L.A. startup speeds up housing with fireproof prefab homes 🛡️🔥

Thought you might want to hear a little update about what's been going on here around the Palisades fire and kind of our experience at getting through it with our house and then also with our cover house. We've rarely been worried about having an actual wildfire come through our neighborhood. I was actually out of town and started getting the wind warnings. They said, yeah, it's going to be a big wind event. As I got up the next morning, began to get the reports that there had been a fire reported in the Palisades area. Not totally unusual. Up in the hills, fires start and usually the fire department kind of comes in very quickly with helicopters and just bombs water on it and gets it under control. And this time, because of the incredible winds, they couldn't do that. And so the fire starts up and very quickly it becomes clear that this is an unusual event. We haven't had a lot of concern about fires here. The last time we'd even thought about it was the Getty Center fire and I went out at three in the morning and could see flames at the end of our street up in the hills. And we didn't evacuate because the wind shifted and they got it under control. But that kind of made me think, wow, if it ever got down here to the flats, that'd be a problem because our houses are very close together. And our house was built in 1940. It has wood siding on it. And so my older son got the house packed up and got our mother-in-law, who lives in the cover behind me right now, everybody kind of packed up and headed down to Orange County to a hotel just to be safe. And then we started, what can we do to potentially save the house? Fortunately, we have spigots all over and a lot of hoes. I broke out a couple of just garden sprinklers up on the top of our house. For the cover, I was only worried a little bit about the wood deck. The rest of it is nothing that's going to burn very quickly. And so that let me focus on my old house. It's kind of mind-blowing. I literally have tens of friends whose houses have burned down and whose businesses have burned down. I'm just kind of at a loss. It just makes me really gut it. These fires have been devastating, not just for the homes and lives that we've lost, but for the people and communities that forever changed. And seeing this happen in our own backyard makes it all the more important to solve. And while this was an incredible and unprecedented weather event, I believe that a lot of the damage was avoidable. Most of the world doesn't build their homes with wood like the U.S. does. When you're rethinking how you build a home from the ground up, how it's going to perform in an earthquake, in fires, that's a big reason we chose to build with steel. From the beginning, our goal has been to build better homes. And part of that is building them to withstand events that you hope won't occur. So here you can see we've got the ceiling tile off and you can see behind it the roof panel. And it's entirely steel structure. You have a galvanized steel joist. The galvanization basically protects the steel from corrosion. And you've got an entirely steel structure, which means that it's resistant to termites, it's resistant to fire, and it performs incredibly well for earthquakes. So even for our wood exterior finish option, the wood is fire-resilient wood. And behind it is this layer of steel around the entire structure. So it's non-combustible. And you've got our exterior swing door. It's a pivot door. And it's a steel door with a foam insulation, which again, non-combustible. Steel also lends itself to incredible precision on a production line. From the very beginning, our goal has been to build homes that are better than conventionally built homes. Not just built faster, but actually better. We moved into this factory after we ran out of space in the previous one. It's four times bigger. It's 80,000 square feet and we're going to be doing hundreds of homes per year. So we've been continuously innovating on the physical product and the process to make it more efficient and better. Welding is great because the weld is actually bonding the metal to the metal at a molecular level, making it an incredibly strong connection. When we first met years ago, we had, you know, this one little structure. So they're not normally on wheels. This is just on wheels because it's our demo unit. What we're doing is we're taking advantage of what you can do in a factory to actually improve the quality of the product. We've created this recessed lighting track and our vents, speakers, sensors, they all go in there. And now we've delivered dozens of these. And during that time, you know, it started off taking 120 days to install. And then it took 90 days and then it took 60 days. And then we did one in 30 days. So now this is three weeks. Hello. Hi, I'm Kirsten. Hi. So there's only a little bit of yard space. It's pretty much to the setback everywhere. This was yard space and they wanted space for family to live in. They've got cousins that are going to be moving in soon. And it's a pretty narrow entrance here. Yeah, we have panels. Those get installed, no crane, just carted in and then installed. You can almost see, well, it's going to be way too dark in there, but this building is actually floating. So it's not tied into the ground around the site. So there's all the water drains away. It's floating on 10 