Builder Show Hums (and Whistles) with Cautious Optimism

A hyper-energetic annual trade show highlights an industry doubling down on hope and history.

As I rolled into Vegas last week for the annual Design & Construction Week (DCW), I wasn’t sure what to expect. We live in interesting times, for better and worse, as the Chinese proverb goes. 

I had just attended the AHR (HVAC) show in Orlando a couple of weeks earlier, and I wondered if the DWC show would vibrate at the same frequency. It turns out the two industry shows shared the same silent mantra: All is well, until, and unless, it’s not.

I’m aware that you, our readers and friends, remain divided on where the political tides are taking us, so I’ll do my best to convey the overall mood even-handedly. First, I didn’t encounter a hyper-partisan viewpoint from either the vendors or the attendees—meaning neither doom and gloom nor ecstatic glee colored my conversations with CEOs, marketing heads, or home builders. 

Are they anxious about the economy, trade conditions, interest rates and housing sales? Sure, but they’re not paralyzed. 

In fact, my contacts seemed universally bullish about the future. Part of that positive outlook, I think, comes from pride in the rapid innovations they’ve made in product performance. They’re focused on the good stuff, not reacting to the shock and awe of daily pronouncements from Washington. They’re transfixed by the prosperity of the current moment.

Let me give you a concrete example. A high ranking executive at an international ventilation company ( I shall not out him here) told me his company has moved all of their manufacturing of bath fans to Mexico. I asked him whether threats of tariffs from the White House concern him. 

“I lay awake nights worrying about it,” he said, the smile never leaving his lips, followed by a change of subject to new fan technology and easy retrofit options. That pattern could be rubber-stamped on half a dozen other major companies I spoke with. They’re terrified. But they’re not afraid.

There’s certainly no indication that sustainability is on the rocks. In fact, we hit a home run in our partnership with Beazer Homes this year, partnering on the VISION House Las Vegas. Beazer is the first big builder in 30 years to really step up their performance game and do it in such a splashy way, with three outstanding model homes. You can see a few of the high-tech products in the main photo for this article, such as the Span smart electrical panel. This panel  enables homeowners to control and monitor every circuit in the house plus be able to seamlessly install add-ons  like EV charging, the Rheem heat pump water heater, and the Sunnova solar + battery storage system.  

I’ve never seen production homes with so many high-performance features: integrated solar and storage, heat pump water heaters, ultra-tight envelopes, and on and on. They could have instead joined the race to the deregulated bottom that the politicians are promising, but they took the high ground.

I could give you example after example. No company I encountered is trying to roll the clock back on efficiency. Most are charging ahead with new offerings and top-down commitments to reduced carbon impacts. Even gas-friendly manufacturers such as Noritz have gone to great lengths to add a new “hydrogen fuel ready” component to their wall-mounted water heaters.

Other examples of “best foot forward” innovation could be found all over the show: Let me give you a quick list of sustainable and resilient products I saw, to illustrate my point:

Azek composite flooring with high recycled PVC content: Azek company keeps raising the bar on PVC recycling, to the point where they can repurpose post-consumer products such as vinyl siding to form the core of their durable decking products. They’re doing more to put used PVC to use than any other company we’ve heard from.

Source: Article Here

Automist from Plumis: This smart sprinkler system automatically identifies and extinguishes fires before they get out of control.

Jackery solar tile: With a product aesthetic that promises to silence busybody anti-solar HOAs in high-end communities, this high-performance solar tile looks remarkably like barrel tile. It also boasts a 25 percent efficiency.

ULTRATouch Recycled denim insulation from Henry: According to its salespeople, Henry can produce almost unlimited amounts of this dense, non-sagging, no-itch recycled insulation. This is no boutique offering—it’s a major push by a big company to introduce a super-low-carbon insulation alternative to the industry. We’re eager to hear what builders and trades think of it.

We’re currently sifting through entries into our Sustainable Product of the Year Awards for the March/April issue of Green Builder magazine. We received about 105 entries, not counting the prospects we gathered ourselves over the last year. That’s more than we’ve ever received. You’ll see a lot more products from the builder show in this upcoming issue.

So, what does the building show really tell us? Here’s my take: Manufacturers have spent millions developing better products over the last decade. The reality is that aside from the ebbs and flows of demand, they’re not planning to retool their complex facilities to roll the clock backwards. New toilets are not going to start wasting more water. Consumers are not going to give up their induction cooktops to go back to gas. Sustainability is a bottom line issue, not a whim. A zero-waste factory is more practical than a sloppy, high-energy operation.

That’s not to say the industry isn’t paying attention to the news.

I used to fly private planes. My instructor once told me not to be afraid on a commercial flight unless the pilot starts to whistle. That’s when you start looking for the parachutes. I didn’t hear anyone whistling at the show, but maybe they’re just holding their breath, hoping they won’t need to fly through the storm on the horizon.