MATT RISINGER DETAILS READY-FRAME® HOMEBUILDING EXPERIENCE
Matt Risinger and his team recently built a house in the Austin, Texas area using Builders FirstSource’s READY-FRAME® technology, and it was featured on an episode of The Build Show.
Risinger greeted the BFS truck upon it’s arrival on the first day of the build. He pointed out that the READY-FRAME® boards are bundled and delivered in a way that makes sense for the builders so that the house is easier to put together.
“They’re going to build the house like a big Lego set. No saws needed!”
On the first day, the first two walls were up in about two-and-a-half hours. “Already, we’re seeing that READY-FRAME® is faster!”
By the time the crew reached Day 6, they were already working on decking and had the trusses rolled for the second floor of the house. Risinger predicted they were moving 20%-25% faster than if they had been using traditional framing. He also noted that this was this particular crew’s first READY-FRAME® project, and “I suspect on my next READY-FRAME® project is really when I’ll see things speed up a little more.”
One element of the house that was particularly helped by using READY-FRAME® was the angled wall at the top of the house.
“This angled wall right here really shows the power of READY-FRAME®. You can see that would take some time getting all those angle cuts, getting everything really set, and just went so much faster having it all pre-cut.”
He also pointed out, when showing the audience the second floor, that there were no saws nor sawdust, and that the jobsite dumpster was much more empty than normal due to the lumber being cut correctly upon delivery.
The crew stood two table walls up and framed several interior walls, which shows how quickly crews can move once they get the hang of the READY-FRAME® system.
“Wouldn’t surprise me at all if you’re going to get a 25% bump in speed as you’ve started to do more than one of these projects,” said Risinger. “And of course the lumber savings is a hard one to specifically quantify, but here’s an example:
Often times in the past it's really easy when you're framing a house with just a set of plans to miss that you don't need a structural header there, and a lot of times we always default to putting a structural header in. We don't need one there. It's really spelled out. It's pre-cut, so we didn't put one whereas we've got a header on these windows because they are structural so just another benefit that does add up over time.”
Using READY-FRAME® allowed the crew to look at the framed house on a computer ahead of time, so the builders could look at the plans and determine whether everything would work with their mechanical systems. This included trusses, studs, layouts, headers, beams – everything that’s on the model.
“When my project manager on this job was laying out the underslab conduit, he was able to actually look at the layout on the iPad and go ‘okay where are the studs and what’s this dimension from here to the end of the wall,’ so that you can actually lay out this pipe and - look at that - it landed perfectly right in between there…Having this all in 3D just makes everything really easy and allows you to visualize the house ahead of time.”
By Day 8, the first floor trusses on the one-story portion of the house were up. They were just waiting on a telehandler to get the second floor trusses up.
The house was 4,000 framed square feet, and the structural framing nearly completed on the 13th day of building. Risinger expected that to be complete within the next couple of days, and in the end there were 18 total framing days from start to finish.
Risinger noted that they were just waiting on a little bit of sheathing on the back of the house and they also still needed to do some roof sheathing, as well as exterior trim.
“I’m really happy with the Builders FirstSource READY-FRAME® program…If you’re not currently using them, highly recommend that you find a Builders FirstSource and a lumber sales person in your area.”
- READY-FRAME® “easily saved us 20% in time, maybe more.”
- Risinger typically hand cuts roofs, so the pre-built trusses saved him time as well.
- Risinger's carpenter told him the “massive savings” will come if you do a similar house plan again because if the team is familiar with putting the house up, they could really get the house up quickly and potentially use a smaller crew.
- Because of the way the lumber is delivered, a jobsite needs less space to lay materials down. That can be really beneficial for a city build because there’s generally less space for jobs in cities.
- By building houses more quickly and using pre-cut lumber, you decrease your chances that lumber could get stolen off a jobsite.
- READY-FRAME® does not take the craftsmanship out of framing. "You still have to be a skilled framer. You still have to have a craftsmanship mindset, but you can build a really excellent house and potentially do it in less time with READY-FRAME® with a really consistent package.”