult to nail down an accurate answer. So, let’s break down these house building cost guidelines.

House Building Cost Guidelines and Plans

House Building Cost Guidelines

1 – Buy the Property
It’s important that you locate and purchase the property where your house will be built, find a quality real estate agent to assist you. These experts, also called buyer’s agents, will help you hunt down and negotiate a deal on land for the perfect location to build your house. A good agent will know where to find up-and-coming areas so you can plant roots in a spot that’ll make your home more valuable over time.

2 – Create and Make Plans
Once you’ve located the plot of land, get ready to make a lot of decisions. In each phase of construction, you’ll make dozens of choices that affect the cost to build your house. You’ll need to start off with a well-planned, detailed vision of the home you want. The most important part of the house building cost guidelines is that you decide on a specific budget.

It’s important to note that change orders are work items that need to be added or removed from the original set of plans. They’ll send your budget through the roof and drive your builder crazy, so avoid these issues at all cost.

To help you prepare for the decisions you’ll have to make decisions at each stage of the home-building process, we’ve broken down the typical costs to build a home into separate stages, beginning with site work and moving all the way to landscaping and even the final sales price. While we can’t read your mind and predict how much it will cost to build the house you have in mind, we can show you what costs to expect and when.

Home Building Cost Breakdown

Site Work: $17,000
Foundations: $28,000
Framing: $41,000
Exterior Finishes: $35,000
Mechanical Systems: $33,000
Interior: $32,000
Final Finish: $33,000

3 – Site Work:
This is the first part of the house building cost guidelines. After you decide on your property, you’ll need to pay for site work such as inspections, permits and building plans to prepare for the actual construction. The steepest cost here includes fees for water and sewer inspections, which will be about $5,000 of your budget. Next in line are the $4,000 of fees (give or take) to obtain a building permit.

For engineering and architecture, you’ll need about $3,000. Pro tip: Have your architect and builder develop the plan together. Your builder can make sure your architect isn’t designing something that’s ridiculous or super expensive to build.

4 – Foundation:
Foundation work is where the real fun begins and when you break ground on your new home. Breaking ground, or excavation, requires heavy-duty equipment and expert operators to make sure the land is level before laying the foundation of your house. And know that if a bunch of large rocks are hiding beneath your plot of land, excavation costs could shoot up.

After excavation, your builder will lay the foundation for your home, which usually includes lumber and concrete. Homes with basements typically cost more than ones without because there’s more square feet to cover.

Your house could also need retaining walls installed to hold back surrounding soil from crumbling and falling onto your foundation. Since foundation work requires specialty equipment, material and labor, the cost usually cuts into your budget.

The foundation is an important part of the house building cost guidelines. This process sets up the success of every other building phase. Casually throwing together a “straw-and-stick” budget here could crush you with unexpected costs.

5 – Framing Cost:
The frame of your house will be one of the highest costs in your house-building budget beaten only by interior costs and the sales price. This is when your house will start to take shape. Building the skeleton of a house (including the roof) takes a lot of lumber, which can drive up the cost.

If trusses the fancy name for a series of triangular structures designed to support the roof aren’t included in the cost to build the roof, they might add another $4,000 – $5,000 to the framing budget.

Once the framing is in place, you’ll need to pay for sheathing. Sheathing is a flat layer of boards that cover and protect the frame and trusses. Think of it as the skin that covers the framework of your house. If you add metal or steel materials, your framing expenses will bump up the budget another $1,000 – $3,000.

6 – Exterior Finishes
When considering the house building cost guidelines, the exterior wall is an expensive line item because it covers the perimeter of your house, and that requires a lot of material. It also supports the roof and structure of the house and prevents outside weather from getting inside, ensuring that when the weather outside is frightful, your home will be pleasant.

Exterior finishes also include installing any openings in your house like doorways, windows and the garage. You can count on those costs being somewhere in the neighborhood of $9,500. Finishes on the roof will tack on another $9,000. This is another category where you’ll want to have at least a $2,000 cushion.

7 – Major/Mechanical Systems Installation
Installing major systems in your house will cost about as much as the exterior finishes. Major systems include HVAC, Plumbing, and Electricity. These costs don’t refer to the actual fixtures (sinks, toilets and lights) that hook into plumbing and electrical systems. Those fixtures are grouped into the cost for interior finishes. On top of these major system costs, keep an extra $2,000 in your reserves.

8 – Interior Finishes
Besides the sales price, the interior is usually the most expensive step of the house building cost guidelines. This makes sense, of course, since you’ll spend most of your time and make most of your memories inside. Do you like granite countertops? Hardwood floors? Stainless steel? Whether you’re simple or fancy in taste, the finishes add up quickly. There are a lot of expenses to cover, so let’s quickly break it down!

