In 2021, SQ4D in Long Island, New York, listed the first-ever 3D-printed house for sale. Homes made by companies like SQ4D are built using a concrete mix and a massive 3D printer. Doing this can save builders over 30% in construction costs and, in some cases, cut building time in half. With the US facing a housing shortage of over 7 million homes, many feel it could be the best solution. We go behind the scenes to explore the construction process, the challenges builders face, and why there aren’t more 3D-printed homes.
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00:00This machine is printing the walls of a home.
00:05Companies are pouring billions into this new tech,
00:08hoping it could help solve our housing shortage.
00:11Houses that we need is anywhere from 3 to 6 million.
00:153D printers can cut building time in half.
00:18But one company estimates fewer than 100 were built in the U.S. last year,
00:22out of 1.5 million total homes.
00:25We run into problems basically every day.
00:28There is no perfect system on how to do this just yet.
00:31So why hasn't 3D housing taken off?
00:34How does the cost compare to regular homes?
00:37And can this new tech help solve our housing crisis?
00:42A 3D home starts with a big trench for the foundation.
00:46Then workers prepare the concrete for the walls.
00:49We're really focused on an easily, readily available mix
00:54that you could go to your local Home Depot or a local quarry
00:57and pick up the materials you need to print.
01:00That's Kristen Henry.
01:01She's the chief technology officer at SQ4D,
01:04a company that built the first 3D home listed for sale in the U.S.
01:07in Long Island, New York.
01:09The cost to build in Long Island is very high,
01:12and there is also a shortage of construction labor available.
01:16The machine lays down foundation walls for two days.
01:19Metal wires add support.
01:23Once a final layer of concrete tops it off, the foundation is done.
01:27Now the walls of the actual house can go up.
01:30Operating the printer on site is actually a lot less technologically challenging
01:35than people would think at first.
01:37It's actually almost like playing a video game.
01:44Most of the job will be done by just three people.
01:47One person operates the printer, another controls the mix,
01:50and a third monitors the site.
01:52Kind of acting as a chief safety officer.
01:54That's also how 3D printing companies can save money.
01:57Typical houses need separate crews for the wood-framed walls,
02:00exterior siding, and drywall panels.
02:033D homes don't need those.
02:06Thirty people to three people, that's a huge cost saving there.
02:10Workers have to keep a sharp eye on the mixture, though.
02:13The texture changes with the temperature and humidity.
02:17On really hot days, for example, the water evaporates really quickly
02:21and you need a little bit of a wetter mix in order to prevent the material from cracking.
02:25So it's kind of a delicate balance that you just have to make sure it's getting enough water
02:29but you're not over-saturating it.
02:32But if everything goes right, most of the house structure will be done in just 16 days,
02:36three times faster than one built from lumber and drywall.
02:40The printer can also help reduce waste.
02:42You know exactly how much material you need at the start of the project.
02:46You don't need drywall as much.
02:49You don't need nailers or vapor barriers in the walls or sheathing or vinyl siding.
02:55But you still need insulation, which is sprayed manually between the walls.
03:00The printer's job is done, but it takes three more weeks to get this home moving ready.
03:05You have to include electrical, plumbing, finishing, HVAC, flooring cabinets, appliances, all of those things.
03:13Plus a truss roof made of wood.
03:15The total cost to build this 1,400-square-foot home was about $132,000.
03:21SQ4D says that's about 30% cheaper than a stick-built home about the same size.
03:26Traditional processes usually take three to six months.
03:30In 3D printing, you can do it in easily half that time.
03:34The company has built three homes so far and is trying to make more by partnering with Habitat for Humanity.
03:40But Kristen says it's been difficult to scale up production
03:43because Long Island has strict building regulations that can slow down construction.
03:48Building codes in every jurisdiction spell out very clearly what is required for stick-built construction.
03:56There are no standards that are widespread of a 3D-printed structure.
04:02Saws and hammers sweat and toil. They work from dawn to dusk.
04:08America has been building homes the same way for over 100 years, mostly out of wood.
04:13That was sort of the affordable way to build houses.
04:17Our industry sort of developed around that.
04:19Our supply chains, they're all built around wood construction of low-rise, single-family houses.
04:27Wood is a great insulator, but it's also susceptible to fires, weather damage, molds, and termites.
04:34Concrete is more resistant to all of those.
04:37It's gotten pricier in the U.S. ever since 2012,
04:40but it's still less volatile than the price of lumber, which soared 300% in 2021.
04:46Concrete is already used in the U.S. to make buildings like schools and hospitals.
04:52But usually, builders pour concrete into molds on-site, shaping it as it hardens.
04:57Or pieces are pre-made in factories, safe from weather conditions, and then transported by trucks.
05:053D printing doesn't have these advantages, and basic concrete doesn't always work.
