When Factories Start Building Houses, Which Trades Get Hit First
Mattamy's founder is putting a fully automated factory in the Toronto area with a target of 3,000 housing units a year. If that works, the labour bill on a new build drops by roughly $60,000 a house. That money is coming out of somebody's pocket, and if you swing a hammer for a living, it might be yours.
Kosta and Johny game this one out. How long until the factories are actually producing at scale, which trades get squeezed first, whether the savings ever reach the homebuyer, and what happens when a company like Amazon looks at the model and decides to build houses too. Johny pushes back hard on the workmanship side. Kosta thinks the robot-built homes end up better than what the subdivisions are putting out now.
The part every contractor should sit with is the back half of the conversation: service work. There are roughly 160 million existing homes in North America and about 1.5 million new ones a year, so new construction is around 1% of the stock. The other 99% still breaks. If you run a trades business and your revenue is tied to new builds, this is the episode to listen to twice. Jobtable helps you run the service side properly, with recurring jobs, scheduling, and invoicing in one place.
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00:00 – Dark mode and the QuickBooks sync overhaul are live
02:00 – Mattamy, Stelumar, and a factory aiming at 3,000 homes a year
05:30 – The labour math: $4,000 per trade, per house
07:30 – Will the savings ever reach the homebuyer
11:50 – Factory quality vs site-built workmanship
13:30 – Which trades get squeezed first
19:40 – Why the pivot is service work
28:00 – What happens when Amazon decides to build houses
30:30 – 160 million existing homes and the repair market
37:30 – How many years away is this really
00:00 – Dark mode and the QuickBooks sync overhaul are live
02:00 – Mattamy, Stelumar, and a factory aiming at 3,000 homes a year
05:30 – The labour math: $4,000 per trade, per house
07:30 – Will the savings ever reach the homebuyer
11:50 – Factory quality vs site-built workmanship
13:30 – Which trades get squeezed first
19:40 – Why the pivot is service work
28:00 – What happens when Amazon decides to build houses
30:30 – 160 million existing homes and the repair market
37:30 – How many years away is this really
