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Momo Homes, LLC
701 5th Avenue
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Seattle, Washington 98104

Phone +1 (206) 651-4097

Photograph of gingerbread house.

Let’s raise a cup of cheer to the original panelized homes

Written by Jeff Williams on . Posted in Panelized Construction, blog, Build Process.

This holiday season, millions of families around the world will be participating in that time-honored ritual of panelized-home construction known as making gingerbread houses.

The tradition as we know it started in the 1600s in present-day Germany, and got a boost two centuries later with the Grimm brothers’ publication of “Hansel and Gretel.” 

These days, the activity is as popular as ever, with millions of gingerbread-house kits being sold every year. 

What’s remarkable is how much of the panelized build process those early 17th century bakers got right.

Consider …

  1. Gingerbread houses are manufactured offsite, where their components are created by experts at a dedicated facility.
  2. Home components are precision-crafted. Each is made from high-quality ingredients and shaped to exact specifications.
  3. The houses take advantage of flat-pack shipping. Panels, joinery, accessories, fasteners, and the like are fitted securely into shipping containers for easy, efficient distribution.
  4. Homes are delivered directly to the build location for onsite assembly.
  5. Builds can be completed quickly with small teams of nonspecialist workers. 
  6. The homes are designed to be both functional and beautiful.
  7. Each home kit includes everything you need to build the house.
  8. Gingerbread houses are sustainably built.

Of course, gingerbread houses have issues that limit their practical application. They have no foundations. They dissolve in the first substantial rain. And the fairy-tale-witch market is quite limited.

Fortunately, we’ve solved those problems — with steel footings, durable frames and cladding, below-market pricing, etc. — while keeping everything that makes gingerbread houses so amazing. 

Full disclosure. While Momo homes look good enough to eat, only gingerbread houses actually are. 

We wish you and yours a delicious holiday this year.

Cheers! 

— Your friends at Momo Homes 

Photo: Isabela Kronemberger

Digital image of the three-arrow recycling symbol with the arrows a metallic silver color.

Can steel go green?

Written by Charles Gale on . Posted in Build Process.

Our planet has a hunger problem and its food is steel.

Right now, it’s the most commonly used metal in the world, found in stuff like cars, airplanes, ships, skyscrapers, washing machines, and sculptures of balloon dogs.

But steel’s dominance is looking shakier than ever. Governments and industries are racing to reduce carbon emissions and reach ambitious net-zero targets. And let’s just say, traditional, or “primary” steel, isn’t helping.

Around 75% of steel is still largely made in coal-fired blast furnaces, which pump huge plumes of CO2 into our atmosphere. Heating the furnaces to above 1,000C releases even more emissions, and steel production overall produces about 8% of global emissions. These century-old production techniques aren’t aging well.

Without big changes, we aren’t likely to keep under the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark set under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. To bring the steel sector in line with a 2050 net-zero target, process emissions must fall by at least 30% by 2030.

Green steel is a step in the right direction.

How can a steel be green?

We mean green in the context of sustainability. Green steel is basically just steel produced without the use of fossil fuels.

And many startups and major producers are now experimenting with low-carbon technologies that use hydrogen or electricity instead of traditional, coal-burning blast furnaces. Some of these efforts are nearing commercial reality. 

As it stands, steel made with electric arc furnaces (EAF) is growing in popularity. EAFs use an electrical current to melt steel and have far lower CO2 emissions than blast furnaces. But because they mostly melt recycled scrap, their supply source is limited.

Plus, a report by the NGO Global Energy Monitor says the shift to EAFs is currently “stagnant” and way behind decarbonization targets.

Hi, hydrogen

Industry players are experimenting with a few different technologies to reduce steel’s climate impact. But hydrogen seems to be getting the lion’s share of attention now. Hydrogen can replace coal in steel production in a couple of colorful ways.

Hydrogen emits only water when burned, and if that hydrogen is made through electrolysis using just water and renewable energy, it’s called “green hydrogen,” and it’s free of CO2 emissions.

Blue hydrogen is produced by reforming natural gas through the steam methane reforming (SMR) process, and then capturing the carbon emissions created by this process. Because it does produce CO2 during production, it’s considered less, well, green than green carbon.

