Fantastic article, thanks for sharing!
The video on prefab housing they link to is also well worth a watch: https://youtu.be/26iVJfiDgP0
The point about permitting and code is well taken. The amount of code that’s been introduced in the last decade or two so somebody can justify their existence is off the charts. Costs to stay compliant have ratcheted up and per-sq-ft costs have increased way more rapidly than inflation would justify to keep up with these regulatory changes.
The National Building Code needs heavy review to reduce code that has minimal effect at maximal costs.
Do you have any specific examples?
From working in both municipal infrastructure and residential building science, I’ve found residential design and construction is really the wild west. There is a lack of simple building science knowledge, and there are even examples in code that go against best practice (like polyethylene vapor barrier on the interior of basement walls).
I’d prefer to see money go towards education of the industry so that comfortable, durable, resilient, and efficient homes are what is being built.
BC has figured it out, and a well built home with energy performance 70% better than code baseline can be only 10% more cost. An amount quickly recovered in energy savings.
Is there any sort of professional requirement to build homes? Like architects needmto be registered and meet minimum standards to design things. Are there registration/requirements for a contactor to oversee the construction of a residential home?
Not other than a structural engineer for the foundation.
There are no specific requirements for contractors, but the bank providing the mortgage will likely have some stipulations around bonding and insurance.
Of course you can have an architect design the house, but the designer doesn’t need to be an architect.
That’s pretty silly if the contractor doesn’t need to have some sort of certification. Anyone can go build a house without knowing what they are doing and then 10 years down the line no one knows who built it when things start to fall apart, or who to blame, and the contractor probably keeps building things wrong the entire time.
Yet, that’s exactly what happens sometimes. Big developers are professionals at putting in the minimum passable workmanship while putting enough lipstick on to sell it at a high price. The only inspections that take place are for code compliance for particular items, but they don’t inspect much of anything outside of that.
It will still need to pass city inspections as part of the building permit process…
