Modular Construction Methods For Residential Construction: Advantages, Disadvantages, And Product Options – Report

Methods of Modular Construction

The accommodation demand at the culmination of World War II triggered the housing market to grow and advance. The battalions returning from battle generally in the United States of America and Australia were looking to procure a home fast and the construction business could not put up with the plea. The scarcity in customary building headed to constructors eyeing for lesser cost and well-organized construction. The prefabricated construction was the solution to these insatiable wants (Jackson, 2011, p.7). Mobile household fabrication is the utmost systematized and industrialized part of the factory-built accommodation business in Australia. Manufacture of a movable home environment has escalated from a 1,200 unit output in 1929 to a 414, 000 unit output in 1970.

Modular construction is initiated on the basis where a structure is constructed from a sequence of volumetric components, connected or hinged together to make a comprehensive building. The components which are ready-made, completed and amassed off-site, under controlled workshop settings, are then relocated to the erection site and raised into place. Modular construction comprises segmental parts gathered in a workshop, moved by road and mounted on a construction site to construct a modular building. Prefabricated parts have conventional grid dimensions and are small sufficient to be transported by road are termed as modules. The components on the prefabricated parts and components are set aside in a store at the workshop. The modular structures are pulled together, moved and fitted by specifically skilled experts. Modular parts and modules are prefabricated conferring to client’s requirement (Jackson, 2011, p.10).

Methods of Modular Construction

There are two types of Modular construction namely;

Permanent Modular Construction

Permanent Modular Construction is an advanced, workable building supply technique that makes use of offsite, lean industrial approaches to manufacture single or multi-story entire construction answers in deliverable component units. Permanent Modular components can be joined into site erected developments or stand self-sufficiently as a turn-key resolution and can be provided with Mechanical, plumbing, and electrical, fittings and interior polishes in; less period, reduced wastage, and greater eminence regulator equaled to developments using only onsite-built structure. Recent analysis has emerged backing the point that prefabricated construction is a proficient construction mode and noble to aid the construction industry to propagate.

Relocatable Buildings

A Relocatable Building (RB) is a somewhat or exclusively pulled together structure that abides with pertinent codes of practice and is built in a building manufacturing facility by means of a prefabricated construction process. Relocatable structures are intended to be reused a number of times and repositioned to diverse building scenes. They are utilized in schools, construction site, wellbeing clinics, commercial centers, and anywhere a relocatable structure can offer a short-term space necessity. These buildings offer economical reconfiguration, fast provision, ease of repositioning, speeded devaluation plans and massive pliability. Relocatable structures are built in pact with builder’s fixing procedures and restricted code necessities. These structures are vital in situations where promptness, short-range space, and the capability to reposition are essential.

Enclosures

This are type of structures that are used to house CNC machines, pumps, printers and other equipment. The structure components are built in the workshop and then transferred to the site by road. Enclosures are premeditated to keep machinery working under optimal surroundings and provide them a layer of protection. The enclosures are easy to construct, cheap, and take a short time to build.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Modular Construction

Modular building approaches have prospective benefits and shortcomings when equaled to normal construction techniques. It should be noted clearly that all methods of modular constructions share the same advantages and disadvantages. Hence, the advantages and disadvantages of modular construction methods have discussed in detail. Below are pros and cons of modular construction system that have been known.

Advantages

In general, by prudently executing modular building techniques, benefits in several areas can be attained. These advantages are discussed below.

Reduced Budget of construction

Abrial et. al. (2009) state that lesser development charges can result by means of modular building systems. In certain cases, a decrease in capital expenditures by up to 23% is likely. John Brown of John Brown Engineers & Constructors, Inc. quantified that savings of 8% of the whole convention sum was acquired by way of sectional building methods rather than normal techniques for the development of amenities for the Sullom Voe Oil Station in the Shetland Islands. Abrial et. al. (2009) asserts that it has been projected that a modular industrial idea can conserve up to 17% of the entire budget of a structure.
Abrial et. al. (2009) state that budget savings can arise from work executed in a more well-ordered setting, other than onsite in a perhaps antagonistic setting, and from shop labor rates that are usually lower compared to onsite. Work rates in production shops are also generally lesser than onsite building due to the qualms involved in onsite labor. Onsite building man hours and skilled work expenses lessen because of the transferal of onsite activities into manufacture plants. This decrease in onsite man-hours reduces the necessity for onsite supervision and the entire building period.

