There's really no benefit of these homes unless you're building barracks for the military or something like that. What's the author talking about overseas lumber? We get most home building materials right in the USA. It's probably the product with the most made in usa materials.
I was toured through a modular home factory in the early 1980's. I was really impressed and thought this was going to be the future of housing and small office buildings. Well, 40 years later, it's still around but a minuscule percentage of construction. I think this is a "flying car" idea that's never going to materialize to the extent predicted. I could be wrong, I was once before.
First of all, with 14 million (and growing) new unskilled workers (per border patrol) who could work on construction sites, this may be more of a problem than a solution. Also, yes, painted concrete won't look bad ... but you can put up a shelf on a sheetrock/stud wall a whole lot easier than you can on a curved concrete wall. We shall see, but lots of variables here. I first heard about this (one machine doing it all in a day or 2) 3 or 4 years ago, but then heard nothing more. Also, I didn't think concrete had good insulative qualities.
I am not in construction but I think a concrete home would actually be more expensive than lumber based housing (someone correct me if I am wrong). Almost all new construction that is one level is more expensive than a 2 level home with a similar footprint because of the cost of concrete foundation. With this concept, you save in labor but overall the extra cost in cement will reduce the savings. Also saying this will kill flipping is untrue. Which is cheaper, knocking down an existing house and building a new one that is 70% of the cost of new construction or renovating the existing house? Homes are not like appliances that you get a new one if the old one develops a problem.
There's definitely a place for 3D printing in home construction but as long as there are city row homes, it won't be as ubiquitous as the writer suggests. I'm renting out space to a 3D printing company and seeing what they can print - and with what materials! - I have no doubt that ever more will become feasible but the key sentence in the article is, “In the future, I believe robots and drones [...]", and the question is, how far is that future.
Another thing is, I'm always surprised by remarks that concrete homes are earthquake resistant. If the earth actually shifts, wouldn't damage to concrete homes be unreparable, in contrast to steel and wood frames, that have flexibility built in, so "all" that needs to be repaired is cover materials (sheetrock, glass etc)?
It's a neat idea, but unless it actually brings down costs (it doesn't), it's not gonna see much penetration into the market. Costs seem to be the driving factor in this economy.
This seems awfully ill-informed. I haven't built houses in several years, but unless robots can perform the mechanicals, this is pretty impractical and expensive. Stud framed walls are cheaper than concrete walls, and a decent framer can frame a 1,300 ft house in a week, easily. Then you still have to have someone build something to attach the interior finishes. The rough shell is the easiest part of construction. If I'm wrong, someone please enlighten me. I love the idea of saving time & money.