different steel piles that are in the ground. And so what that lets us do is we don't have to pour a slab on grade. So we can come in, do the piles in a day and the next day can arrive with the house. We've got one panel here and then we've got two panels here. And then we've got another panel over here. And then we've got another panel here and another panel with the slider. That's the important thing that we discovered in this iteration versus the previous one is actually we shipped this entire panel. Like there's a column here, a column here and the window frame with the window in it. We brought the entire thing. So it was sealed from the factory. All of that is taken care of. It's QC. It's not going to leak. And then you don't have to spend the time on site doing all that fiddly caulking and all that stuff. And they're joined on the inside to connect them all together. So they become like a big structural whole. And this makes the building very rigid and very strong. That's the feeling you have. I don't see any lines of panels. I cannot picture the panels. We want someone to show up and them to not know that this was built in three weeks. This is high-end construction. This is, but yeah, we built it in three weeks. And why did it get faster? Like why could you do this in three weeks versus a couple months? The biggest thing is we package more things together as one unit. So for instance, like this fenestration, call it, would have taken three times as long if we were trying to put this window in on site. So by taking that whole thing, moving to the factory, you get a better product and it goes in quicker. And then the only places that are interfaces instead of this entire frame interfacing, it's just like some connections here on this panel and some connections here. And those are the same connections on every other panel. So it's as if like this could be a wall or it could be a piece of glass frame, or it could be that slider over there, or it could be the swing door. They all interface the same way. So when you're looking for a tool, you're using the same thing. The guys are used to putting it up just like it is another panel. And that just speeds everything up. And when Alexis first got in touch, you know, he'd been talking to some other structural engineers. And so this is like maybe iteration three. I met Alexis in the first cover they built. It was on wheels. And I'm like, you guys built this? Like, that's crazy. Four architects out of school, just like going for it. And they're like, hey, Greg, can you help us like solve a structure? I was working on the Apple campus. I was a structural engineer on that project. I did a stadium for the Raiders. The big frustration is that on these really big projects, you never get to do the same thing twice. We used to have this thing in architecture. It was called the kit of parts. And it was this dream that you would find this magical kit of parts that would just like solve all of these problems, right? They could be mass manufactured like cars. So that's really what we're trying to do. We're dwellings. The interesting thing about the engineering challenges here, treating it like product that's scalable, is that you can focus on improving the project every time because you're making more of the same thing and really test those things and make sure they work. What we're really focused on is like, how do we improve this thing and really make it exactly what it needs to be? Fine tune. Everything goes together. Can it be scalable? So rather than doing one building that's a million square feet, you can do 10,000 buildings that are a thousand square feet. Actually, you've now made more impact. It's to really make a step change in how we build houses. All right, come on in. Okay, so we're right in the kitchen. So this is our standard kitchen. We've got a countertop range here. We have a both convection and microwave oven. We have a built-in dishwasher. The fridge is right here. Sorry. Yeah, I was like, which one is it? Is it that one or that one? You can't even tell, right? What's the other one? It's actually a pantry. So if you wanted to go custom, hey, I want a bigger kitchen. I cook a lot, right? I want a bigger range. That's fine. We'll do that. I want twice as many pantries. Fine. It's all fits within, you know, you have to make the room bigger. Yeah, if it was my house and it was actually, you know, a house and I have two kids at home, like I probably need a slightly bigger oven or maybe two. That's a big thing from a design standpoint is that we don't try to hide the fact that these are made as parts. We like authentic things. So we're not trying to hide what it is, right? This is made in a factory and it's made as panels. But we are designing those things so that when it all comes together, it works really well. And what you see is just a super modern home. As a structure owner, I like to see the structure. Unfortunately, I've managed to cover it all up. So if you took one of these ceiling tiles down, you would be able to see the structure in it. And we have a panel on the top and we've packaged all of the MEP stuff. So all the wiring, all the mechanical units, the split system for the heating ventilation is all packaged within these panels. So it all ships from the factory. And then that same thing is kind of repeated, but flipped upside down. And we put another lid on top of it. And that's what we're walking