Increased Quality

The latent to yield a high eminence structure is amplified for the reason that work is executed in a well-ordered indoor setting. Robert Clement, vice-president of the development systems subdivision for Applied Engineering Company, quantified that quality can rise for the reason that the skillful workforce in the production shop is long-lasting than the provisional workforce onsite (Jackson, 2011, p.27). In a particular residential project, Paul Ruiz, a structural engineer with Ryan-Biggs Associates, quantified that shop production of bulky modules give rise to an exceptionally high eminence level and empowered the adjoining zero acceptances to be attained. Further, the components can be verified at the production shop before the component leaves the shop.

Improved Safety

Enhanced safety can be attained through sectional building since the popularity of the assembly labor is executed in production plants, where the controlled setting is favorable to conducive practices since the equipment and constituents are easily obtainable. Enhanced safety is easier in production plants than onsite where adverse weather, inadequate space and/or trained labor, and qualms may prevail (Espinosa, 2000, p.33). Operating at earth level is one detailed action that decreases the probable hazard of great heights misfortunes. By bringing together the components at earth level, the labor can be undertaken with help of stepladders rather than gears for example cranes or cherry-pickers, and consequently, height-related casualties can be considerably decreased.

Reduced Program

In modular building systems, the design and procurement actions generally overlay. This overlay is likely since the overall builder of a sectional building project is engaged at an initial point in the development, throughout the modelling and engineering stage. For instance, Gesimondo & Postell, (2011), specifies that modelling and engineering ought to be in advancement when succeeding, choosing, and acquiring the production and supervision facilities and equipment, due to the interdependency of sectional building happenings. Executing a number of tasks at once can be a noteworthy benefit of modular building system since, for example, the site labor can be executed concurrently with the module assembly.

Reduced Social and Environmental Impact.

The capability to decrease the communal and ecological influence of building developments is a key benefit of modular building. Several Australian states are troubled with the impending effect of a development on their indigenous atmosphere and structure. Nonetheless, when the imported work interrupts the indigenous economy, a limit of tolerable imported labor may be reached and the plan may be annulled. For instance, in a specific development, the Saudi Petrochemical development, one of the key forces to build with modular building system was the socio-political inferences of bringing in overseas workers. The project was conceivable with modular building to decrease the communal and ecological impact. Klem, (2010), asserts that decreasing the field building effort reduces the impact of the development on the neighboring surroundings.

Increased Possibility of Construction

The aptitude to build at distant places is a key benefit of sectional building. Short of modular building system as a substitute to the straight building, construction in several geographic positions, like the North Slope in Alaska, could not be practicable for the reason of the intimidating environs (United States, 2016). Developments in inaccessible places that are not practical by means of straight construction are over and over again practical using prefabricated construction. Modular building can be utilized to overwhelm site resource restrictions in secluded, unfriendly localities. If adverse geography occurs onsite, the site is in an inaccessible area, or access is restrained by prevailing structures, modular building method may be a practicable line of attack since it can ease the required movement of work and resources onto the site.

Disadvantages

Prefabricated construction system can have shortcomings as well as benefits. This segment deliberates on the key hindrances that were recognized from the collected works. These shortcomings are deliberated below.

Need for Extra Material

The necessity for the extra resources is a shortcoming of the prefabricated building system that advances from the fundamental necessities of the components. The extra resources can comprise more or higher structural elements, more bracing for carrying piles, and amplified volume of structural joints. Kleim, (2010) points out that around 28% more structural steel, which is generally utilized for supports and moving the component, is indispensable. The extra material can heighten expenses by approximately 0.7% of the entire development budget. Extra bracing is time and again positioned on the components. The bracing, which offers the components with forte, inflexibility, and steadiness in the course of transference and assembly also offers sustenance for equipment and can turn out to be a permanent portion of the structural frame (Wu & Xie, 2011).

Need for Extra Construction Effort.

The necessity for extra building work is a shortcoming of the sectional building. More preparation and indoctrination is indispensable for a prefabricated project than a normal project owing to the more interdependence of groundwork, modelling, production, and transference, handling, and assembly. In-depth scheduling, along with comprehensive cost evaluations, are indispensable in the course of the first phase of the project. Early comprehensive agendas are essential, for instance, for the plan, production, and moving actions. Indeed, the concrete scheduling phase of a prefabricated building project is time and again stretched out equaled to normal construction project (Mcallister & Yates, 2000).

In a prefabricated building system, the vitality tangled in the production action rises equaled to a normal building because of the apportionment of groundwork into production plants. The requirement for assessment and management in production plants can rise since a higher figure of workforces are convoluted in bringing together the components in parallel in several production plants.

