Panelized wall construction - wall panels manufactured in a factory and delivered to construction sites for assembly - presents significant opportunities for improving housing quality, safety, and affordability. While this type of construction is a well-known building technology, its use has been limited and its benefits are largely untapped. Although panelized wall construction technology offers great potential, such as reduced construction cycle time and improved framing quality, the majority of new houses in the United States are still framed on-site using "stick-built" practices. Due to extensive practical experience, the "stick-built" approach is often viewed as the preferred, traditional, and historically proven method of construction. Yet, the approach is a limiting factor for introducing advanced management, construction, and engineering practices in the framing process. Realizing the need for additional information on engineered panelized wall systems, HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research and the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) recently published "Design, Fabrication, and Installation of Engineered Panelized Walls: Two Case Studies" to provide in-depth examples of the process based on a variety of actual experiences. The case studies offer a practical evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of this type of construction and illustrate that panels can be used in a variety of types of houses being built in an equally wide range of environmental conditions. The first case study is of a custom home located in Beaufort, South Carolina, an area subject to hurricane force winds. The second case study examines a production-built home in the Seattle, Washington region, which is prone to severe earthquakes. At the Beaufort site, innovative engineering technology from previous HUD-sponsored research was used to demonstrate advanced methods using panelized wall systems. This novel approach to building design and construction holds promise of greater affordability and safety, particularly for homes built in the most hazardous areas of the United States. The companion document "Model Guidelines for Design, Fabrication, and Installation of Engineered Panelized Walls" implements many of the findings and recommendations made in these case studies. In particular it addresses key technology and procedural barriers to the effective use of conventional and innovative panelized wall systems. An article about this report is also featured in this issue of Recent Research Results. |
