The modular construction market has grown by leaps and bounds in the recent years, so much so that many industries that once couldn’t consider modular buildings now have them as an option. Larger modular buildings are now easily possible, so organizations like schools and hotels are able to take advantage of the benefits. If you are responsible for finding construction options for a hotel or school, you should certainly consider the idea of going modular.
Modular Schools
The ever-changing needs of the public school system make their campuses some of the best sites to use modular construction. Modular add-ons can be used with an existing school building, or they can be used to create a new campus completely from scratch. This is great because it gives schools the flexibility to change their buildings to fit the needs of the students.
Modular construction is also quite a bit faster than standard construction methods. If an entire school were to be designed with a modular technique, it would take less than three months for the construction to be completed. That means schools can avoid performing potentially dangerous renovations during the school year. Instead, they can be finished while the students are out for summer vacation. Smaller modular projects take far less than the three months needed to build an entire school.
The idea is not only attractive because it saves time, but it also helps save the environment. Many modular units are extremely environmentally friendly due to the careful precision used to build them. There is a very little amount of waste in the process, and most modular units are built with ‘green’ materials. They even employ designs that are meant to conserve energy, and many come with HVAC units that are more efficient that their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
Modular Hotels
Hotels want to avoid a lengthy construction process because wasted construction time translates to lose of potential serving hours. Hotels can only book guests once they are finished, so investors are happy to see construction times limited as much as possible.
Studies have been conducted by numerous different third party institutions that show modular construction reduces the construction period by at least 25 percent. Some studies, including one conducted at the University of Utah, showed that number could be as high as 45 percent. Even the low end average of 25 percent is astonishing when total building costs are considered.
The hotel industry was not convinced of the benefits of modular construction for the majority of the past, but the recent trends in high-quality and low-cost modular construction are starting to turn skeptical heads. Not only are prefabricated buildings easier to build, but they are faster and cheaper to build as well. At first the market started responding to things like prefabricated bathrooms, which soon expanded to entire rooms being pre-built. Hotels in particular are drawn to the short construction times, especially brands that build hotels in areas with unpredictable weather. It’s also helpful for hotel brands that need to build hotels in places without a population of workers to support the construction needs. Individual units can be manufactured hundreds of miles away, shipped to the site, and installed with little effort.
Modular units are also completely consistent, which means there will be no hiccups in the installation process. Everything is confirmed as correct before it leaves the prefabrication facility. Under the right conditions, a team of installers could theoretically build up to 20 modular units in a single day. The ability to completely control the construction process from start to finish without involving a host of variables is the future of construction.