Need for Extra Coordination of Activities.

As the interdependence of building events upsurges, the inevitability for communication and regulatory contrivances between actions rises. For instance, in normal building system, the work accomplished at the building site can be scrutinized in position by a jurisdictive body of the title owner and the in charge specialist. On the other hand, in a prefabricated building system project, components are often fabricated and pulled together at a number of positions (certainly in diverse nations) and the simplicity of tangibly reviewing the structure and interactions between the persons engaged in scrutiny is not a meek practice. The necessity for extra harmonization is a drawback of segmental building system that relates to the interdependence of events. Because many works are executed concurrently rather than in sequences as in normal building system, there is an upsurge in work management.

Reduced flexibility to design variations.

The extra design and engineering activity are required to elude future design variations since a pulled together component ought to have satisfactory strength, rigidity, and steadiness to endure the moving, handling, and assembly loads, and probably because of the links required among components (Stuaib et al., 2008). Further to the rise in modelling and engineering tasks, the essential exertion is achieved earlier in the venture.

Due to the escalating urban settlement, the accommodation ultimatum is triggering the construction market to grow and advance. The urban settlers are eyeing to acquire a home and corporate properties fast and the building business is hardly putting up with the plea. The scarcity in a customary building has forced builders to look for lesser cost and well-organized construction.

The modular building method will lead to noteworthy advances in instigating processes and resources to construct and provide more cultured and multifaceted facilities with the intention of countering the mounting plea of housing in the metropolises (Elizabeth & Adams, 2005). By means of this system, superior units can be fabricated and conveyed by ship and moved across the nation state. Modular construction is distinguished for its time-saving aptitudes, modular construction is also renowned and upheld for being more resource-efficient, essentially greener technique.

Conclusion

Summing up, modular building technologies are becoming extensively used all over the world finding more and more uses. Modular building system is further than the limits of low-rise building and is at length made known into multi-story and high-rise construction. In this way, energy-saving building technology is utilized. Material assets, environmentally friendly construction and the most recent engineering equipment and constituents are technologically advanced. It consents revolutionizing modular building systems and making them known in construction on a larger scale. It is very significant that the utilization of modular building system units makes the construction inexpensive as well as the construction of high-rise structures. A myth that high-rise inhabited houses are restricted for the rich is being shattered. This is one of the encouraging trends where the engrossed specialists ought to find the ways of resolving the difficulties of constructing reasonably priced inhabited housing for diverse inhabitant groups under the circumstances of hyper-dense metropolitan environment. 

References

Abrial, J.-R., Gla?Sser, U., & Bo?Rger, E. (2009). Rigorous methods for Modular construction and analysis: essays dedicated to Egon Bo?rger on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Berlin, Springer. Available from: https://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=3065001. [Accessed 30th August 2018].

Elizabeth, L., & Adams, C. (2005). Alternative construction: contemporary natural building methods. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley.

Espinosa, D. (2000). Modular Construction of Very Large Knowledge Bases. [United States], Kestrel inst Palo Alto ca. pp.30-35.

Gesimondo, N., & Postell, J. C. (2011). Materiality and interior construction. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley.

Jackson, S. L. (2011). Research methods: a modular approach. Australia; Belmont, CA, Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. p.p. 3- 30.

Klem, A.W. (2010). Modular housing. Available from: https://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ee58c50e-fe82-4f21-a475-7f7275dc67b1. [Accessed 30th August 2018].

Mcallister, I., & Yates, A. (2000). The use of modular building techniques for social housing in the UK: a market research report. London, Construction Research Communications.

United States. (2016). Ultra-High-Performance Concrete And Advanced Manufacturing Methods For Modular Construction. Washington, D.C., United States. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. Available from: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1253019/. [Accessed 30th August 2018].

United States. (2014). Sustainable construction in Indian Country, expanding affordability with modular multifamily infill housing: Native American Youth and Family Center. Available from: https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo75975. [Accessed 30th August 2018].

Staib, G., Do?Rrho?Fer, A., & Rosenthal, M. J. (2008). Components and systems: modular construction: design, structure, new technologies.
Wu, X., & Xie, H. (2011). Green building technologies and materials: selected, peer reviewed papers from the 2011 International Conference on Green Building Technologies and Materials (GBTM 2011), May 30, 2011, Brussels, Belgium. Available from: https://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1872583. [Accessed 30th August 2018].