As the COVID-19 Pandemic has continued across the country, and the world, with seemingly no end in sight, it has had an impact on every corner of society. If you’ve been planning a remodel or a custom home, you’ve seen COVID-19’s impact on custom home construction first-hand. Supply-chain disruptions, rising costs, and increased demand have all led to changes in how those of us in the design-build industry do business.
Here at Bright Homes, we get questions every day about how COVID is affecting our ability to create beautiful homes. More and more people are interested in building themselves a gorgeous custom home and want to know what challenges we’re facing in the industry today. We’ve put together this guide to help explain COVID-19’s impact on custom home construction. Let us be by your side through these strange and uncertain times.
The first, and most visible, sign of COVID-19’s impact on custom home construction has to do with personal protective equipment, or PPE. For many people today, PPE takes the form of masks, face shields, or other means of protecting yourself from the spread of the coronavirus. In the custom home building industry, personal protective equipment is a must! While hard hats are the most stereotypical sign of construction, builders like us also need face masks and goggles, among other equipment, to protect ourselves on a job. COVID-19 has made it harder and harder to obtain items like these as demand from the public and healthcare professions has skyrocketed over the last few years. Increased hygiene and social distancing regulations in the construction industry have also increased the demand for PPE. While these measures are in place to keep our workers safe, they can lead to slowdowns in custom home construction.
Those of us at Bright Homes would love to serve you and your family in building a custom home (and we’ve built some pretty nice ones already). At the same time, supply chain issues have led to a slowdown on all of our projects. We know how frustrating this can be for you. However, we don’t want to compromise the quality of your exceptional custom home by using inferior materials or cheap workarounds. Unfortunately, these supply chain issues aren’t unique to us, to Utah, or even to the USA. They’re a global phenomenon and a problem we all have to deal with in our everyday lives. You might have noticed this with items you’ve ordered online, or while grocery shopping. Certain materials, especially things like lumber, concrete, and rebar, have become more and more difficult to obtain, even though they’re essential in construction. It’s another sign of COVID-19’s impact on custom home construction.
And the signs are obvious because demand for remodels and custom homes has shot up in the last two years. With more and more people spending time working from home, they’ve started to notice elements of their home that they aren’t happy with. Spaces where you might have only spent a few hours each week are now areas where you’re spending 40, 50, or more hours between work and leisure. Maybe the layout of your kitchen was a minor inconvenience before, but with you, your spouse, and your teenage children all jockeying for counter space to get work done now, it’s something that needs to change ASAP. Or, as you’ve grown more stressed, you’ve realized the importance of a comfortable master bathroom and the wonders a jacuzzi tub might do for that knot in your shoulders. You’re not alone in feeling this way! COVID-19’s impact on custom home construction includes massive demand. In other words, essential PPE is harder to come by, high-quality materials are slower to arrive and more expensive, and more and more people want a gorgeous custom home. You might call it a perfect storm.
At Bright Homes, we can’t pretend to know what the future of the custom home building industry holds, but we do know how frustrating and uncertain these current times are. We’re still here and ready to build you a beautiful custom home, but we ask that you remain patient as the process moves forward. We’re busy, and we’d much rather be busy than not, but we’ll still be here every step of the way. If you’re looking for a team with just the right blend of experience, trust, and communication, Bright Homes is your ideal builder for a personalized and perfected custom home.
