A number of innovative companies have emerged over the past 15 years, each promising to revolutionize housing.
Many haven’t, don’t, and won’t make it to the “early stage” of raising A, B, and C series capital, where they can pay off their debt, pay off their debt and get a full return on their performance.
Genetic brain trust for strategies and performance in FrameTec believes this business can do what others have struggled to do – effectively measure performance while providing a sustainable alternative to builders that reduces cycle times and increases employee efficiency. Founded in 2022 and coming online in mid-2025, FrameTec now produces pre-cut frame systems at its robotics factory in Arizona, with plans to expand to Texas and other new home construction hot spots, pending new investment.
During a session last week at SHIFT, an Orlando-based gathering of placemaking and practice leaders hosted by Tavistock Development CompanyFrameTec COO Josh Lewis discussed how the company operates, what they believe it can do for homebuilders and how they hope to address the shortage of skilled workers in residential construction.
How FrameTec works
The FrameTec process begins with reviewing and refining the architect’s project plans and ensuring that site conditions match the building specification. Once FrameTec’s system completes and validates the data, its 120,000-square-foot automated plant in Camp Verde, Arizona, uses that information to cut and assemble wall panels and framing components.
The factory produces wall panels, roof panels and floor panels with pre-marked studs, nail patterns, and structural details.
The Camp Verde facility can produce about 3,500 homes each year and was involved in about 850,000 to a million homes in Arizona last year, Lewis said.
FrameTec has partnered with a Swedish manufacturer Randekwhich develops and manufactures prefabricated housing systems and equipment, in its Arizona location.
The system uses automated robots to cut, frame, sheath, glue, route, insulate, and stack building components with fewer workers. Robots follow specific specifications to handle most of the process, but on-site workers monitor the robotic equipment and perform some tasks that are not currently possible.
The factory minimizes waste by automating the cutting process and recovering the remaining pieces of wood using finger jointed methods. FrameTec, using its factory-controlled, pre-cut framing systems, claims to reduce wood waste to “near-zero”.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the construction of a typical single-family home generates about 8,000 pounds of waste, with wood making up about 20 to 30% of that waste.
“Any feature that we remove is cut off, and the remaining pieces go into the finger jointing process… so instead of throwing things away, we use those pieces to create sustainable lumber,” Lewis said during the meeting.
A possible solution to the construction worker shortage?
For builders, FrameTec’s ability to improve cycle times is really attractive. Using their automated factory, the company can typically deliver pre-cut frames to the construction site within 10 to 14 business days.
Once the frames are in place, FrameTec says it can speed up certain parts of the construction process by a few days. This is because wall panels and framing materials come with pre-marked studs, nail patterns, and structural details.
“We can put up walls, line up and put a roof on a 3,500-square-foot house in one day. For most guys, that’s a week. We do it in a day,” said Lewis, who has spent nearly 17 years working with early stage builders.Builders FirstSource BMC and, most recently, about five years Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Company.
FrameTec has documented cases where electricians alone have been able to enter a home, meaning they have installed outlet boxes, junction boxes, and electrical conduits in walls and ceiling connections prior to drywall installation, in as little as two hours. In comparison, it usually takes about 10 hours for two electricians to complete the process without using FrameTec components.
“Every instrument that goes through our factory is pre-formed. There’s a mark on the height of the switch and a marking on every reader. That’s how those electricians get those five or six degrees of productivity… They don’t have to pull their tape, and they don’t have to take a hole out of the truck to drill a simple hole,” Lewis explains.
Lewis sees the FrameTec model as a solution to the shortage of skilled workers in residential construction. In accordance with Home Builders InstituteAccording to the Construction Labor Market Report 2025, the residential construction sector should hire approximately 723,000 construction workers each year to close the current gap.
The FrameTec model can help solve this deficiency by performing specific construction tasks. It can also streamline the process locally, allowing workers to build quickly with minimal training.
Lewis said introducing advanced technology could also encourage more young people to pursue trades.
“That’s one of the things that helps to put technology in this program. It makes young people happy with manual work. This is good. It’s bright,” he said.
Resistance to frame
FrameTec partners with home builders in Arizona, including Houses in Mandalaybuilding anything from single-lot projects to large-scale subdivisions.
Building on its early success, FrameTec is currently building a second, larger factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, to strengthen its operations. The 254,000-square-foot Casa Grande plant will have a capacity of about 7,000 homes per year, increasing FrameTec’s annual output capacity to nearly 10,000 housing units.
Lewis cites this growth and a successful first year of operations as evidence of momentum. However, he told Builder’s Day that his team still needs to make some effort to convince the skeptical builders that the concept is sustainable.
“I’m promising a lot, and they’re worried about disrupting their current supply chain because it’s so fragile. So, if they’re going to get on board with FrameTech, they’re going to burn a bridge with their existing lumberyard and their smart contractor, because our process requires a complete overhaul of those processes,” Lewis said.
He pointed to the massive failure of the multibillion-dollar off-site construction industry as another obstacle. Katerraa company that has raised more than $2 billion, built factories and said it reduced construction times, filed for bankruptcy in 2021.
Currently, FrameTec is testing its concept in the Southwest. In the future, the FrameTec team intends to expand to other fast-growing states of the Sun Belt such as Texas, Tennessee, and the Carolinas.
