idea crazy enough to work? what do you think BP

[Adrian Aldao]

Hey BP, 

Does anyone know anything about Chinese light steel prefab homes? take look at alibaba, you'll find prefab companies such as Deepblue or Baosun. these companies offer 'luxury' and modern style 'villas' that are affordable and quick to build... My question is, has anyone ever done this before? - import prefab from china to USA and finally sell for profit? Baosun even advertises a full turn key solution, from the design process to logistics to even sending temporary Chinese construction workers to complete the job... I just wanted to know if anyone thought about leveraging this prefab market in this way.. anyway thanks for reading! look forward to your thoughts.

[Ryan Johnston]

Could be a good idea if it works. Only thing, it's going to be really difficult to make it work. to qualify what I'm about to write: I have quite a bit of background in construction and prefabrication.

I work in a large GC office in Chicago that builds high-rises and major projects nationally. Our steel comes from the US because its cheaper. Yes, Chinese steel is cheaper upfront but then you pay an import tax, then you have to hire engineers and lawyers to make sure that the Chinese product fits code. Then on top of all that, you have to find a company that will deliver the "light steel" to your construction site and find laborers to put up said light steel. It's not going to be a light as you think, for starters. You will need a crane, a crew of men, and a contractor. Pulling permits are going to be difficult because your city has likely never seen a "prefab light steel" structure before. When you hand them the prefab instructions in Chinese they're going to tell you to go away. The sad thing is, I'm not even being negative here.

Now I do have an alternative option. Offshore light prefab steel can hardly stand up to SIP (structurally insulated panels) Panel construction. If you have a good architect/engineer you can design modular homes with SIP Panel and if you work with the same contractor over and over again you can build an entire sub-division in a post-WWII fashion. Get a mobile crane, throw up SIP Panels in a week - boom you gotta exterior and interior framed building. Slap on some siding, some drywall and you're done. This is being done all of the US and Canada right now. In fact, some place in Canada just completed the first ever 14-story SIP Panel construction building. You could even get tax-credit for this since it's considered sustainable!

Prefabrication is going to be the construction of the future because the faltering labor class. If your walls can be assemble by a machine offsite, it is going to require less work on-site. This in total means using more technology and less laborers. Really interesting subject in my opinion.