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The Tribune is reporting on a developing trend among major home builders to switch from union to non-union labor.
One builder who has made the switch reports that he “has seen his home-building costs drop from $70 a square foot during the height of the building boom to almost $40 a square foot.”
That cost drop is presumably attributable to a number of factors beyond moving away from union labor, including contractors bidding more aggressively for a limited amount of work.
If half the cost-saving is due to using non-union as opposed to union labor, that translates to $30,000 in savings on a 2,000 square foot home. In a tight market, most of those savings will be passed on to new home buyers – putting further downward pressure on resale prices.
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1st the Walmart
Now huge legislative changes for McCormick Place.
Are these early signs that union grip on Illinois is waning?
I don’t believe that the cost is half (I’m assuming w/o reading trib article) that this is an overall cost and not just labor – material costs have also dropped as well.
Given the unemployment among carpenters at the moment I doubt it will effect the quality of construction. Now during the real estate boom I wouldn’t have said that. Plenty of desperate skilled carpenters looking for work for the immediate future.
Also with modern tools it’s easier for a semi skilled carpenter to do quality work.
Combine that with the trend of building “modular” homes and trucking them into subdivision sites and the age of mass produced “stick built” homes may be going in the same direction as landline phones.
I have a friend who attended a building trade show in Vegas and in a period of two or three days he watched as an entire 2500 square foot house was “trucked in” and put on a slab. He described the quality as “better than stick built”. Which makes sense since it is built under factory conditions. If my memory is correct there wasn’t even much lumber used on the house. It was mostly metal joists. This is a guy who is a second generation carpenter and loves the smell of newly cut 2 x 4’s. If he says it’s better, he’s not saying because it’s in his best interest. It’s his genuine belief. He gets wistful describing the smell of the construction of the house he grew up in. Hell, I recall the smell too.
The end is nigh! Damn you to hell, progress!
IrishPirate,
The factory-built panels are nothing new. They were in use in the late 70s when I first got into the building business. They were assembled at barely-above-minimum-wage shops in northern Indiana and trucked to the site. As you note, they were built to very fine tolerances and were of high-quality compared to on-site stick-built product.
I think the record for building a home from start to finish at the National Association of Home Builders show is just over 24 hours. OK for a home show, but not for the long haul.
Added: Here’s a picture of my son standing next to the framing for the second floor of his home, just after it was delivered to the site.
Joe,
I knew the panels have been around for a long time, but I was talking about an entire house being in 6 or fewer modular pieces. From the description it sounds like a giant erector set.
Local builders have been using factory built walls and roofing joists since at least the mid 80’s and as you stated probably earlier.
It makes sense from a cost and quality standpoint. Particularly in a large suburban subdivision.
The thing is I don’t expect to see much new housing construction anywhere in the Chicago area for at least a few more years. Where are we at now for housing permits off the height of the boom. Five percent? Ten percent? I may be optimistic.
Abandon all hope ye carpenters who enter this employment market.
Modular housing is very limiting; panelized is going to be more common in the future. A lot of the RV makers also do permanent housing – I can’t vouch for their quality however, since I’ve heard that some is great, some is poor. There’s also a panel maker out towards Rockford, who is union, who is used quite a bit in the City – can’t remember their name.
To go off on a tangent, about manufactured housing, in Sweden 95%+ of all single family housing is factory built, either modular, panelized or other system. It’s built by skilled craftsman, i.e. carpenters in factories, which they like, as there is no seasonal unemployment since the houses are built year round (and assembled on site in almost all weather – I’ve seen it happen in fairly inclement weather) especially when pre-fab foundations are used. Generally speaking, their quality of housing is better – no vinyl siding, higher energy efficiency (most houses not connected to district heating have their heating met by exhaust air heat exchangers tied into radiant heating) and a longer lifespan of the house – in houses which aren’t much smaller than the historic average here (4-5 bedroom houses are not rare at all in Sweden).
Though my political leanings seem to favor unionized labor and the policies that support unions in Chicago, I must say I live in a union-built home in a community built with part union, and part non-union crews. Really the only difference between the crews was the presence of the giant inflatable Rat when the non-union guys started building. I must say my electrical system is A+++ quality. Plumbing; okay. Framing, drywall, finish carpentry – miserable. So what’s the point of paying the premium? The ads touting the quality craftsmanship just don’t live up to the promise.