When you need to expand your facility or add more people, you will likely consider the choice between factory-assembled construction and traditional stick-built construction. Generally, a project manager considers three things: lead time, building code requirements and cost.
One of the most important factors in any construction is time; lead time, build time and
downtime are all critical. A traditional stick-built structure is usually drawn by an architect and eventually approved by the customer. The materials are typically then delivered to the job site, and a small building such as in plant office is constructed in about a month’s time. Then, material waste and dust in the air created by cutting materials on site are removed in about two weeks’ time. On the other hand, pre-assembled construction can offer reduced lead, build and down time. For instance, a Par-Kut modular in-plant office can be drawn, and manufactured with little or no disruption to ongoing operations. Pre-assembled construction can reduce total on site project time from 6 weeks to 1 week with proper planning.
As for building code requirements, with stick-built construction, the architect’s drawings must be stamped to assure they meet the building codes, and then as the crew finishes various steps of the construction process such as foundation, framing, electric, etc., an inspector must approve the work that has been done. With prefabricated construction, state labeled buildings such as prefab offices are already engineered and approved for loads, wind, and compliance with NEC.
When considering the pre-fabricated construction cost, the project manager has to consider the following:
- cost of the building structure
- business downtime
- installation
- required permits
- cost of future expansion
On the other hand, when considering stick-built construction cost, the project manager needs to add architect/engineering cost and heavy machinery rental cost to the considerations above. Therefore, pre-assembled construction is often more cost effective than stick-built construction.
In conclusion, when you expand your operation; considering lead time, building code requirement and cost, the best construction method is prefabricated factory-assembled construction.
To learn more about Par-Kut portable steel buildings or our pre-assembled construction, email us at https://www.parkutblog.com/contact or call us at 1-800-394-6599.
