Mayher Street– Day 2
On day two, our partners have already installed the tub and are hanging drywall. The pace of construction in a factory environment is just phenomenal. Henry Ford revolutionized the car over 100 years ago by innovating factory processes. The result was a triple threat– high paid jobs, a lower-priced product, and higher, more consistent quality. As I started working on Backyard ADUs and toured the first set of module factories, I couldn't understand why home construction was such a noticeable hold-out in leveraging factory methods to improve their product.
Think about it–
Are any of the high tech products in your house built one by one in an environment with uncontrollable variables like the weather?
Your iPhone and laptop are built in a controlled environment to ensure quality, and then, you personalize it with awesome, often local, handmade accessories. Interestingly, this is what we do at Backyard ADUs with homes.
East and West Walls
The photo below shows the exterior face of the home's eastern wall. In the distance, you can see the huge western facing window that will bathe the living room and kitchen with late afternoon sun.
You will also see the 2x6 construction on the exterior walls. The thicker walls increase rigidity and allow us to install enough insulation to be Net Zero Ready.
Drywall is glued and screwed
In the photo below, notice the yellow around each of the vertical studs. That is glue. Seriously, the factory glues the drywall on and then also screws it in place. The adhesive is likely overkilled (we never did it as stick builders), but our factory partner tells us that it reduces the chance of cracking and makes the home even tighter.
Also, notice the blocking under the window opening (two thin horizontal pieces of wood). This blocking adds additional rigidity around where an outlet will be. This is another feature I’d never seen until touring PBS’s factory, but it makes sense. Outlets get far more abuse than other areas of a wall so it makes sense to beef up the drywall.
Protected subfloor & spot for the headboard
Below you can see the back wall of the bedroom. In this home, the wall has 9’ of uninterrupted horizontal space to put a bed. This room as a large double window facing south, which will provide ample light.
The large closet with space for a washer-dryer is on the left.
In this shot, you can also see the protective covering that gets placed over the subfloor. The plastic covering helps keep dust, liquids, and other materials from getting mashed into the floor, which can create problems for installing the finished flooring.
Check out the living room
Finally, look at the huge double window. Can you picture the view from the couch? The living/kitchen area has another matching window on the southern wall, which is out of view on the left in this photo.
Coat closet
In the center of photo below is the large coat closet. It’s located right in the middle of the house across from the front door. The entrance to the bathroom is on the right.
Laundry Hook Ups
The laundry hook ups are installed and ready! They are located in the enormous closet which has an extra long 60” bifold door.
Notice the yellowish brown material in the wall with the hook ups. This is Roxul dense insulation to add some soundproofing to the bathroom space. We add this soundproofing as standard in all of our homes. Why? Well, you know why ;) .
The bathtub and shower is looking great
Don’t forget, it is still day two of construction. At the end of day two the house has plumbing, some electric and the bathtub!
Our factory partner is able move this quickly because their team of carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and drywallers come to work at the same place everyday. All of their tools, extra parts (plumbing bits, wire, wood, screws, etc.) are in a supply closet, not in a building supply shop or at the Home Depot 15 miles away. They are able to switch between multiple projects in the same 100,000SF facility, which means specialists move from home to home as they are needed without getting in a truck. The time [and cost] savings is enormous.
