the title is grossly inaccurate. this is an advertorial for the bone structure company's pre-cut metal framing system, not about why prefab hasn't taken over. i

the title is grossly inaccurate. this is an advertorial for the bone structure company's pre-cut metal framing system, not about why prefab hasn't taken over. it's central reasoning that prefab is advantageous because there's not enough construction labor is also misleading. in most places, construction labor much prefers bigger jobs and repeat clients, rather than the harder to deal with idiosyncratic, one-off homebuilder, leaving them with a perception of shortage (even the beginning anecdote mentions getting multiple bids on a project, which wouldn't happen amidst a shortage). bone structure pre-cuts the steel framing for each project because it's not nearly as easy to deal with on-site as wood framing. it's also not cheaper, because wood framing is relatively available everywhere, flexible, reconfigurable on the fly, and easy to manipulate, unlike steel framing. and as others have noted, framing is a small fraction of home construction, and these walls must be put together on site, so it's an overreach to even consider this prefab. it's just pre-cut. that said, it'd be great to see more prefab systems, even just embellished boxes, to accelerate housing construction in tight markets, and ones like LA where homelessness is an already widespread and growing problem.