Obstacles to blue and green

Basically, an industry-wide shift to these new methods would require a massive expansion in renewable energy infrastructure.

A shortage of low-carbon hydrogen is another roadblock. Scaling up this technology will require massive amounts of the blue and green.

Which brings us to money, honey. Switching to blue or green hydrogen would require huge piles of cash (like billions of dollars) to build new plants, retrofit old ones, and increase renewable energy production.

Green steel would probably cost more greenbacks, at least in the beginning, which could dissuade some big buyers from making the switch.

When will green steel tip?

But as we saw with solar energy, there’s a tipping point at which a new technology becomes cheap enough and readily available to make a big dent in market share.

Tipping points require a number of factors including increased demand (hello, climate change), technologies and innovations that learn from and improve upon earlier versions, falling costs, and government incentives.  

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure and Investments Jobs Act (IIJA) provide financial incentives for low-emissions energy and will require US companies to build renewables, grid infrastructure, and re-shore industrial production — all of which will rely on US steel supply.

Early innovations in green steel are already underway across the globe. They’ll lay the foundation for later discoveries and advancements.  

Green steel is just one of the materials (like concrete) that researchers and industries are re-examining in the rise of climate change. Their innovative ideas around reducing the CO2 emissions of these materials are some of the brighter spots in environmental news.

Maybe our planet can switch to a better steel diet. Everyone knows that greens are good for you.

Cheers,

Mike

Mike McAllister is head of story for Momo Homes.

Idyllic modern home with solar panels and greenery growing all over its roof and walls.

Nothing matters: An intro to zero-waste design

Written by Charles Gale on . Posted in Build Process.

Sometimes nothing is everything.

Take zero, for example, which isn’t even really a number. It’s like, less than a number. But zero can have a bigger impact than any number, in the right context.

Take construction, an industry that creates a third of the world’s waste and about 40 percent of its carbon emissions.

According to the EPA, contractors and crews fill construction and demolition landfills with stuff like asphalt, demolition debris, and site clearance waste, alongside cast-off building materials like concrete, bricks, and wood.

It’s an industry ripe for a new approach to nothing.

Introducing zero-waste design

The zero-waste movement crosses industries and manufacturers, but is gaining traction among homebuilders and contractors looking to cut their carbon footprints and create homes that contribute to and thrive in a more sustainable future. The kind of future (and homes) we all want to live in.

And architects, designers, and homebuilders are in a good position to cut waste before it even gets to the construction site.

What’s so big about zero?

First, let’s be clear about some fuzzy phrasing: zero-waste doesn’t mean zero waste. It’s more about minimizing the waste that is produced and then finding ways to reuse and convert it into useful resources.

Here are five common principles of the zero-waste design movement:

  1. Waste Prevention optimizes the usage of materials, choosing efficient construction techniques and minimizing waste during design and construction.
  2. Resource Efficiency makes the most of available resources with products, buildings, and spaces designed to use materials and energy efficiently.
  3. Circular Economy keeps resources in use for as long as possible by maximizing their value through reuse, recycling, and recovery. Homebuilders contribute to this economy by focusing on the use of easily recycled or repurposed materials.
  4. Adaptability and Flexibility in space and structure design ensures they can be easily repurposed or modified as needs change, to extend the useful life of a building.
  5. Lifecycle Thinking considers the full life span, from extraction to disposal, of materials to minimize waste and consumption of resources.  

What’s one real-world approach to zero waste?

Panelization is one method homebuilders are using to get closer to zero.

Panelized homes are made from components manufactured in climate-controlled factories. The components are then shipped to the jobsite and assembled by a small crew of non-specialized workers.

The Structural Building Components Association conducted two experiments in 1995 and 2015, as part of their Framing the American Dream project. 

In both experiments, they constructed two homes: one was entirely stick-framed, and the other was framed using structural components, including roof trusses, wall panels, and floor trusses. “Structural building components,” by the way, are defined as custom-designed and built in specialized manufacturing environments, then delivered to the jobsite where framers install them along with permanent bracing to create the overall structural system. 

Their conclusions?

