Modular vs Traditional

One of most utilised rooms in any property, the bathroom often entails the highest number of defects and maintenance demands. Traditional bathroom builds necessitate the use of multiple trades, operating under time constraints in cramped conditions and requiring a high degree of supervision to ensure correct sequencing and quality of work.

Modular bathrooms or bathroom pods eliminate most of these issues. Particularly valuable in projects featuring a high degree of standardisation such as commercial applications, bathroom pods are built in a factory before being tested and fitted with fixtures and fittings and appliances. They are then delivered to site for installation, where they're connected to plumbing and electrical services. 

Many general contractors estimate the cost of managing the defects list at hundreds of dollars per bathroom on a traditional build. By contrast, utilising advanced production technology, bathroom pods promise an outcome that eliminates the 'pain points' of conventional construction.

Advantages of Bathroom pods

• Efficiencies: Production-line construction results in vastly reduced man hours. Installation time is significantly reduced, enabling speedier occupancy and benefiting the client. By removing bathrooms from the critical path, overall time required for a large construction project can be cut by up to 30%. The result is reduced construction loan interest, along with greater profit through an earlier opening.

• Centralised purchasing: Purchasing for the lead contractor is simplified. Securing a number of trades and materials from one source reduces procurement resource time, resulting in cost savings.

• Quality & consistency: Minimisation of defects is achieved through front-end design, configuration and quality control. Standardisation of factory production line methodologies means consistent repetition of quality, particularly useful in major developments, where high volumes offer resource optimisation and economies of scale. In traditional builds the defect list often entails poor tile work, chipped tubs or basins, poor blocking, and more, all of which can be "designed out" of the production line.

• Waste reduction: Factory builds enable the elimination or reduction of site rubbish and waste, electricity, material handling equipment, and other resources that must be used to support the site. Using bathroom pods also minimises preopening cleaning. Factory waste material is typically less than 1.5% compared with 7%+ on a traditional construction site and recycling of waste is more reliably controlled in a factory environment than it is on site.

• Safe, efficient sites: The onsite installation work required for pre-built pods is safer, quieter and cleaner than building bathrooms 'in situ'. Industry stats estimate up to 90% fewer vehicle movements on site from using bathroom pods, reducing disruption to the site itself and the surrounding area.

Offering reduced costs, shorter project time scales, marked gains in quality outcomes and health and safety benefits, bathroom pods perfectly encapsulate some of modular construction's most compelling advantages.

Cross-Section of a Bathroom Pod

Modular Construction: The Three-Step Process

• Design & Production: Bathroom pods are custom designed according to the individual characteristics of each guestroom or room unit. Large repeatable components located in a stacked configuration increase the efficiency of installation and connection to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems.

• Delivery & Installation: Assembled pods arrive at the job sites via truck and are raised to their floor, moved into final position, and lowered into place without interference.

• Final Set & Connection: The finishing stage of the prefabricated shell begins with the installation of plumbing and electrical systems and concludes with testing, cleaning, and quality control.

Interested or have questions? Feel free to reach us!

Tel: 010-88082306; 010-88082322
E-mail: aliciachn@outlook.com; wudi@cbme.cn