Cabinets and Countertops $13,000
Doors, Trims and Mirrors $13,500
Drywall Installation $10,000
Flooring $12,000
Painting $8,000
Insulation $7,000
Appliances $9,000
Plumbing Fixtures $5,000
Lighting $3,500
Fireplace $2,800

9 – Final Steps
You’re almost there! Just a few more bricks to add to your budget. The final steps of your house building cost guidelines are to include outside items like landscaping and the driveway. They also include surrounding structures like a porch, patio or deck. And the final clean up can cost.

10 – Miscellaneous Construction Costs
Above and beyond the cost of each stage, the majority of home-building projects require $5,000 for a separate, miscellaneous category that goes toward the overall construction cost. So, plan for that extra $5,000.

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Cad Pro is an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive architectural construction design software programs. Cad Pro is great for creating kitchen design plans, innovative smart home designs, custom home plans, building plans, office plans, construction details, and much more.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their house building cost guidelines and plans with clients, colleagues or professional remodeling contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

CAD Pro has helped thousands of homeowners, professional designers, builders and contractors plan and design all types of floor plan designs. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors. CAD Pro is also used by NHBA home builders and contractors, the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA). as well as the (NALP) National Association of Landscape Professionals.

Market Data Sources: National Wood Flooring Assn. (NWFA), Hardwood Floors magazine, Catalina Research, Floor Covering Weekly, U.S. Department of Commerce, Conlumino/Global Data, Statistics Canada, Hardwood Federation, North American Laminate Flooring Assn., Statista.

Building New Affordable Housing

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Seamless Guttering Cost

Seamless guttering cost will range between $3 and $25 per foot, totaling between $599 and $1,469 or a national average of $1,016. The total depends on your choice of material and the pros in your area. Vinyl or aluminum will range between $3 and $9 per foot while copper or steel cost $8 to $25 per foot.

There are two main types of gutters: seamless and non-seamless. The seamless type offers better protection and is easier to maintain. However, unlike traditional types, installing seamless gutters is not a DIY project. Because they must be cut from heavy material using a special machine, their installation requires a professional.

Seamless Guttering

Seamless Guttering Cost Per Foot

As with all home improvement projects, seamless guttering cost will vary depending on the amount needed and the home. Here are some average costs based on a basic home without unusual features (such as dormer windows):

Aluminum: $4 – $9 per ft.
Copper: $15 – $25 per ft.
Vinyl: $3 – $5 per ft.
Steel: $8 – $10 per ft.

No matter which type of gutter material you choose, seamless gutters are a good plan for the long haul. They will keep your home safer from flooding, mold, and debris build up compared to traditional gutters. They will also increase the value of your home and add curb appeal.

Seamless Gutters Installation Cost
In general, seamless guttering cost, averages about $2.50 per foot in labor and should only take one day after the materials have been purchased. Your seamless gutter installation should include the following:

Labor: $2.50 per foot. Includes planning, job equipment, material acquisition, area preparation, setup, and cleanup.

Delivery: Difficult to average as many contractors include the cost of delivery in the estimate. It is often based on mileage. Find out if there is a limit to the delivery (i.e. no more than 25 miles).

Materials/Supplies: $3.50 per foot. Fasteners, underlayment, drip edges, basic flashing should be included in the estimate.

Warranty: Should include a minimum one-year warranty on labor and at least a 20-year on materials, though many companies will offer a lifetime warranty.

Depending on the building, permit or inspection fees might be required when calculating seamless guttering cost. These fees won’t be included as part of the installation cost. Expect additional costs for relocating, repairing, modifying or enhancing existing structural, HVAC, electrical, ventilation and plumbing systems. Bringing those systems into compliance with current building codes is also not part of an estimate. Removing and/or hauling away old gutters will likely not be included in the estimate but ask ahead of time because some contractors may include this automatically.

Cost to Install a Seamless Downspout
If you only need a seamless downspout to an existing gutter, it will cost on average $870 and take about 3.5 hours of labor.

A new seamless downspout will improve the functioning of your current gutter, especially if it is old or damaged. Consider changing your downspout if you have an issue with water draining properly from your existing gutter.

Color and Painting
Expect to pay a premium if you want your gutters to match a certain color to coordinate with your home. Colored gutters can be custom-made before their installation which increases the seamless guttering cost, or painted after the fact for extra labor and cost.

Installation Season
For the lowest installation cost, have your gutters installed during the off-season when contractors aren’t swamped with work. In general, late summer and early fall are the busiest for installing seamless gutters. If you live in an area with warm winters, consider having gutters installed during the winter months. For more temperate climates, early spring is a great choice.

