In a time when reports of delays and shortages in the construction industry are growing and some building companies are failing to meet client demand, the modular construction business may offer a solution. This solution comes in the form of refurbishing and upcycling pre used units.
What is the Construction Availability Crisis?
In the summer of 2021, the Construction Leadership Council warned of shortages of building supplies due to a combination of unprecedented high demand for building materials from people coming out of lockdown, and import issues stemming from brexit. Add on to this cost increases due to a globally slow economic recovery from Covid and international conflicts, and the result is ever increasing lead times for building materials and shortages within the industry.
Some construction companies are reporting as much as 6 months or longer for product availability. For verticals like the education sector, this is problematic as a lot of installation work is done over the summer holidays. With these lead-time issues, refurbishment offers a real solution for availability and to meet short scale installation dates.
Why refurb and recycled materials offer a solution
One solution that can solve the stock availability issue is upcycling. Upcycling in construction is the refurbishment and reuse of existing materials to create something new. There are many benefits to upcycling in construction: the first being that they solve the supply issue, as rather than waiting for new materials to be created, you are reusing existing materials from your own stock. This avoids long delays on materials and new product delivery delays as well as any supply chain issues.
Secondly upcycling is cost effective: if you bought the raw materials in the first place, but get to reuse them, the cost is halved. Also the costs for recycling and refurbing are lower than building from scratch.
Finally this approach is environmentally friendly. The traditional construction industry uses a lot of natural resources, and causes significant carbon emissions in the processing of these resources. Upcycling offers a sustainable option of recycling and repurposing, saving materials from landfill, reducing the waste that goes into landfill and reducing the amount of natural resources that are being processed.
Some industries will greatly benefit from the upcycling solution. For example in the education industry, from Spring break to June time, lots of schools start looking at summer holidays installations. But with lead-time issues, refurbishment is the only way to get fast availability to meet short scale installation dates.
Benefits of modular buildings for reuse
Whilst refurb and recycling of materials in traditional construction is difficult and can be expensive, modular building facilitates upcycling due to the way units are built individually and can be easily assembled or disassembled.
The use of recycled materials in modular building is one of the highest in the construction industry. Modular units are made to measure, which reduces waste during the manufacturing process and the amount of waste created on site.
Modular components are also said to be ‘designed for deconstruction’, e.g. they can be put in or taken out of a building and used elsewhere. This lends itself well to recycling materials, as the components are much easier to remove and reuse than traditional buildings.
Building modules can be manufactured in line with the completion of groundworks, thereby significantly reducing the build programme and the overall impact on a site environment. This means less traffic and journeys to a building site and shorter build times.
This modular approach brings a whole host of benefits for building clients: modular construction companies can repurpose any of their existing stock to suit new client needs, with each element being easy to add, remove or swap out. As components are modular, it also means that they can be rented or sold. For example, it is becoming more common for modular building companies to rent out smaller units. Interiors can be renovated to new layouts with ease, and exteriors can be reclad, painted or tailored to suit clients aesthetics.
This flexible approach to building lends itself well to upcycling and offers a solution for building companies to overcome the resource and supply chain issues they face at present. It also presents a sustainable and ecologically friendly way to approach building in the future.
At MPH building systems, our recycled modular buildings offer a low-cost, fast-track, eco-friendly option, adaptable for many uses and available for immediate delivery to site. If you’d like to speak to one of our team, get in touch today.
What Industries Are Repurposed Modular Buildings Suitable For?
While just about any industry can benefit from repurposed modular buildings, in many sectors where one can really improve processes as well as spacing and cost issues.
Healthcare
The main benefit of utilising repurposed modular buildings in healthcare settings is the speed at which they can be built and installed. The scale and pace at which COVID-19 spread was a huge shock for many of us, and hospitals quickly felt the strain.
Modular buildings can be erected quickly and efficiently on site. Because it eliminates the frustrations of traditional on-site construction, this approach offers an unrivalled build time from order to completion and ensures performance to meet guaranteed deadlines. As these buildings are repurposed, they are one of the fastest ways to meet additional accommodation needs.
Office Buildings
As businesses grow, often it’s not feasible to use traditional building methods for expanding existing office space.
Repurposed modular office buildings offer the versatility of use for expansion and change as organisations develop. Buildings can be extended or relocated with impressive project timescales and cost savings. Repurposing buildings is an effective way of creating a space that meets your needs, whilst also being a more eco friendly solution adding to your green credentials.
Education
In an educational setting, it’s essential that any disruption is kept to an absolute minimum to facilitate a healthy learning environment.
Since refurbished modular buildings are constructed off-site, on-site disruption is kept to a minimum compared to a traditional building project, but the whole process is much safer for staff and students as a result of minimum on-site work.
The Future Of Construction
Ultimately, the ease-of-build and cost-saving nature of refurbished modular construction means that the chances of the industry slowing down are slim. As the world looks to move to a much more sustainable future, the concept of a building that can be transported and reused in a different location provides eco-friendly benefits such as waste reduction that are difficult to ignore. The additional benefits of repurposed buildings being available quicker than bespoke projects means that when space becomes an immediate concern MPH can help.
If you’d like to find out more about our refurbished modular buildings for a range of industries, contact us today for a chat with our friendly team of experts.