on. And then the walls are similar. They're metal frames. And there's a sandwich panel on the outside that's insulated. So it allows you to do whatever you want. Could you make all this glass? Yeah, we could. Structurally, does that work? Structurally, it works. We just have to find some walls somewhere else to hold it up. Because they're support. They are support. So there's a beam on the top of this that's framed inside the window. Now, we do have a window system that is about from there to here. So previous houses that you've been in, they were all 8-foot ceilings. And it still felt big, right? But this is a 9-foot ceiling. So that extra foot really opens up the space. And there's no drops, right? That ceiling plane is continuous. So it really feels bigger because you don't have a drop header at the door, right? The doors are actually 9-feet tall, right? Oh, wow. Gosh, that's a huge door. It's a huge door. Like, it's monumental. It makes the space flow, I think, a lot better between rooms. And funny enough, it's actually easier to build. Because you don't have to frame now a header on top of your door. So by establishing these really smart grid planes, we can just plan to that. And everything goes together much more like Lego blocks than typical construction would be. Well, it's a lot easier to build for us. For us. Right. With conventional construction, that would be a very expensive way to build. Right. Because that's why you don't see huge doors and some of these. And also the windows. I mean, the windows are full. And now that the ceiling's so high, they're huge. And that's not difficult at this point. Well, because we have the processes in our factory. We make our own windows, right? We make our own window frames. These are custom extrusions that are just for our system. So they're using the same type of innovations that like commercial window systems, things you see on tall buildings, that sort of curtain wall system. They're just translated here to a residential space. So then it continues, right? All the doors continue that same height. All the doors, same height. Yeah. And configurable. And really, you can just put all your stuff in, you know, all your stuff and just hide it away. And it's because it's all designed right into it. It's just clutter free. This really maximizes what you can fit in this volume of space because it's, you know, floor to ceiling and configurable. So this bedroom is a little different. Like it still has closets, has fewer closets, but actually has laundry in it too. So the great thing about this giant door is if you are using this space together, you can hide the laundry in there. The great thing about this bedroom is that it has a walkout sliding door. Which is interesting because it does frame the neighbors. So they were fine with that. They're growing trees. So this is actually a bug train. To activate it, you pull this little knob and then it magnetically attaches to this. So you actually open this with the bug train at the same time. It goes to about the size that you would walk through. And then you can detach it. Little magnets right there. Goes right back in. It's something you're like, I don't want to look at it when the door is closed. So what we do is we actually hit it in the mullion. So this just retracts right into there. And my favorite feature is like, there's a little gnome there. The end, right? And a little soft close, right? The benefit of having a team that's focused on one product and constantly improving that product is that you can focus on little things like this. You're not stuck with what exists. It's also about integration, right? I mean, we don't sell the windows on their own, right? We build the whole home. And so our windows are also designed specifically in terms of how they integrate with everything else around for our system, right? And that's what allows us to build so quickly. That's what allows us to build so precisely overall as a whole home. It's interesting how you can really see how you're up against the setback. And not only that, but you took advantage and you actually put a porch all the way. Exactly. Yeah. So you can go right here and have a conversation with your neighbor. The neat thing is that this porch size is actually our standard size. So we think about these things like setbacks, like how it's going to interact with things around it so that we can design the right size standards. Yeah, you don't end up with a weird... If a porch ended right here, you're like, well, now I'm just going to fall in here. But if you design it around what the setback is, it takes up the whole space and you have a comfortable amount of room here. You don't feel like you're going to fall in. The great thing about the windows is they're massive. They let a lot of light in, but you end up with a lot of solar gain. To counter that, we have the awnings. So the awnings protect, they add some shading so you don't end up with too much sun getting inside and heating up space. And then there's a special coating on each of these pieces of glass, a low emissivity coating that reflects a bunch of the non-visible wavelengths of the light away. So you reduce the amount of energy going into the house. Here you really do see the setbacks, but also just how you've maximized the yard. Yeah. And I think that's the great thing about this prefabricated house. We didn't have to cut this tree down. It's right here. We built