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Cad Pro is an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive design software programs. Cad Pro is great for creating kitchen design plans, innovative smart home designs, custom home plans, building plans, office plans, construction details, and much more.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their seamless guttering cost and plans with clients, colleagues or professional remodeling contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

CAD Pro has helped thousands of homeowners, professional designers, builders and contractors plan and design all types of architectural designs. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors. CAD Pro is also used by NHBA home builders and contractors, the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA). as well as the (NALP) National Association of Landscape Professionals.

Roof Replacement Cost Factors

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New Heavy-Duty Adhesives

DAP’s newest adhesive line, Tank Bond, includes four new heavy-duty adhesives – Tank Bond Liquid Grip, Tank Bond Thread Stopper, Tank Bond Gel Threadlockers and Tank Bond Heavy Duty Advanced Epoxy – specialized for tool repairs, outdoor maintenance, and screw fastening and holds.

DAP’s New Heavy-Duty Adhesives

Advanced New Heavy-Duty Adhesives

When applied to any size or type of screw or bolt, the Tank Bond Thread Stopper creates a gel-like coating to hold the fastener in place and absorb shock and vibrations. The non-locking formula allows the fastener to be removed and replaced up to five times with manual tools. It may be used on metal, wood, or plastic, and will not damage or crack these materials.

Tank Bond Liquid Grip provides up to seven times more grip for installation or removal when applied to screw heads, according to the manufacturer, reducing the risk of wear on the screw and on drill bits and tools. The formula for this new heavy-duty adhesive works on all fastener types and sizes, and can be wiped away with a paper towel when a job is complete.

The Tank Bond Heavy Duty Advanced Epoxy is designed to provide superior bond strength, impact resistance, and retain hold against heavy force or vibrations, according to the manufacturer. This new heavy-duty adhesive may be applied to metal, plastic, tile, ceramic, glass, stone, and woods, and cures in 30 minutes on most substrates with zero surface preparation required.

Gel Threadlockers – available in Removable or Permanent formulations – is designed to secure screws that may come loose over time due to frequent use or vibrations. The gel-like formula will not drip or run in vertical applications. It is designed to fix within ten minutes, and fully cure within 24 hours.

“Our new heavy-duty adhesive line of Tank Bond adhesives are designed to make durable and reliable repairs on all types of equipment big or small,” says Kate Piche, product director at DAP. “Whether it’s preventing stripped screws and bonding fasteners to holding screws and bolts in place and bonding metal, this ‘tough-as-a-tank’ military-grade adhesive technology provides tactical solutions for even the most demanding jobs.” dap.com

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CAD Pro allows anyone to share their ideas and plans for these new heavy-duty adhesives with clients, colleagues or professional remodeling contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

New Construction Technology Innovations

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New Trex Cladding Boards

Trex Company is expanding beyond composite decking and outdoor living products with the launch of new Trex Cladding boards. This new cladding is a composite board cladding system derived from square-edge Trex Transcend deck boards.

Trex’s composite boards are made from 95% reclaimed wood scrap and recycled plastic. These new Trex Cladding boards are available in three board lengths and 10 color options nationwide, and feature a nine-element surface formulation that provides both a timber-like grain pattern and ultra-durable finish. The boards resist fading, staining, scratching and mold, and will not rot, crack or warp over time.

New Trex Cladding Boards

New Trex Cladding Boards for Rainscreens

“Rainscreen is extremely popular right now across the building industry and is a natural extension for us,” says Adam Zambanini, president of Trex Residential. “The unparalleled performance attributes of our Trex Transcend boards make them ideally suited to outperform wood in rainscreen applications. Furthermore, the premium exterior aesthetic and ultra-low maintenance of our new Trex Cladding boards product is especially appealing to architects and business owners, allowing us to expand our footprint in the commercial arena.”

These low maintenance cladding boards are designed for use over rainscreen systems. This new cladding is a composite board cladding system. The boards may be applied horizontally or vertically, and feature an open-joint façade system designed to provide airflow over a rainscreen assembly. trex.com

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Cad Pro is an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive architectural design software programs. Cad Pro is great for creating kitchen design plans, innovative smart home designs, custom home plans, building plans, office plans, construction details, and much more.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their ideas and plans for these new Trex Cladding boards with clients, colleagues or professional remodeling contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

Exterior Home Design Materials

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Exterior Home Design Materials

There is more to the exterior home design materials than just a pretty facade. In residential projects, system design of the building envelope (exterior) seldom receives the attention it deserves. High-performance home exteriors along with more time and resources need to be spent on what is the homes main defense: the building envelope.

Given the issues of building resilience, durability, design, and client comfort, more single-family builders are leaning on performance standards to create high-performance home exteriors. It all starts with understanding a few important principles.

