Boldt Construction has launched Bildt, a modular and prefabrication manufacturer.
Bildt manufactures modular buildings and slide-in room and bathroom pods for a variety of markets including health care, industrial, education and commercial. While fabrication takes place in the company’s off-site facility in Oshkosh, the site team coordinates construction activities in the field with the project’s general contractor or construction manager, or with Bildt’s field execution teams. Concurrently executing on-site construction tasks and module fabrication completes projects faster than using traditional methods.
Bildt was created in response to interest from facility owners, general contractors and architects to reduce project costs and increase speed to market. Melanie Taylor and Ben Bruns lead the new organization. As vice president of manufacturing, Taylor focuses on fabrication and manufacturing; as vice president of modular, Bruns leads sales and marketing efforts.
“As a general contractor, we recognized the need for our line of innovative, customizable permanent modular and prefabricated products that can cut construction times in half, allowing building owners to occupy and generate revenue months sooner than anticipated,” said Bruns. “Working with Bildt brings speed, standardization with customization, quality and in some cases more than a 30% reduction in first cost over site-built construction.”
In addition to permanent modular units, Bildt manufactures prefabricated panels and components, including headwalls, exterior wall panels and systems, steel wall studs, and interior framing assemblies tailored to project specifications.
Bruns said Bildt works not just with and for Boldt, but also wants to supply and work with other general contractors across the United States.
Bildt employs design for manufacturing and assembly, integrating manufacturing and prefabrication techniques and fostering collaboration among teams, including trades modeling their work. This eliminates requests for information, change orders and value-engineering exercises, according to Bruns who said, “The conversations are different for these projects. It forces collaboration up front.”
Boldt’s prefabrication and modular construction business has grown since its first modular project in the 1980s and accelerated significantly during the pandemic when hospitals needed to add space quickly, efficiently and uniformly. Boldt has performed work from coast to coast in the U.S., including both freestanding and modular additions to existing hospital campuses. Bildt intends to leverage that experience to serve other markets, according to Bruns.
Bildt’s prefabrication and modular construction business takes advantage of the skilled trades and crafts workers pool in Northeast Wisconsin while helping build that pool. Bildt currently employs 30, but scales to meet project needs. Bruns said it is easier to attract and train people at their facility because they have consistent work hours and conditions. Because much of the work is done prior to delivering the modules to a site, it can reduce labor shortages that might slow projects in both large metro areas and remote areas.
While logistics is one of the challenges, Bruns said Boldt is finding that modular and prefabrication is more efficient.
“This is about reducing waste across the board,” Bruns said. “This is the wave of the future.”
