The Colorado Sun originally published this story at 4:32 AM on July 13, 2024.
When it comes to attempting to solve Colorado’s housing crisis, any success story seems worth noting.
So, it was fun to learn about a company that has overcome challenges to start getting work done.
Ethan Deffenbaugh and Nick Lemmer own Higher Purpose Homes, a startup construction company that builds houses modeled on a computer and pre-fabricated in a warehouse on the outskirts of Durango.
The idea is to get homes built more quickly, to get more in the market, and to increase affordability.
In February, they believed they were on the verge of winning an $8 million grant from the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade to go toward buying land, building a warehouse, and starting to chip away at the housing crisis by constructing high-quality homes faster and more efficiently.
Their plan was innovative. Homes could be designed and built with data sent to a machine Lemmer created called a cut station, which pushes lumber into the correct position to create walls, floors, and roofs. Workers would then assemble the pieces using a jig designed by Lemmer. The homes could be outfitted with the customer’s chosen finishes and wrapped for transport — all in six to eight weeks.
But they ended up not getting the grant and their future was uncertain. Only for a few days, though.
A couple in Durango heard about them after a story appeared in The Colorado Sun and hired them to build a 2,000-square-foot ranch house with three bedrooms and two baths to place on their property with views of the La Plata Mountains.
The couple hired Durango architect Dean Brookie to design the home. The Higher Purpose got to work framing the shell, using materials costing around $21 per square foot and labor costing around $16.50 per square foot.
Lemmer says the house is rectangular, with giant windows framing soaring views. “It’s got some pretty big decks on there and some beautiful covered porch areas,” he adds, and the customers seem more than satisfied. They prefer not to be named but in an interview said Lemmer and Deffenbauh’s “work ethic, punctuality, creativity, problem-solving and flexibility provided a quality product in an amazingly short period of time.”
Outside of excavating the site and building a foundation—jobs done by Lazy K Dirt Work Company and Rosso Concrete Company, respectively — that time period was about a month from start to finish. Lemmer says they built the walls over two weeks in the factory and constructed the roof and floors over one week at the site. “It took a couple of days for the crane to come in and lift the roof off of the floor, put the walls up, and put the roof back,” he added, “and we had a crew of three: me, Deffenbaugh and our building expert, who’s been a framer for over 15 years now. And then the customer was out there helping because he was really excited to see it happen.”
For future projects, they’re currently in talks to prefab a house for a customer in Pueblo. Then, they’d like to expand by working with builders and developers who have their own framing crews.
“One of the biggest things right now is finding labor, and so by doing a lot of the labor in a factory setting, we can kind of alleviate the need for the on-site labor,” Lemmer says. “But let’s say a developer has enough labor to frame out a couple of houses in a year. By using our method, they should be able to greatly expand that.”
“The concept we’re doing here is we are providing a product that is the same as what everybody’s used to, but eliminating the need for the skilled labor on-site and greatly reducing the time that it takes to get a house framed in,” he adds. “So for developers and builders out there who are struggling to find framing crews and get jobs done, we can provide a majority of the heavy lifting so that framing crews can do more for them, and they can rely less on skilled labor to make all of that happen.”
That could help Colorado’s lagging construction market, which some say is slowing in part because there are too few workers.
This week’s report comes from Colorado Sun rural reporter Tracy Ross. If you enjoy her monthly updates on the more rural parts of the state, let her know at tracy@coloradosun.com