Cad Pro is an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive home design software programs. Cad Pro is great for creating kitchen design plans, innovative smart home designs, custom home plans, building plans, office plans, construction details, and much more.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their ideas for exterior home design materials and plans with clients, colleagues or professional remodeling contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

Exterior Home Design Materials

Addressing Exterior Home Design Materials

Condensation Issues:
Condensation is important when considering exterior home design materials. Opposing exterior and interior temperatures create condensation where cold, warmth, and humidity meet, which turns vapor into droplets. Depending on the outside temperature, temperature difference, and relative humidity, these droplets may form on the siding, on the water-resistive barrier, on back of the plywood, on the studs, and even on the drywall. Typically, they need a surface and do not accumulate in the middle of an insulation batt, though batts can get soaked from the condensation accumulating on framing surfaces.

Condensation Solutions:
There are two ways to control condensation:
1) Limit the amount of humid air inside the building assembly. This is typically done with good air sealing; air leaks carry far more humid air into a building assembly than vapor diffusion.
2) Raise the temperature of the building assembly to keep materials above the dew point temperature. This is increasingly done using continuous insulation, which greatly improves overall thermal performance and relocates the dew point condensation away from the wall cavity.

Implementing these condensation ideas will assist you in creating high-performance home exteriors.

Bulk Water Control:
An increasing number of both production and custom residential builders have found simple ways to implement rainscreens in their exterior home design materials. Vertical batten nailers (“strapping”), nylon matrix mats, or siding that installs with rainscreen clips are all readily available and effective ways to uncouple the cladding from the rest of the wall assembly. This disconnect is commonly referred to as a “drained and back-ventilated rainscreen” (DBVR).

Adding 1 inch to 1.5 inches of foam, or using a foam-sheathing combination (sometimes referred to as “structural insulation”) is fairly easy and inexpensive to build in because most rainscreen claddings don’t require additional framing to accomplish a robust and high-performance home exteriors, thermally broken building enclosure, solving for both condensation control and water control.

Stucco Exterior Siding:
Using stucco as one of your exterior home design materials. Knocking on traditional stucco is fighting talk for many old-school builders and plasterers who appreciate its benefits. It’s thick, durable, and inexpensive. It is fire- and pest-resistant. But three-coat stucco has a lurking secret not enough people talk about: thermal mass. Because stucco isn’t ventilated, it doesn’t address dew point. It can also cause homes to use more energy than necessary.

The Southern exposure of any home in the Sun Belt region gets absolutely crushed by solar gain. A day with 100-degree ambient temperature can easily result in a 150-degree wall temperature all day. Homes with concrete masonry unit block or wood-framed homes with direct-applied stucco use much more energy into the evening and early morning than a home with a ventilated rainscreen cladding. A stucco home holds the heat, so the HVAC must work longer and harder. Some builders have been using a drain wrap between the sheathing and felt paper layers to create more drainage. Even if that can be achieved, however, it’s not enough space to uncouple the stucco from the structure to allow the needed separation and ventilation that would allow the wall to cool in near-real-time to manage condensation. If your trying to implement high-performance home exteriors into your home design plans, it’s important to consider these factors before installing stucco.

Materials Matter:
With exterior home design materials, you have a trade-off. Often, the more environmentally friendly and healthy the material, the less durable and higher maintenance it is, therefore increasing life cycle costs and environmental impact substantially. Wood is a good example. By contrast, metals have a high embodied energy in manufacturing and even geopolitical footprint, but they are highly durable and resilient making them one of the more durable high-performance home exteriors.

Cement, sand, pulp, and water make a formidably durable and affordable combination. You need robust raw materials like this to make something that is sustainable from the standpoint of performance, maintenance, and longevity. It also helps that products made with these raw materials are generally within reach for almost every construction budget. But manufacturers need to invest in decarbonizing their final product that uses as little of these raw materials as possible.

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CAD Pro has helped thousands of homeowners, professional designers, builders and contractors plan and implement all types of exterior home design materials. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors. CAD Pro is also used by NHBA home builders and contractors, the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA). as well as the (NALP) National Association of Landscape Professionals.

Popular Home Design Trends

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Smart Builder Business Lessons

Today’s builders can streamline their business with these smart builder business lessons that include new technologies and procedures borrowed from other industries. Implementing these successful builder business guidelines will help any builder achieve a thriving and profitable business.

It’s easy to criticize some builders’ resistance to new technology but, given the complexities of this business and the huge financial risks, their hesitance is understandable. Established methods can seem safer and more predictable than changes that may or may not pay off.

