How BMC Components Save Time and Labor in the Field

By Ben Hershey, President, 4Ward Consulting Group, LLC

The continued severity of the labor shortage around the country has been underscored by multiple sources including the Wall Street Journal and other articles over the past few years. BMC has continued to invest in our Manufacturing and Component divisions to provide our customers with time and labor saving measures using roof, floor and wall components.

Components have been proven to save time and labor over stick-built framing. In 1996 WTCA, in cooperation with the Building Systems Council of NAHB, sponsored the Framing the American Dream® project to better understand wood framing. Two identical framed house plans were completely framed in the parking lot outside the NAHB show in Houston, TX. The savings were significant: more than 16%! Working with BMC, those savings are even more significant because you are working with our team of trained Truss Design Technicians who will review your structural design plans and evaluate all framing needs.

Our team provides you with detailed technical drawings, precise manufactured roof trusses, floor trusses, and wall panels. Because these components are built in a factory setting and built using highly technical software, we are able to ensure all components are staged properly for delivery and fit precisely in the field. When the components arrive in the field, labor is reduced significantly in a variety of ways. Our components are all labeled matching the field placement drawings so framers are able to quickly place components where they are supposed to go on the structure. Because you are using components, you are placing a single component element, such as a roof truss, instead of several pieces as you would for a roof rafter. For example: if you were spanning a roof that is 30’ wide at a pitch of 4/12, you would have just one truss placed at a spacing of 24” on center. If you were stick-building the same roof, you would be placing a rafter at 12” spacing, have at least 2 rafters, one ridge piece, a ceiling joist, and a gable stud. Each of these four pieces would be handled separately by the framing labor in the field whereas the roof truss component would be handled one time by the framing labor. And because you have to space the rafters at 12” on center versus a truss at 24” on center, you have double the pieces and labor.

The BMC Truss Design Technicians are trained to handle all kinds of designs and dreams. Architects and Engineers can count on us to provide components for kinds of complicated structural buildings and still save time and labor in the field. We review drawings from start to finish and make sure we have accounted for missed items. When you receive our component placement drawings, you know where the product is placed. Framers don’t have to guess where components go and they don’t have to cut extra pieces. We provide the complete package. Components offer a better quality, low-cost solution for today’s labor shortages.

By using the BMC component package, builders are also able to reduce cycle times in the field. The use of components allows builders to not only reduce framing labor by more than half, but reduce the cycle times of your other sub-trades such as electricians, plumbers, HVAC, etc. Components are open webbed and allow for easy passage of sub-trade mechanicals reducing their labor time. When you add it all up, the builder benefits because they reduce construction financing time and costs.

BMC manufactured components not only save you labor, but save you time and money!