  • Stick framing a structure required 25% more wood product than framing it with structural components.
  • Stick framing generated 30 times more jobsite waste than framing with structural components.
  • The stick-framed house required 373.5 hours of person hours to complete. The component-framed house required 152.1 of hours to complete—less than half the time.  

At Momo, we’re big on zero

Our architects work hand-in-glove with engineers and designers to create (gorgeous) homes that follow zero-waste design principles. 

From factory-finished and fully recyclable framings and footings to multiple solar energy options, every element of our homes has sustainability, impact, and cost in mind.   

Let’s start subtracting.

Cheers,

Mike

Mike McAllister is head of story for Momo Homes.

Reinventing the homebuilding supply chain

Written by Charles Gale on . Posted in Build Process.

Builders and contractors know all about middlemen.

Getting construction materials to a job site can involve a slew of them. The old-school sourcing model depends upon a long string of third parties. Stuff goes from supplier to broker, a broker through an intermediary, and on and on until it (hopefully) arrives onsite.

Builders get caught in the middle

It’s a system that bogs down builders too often with delays, paperwork, financial terms, waste, and inefficiency. And with each third party slapping on their markup, we can throw “costly” in there, too.

Sometimes those middlemen start out by offering a convenient service (hello, big-box stores and online retailers) but eventually get a bit profit-crazy, growing big, unwieldy, and ever-more power-hungry. This makes the whole process more fragile and prone to inequality.  

What’s more, the homebuilding supply chain is vulnerable to external factors, like global pandemics, port bottlenecks, and the Russo-Ukrainian war. Which is all happening when the demand for single-family homes is skyrocketing.

A supply chain built for the future

Modular, panelized, or quick-build homes (they’re variations on a theme) solve many of these problems by reworking the homebuilding supply chain.

Panelized homes are made from components manufactured in climate-controlled factories. The components are then shipped to the jobsite and assembled by a small crew of non-specialized workers.

This all makes for a faster, safer, less costly, and more sustainable homebuilding process. With benefits like these, one supply chain advisory group predicts that, “Modular construction is the future of supply chain.”

We’re aiming even higher: Quick-build construction is the future of homebuilding.

We’re achieving that future partly through our own approach to distribution. We call it a vertically integrated direct-to-builder supply chain. A three-step system that lets builders go from lot to lockup in three weeks.

Here’s how it works: 

1. Sourcing in Asia

We source from the best manufacturers and factories in Asia, where we have decades of experience. 

Asia is the primary source of all construction materials in the United States, but we skip the middlemen and ship precision-engineered home components directly to the builder’s jobsite for less cost.

2. Pre-assembly in Panama 

Move over, Portugal. Panama is now the number one destination for Americans retiring abroad. The country is peaceful, prosperous, and economically sophisticated. 

By locating our factory in Panama, we can save on the time and cost of handling shipping containers. Plus there’s the handy favorable trade relationship Panama maintains with the United States. (We pass these savings on to builders, of course.)

We build all our products to exceed US standards for quality and endure rigorous testing, which we document and make available for review.  

3. Buildout at the jobsite

Our precision manufacturing process lets builders work fast with a small, nonspecialist team. Here’s how the build works:

  1. Guidance: A Momo Homes primary builder and team will be on-site providing expertise and answering questions the week of the builder’s first home.
  2. Foundation: The Surefoot foundation is installed, with footings that are job-specific, designed for the soil conditions of each site, usable on a wide range of projects, and meet all compliance and regulations.
  3. Framing: The Frame and exterior components arrive in shipping containers, which hold wall sections housed in cassettes, and include the good stuff like insulation, doors, windows, siding, and flooring.
  4. Assembly: Walls are pre-assembled at our manufacturing plant using our “easy handle system” and packed into shipping cassettes. The unloading and assembly process is designed to enable two nonspecialists to assemble walls in fewer than three days.
  5. Interiors: Components typically arrive seven days after the walls and include cabinets, bathrooms, kitchens, flooring, luxury components, and more. 
  6. Lockup: The work finished by the builder includes: drywall, paint, electrical, plumbing, water hookup, and heating and air conditioning. 

One, two, three. Fewer steps mean fewer stoppages. And more savings for builders. 

Cheers,

Mike

Mike McAllister is head of story for Momo Homes.