However, a growing number of builders understand that implementing these smart builder business lessons will improve their survival and profitability. Implementing these new guidelines will ultimately depend on their willingness to adopt new business practices and technologies. These practices usually aren’t complicated they tend to be proven, mainstream, and even obvious. The key is having the mindset to embrace them.

Case-in-point: San Diego-based Murfey Company, a 10-year-old builder/developer of single and multifamily homes as well as commercial projects. Owners Russ and Scott Murfey say that the careful application of new technologies and ideas has helped them build a thriving business.

Besides using industry-specific software (like ProCore for project management), the Murfeys often look to other industries for best practices and smart builder business lessons. This has helped them reduce errors, raise revenues, and improve employee retention. But getting there hasn’t been without challenges.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their ideas and plans with clients, colleagues or professional remodeling contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

CAD Pro has helped thousands of professional designers, builders and contractors implement these smart builder business lessons. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors. CAD Pro is also used by NHBA home builders and contractors, the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA). as well as the (NALP) National Association of Landscape Professionals.

Smart Builder Business Lessons and Successful Builder Business Guidelines

Profitable Smart Builder Business Lessons

Here are some smart builder business lessons:

Going paperless takes time. Digital communication is the norm in many industries, and homebuilding is getting there.

“We still need paper plans, but we also give our supers tablets and digitize everything,” say the Murfeys. “Our projects are cloud-based, with all documentation available online.” Getting the system in place has taken a few years, but it’s saving time and money.

The slow adopters of these successful builder business guidelines have been some sub-contractors. “We still get faxes from some of them.” And while the Murfeys try to help subs go digital, they realize that keeping a reliable one may require an exception. “We’re not heavy-handed. It’s case-by-case.”

Simple tools are important. Take plan changes, for example. “Markups can really get out of hand,”. For instance, if you decide to change a smaller JELD-WEN window for a bigger one, the framer needs to get the correct new rough opening.

For field changes, these builders prefer a generic tool like Adobe Acrobat for these successful builder business guidelines. The details can be marked up and then synced to the framer’s phone via a cloud service like iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox.

SOPs are superpowers. Manufacturing companies rely on standard operating procedures, or SOPs, to make sure work gets done efficiently, whereas builders tend to lag behind here.

The Murfeys are big believers in SOPs, which they develop and reinforce through weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings. “We strive for a Henry Ford approach, which means looking for ways to do everything the same way, every time.” This is the most productive of the smart builder business lessons.

Letting go can be smart. Pulling a horse’s reins on these successful builder business guidelines slows forward motion and, the Murfeys insist, the same goes for people. That’s why they loosen the reins and allow employees to work remotely part of the time. Site managers have to be on the job, but office-based staff—sales, accounting, purchasing, etc.—don’t necessarily need to be in the office.

There are two big payoffs to allowing remote work:

Better talent. Flexibility attracts self-starters. “We want lifelong learners who embrace new ways of doing things and have no problem attracting people of all ages and experience levels who fit that description,”. “We give them direction and opportunities to excel, but we don’t micromanage. This empowers them.”

More sales leads. Employees who spend more time in the community and less time in an office tend to meet more people. To leverage this, the Murfeys make it clear to all employees they’re part of the marketing department and incent them to look for business opportunities. This helps fuel the sales tank. “For example, one of our supers has good relationships with a few architects, which has brought in work. And we have a project manager who consistently brings us new deals.”

The Murfeys insist that the prerequisite to creating smart builder business lessons is a culture for the builder to embrace technologies and processes that attract creative people. It’s smart business.

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For assistance with your projects, visit JELD-WEN’s professional portal.

Optimizing Net Zero Homes

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New Construction Technology Innovations

New construction technology innovations such as virtual reality, augmented reality, modular construction, and robots could play a larger role in the construction industry in the coming years. The construction industry is often a late adopter of construction technology advancements and very hesitant to change. However, despite this historical reluctance, there are many technological innovations that have the potential to penetrate the industry and change how it operates.

New Construction Technology Innovations and Advancements

These technologies are already making a huge impact on many industries around the world, and the construction industry is no exception. Buildings are becoming ever more complicated, and these new construction technology innovations are helping architects and construction teams improve designs and detect design errors.

To date these construction technology advancements are assisting architects and design teams greatly improve building design through interactive design and gesture interfacing. You will see these new construction technology innovations influence the industry while expanding even further advancements. This could range from errors in HVAC system design or finding missing elements that have been overlooked during the design phase.

New Construction Technology Innovations

3D Printing
Another tech trend to watch out for is the role of 3D printing in the construction industry. The benefits of it have already been explored and exploited by various construction companies around the world.

The ability to either prefabricate offsite or directly on-site has obvious labor and material cost benefits over more traditional building methods. This type of new construction technology innovations reduces waste and being automated is not restricted by construction worker shift patterns.

