Brickless is supporting the American construction industry with its innovative, high tech building method and competitive pricing. The Real Deal sat down with Brickless CEO Nelson Delgado and his son and VP of Operations Marcelo Delgado to talk about how the firm is lowering construction time and cost around South Florida with their Brickless Technology Monolithic Concrete building system. Their latest project in Fort Myers, where many homes were destroyed by Hurricane Ian in September, leverages the speed, efficiency, and resiliency of their Brickless Technology to deliver 100% concrete homes in 3 months, and at a competitive price, with 2-bedroom residences on 7000sqft lots at $198.000. And for investors, the Brickless Fort Myers project presents a unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a fast-paced, high-ROI prospect thanks to the firm’s financing model.
Proven Technology Comes to the States
Using poured concrete in buildings is nothing new, but Brickless has taken that existing technology and refined it for use in monolithic home construction for the first time. “We started using this system 16 years ago,” says Nelson. “Over the years we built around 12.000 units in Spain, Brazil and Argentina before bringing it to the States.” Brickless’s expansion to Florida marked the first time that this type of monolithic concrete home construction was used in the U.S., and the firm has built nearly 1,000 units in Miami and Florida City since putting up their first stateside building in 2017 in Miami Dade County.
What makes Brickless Technology different? The system itself is simple enough: crews assemble aluminum formworks that create the desired shape of the building and then install the electrical and plumbing infrastructure before concrete is poured into the shells. Once the concrete sets, the forms are removed, leaving behind a monolithic structure with exterior and interior walls, as well as a joined roof for select designs.
“The technology allows us to produce better quality houses in less time for less money,” says Nelson.
By foregoing the traditional wood framing and concrete block technique that has been the industry standard for half a century, Brickless is able to cut construction time by 76% and cost by 30% and build in less than 1 month what other companies build in 4 months. In fact, producing the shell of a house only takes two days, one to assemble the formwork and the second to pour the concrete. Importantly, the resulting buildings are also far more structurally sound than those built with wood frames, a quality that is increasingly important in South Florida, where hurricanes are common.
Stronger Buildings at Better Prices, Faster
The Brickless homes on offer in the Lehigh area are designed to fill a variety of housing needs,, a 2-bedroom Brickless house starts at $198,000, with designs up to 5-bedrooms. The Fort Myers homes are a short turnaround, high ROI prospect thanks to the Brickless investment model. Investors put up 75% of the cost of construction while the firm covers the other 25%; when the house sells, the investor and the firm split the profits. Even in these times where the prices of properties and interest rates are going up, homes built by Brickless are a big attractive for investors since there isn’t a product on the market with such quality and pricing.
These Brickless houses combine the structural fortitude of a bunker with the modern aesthetics one would expect of a high-end new construction home thanks to the flexibility of design that comes with Brickless Technology. This expertise extends beyond construction to the design of the homes themselves, which are optimized by the firm’s team of architects and engineers to provide modern, functional designs that make the most of every square foot. “A normal 1,700-foot home has 3 bedrooms,” says Nelson. “We put 5 bedrooms and 3 baths in that same space thanks to the efficiency of our concrete construction.” The firm’s 2-bedroom offerings in Fort Myers fit in 720 square feet.
Bringing Construction Tech into the 21st Century
Like all great technology, the Brickless system is constantly being improved. “Our tech is currently on Version 4,” says Marcelo. “We debuted Version 1 fifteen years ago and we’ve been iterating since then.” The Version 4 construction process is streamlined from beginning to end, with projects progressing from a bare foundation to a complete house in a mere 30 days. Brickless is able to utilize this system at a variety of scales, from small 2-bedroom houses with integrated concrete roofs to two-story houses, three-story townhouses with traditional roofs, and taller multi-family developments, all built in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional structures.
And Version 4 is just a stopover for the firm, which is already in the process of building out the infrastructure necessary to institute Brickless Version 5. The next step will involve using robotics to assemble entire rooms like kitchens ahead of time at a factory outside Miami, further reducing construction time at each building site. “Version 5 will give customers the ability to customize their homes on the computer or an app, to choose colors for their kitchens and baths, all of which will be pre-built at our new factory,” says Nelson. These room shells will then be dropped into the concrete shells on-site, creating fully-functioning homes in a matter of days rather than months.
The firm is in the process of securing space for its factory and expects to have Brickless Version 5 up and running by Q4 of 2023 preparing a production capacity of 2000 homes per year, at which point they will raise funds via Regulation A and Regulation D offerings.
“Our product is already proven on the market,” says Marcelo. “The next step is opening up the company to those who want to join forces with us and partner up for future projects.”
In fact, Brickless already has its sights set on Port St. Lucie, where they will build out a 700-acre development complete with Metaverse-enabled virtual tours for prospective residents.
In an industry where integrating something as simple as a more resilient roofing tile can take years, the rapid adoption of Brickless Technology by industry-leading builders like Lennar is proof that Brickless is pushing construction technology into the 21st Century. While Fort Myers is just the latest area to benefit from Brickless’s aggressive expansion, expect to see this style of monolithic concrete construction in a neighborhood near you very soon, complete with the attendant cost and time savings. And keep an eye on The Real Deal for more details about Brickless Version 5 and the forthcoming Port St. Lucie development as the firm works to make their product even better and more widely-adopted in the coming year.