Homebuilder Brings Jobs
Posted by fabgram on 22 March 2007
Company Offers Low-Cost Solution To Gulf Housing Recovery
Bob Moser
Mar 21, 2007
The International Trade Center’s largest tenant showed off a new assembly-line style of home-building Tuesday, considered a possible low-cost solution to housing recovery in the Gulf Coast.
Louisiana System Built Homes occupies 300,000 of the 1 million square feet at the former Martin Mills Fruit of the Loom factory in St. Martinville, which closed in 2000. The process is streamlined to follow a factory-style model, proven to cut costs and turn out highly engineered modular homes that are at least 80 percent complete.
“We’re building quality houses that are so energy efficient, it’ll cost you $2 a day to live in that house,” said Aubrey Shoemake, LASBH president.
Energy savings will come from building panels made with Oriented Strand Board, an engineered wood, and six inches of insulation foam inside the walls. Electric tankless water heaters, about the size of a school textbook, will heat water at a fraction of the cost of traditional gas water heaters.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed LASBH’s modular homes withstood a hurricane better than site-built homes, and they are able to withstand 140 mph winds or higher, Shoemake said.
Homes are being sold only to builders, who’ll place the pre-made pieces on empty lots and apply finishing touches for the homebuyer.
After costs for the builder are added in, these homes have sold for $120,000 to $160,000, on average, in other states, said Katrina Collette, spokeswoman for LASBH.
The company expects to churn out an average of three homes per day eventually, with the assembly system running around the clock with three shifts of workers.
The first batch of 24 homes, which may be completed within the next two months, has been ordered by a builder for Lafourche Parish. More than 100,000 people have registered with the Road Home program to rebuild homes in Louisiana, potentially a key customer base for LASBH and other modular home builders.
More than 30 people are employed, many from the St. Martinville area that struggled after Martin Mills closed seven years ago. Two hundred employees likely will be hired by the end of the year, Shoemake said.
Tommy Theriot, a St. Martinville native, is one of the first locals to join the assembly line system. He had been doing part-time painting and maintenance jobs in Lafayette but said he is happy to have a steady job again much closer to home. Theriot will focus on installing plumbing, one of the last steps to building the modular homes.
Most materials for the homes also are being bought from about 10 area businesses.
Acadiana Building Compon-ents, which opened in the former Kaplan Rice Mill seven months ago, could see an incredible boost in its production of engineered roof and floor trusses by working with LASBH, said co-owner Rick Cloud.
“They’re avoiding the weather in this factory,” he said. “It’s a standardized, faster building process for everyone.”
The trusses, triangles used in the home’s framing, will be held at the hinges by metal connectors with dozens of little teeth, instead of traditional nails.
Homes with these trusses can withstand 150 to 200 mph winds, Cloud said, and have saved the roofs on homes in Florida under extreme weather conditions.
