In April 2019, we conducted a factory visit and site tour with HercuTech in Arizona, checking out their Hercuwall solutions and construction of a build-for-rent development in the field. A lot has happened in two years!
Many thanks for the update: Greg Garrison, Jason Rhees, Ken Ritzman of Hercuwall and Mike Mancini of SoDella Construction!
WATCH THE FULL RECORDING
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE DISCUSSION
- “We’ve got over 6,000 units that are in design right now with Hercuwall. That will be going vertical over the next 18 to 24 months, with an extremely large part pipeline and diversity of product anywhere from the build to rent product to assisted living, charter schools, climate controlled warehouses, the hospitality space and student housing.”
- “One of the things that we do with our forecasting is that we’re working primarily on projects, which means that we know three to four months, maybe even six months in advance before the first Hercuwalls are going to go vertical. So we’re able to line up our supply chain to meet those demands.”
- “We want to make the process simple, but we also want to make it predictable. We had to create our own systems and processes. So we actually built two scholar teams internally to do this work. And we’ve broken down the traditional process of building a shell, in a traditional home.”
- “We eliminate about two thirds of the framing labor for the Hercuwall system. And we operate on the same timelines and you save days downstream from your saved inspection points, depending upon the municipality you’re in, you could save by anywhere between three and five inspections.”
- “I think part of it is for the construction lenders to get comfortable and understand why that 40% deposit is important. When they realize that you’re going to provide a product without any breaks in the supply chain process, which creates the predictability they want, and even eventually means the timing of their project is completed when they expect it to be actually saves them money. So by incurring a deposit upfront in the long run, it’s going to save them more money if not make them money.”
- “One of the other things you might have noticed in our facility is that there’s very little waste. So any waste such as EPS in steel is all recycled. The recycled EPS is made into items such as a picture frame. The only waste in our facility is a little bit from our weather resistant barrier and then actually lunch waste. And that’s it.”
OTHER RESOURCES
Homes for Life – Two Phoenix-area builders are putting insulated concrete panels at the center of a new business system.