What is Prefabricated Construction?

Having facilities for your businesses built quickly is often sought after a lot. The sooner the facilities start running, the earlier you can earn revenue. The time for construction isn’t always dependent on the talent of the architects, engineers or construction workers. The construction style can be a great determinator of how fast a construction process finishes.

Prefabricated and modular construction are types of off-site construction where components of a building are manufactured in a controlled environment and then transported to the construction site for assembly. These can have many benefits - faster and low-cost construction compared to in situ construction in certain conditions.

Pros:

1. Reduced Material Costs:

Since prefabricated components are built off-site in a factory setting, it allows for bulk purchasing of materials, which is often cost-effective. It also helps save costs due to reduced waste since the factory setting for the components helps in more efficient use of resources in the manufacturing process. Thus the project requires less material. Thus the construction style helps in reducing material costs in many ways. Prefabrication can reduce the cost of materials on site by reducing the need for scaffolding and other temporary structures.

Additionally, prefabrication can also help reduce material costs by allowing for better inventory management as the materials for a project can be ordered and delivered with more organisation & efficiency. It reduces the risk of delays and material waste. 

2. Reduced Site Preparation Time:

Components are built off-site in the prefabrication process and are transported to and assembled on-site. Site preparation can parallelly occur, permitting the construction process to transpire quickly once the site is ready. The method of being built in controlled factory environments reduces the time the building is exposed to the natural elements, thus avoiding weather delays on a large scale. 

3. Reduced Labor Costs:

The manual labor requirement on site is considerably reduced in the case of prefabricated construction as compared to traditional methods because the components are pre-made in a factory setting. Construction workers are required only for mainly transportation and assembly, reducing labor costs.

Pre-fabrication also reduces the requirements for more general construction workers on site and instead requires specialised labour but a lesser number of workers, which is more cost-effective. 

4. Reduced Scheduling conflicts:

Since pre-fabrication consists of processes that allow the components to be manufactured in controlled factory environments, It removes the chances for weather delays. The availability of construction workers also affects the delays less, since the requirement of construction workers for pre-fabricated construction is lower. Parallel construction also helps with this because the preparation of construction elements doesn’t need for the site to be finished first.

5. Quality Control:

The components are much less prone to errors because of computer aided design and precision equipment being used, which isn’t possible in case of in situ construction. The availability of specialised labor also helps a great deal with accuracy and efficiency since they are caterogised according to processes and are much more skilled in their assigned tasks as compared to general construction workers. The standardisation of the design components in pre-fabricated construction is another reason why the quality is higher. The components are also not subject to changing weather conditions, which allow for lesser damage and more consistency in quality. 

6. Sustainability:

The efficiency & cost effectiveness the pre-fabricated construction process brings allows for the buildings to be sustainable. The process results in much less wastage of resources and requires less energy than traditional methods because of streamlining in the factory processes. The ability to not be affected by weather delays also accounts for that. A lower carbon footprint compared to a similarly scaled project is thus shown, which is effectively better for the environment at large. 

Cons:

While pre-fabrication is a great process which has all of these benefits, it also has certain cons which can greatly offset the benefits of prefabrication and should be considered before construction. 

1. Limited Design flexibility: because of being a streamlined factory process, there is great limitation in design flexibility as it is the modular nature of the construction which makes it cost effective and quick. In situ construction is better suited for innovation and customisation in design. 

2. Transportation: Since these facilities are not very common, the amount of energy and time required to transport the elements from the factory to the site can differ greatly. The proximity of the facilities from the site is a great determinator if the process would be feasible. After a distance, the process becomes costlier and less environment friendly because of the time and energy used for transportation. 

3. Limited local availability: In-situ construction is widely available, which makes it a much more preferred option for many projects.

While there are pros and cons for both fabricated and in-situ construction, for a project of a large scale, both of them can be implemented to produce the optimum result for design flexibility and cost effectiveness. Experts can help you decide which option would be more favourable, or what combination works the best. We at Graniti Vicentia are committed to provide the best possible solutions for our clients. Visit our portfolio to see our work & expertise across various industries. Contact us to know more.