[Mercedes] Totally OT but very interesting -- Automated house construction

[dan penoff.com]

Agreed. I found that if you’re going to do a house or structure with SIPs, use the manufacturer’s people to erect or their recommended local contractor. I visited a build one of the suppliers was doing in the Sedona area, about 45 mintues south of us and below the Mogollon Rim, which is the dividing line between the “valley” and the Colorado Plateau, two very distinctly different climates (Sedona is pretty much desert.) They had just started the day before on a 3000 sf house build, and it was pretty fancy, which was making the crew a little pissy about the job because there were a lot of details they had to deal with that were atypical for this type of build. Despite this, they had put up the outer and interior walls the day before and were just starting to put the roof on when I got there.

I was impressed with the quality of materials and how well things fit together. There were some parts they had to do some basic framing on in the garage space, but otherwise it was 100% SIP. If I ever built another house I would seriously consider this method. It’s more expensive up front, but construction time is measured in days/weeks, not months.

-D

On Mar 24, 2026, at 10:40 AM, Heywood Floyd via Mercedes <mercedes at okiebenz.com> wrote:

I engaged a local architect/builder who was into “green” building (company name “Verde”!) and his crew had done a bunch of SIP buildings so they knew their stuff on that.  Watching them there wasn’t a lot of unique stuff with the SIPs once you understood a few basic details of attaching them together, cutting out and framing door/window openings, etc.  That basically entailed melting out the foam to put in 2x4 or 2x6 frames (or attaching splines) inside the panels to nail other panels or door/window flanges to.  Squirt in some expanding foam to make good air seals and all was good.

UTUBE U would basically provide the necessary education.

The building inspector showed up to approve the framing step and was mystified as to what we were doing.  I and the architect tried to explain and I think the guy was not intellectually-qualified to understand the whole deal of a timber frame and SIPs so he just signed the paper and left.  It was actually somewhat redundant in that a SIP “frame” is just as good but I wanted the esthetic of the timber frame, plus hurricanes...

--HF


On Mar 24, 2026, at 1:27 PM, dan penoff.com via Mercedes <mercedes at okiebenz.com> wrote:

That was it - SIPs! That’s what I was looking at for home construction here. One of the reasons was the lack of available contractors. There were builders I spoke to at the time who were committed out for as long as two years.

-D

On Mar 24, 2026, at 10:22 AM, Rich Benzer via Mercedes <mercedes at okiebenz.com> wrote:

When I built the addition on the Vast Estate manse I did a timber frame with SIPs, it went up and was dried in in about 2 weeks (about half that time was the timber frame, then the SIPs and doors/windows/metal roof.  If was doing another stand-alone house I would build with SIPs rather than stick walls, faster, a bit cheaper, good insulation and tight.

—HF

On Mar 24, 2026, at 12:35 PM, dan penoff.com via Mercedes <mercedes at okiebenz.com> wrote:

Factory-built housing components like struts or wall sections are far better than anything stick-built, period. I seriously considered a "panelized” house build when we were considering building out here. It’s so much easier, you’re “dry” within a couple of days, and everything is consistently built. Yes, it’s more expensive from an assembly and material standpoint, but it’s much better from a quality and tolerance standpoint. That, and it’s far faster to complete.

I’ve also been watching the 3D printing of houses by some people in Texas. it’s a bit cumbersome for sure, but it seems like they’re getting the process sorted and are starting to increase the number of builds they’re doing. Compared to concrete block construction, which is common in places like Florida, this seems like it might be a promising approach to higher volume single family home construction, and better yet, it’s far less dependent on lumber.

<https://builtin.com/articles/3d-printed-house>
<layers-3d-printing-3d-printed-house_1.png>
3D-Printed Houses: 12 Top Examples<https://builtin.com/articles/3d-printed-house>
builtin.com<https://builtin.com/articles/3d-printed-house>

-D

On Mar 24, 2026, at 8:50 AM, Heywood Floyd via Mercedes <mercedes at okiebenz.com> wrote:

I’m watching this utuber vid of a huge automated (like 90-95%? of the structural components) factory in china building modular house components that can be delivered to a site and stacked/installed and finished off.  It’s almost all being done by robots.  No idea what such a factory would cost but it’s absolutely wild. The engineering that has gone into is incredible.

This raises lots of questions in my mind but I find it fascinating and somewhat concerning as to the future of our country as I’m not sure something similar could be done here, but maybe.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D4DJmKmhFU>
<maxresdefault.jpg>
House Completed in Just 3 Days?! The Unbelievable Process of Robots Building a Wooden House<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D4DJmKmhFU>
youtube.com<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D4DJmKmhFU>


--HF



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