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> most of them basically imply that construction is inefficient because contractors are dumb. I don't think contractors are dumb. But I do think that they don
by dcolkitt 5y ago
> most of them basically imply that construction is inefficient because contractors are dumb.
I don't think contractors are dumb. But I do think that they don't accumulate productivity efficiencies the way other industries do. There's a rule in economics that every X units of a product that gets made, manufacturers tend to improve by Y% percent efficiency. Because they learn by doing, and the more experience the industry accumulates the more chances it has to make continuous improvements off gradual innovation.
Moore's Law is probably the most extreme example. But it's well known in virtually every industry. For example Toyota kept getting repeatedly better at building cars more efficiently and reliably because they carefully observed the process and kept making improvements.
The problem with the contractor model is this doesn't happen, because you don't have large firms that can exploit economies of scale. At anything above lower management, every one is in their own isolated fiefdom where they can keep making the same mistakes and not learning from each other. If one contractor is 20% more efficient, it's difficult to grow fast into a national brand and export those productivity improvements.
Simple example. Copper plumbing is still widely used in most parts of the country. Pex plumbing is strictly superior. It’s much cheaper, easier to install, more reliable, and less likely to damage the framing. Despite being around for decades, most contractors still use copper.
If you really want to see gains in construction, I think you'll need a large Amazon-like org where every one on site works directly for the company and they're all centrally managed. As soon as you're outsourcing something, you should no longer expect to have it done efficiently. This is fine when it's something ancillary to your business. But when you're a homebuilder, especially a homebuilder aiming to achieve sustained productivity improvements, everything being done on site is core and should be directly under your management team.
- 015UUZn8aEvW 5y ago>you don't have large firms that can exploit economies of scale. There are also diseconomies of scale in residential construction, partly for reasons described in the original post. Having many layers of management is inefficient when you're dealing with work that involves a lot of customization and homeowner input. >Despite being around for decades, most contractors still use copper. No, they don't. Pex is ubiquitous in single-family and smaller multifamily construction now. Copper is used in larger and nonresidential projects where the plumbing codes require it. The idea that professional plumbers and homebuilders haven't heard the news yet that Pex is cheaper is silly.
- sgerenser 5y agoI was thinking the same thing, I live in a booming part of the US with dozens of home builders putting up tract housing everywhere you turn, and I’d be astounded if a single one of them used copper plumbing. Everything is Pex around here, even on custom 1M+ builds.
- rootusrootus 5y agoMaybe for someone who never sees the inside of the walls it's easy to be fooled. Where I live, the typical construction uses pex everywhere up to the point where it goes through the drywall, at which point it switches to copper. So if you only ever see the house with all the drywall up, you could be fooled into thinking the pipes are all copper, instead of just the nubs where the valves are installed.
- astura 5y ago>Copper plumbing is still widely used in most parts of the country. Pex plumbing is strictly superior. It’s much cheaper, easier to install, more reliable, and less likely to damage the framing. Despite being around for decades, most contractors still use copper. Which parts of the country? Not in my area.
- DennisP 5y agoFrom a quick google, PEX plumbing is not "strictly superior" because it does have some disadvantages compared to copper: https://smartchoice.plumbing/pex-plumbing-disadvantages-what-you-need-to-know/ https://smartchoice.plumbing/pex-plumbing-disadvantages-what... (I think your overall point is a good one though.)