Robotics
In the future robotics will make a bigger impact in the construction industry. Somewhat linked to the impact of 3D printing, robotics is also seeing impressive infiltration into the industry. In fact, one report by the World Economic Forum predicted that 2020 could be the year of the robot in the construction industry.

From robotic bricklayers to laying roads, these types of new construction technology innovations are increasingly finding their place amongst the workforce on construction sites. This is interesting as traditionally the construction industry has seen very little automation, relying largely on manual labor. By adding robots to the workforce, construction companies are seeing improved construction times and improved quality of builds. Robots are also being used to help demolish buildings too.

Sustainability
For several decades now, building regulations have been placing more and more burden on building design to reduce their environmental impact and sustainability. This is a trend that will only become more strict heading into the future.

Optimized energy efficiency and a drive for low to zero carbon emissions have driven this type of new construction technology innovations in building construction and service design for years. In response, new, better thermal performance materials are being developed that promise to make the buildings of the future incredibly well insulated for a fraction of the cost of current solutions.

One example from a few years ago was the development of a concrete roof that can generate and store energy. This type of construction technology advancements should make buildings of the future cheaper to live in and reduce their impact on the environment.

Reducing waste or recycling old materials is another area where sustainability is helping drive innovation in the construction industry. For example, last year one architecture firm announced its plans for a new method of recycling construction waste into ton new reusable building materials.

Modular and Prefabricated Construction
Modular and prefabricated solutions are nothing new to the construction industry. For example, the end of the second World War saw something of a ‘Cambrian Explosion’ in prefab design in war-torn cities across the UK.

While it has fallen out of favor over the last few decades, new construction technology innovations such as prefabs have been making something of a comeback in recent years. The promise of faster on-site assembly and higher quality, standardized builds are seen by some as the solution to tackle perceived housing crises around the world.

“Advances in high-tech design and construction mean increasing numbers of components can be manufactured off-site. That means buildings can go up more quickly and quietly, with fewer materials wasted.

To accommodate modular house-building, developers are building their own factories, and architects are getting ever more ambitious in their designs.

Exoskeletons
Another popular new construction technology innovations to watch is the use of exoskeletons. The potential benefits this can afford to a construction site’s workforce are obvious.

Laborers can carry more load than their fragile human bodies would normally be able to cope with, and if it is widely adopted, it would largely increase the safety of construction sites. For construction companies, this will dramatically improve their bottom line by reducing the number of laborers needed on-site as well as reduce lost man-hours from injury.

“ABI Research predicts the robotic exoskeleton market alone will reach $1.8 billion in 2025, up from $68 million in 2014. This year, about 6,000 suits will be sold, mainly for rehabilitation. By 2025, ABI expects to see about 2.6 million on the market.”

But they may ultimately lose out to robots and 3D printing alternatives as exoskeletons still rely on a human operator at their heart. That being said, they might offer the perfect compromise between labor unions who will inevitably try to protect their member’s jobs from becoming obsolete.

Building information modeling
Construction technology advancements such as BIM Building Information Modelling, is a process of creating and managing information on a construction project from cradle to grave. This intelligent 3D model-based process has already seen wide adoption by architects, engineers, and other construction professionals.

In fact, many local authorities have made BIM the standard for many of its construction project needs. BIM allows stakeholders and suppliers to more efficiently plan, design construct and manage a building and its infrastructure.

As other new construction technology innovations already mentioned, like AR, and VR, become more popular, their integration with BIM will become ever more important.

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Cad Pro is an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive design software programs. Cad Pro is great for creating innovative smart home designs, custom home plans, building plans, office plans, construction details, and much more.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their new construction technology innovations and plans with clients, colleagues or professional remodeling contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

CAD Pro has helped thousands of homeowners, professional designers, builders and contractors plan and design all types of designs. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors. CAD Pro is also used by NHBA home builders and contractors, the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA). as well as the (NALP) National Association of Landscape Professionals.

Sites like ESUB of great insight and notable tech trends in the construction industry.

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Predictive Analytics Transform Construction

Predictive analytics transform construction when contractors, architects and design partners embrace IoT, predictive analytics rapid change in the construction industry is gaining popularity while reducing cost.

The construction industry continues to lag behind others when it comes to the adoption of digital construction practices. How can the Fourth Industrial Revolution become reality without a fully digitized engineering, procurement and construction sector? As the foundation of infrastructure across the world, the construction industry has the opportunity to lead. When global construction leaders start to think predictive analytics transform construction first, our cities and industries will be propelled into the Industry 4.0 era.

