Home Construction Technology Stagnation
Why has the construction of residential homes not advanced as quickly as other things? If you were to transport a modern car back to 1950’s, car mechanics would be dumbfounded. It would appear as if it came from another world. The same can be said for watches, phones, televisions, radios, and home appliances. But not for the average house.
An average home today is built much the same as it was 65 years ago. As a matter of fact, the average age of a home today is 35 years old. Homes last a lot longer than cars and home appliances, so the advancement in their development is much slower.
Another issue is that for the most part, the craft of constructing a home is something that is passed down. If you want to learn how to build a house, the best way is to work in construction. Most home builders started out swinging a hammer. That’s how they learned the craft. Which is fine, apprenticeship is a time-honored tradition.
Part of the problem is that when knowledge is passed down this way, change and innovation is usually very slow to advance. Once you learn how to economically and properly build a house, there is very little incentive to change. In many cases things are done specific ways because that’s the way they have always been done, not because they are the best way of doing things. As time goes by, change becomes even more difficult.
There are college courses and community programs that will teach you the basics of how to construct a home. But as a whole, the majority of the construction industry is made up of people who have learned on the job.
New Construction Techniques
The majority of people just want to play it safe. Unfortunately people assume that doing things a new way will negatively affect their profits.
And there is the rub. Playing it safe and ignoring recent data, and new construction techniques, stagnates innovation. When people do NOT take the chance and do something new, brand new homes are already obsolete. People tend to fear what they don’t understand.
Until the construction industry advances the way they train the next generation of builders, the responsibility of moving this industry forward falls on home designers. As home designers we spend a lot of time testing and accumulating data to prove our techniques return the results we say they can.
It is Construction PLUS Plans!
In an industry where home designers will continue to sell home plans that are 15 to 20 years old (and older) technological advances can be slow. It doesn’t always fall to the builder to keep up with advancements in technology. It doesn’t cost a home designer anything to keep home plans in circulation for decades. Many designers will pad their portfolio with designs that are very old.
This portfolio padding has a negative effect on the industry. Our job as home designers is to create beautiful homes that will serve the owners well. Leaving it up to the consumer to determine if they are purchasing a 20-year-old plan, doesn’t serve their best interest.
Just as builders need to keep an eye on new technologies, advanced materials, and new construction methods. Home designers need to do the same. They have a responsibility to remove out-of-date designs from circulation.
We outperform current code requirements
Educating builders as well as home owners is something we take very seriously. When they understand why we do the things we do, they are much more comfortable with doing things differently. After seeing the data and understanding our process, they become more open to our new ideas.
Energy Smart plans are years ahead of energy code requirements. Our builders are continuously outperform current code requirements.
Energy Smart appreciates all the builders we work with. They have decades of experience and are true craftsmen in their fields. To their credit they are also very forward thinking and open-minded. It takes courage to work a bit outside of your comfort zone, and try new ways of doing things.
Energy Smart takes pride in offering our clients home designs that encompass the latest, proven construction techniques, and include all the most popular design features. We do not keep old and out of date plans in our portfolio. When a house plan doesn’t meet our hi-performance requirements, we do not sell it.
Our builders love to brag about their homeowner’s energy bills. And our clients love to brag about the livability of their homes.