When You Need Expansion Space Now!

We live in a society where technology puts almost everything at our fingertips. Unfortunately, there are still some things that we cannot obtain immediately, such as your child’s homework which is still on the kitchen table, or that original signed contract you need today to finalize an order. I have often racked my brain for a way to beam physical objects similar to the way we e-mail, text, and send pictures.

But, let’s take a moment and come back from the final frontier to the reality we live in today. Your company, medical facility, or school needs space in such a compressed time frame that conventional construction just cannot meet. By the time the planning, design, and permitting are completed there still remains the excavation and foundation installation. And that is before the building skeleton can even begin to be erected.

There is actually a more efficient method where construction is not confined to a process of one step after the other, but rather work is done simultaneously, drastically accelerating your occupancy schedule by up to 35%. Don’t you think it might be worth taking a look at that method, especially if your building will have a revenue generation impact? The fitting cliche would be, ‘time is money’!

Alternative construction methods such as prefabricated panelized components can help accelerate onsite construction; but I would like to take you beyond that to the concept of modular buildings.

A New Way of Construction

Modular construction is truly the wave of future in building construction projects and has drastically improved from the past. As I type this, the world’s tallest modular building is being constructed in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. It is a 32 floor modular building that will be completed in less than two years from ground breaking. Innovative flexibility in configurations and uses for modular construction is attracting the attention of owners, developers and construction managers worldwide.

Modular buildings are constructed from prefabricated building sections which are individually crafted in off-site manufacturing plants, largely through assembly-line techniques. The composition of modular buildings, such as wood frame or steel and concrete, is very similar to that of conventional construction. Notwithstanding, there are important benefits to manufacturing buildings within a plant facility, such as speed, safety, savings, superior quality, and social responsibility.

Off-Site

There are many reasons why modular buildings have such a distinct schedule advantage over conventional construction. Manufacturing laborers working in a familiar environment will perform much more efficiently and consistently than those facing a new setting after every project. Furthermore, the repetitive nature of assembly-line methods adds efficiency to modular unit fabrication.

Daily supplies and materials deliveries are ordinarily expected at a conventional construction site, but modular manufacturing facilities actually stock the materials necessary for each modular building in protected storage buildings, allowing for supplies to be readily available. Anxiously waiting for material deliveries in order to complete part of a construction project is made obsolete by the modular building planning and prefabrication process.

On-Site

The swiftness associated with modular construction goes beyond the fabrication process. Previously, I mentioned site work being performed at the same time the building modules are being constructed. That is actually how modular building projects work. Excavation and site crews can freely perform their tasks to make the necessary preparations for the arrival of the completed modules from the factory. Upon completion at the factory, each modular building component is delivered in a preplanned sequence to limit any site staging requirements. What is so great about this process is that as the modules arrive they can be immediately set on the foundation because it has already been prepared. Once all the modular units are set on the foundation, the seaming and finishing processes go quickly and the project completion follows closely behind.
Have you used a modular building to expand space quickly? Tell us about your experience.