The wave of the future in custom home building appears to be building systems, where a new home is constructed of pre-built systems that are put together at the home site. The most familiar of these for most people are “modular homes” which are completely finished offsite, with only the foundation built on site.

Those are just the furthest extension of the idea of system building, though. Panelized home building systems may include just the basic structural elements of a home – the framing of the walls and roof, for instance – or they may be fully finished with doors, windows and even appliances. Each component is completed off site, shipped to the home site and assembled on site by an experienced builder.