Home builders benefiting from balmy temperatures

Kids won’t be making snow forts or igloos anytime soon, but the lack of snow and warmer weather is making building homes a lot easier.

“When we’re having the kind of weather we’ve been having, it’s favourable conditions for the construction projects and they can move along a little more swiftly,” said Stu Niebergall, the president and CEO of the Regina and Region Home Builders’ Association.

The favourable weather doesn’t mean more homes get built, it just makes the process a smoother one.

“Where the temperatures and winter conditions can have an impact, it’s more on the timing of the homes,” Niebergall said.

Concrete, for example, takes much longer to cure in colder temperatures. That causes builders to do a process called hoarding, which attempts to store heat in a home to allow the concrete to cure more quickly.

“When you’ve got above-seasonal temperatures like we’re having right now, a lot of those processes (like hoarding) aren’t necessary and that can have an impact on timing and ultimately cost,” he said.

“Doing things like having to hoard the foundation as you’re building it add additional costs.”

Weather also has an impact on building materials.

“Colder weather can affect the flexibility and usability of construction materials such as plastics or adhesives and sealants,” Niebergall said.

“The warmer temperatures make a lot of these materials a little more pliable and easier to handle, and reduces the risk of damage during the construction process.”

On top of those pros to warmer weather, workers enjoy the temperature too.

“The cold temperatures can create those construction delays, especially if there’s a snowstorm or extreme cold snap, because again it’s just a harder, more difficult environment to work in,” Niebergall said when talking about the workers.

Home owners can benefit from the mild winter as well.

“Hopefully in some of these cases, it actually allows the homeowner to move in to their new home sooner than anticipated,” he said.

Home building happens all year round, stopping only during cold snaps.

“When we get down into those -25 C, -30 C temperatures, that would make it extremely difficult, for example, to dig the basement and put in the foundation,” Niebergall said.

“Having said that, when those things have been done before the real cold temperatures happen and the house gets to kind of a lock-up stage, then they are able to essentially continue to build the inside of the home throughout the year regardless of the temperatures.”

The warmer weather allows for things that normally get delayed until spring — like the home’s exterior — to continue into the winter months.