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3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

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Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#31

Post by wombatpm »

brudgers wrote: post #25
pxmpxm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Superstructure is about the easiest and fastest part of residential construction. I'm perpetually confused on that front - interior, especially drywall, is stupid labor and time intensive (have to wait for taped joints to dry). There should be huge econmomies of scale for prefab walls with electric and ducting built in, yet all we see is this sort of 3d printing stuff.

How do you finish the joints between sections of prefabricated walls? Where do you store hundreds of running feet of prefabricated wall during construction delays? How do you move sections of prefabricated wall into and within a dryed-in building? How do you trim a section to fit and extend another when construction is not ideal? Who is responsible when something is not right? And of course there’s getting UL listing…

Standardized wall sections, JIT inventory management, dedicated install teams?

Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#32

Post by lowbloodsugar »

brudgers wrote: post #25
pxmpxm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Superstructure is about the easiest and fastest part of residential construction. I'm perpetually confused on that front - interior, especially drywall, is stupid labor and time intensive (have to wait for taped joints to dry). There should be huge econmomies of scale for prefab walls with electric and ducting built in, yet all we see is this sort of 3d printing stuff.

How do you finish the joints between sections of prefabricated walls? Where do you store hundreds of running feet of prefabricated wall during construction delays? How do you move sections of prefabricated wall into and within a dryed-in building? How do you trim a section to fit and extend another when construction is not ideal? Who is responsible when something is not right? And of course there’s getting UL listing…

I feel like you’re telling ford how the Model T production line can’t work because someone wants a different color.

Yet, it’s ironic that we still end up with cookie cutter houses, but they are all built as if they are bespoke.

Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#34

Post by ternnoburn »

If you have the ability to pump concrete, and a gantry across the whole site, why wouldn't you pick and place concrete blocks or other materials rather than concrete the whole thing on site?

Also, aren't these walls significantly more CO2 unfriendly than lumber, and more difficult to renovate? What if I need to get a builder in to do repairs, is there a concrete wall guy who knows how to repair them?

Can it print multi family housing?

It takes four weeks to print, which seems long to frame a single story three bedroom house. If the home buyer isn't feeling savings, what's the draw here.

Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#35

Post by eightysixfour »

brudgers wrote: post #8
liontwist wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like you mentioned the market for housing is more about where people want to live, and the actual building on it is less important (up to first order quality and space), so that optimizing construction costs doesn’t really save money on housing. But suppose we have a country of aging housing. Could prefabrication techniques result in lower costs when replacing existing buildings without a land transfer?

1. In successful businesses, lower costs usually correlate to greater profits not lower prices. This is particularly the case with the narrow section of the real-estate market that is single family housing (single family housing is about the lowest and worst use of real-estate (i.e. the opposite of highest and best use)). 2. Single family home construction in the US is highly prefabricated. You can go into any Home D…

> 3. Tearing down existing houses for replacement only makes economic sense in two cases. The first is when the value of the land justifies more expensive construction (e.g. MacMansions). The second is when redevelopment is not for the market (e.g. Habitat for Humanity).

Interesting you chose “MacMansions” as the example instead of increased density. In my (very) urban area they tear down single family homes and replace them with 6-9 town homes.

Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#36

Post by dhosek »

When I was working at USC-ISI back in 2009–10, there was a project about doing 3D printing for construction taking place there back then. I was a bit surprised to learn that not only was this company not derived from those efforts, but according to their website, “In 2018, we told people we were going to 3D print a house and unveil it during SXSW in Austin, TX before we knew how to do it.” I wonder what ever happened with that ISI research work.

Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#37

Post by dhosek »

wombatpm wrote: post #31
brudgers wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you finish the joints between sections of prefabricated walls? Where do you store hundreds of running feet of prefabricated wall during construction delays? How do you move sections of prefabricated wall into and within a dryed-in building? How do you trim a section to fit and extend another when construction is not ideal? Who is responsible when something is not right? And of course there’s getting UL listing…

Standardized wall sections, JIT inventory management, dedicated install teams?

My parents’ home, built in the 1950s was built from pre-fabricated components. From what my dad says (his mother was the original owner of the home), the fit of walls was very poor and they had to do a lot of patching to fill in gaps between the walls and the ceilings. There have been numerous attempts at prefabricated building but all have failed to gain any traction.

Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#38

Post by dhosek »

torginus wrote: post #15
jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

"...range in price from around $450,000 to close to $600,000." In other words, there is little economic incentive to recommend this construction method. Not much in the way of aesthetics either --- unless you want a ranch box.

I never understood how 3D printing buildings even come about. Desktop 3D printers work by melting thermoplastics that solidify when cooled down and is ready for the next layer. With concrete, you have to wait for it to set before you can print on top of it. D

This page from Cemex might answer some of your questions

https://www.cemexventures.com/3d-printing-in-construction/

Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#39

Post by dhosek »

dhosek wrote: post #38
torginus wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood how 3D printing buildings even come about. Desktop 3D printers work by melting thermoplastics that solidify when cooled down and is ready for the next layer. With concrete, you have to wait for it to set before you can print on top of it. D

This page from Cemex might answer some of your questions https://www.cemexventures.com/3d-printing-in-construction/

Tt’s worth noting that this article makes it sound like ICON invented everything from scratch, but the technology is much older than the company.

Re: 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas

#40

Post by toast0 »

pxmpxm wrote: post #22
brudgers wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3D printing doesn't relieve any important construction constraints and probably raises costs because unfamiliarity increases risks and increased risk increases price. Superstructure is about the easiest and fastest part of residential construction. Sitework, finishes, and MEP systems are harder, tend to take longer, and cost more. Anyway, market rate housing sells at market rates no matter how it is built.

>Superstructure is about the easiest and fastest part of residential construction. I'm perpetually confused on that front - interior, especially drywall, is stupid labor and time intensive (have to wait for taped joints to dry). There should be huge econmomies of scale for prefab walls with electric and ducting built in, yet all we see is this sort of 3d printing stuff.

I think you would end up with a lot of onsite finish work with prefabbed walls that won't end up saving much time. And it makes transportation a lot more difficult.

That said, searching for prefab walls brings up a lot of things, from whole wall panels, to just prefabed wall framing, and of course, prefabed whole houses. So, it's out there, it's probably a matter of what a builder is familiar with and what's cost efficient for a particular job.

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