Fast Framing

Now, there's a person at Legacy Communities who's in charge of administering the application. When there's a change to a plan or a new plan is issued, he goes into Plans-Room and electronically notifies all the appropriate parties that there's a change in the plan. This way, everyone in the chain has the latest update.

Once the builder issues a new plan or update to Plymart, a Plymart designer uses software called BC Framer to design the flooring system. When the framing layout and material list is agreed upon, the designer takes the BC Framer file and drops it into a SawTek system, an automated saw that reads the file and cuts the floor joist to the nearest 1/16 of an inch.

All the floor joists are pre-cut for electrical, plumbing, and mechanical and are marked in two places, similar to the way the pieces of a shelving unit or IKEA kitchen cabinet are marked. All the joists come with plans attached in a plastic bag.

BEST PRACTICES

“This system takes the guesswork out of framing,” says Legacy Communities' Connor. “Once the floor joists are out in the field, we don't want them modified. We don't want plumbers and air-conditioning people cutting big holes in the floor joists,” he says.

Connor says these kinds of inefficiencies are not uncommon. He says most medium and small builders are construction people at heart and don't always think about how all the little hang-ups and delays impact the bottom line.

“Construction is a business and has to be managed properly,” says Connor. “We couldn't build 1,600 houses a year without Boise's Plans-Room or some of the other automated tools we've been using. The delivery of the data would simply be too slow,” he says, adding that since the data is more reliable, it makes the builder more efficient.

By using the collaboration software and improved sawing technology provided by Plymart and Boise Cascade, Legacy Communities is able to:

- Steve Zurier