A growing number of specialty contractors are creating innovative prefabricated building components to help building professionals work smarter, faster, and safer – and cold-formed steel (CFS) framing is at the center of these innovations.
CFS framing is the ideal choice for prefabricated construction because it is non-combustible, lightweight, and cut to precise specifications.
Growth of Prefabrication
According to Construction Dive, the prefabricated construction market is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 6.9% from $112.4 billion in 2019 to $153 billion by 2023.
Mordor Intelligence speculates that the drive to make housing more affordable, especially in high-demand areas, will encourage developers to move toward prefabricated solutions.
Off-Site Construction vs. Prefabrication
Off-site 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. The outputs include componentized, panelized and modularized elements, which are frequently deployed in the service of structural, enclosure, service and interior partition systems.
Prefabrication is a subset of off-site construction, according to Northgate Industries. It’s the manufacture of sections of a building at an off-site location, delivered to and assembled at the job site. It does not include component prefab.
Prefabricated Steel Examples
Exterior Wall Panels
Prefabricated CFS exterior wall panels for the Exempla Saint Joseph Replacement Hospital, Denver, Colorado, were assembled in a factory with green board (a type of drywall or gypsum board that is more water resistant than standard drywall) exterior insulation and interior spray-on insulation.
While it would normally take a year to complete the enclosure of an 831,000-square-foot hospital, prefabrication helped cut the hospital construction timeline by more than seven months.
“We built everything on a table four feet off the ground,” said Stephen Bradford, South Valley Drywall project manager. “Since we were building in a warehouse out of the elements, our construction was controlled, which allowed us to keep the panels completely square.”
Bathroom Pods
PDM Constructors supplied more than 130 Durapods, along with prefabricated drywall sections and customized studs, for the new Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center. It is a $250-million, 350,000-sq-ft hospital being built by a joint venture that includes Alexander Building Construction Co.
View this post on Instagram
PDM powers the Durapods brand of prefabricated bathrooms. Durapods are a turnkey solution constructed using metal studs and tracks. The pods help deliver results faster and more safely than traditional methods for large buildings such as hotels, hospitals and apartment complexes.
The Future of Prefabrication
Kia Nejatian, real estate venture capitalist at Second Century Ventures, believes that prefabrication will be the preferred method for construction as cities around the world become increasingly populated, with regulatory requirements limiting construction site occupancy onsite for material storage.
Tom Hardiman, executive director at the Modular Building Institute, concurs that prefabrication will be more widely used in the future.
“I think in eight years, contractors and owners that are not embracing modular and off-site fabrication (prefabrication) as a significant portion of their business model are going to struggle to survive,” says Hardiman.
“By 2025, if a large contractor hasn’t embraced off-site construction for at least 25% of their workload, I wouldn’t expect that company to be in business by 2030,” Hardiman adds. “And if it’s a multifamily contractor, that figure needs to be closer to 50% to 75%.”
Additional Resources
- Purr-Fect Steel-Framed, Exterior Panels Speed Construction of Catbird
- Will Prefabrication Disrupt Residential Construction?
- Cozy, Minimalist Home Features Cold-Formed Steel Prefabricated Panels