Just like any business and industry, the construction industry follows trends in building that change from year to year. To remain competitive and solvent in the business, it’s essential to keep on top of the big coming thing. Unfortunately, the way these fads and trends move, it can sometimes be really tricky to stay abreast of what the coming thing is.
Nevertheless, industry experts are always on the lookout to predict the hottest trends for the coming year, and contractors who pay attention can quickly get ahead of the competition. Explore the coming 2018 construction trends so you can prepare your contracting business, find the right jobs to bid, and get your surety bonds in place.
2018 Construction Trends
When examining 2018 construction trends, you want to look at a lot more than just the types of buildings that will be erected. You need to look at sales, profits, technology, labor issues and more. Here’s a look at how improving technologies, spending, modular construction, cost-savings and safety issues will be affected in the coming year.
Improving Technology
Advancements in technology continue to improve the speed, efficiency and quality of construction jobs. If you haven’t adopted new technology, it’s past time to consider it. Integrated cloud technologies, 3D printing, self-driving vehicles, more efficient surface coatings, and even drone use are all going to be vital to operations in the near future.
Spending and Growth
In 2016 there was a lot of concern about the dip in spending growth—that’s certainly no longer the case. There was a boom in 2017 and it’s only going to continue into the future. The demands for construction are expected to increase all over the world in both the residential and corporate sectors, with a slight decline in commercial but a commensurate rise in institutional construction.
Modular Construction
Over the past year, modular construction has seen huge growth. Again, that’s only going to continue this coming year and into the foreseeable future. Modular buildings allow for solid construction at rates of speed never before seen, and are getting amazingly energy efficient. Pop-ups as well as permanent buildings are going to be done in a modular fashion for huge companies. This stands to be one of the hottest trends in the coming year.
Cost Savings
Cost saving measures are going to be a major issue coming up. Costs have increased across the board for both supplies and skilled labor, and there’s a serious shortage of the latter. This is part of the reason we’ll see more modular construction going forward, but cooperative options like public-private projects are also likely to grow, as well as the elimination of middlemen through design-build companies.
Wearable technology to track work habits and equipment use will grow, as well as improved monitoring and metrics for efficient work Finally, we’ll see more internship programs for low-cost labor.
A Focus on Safety
People matter; that’s all there is to it. We live in a world where the human cost is valued like never before. This will lead to an increased focus on safety measures to reduce the instances of workplace accidents, an unfortunate area in which the construction industry is a leader. Again, better technology and metrics will help in this area.
Focus on Bonding
To excel in the industry, every construction company should focus on having the right surety bonds in place. This means working with reputable services like NSSI. We’ve helped small companies compete with the big boys for over 25 years, and we’re ready to help you. Get in touch with us to get started today!