New Predictive Analytics Transform Construction

Predictive Analytics Transform Construction Industry

The World Economic Forum, in a recent Shaping the Future of Construction report, encourages construction industry executives to think strategically about the future and take preparatory steps sooner for predictive analytics transform construction methods. In the report, several key imperatives are identified, including adopting advanced technology at scale and maximizing the use of data and digital models throughout construction processes.

So, what can technology, data and digital models bring to construction? It’s all about achieving on-time, on-budget projects with high quality and safety standards and a new level of real-time project transparency. Newer technologies such as building information modeling (BIM), prefabrication and 3D printing are already reshaping the industry. Industrial IoT (IIoT) is digitizing the construction field with numerous sensors that reports all types of data, location, speed, vibration, fuel levels, safety/environmental hazards, raw materials, finished goods, work in process without traditional manual/paper-based data acquisition. Edge computing, the ability to deploy intelligence anywhere in the field, is processing that raw sensor data into immediate project progress and quality status. Edge computing and IIoT applications can transform the industry by maximizing the use of data and leveraging digital models to address one of the biggest challenges in EPC – real-time project visibility.

Maximize Use of Data
An industrial construction site or fabrication yard holds many sources of data and opportunities for predictive analytics transform construction from the onboard devices in heavy equipment like cranes, bulldozers, trucks, and other moving vehicles to tools such as pumps, compressors, generators, welding machines. Yet, this data is typically in silos, available only by individual pieces of equipment or tools or proprietary to each equipment or tool vendor or the contractor using them on-board diagnostics, vibration, environmental and other sensors, or even third-party systems like weather. Additional sensors may be needed to digitize analog assets, such as analog meters made digital through visual analytics. Integrating all the different data from various sources that may utilize different data structures is an important first step.

Digital Modeling
Data alone is not enough. In order to be useful, data needs to be analyzed in real-time, in the context of construction or fabrication operations, to make is usable. Creating dynamic digital models of equipment and processes allows not only monitoring but, with artificial intelligence-based software, can also be used for predictive analytics. Does the speed and location of moving forklifts indicate an imminent collision? Is the vibration in a pipe-cutting machine excessive over a period of time such that it requires maintenance? Does moving equipment or tanks that supply oxygen or other gases require refueling, to avoid job disruption? These are all very important questions for predictive analytics transform construction methods and procedures.

By digitizing and modelling equipment and processes — a fabrication process with multiple steps — project owners and stakeholders gain real-time visibility on their projects. In contrast to manual data collection and processes often utilized today, digital construction prevents unplanned downtime, improves equipment productivity, allocation and health.

Advanced Technology
The WEF report also calls out an imperative of adopting advanced technology at scale. What are some of these advanced technologies that can be leveraged in digital construction? The advances in microcontrollers (MCUs) and System-on Chips (SoCs), which are compact and require very low power, have enabled edge computing at often remote and unconnected (or under-connected) construction sites, integrating data closest to the source. These edge computing devices are powerful enough to run operating stacks and software algorithms that incorporate artificial intelligence, so predictive analytics can be done at the pace of operations. There are certainly interesting applications in construction, such as drones with added edge computing and Industrial IoT software that can be used for inspection, safety, and location of materials or finished goods across a large construction or fabrication yard. By combining with new edge computing, software intelligence will help predictive analytics transform construction and an edge to cloud architecture (supporting enterprise data), a powerful and scalable architecture can be built with an investment into these new ideas.

Impact on Construction
Ultimately, data, digital models and advanced technology are enablers of delivering on-time, on-budget construction projects. Digital Construction projects using IIoT software and edge computing provide real-time visibility for key stakeholders. Digital construction can reduce project disruptions by increasing equipment uptime, quickly locating movable equipment, reducing idle time and decreasing unplanned downtime through predictive maintenance. It can reduce costs through predicting and leasing only the equipment required, reduce manual inaccuracies through automation, predict fuel or other consumables needs to decrease last minute ordering and surcharges and improve supply chain logistics. It can enhance worker safety and health through improved environmental monitoring.

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Cad Pro is an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive construction design software programs. Cad Pro is great for creating custom home plans, building plans, office plans, construction details, and much more.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their ideas and plans with clients, colleagues or professional contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

CAD Pro has helped thousands of homeowners, professional designers, builders and contractors plan and design all types construction projects. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors. CAD Pro is also used by NHBA home builders and contractors as well as the National Association of Landscape professionals.

Net-Zero Home Design

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Net-Zero House Plans

Net-zero house plans and the opportunities of building a net-zero house in Phoenix, Arizona. The city will be happy to provide you with a full set of plans at no cost for building net-zero homes.

The offer is part of the city’s plan to see all new buildings net positive by 2050, according to an article posted at Architectural Record, and follows a design competition in 2017 challenging architects to develop net-zero house plans for the city’s hot, dry climate.