it into the tree, essentially. This mature orange grove, you don't want to get rid of that, but you want to maximize what you can build. So rather than have to take everything out, put this massive crane in, build this prefab box, we can tilt these panels up around what already exists and really maintain. So when you turn this over, you don't have to wait for this tree to grow. It's already there. All that's left of the yard, right? Just the tree, one orange tree. Yeah, but look at all the oranges she can juice. That is true. This is the whole backyard now. This is the whole backyard. Yeah. So there's a certain amount of setback from your main house to your cover, and that's primarily for fire reasons. So you don't want a fire to spread. What we've taken approach to is our buildings come standard with sprinklers, so the fire danger is much less. But this is the minimum setback that you're allowed right now. And this gives you a bit of a space. To walk around. If we get around on the back, this setback is about five feet. You can see a rain tank there. That's our outdoor unit for the heat pump. And this five foot setback to the neighbor's wall here. There's enough space to walk around, but it's right up to the limit of what you're allowed to build. So we really maximize the area and the value for the homeowner of what they can put on the site, right? And then this is actually a downspout. So the drainage system on the roof. The floor-to-ceiling glass is definitely one of the really popular features. Even in the bathroom, right? Bathrooms tend to be neglected. A lot of homes, they neglect the bathroom design. And we've taken the opposite approach. This is a space that people use multiple times a day. It's often one of the places that you go to refresh in the morning and get ready for the day. And so we want it to be bright. We want it to be just a beautiful space. It's really bright in here. Yeah, I mean, if you turn off the lights, you're not going to even notice the difference, right? I mean, you don't notice the difference. You don't need the light at this hour. Yeah, yeah. It's like a little glow box. Yeah, and the other neat thing is you can almost make this a work of art. If you put a tree in front of it or something, then it'll cast shadows. So it really adapts to the environment of whatever's behind it. From a design engineering standpoint, it's build the best possible home first. All the appliances are high-end appliances, stainless steel appliances, high-end windows. Again, our big pivot door, we have an under sink cabinet. By making it the best, it's something that people want. And we're proving to the world that building homes in a factory doesn't just have to be something that's cheap. It can actually be something that's better than anything else. It's a pretty generous bathroom, shower stall. And there's that. So high shower door as well. It's a high shower door as well. Yeah, so it'll keep all the steam in and you won't get cold. The fixtures all come installed? Yeah, all the fixtures are installed. This is our standard. And same with the toilet? Same with the toilet. We even have this little built-in toilet paper holder. This looks like a little mailbox. So if you notice when you walked in, it was very cool. Like it's a little hot outside. It's a very controlled space inside. One of the things that we've accomplished in this new iteration is that we've hidden all the ducts. So you don't really see them. I mean, you kind of can because they're black. But they're all in the ceiling tracks. So we've reduced the size of these ceiling tracks. And we've optimized the location and the design of these diffusers. So that, for instance, is a supply diffuser. It's over in that corner. And it's actually blowing along the top of the ceiling. And it's dropping down over the kitchen and circulating back. And it's mixing all the air. At the same time, there is what's called an energy recovery ventilation system. So because we have a well-sealed panelized structure, there's not a lot of air exchange from the outside to the inside. So what we have to get that fresh air is that there's actually a fan in the roof, which is constantly exchanging the air inside the space and outside the space. But it's doing it through a heat exchanger. So the cool air that's inside passes past the hot air. And it's actually exchanging the energy. So it's preserving some of that energy to cool down the air that's coming in. And all of that air that it's pulling from the outside is filtered through a hospital-grade air filter. If there was wildfires, it's taking all that stuff out. And it's recycling there. It's changing the entire volume of this space with the outside once every hour. There's a few more. Yeah, there's one actually above the ceiling right there. So every six months, the thermostat will tell you, hey, it's time to change your filters. We'll go up there. I'll tell you how to do it. You can do it yourself. I don't even think about it as housing. It's just like, how do we build things that you live in, in which you've really highly tuned the pieces that go together? And it's not just a bunch of custom pieces every time. Like, this small 800-square-foot home has more engineering than probably many, like, million-square-foot buildings. Because we've been developing the same system for years now, right? Like, hundreds of thousands of hours of engineering has gone into this.