05:10So some companies have to tweak their recipes to fit different climates.
05:14The mixes often contain additives to make them stronger, and that can add to the cost.
05:20The more specialized it is, that supply chain is more susceptible to disruption,
05:27because there's only a few suppliers of it.
05:35Alquis 3D, a startup in northern Colorado, has tested over a dozen mixes.
05:41All of it is too expensive. All of it is hard to come by.
05:45We filmed with them in 2023, when they were printing 10 homes in Muscatine, Iowa.
05:50We do have sand and gravel, etc., and many, many additives, but we're not using a traditional cement mixture.
05:55The mix needs small changes every day, depending on the temperature, winds, and humidity.
06:00As you can see, it's a little gloopy. That means it's a little too cold.
06:04So we're warming it up, we're getting it ready, we're a couple minutes away from when it's going to be consistent,
06:09and that's when we'll actually start printing.
06:11Even though crews are small, Zachary says finding people is hard.
06:15There are few people on the planet that actually know how to do this.
06:18All of our crew, we've learned it on site, doing it ourselves, which is expensive and time-consuming.
06:26Just a few days after we filmed here, Alquis demolished a partially built home.
06:30The mix wasn't strong enough to handle wear and tear.
06:34The material itself does not have a long history yet.
06:37The way it acts during construction and the way it acts over a long time after it's built is still to be determined.
06:46Alquis built two homes in 2023, but hasn't started any this year.
06:51We've spent a lot of time over the last couple of months training our crew, honing the material,
06:57making sure that the robot is the right robot for the right purpose, and getting acclimated to the climate.
07:04America has been trying to mass-produce homes for over a century.
07:08In 1909, you could order an entire home from a Sears catalog.
07:13The company pre-cut all the materials in a factory and usually shipped them by railcar.
07:18The home kits became a $90 million business, but they were discontinued in the 40s because of slumping sales.
07:24In the 70s, the U.S. government spent millions promoting homes fully built in factories, also known as modular houses.
07:32Roughly 25,000 were built, but the movement didn't really catch on.
07:37Part of the problem was that it was expensive to build and operate the factories.
07:41Government aid dried up in the mid-70s, and a lot of the builders went under.
07:45Today, roughly 98% of houses are still assembled on site, mostly by hand.
07:51And it takes about a month longer to build a house today than it did in 1971.
07:55There are more regulations today than there were in the 70s.
08:00Material and labor shortages can also delay projects.
08:033D printing is supposed to help solve these problems.
08:07But Eric says for the trend to catch on, someone has to prove you can build lots of them fast while saving people money.
08:13And is that difference big enough that the people who build their housing will take a risk to adopt a new technology?
08:29Icon, a company in Austin, is trying to prove that's possible.
08:33It's printing 100 houses in Georgetown, Texas' Wolf Ranch community, making it the U.S.'s biggest neighborhood of 3D homes.
08:40Some of the investment came from one of the largest homebuilders in the country, Lenar.
08:45If we want to get where we need to be with housing, we can't do what we've always done.
08:50Icon has printed 95 homes here using its own custom concrete mix, and a dozen here have already sold.
08:56In February 2023, Icon's co-founder Jason Ballard estimated 3D homes could be up to 30% cheaper and faster to produce than conventional ones.
09:06But the company wouldn't tell us how much it's spent so far on Wolf Ranch.
09:10It is scalable, less expensive, faster, and a stronger home than any of the homes that I've built in my past career.
09:21While 3D printing can save money, some costs still have to come down, starting with the machines.
09:28I do believe we need to keep bringing down the costs of the mixers themselves, as currently those are a pretty significant cost in addition to the machine.
09:38Kristen hopes that as more homes are 3D printed, the public will get more comfortable with them.
09:43As with any new technology, people are often pretty skeptical at first.
09:48Even if you think back to the first cars that were developed, it took quite some time for consumers to actually start to adopt it and want to be driving these vehicles all over the place.
09:57Really, the only complaint I've gotten so far is that too many people are coming to look at the houses,
10:02because since there's so few in the country, people are really excited about it and are knocking on front doors saying,
10:08Hey, can I come see your house?
10:11We spoke to a new owner of a 3D printed home built in Virginia by Alquist.
10:16Sierra Romas bought it through Habitat for Humanity's first-time homebuyer program.
10:21Everything that you would think about that a house needs, it has, so no issues.
10:27Yeah, you can't punch holes through these walls, not at all.
10:32Some people have said, Oh, I would never. That's just too different for me.
10:38How do you change the walls? How do you change the paint?
10:42You could easily put up drywall over the walls if you wanted to.
10:46But for the most part, I will not cover up my walls.
10:49I think it is like a major talking point. It starts great conversation.
10:54And for me, it's just, it's kind of like living inside art.
11:01And actually, we just recently had a terrible thunderstorm and it was so quiet.