The winner of building net-zero homes was Marlene Imirzian & Associates Architects, which developed plans for a 2,185-square-foot, three-bedroom home. Home NZ, as it’s called, has a HERS score of 30, making it 70% more energy efficient than an average built-to-code home. With the addition of a modest solar array, the house would be net-zero.

Cad Pro is an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive net-zero home design software programs. Cad Pro is great for creating custom home plans, building plans, office plans, construction details, and much more.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their ideas and net-zero house plans with clients, colleagues or professional contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

CAD Pro has helped thousands of homeowners, professional designers, builders and contractors plan and design all types of net-zero house plans and designs. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors. CAD Pro is also used by NHBA home builders and contractors as well as the National Association of Landscape professionals.

Net-Zero House Plans and Features

Designing and Building Net-Zero House Plans

Building net-zero homes are estimated $344,000 (not including the contractor’s overhead), and is designed to fit on a 60-foot by 110-foot lot. The net-zero house plans are orientation neutral, meaning it would perform as intended no matter which way the building lot is oriented.

According to the description posted with the plans, the single-story house takes its design cues from mid-century modern residential architecture. It includes a large front porch and a built-in garage. Operable, exterior shades can be left open when the sun isn’t shining and closed when windows are in direct sunlight, reducing cooling loads. Shades are designed to prevent 95% of direct sunlight from reaching window glass.

Features for Net-Zero House Plans Include:

Structural insulated panels (SIPs) for the walls and roof. Wall panels are 9 1/2-inch thick (R-45), OSB over polyisocyanurate insulation. Roof panels are of the same construction, 11 1/4 inches thick (R-70).
A reflective cool roof to minimize heat absorption is an excellent feature for net-zero house plans.
Passive cooling by means of a solar chimney at the top of the house that can flush out stale air and introduce cooler, fresh air at night.
LED bulbs, a smart thermostat, and wi-fi enabled energy management.
Heating and cooling with a Carrier air-source heat pump. Whole-house ventilation with a Zehnder energy-recovery ventilator. The variable-speed air conditioner limits starts and stops for higher efficiency.
Double-pane windows.
When building net-zero homes the estimated annual energy costs include $286 in service charges, $240 for cooling, and $597 for lights and appliances.

These net-zero house plans are available free of charge, but they are provided without a warranty, and the homeowner assumes all liability. Also, the city requires that anyone taking the plans agrees to have them reviewed by a local professional architect and/or engineer as well as a licensed contractor before construction starts.

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Construction Employment Increases

Construction Employment Increases in 42 States Between June 2018 and June 2019. Thirty states added construction jobs from May to June, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.

Forty-two states added construction jobs between June 2018 and June 2019, according to a report by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). The 12-month increase is in line with recent data releases from the AGC. The organization reported construction employment increases in 39 states and Washington, D.C., added construction jobs between May 2018 and May 2019, while 43 states added construction jobs between April 2018 and April 2019, and 38 states added jobs between March 2018 and March 2019.

Construction Employment Increases and Construction Jobs

The AGC also reported construction employment increases in 30 states between May and June, continuing a stagnation of month-to-month changes in construction employment. Thirty-one states added jobs between April and May after 29 states added jobs between February and March.

“Construction demand remains robust across most states, and contractors continue to add workers when they can find them,” stated chief economist Ken Simonson. “But contractors are struggling to find all the workers they need in many states, as shown the historically high number of job openings at the end of May.”

California, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Arizona added the most jobs in pure numbers between May and June, while Wyoming, Maine, West Virginia, and Vermont added the highest percentage of construction employment increases. Nevada lost the highest number and largest percentage of construction jobs between May and June.

California and Texas added the most construction jobs in pure numbers during the past 12 months, while West Virginia and Wyoming added the highest percentage of jobs in the past calendar year. Construction employment reached record highs in Colorado, Oregon, and Texas. Louisiana lost the largest number of jobs in the past year and the steepest percentage of construction jobs in the same period.

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Cad Pro has helped with construction employment increases with an affordable and easy alternative to other more expensive design software programs. Cad Pro is great for creating custom home plans, building plans, office plans, construction details, and much more.

CAD Pro allows anyone to share their construction design ideas and plans with clients, colleagues or professional contractors using Dropbox®, Google Drive™, OneDrive®, and SharePoint®. Export files to Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® with a single click.

CAD Pro has helped thousands of homeowners, professional designers, builders and contractors plan and design all types of construction job designs and plans. CAD Pro is used by NARI professional remodelers and contractors and the NRCA roofing contractors. CAD Pro is also used by NHBA home builders and contractors as well as the National Association of Landscape professionals. All of these organizations are a key part of the construction employment increases.

Popular Landscape Trends

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