Building product manufacturers should rejoice and get ready for a successful year in 2018. After the financial meltdown in 2008, the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, the construction industry stalled for many years. Building product manufacturers, architects, engineers, contractors, and other design professionals suffered from the economic downturn. Luckily, the economy has picked up steam in the past few years and there are encouraging signs that 2018 will be a very successful year for the AEC industry. Product specification should rise steadily in the next 12 months.

Construction Boom

According to the Commerce Department, construction spending is rising and reached $1.257 trillion in November. The construction industry added over 210,000 jobs in 2017, a 35 percent increase over 2016. Private construction projects have been especially strong and only government construction projects have showed weakness.

One of the significant concerns about the construction boom is labor. Construction could slow down if more skilled labor isn’t found, especially in the residential sector. A lack of temporary work visas and recent immigration crack downs have put a damper on housing starts. “There needs to be serious consideration in allowing temporary work visas until American trade schools can adequately crank out much needed, domestic skilled construction workers,” says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

LEED Certification

Green building projects continue to show progress. The USGBC announced that there were 682 LEED certified commercial projects in the country in Q4 of 2017. Over 132,000,000 million gross square footage of projects were certified. In addition, the amount of LEED professionals increased for the AEC community. As of April of 2017, there were over 200,000 LEED professionals in the marketplace.

As we noted in a previous blog, LEED education has been helping many building product manufacturers reach architects and get products specified on LEED projects. LEED v4 was launched several years ago and a newer version LEED v4.1 will be released in 2018. According to the USGBC, LEED v4.1 will provide new opportunities for new construction projects. Many project teams complained that LEED v4 was too difficult. Several changes to existing LEED credits and multiple options for credit achievement under LEED v4.1 should simplify things and increase product specification.

Virtual Reality & Technology

In a previous blog, we discussed how virtual reality was helping architecture firms design buildings. Computer display technology, new hardware, and software advances have paved the way for the AEC community to test their designs before even laying a single brick. Architects, designers, engineers, owners, and contractors now have the ability to interact with the design of the building in revolutionary ways.

Making product changes during construction can be expensive. Virtual reality allows changes to be made easily before major problems arise and construction begins. Virtual Reality helps with the decision-making process, allows instant product changes, and can help workers simulate an area of the building before they even arrive on site. These new technologies will save time, money, and help drive construction projects of the future which is great for building product manufacturers. What are your thoughts on product specification for 2018?