Beaver Homes & Cottages is expanding its custom RTMs at a new production facility behind Store Right south of 12 Street. Richard Mack, left, owner of Mack Construction, is working in conjunction with Home Hardware Building Centre owner, David Rurka, on the project. The site has room for more than 34 RTMs. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Home Hardware Building Centre is cranking up activity at its new Beaver Homes & Cottages production facility for custom-built RTMs.
Construction is proceeding on half a dozen new homes on their 5-acre site in the Foote Industrial Area south of 12 Street, with space to build more than 34 models at any given time.
“The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Customers are overjoyed they can get everything done with one company,” said Home Hardware owner David Rurka during a site tour on Monday.
“We have clients from all over the place. We have clients that will buy an RTM for in the city; we’ve had them for acreages and there’s a very strong demand for lake property.”
Rurka says they also have clients who need to build a house where they are already living and need a move-in ready home with the demolition done and a restructured foundation in place.
He says the initial business decision to expand flowed from the stories of customers that would buy material packages and blueprints, but always struggled with locating a builder and trades.
“We wanted to enable the customer to have a stress-free experience with their project so we moved forward with the solution to build, customize and deliver a fully-finished home or cottage,” he explained.
Rurka says they can offer more than 75 floor plans with more being created with every project.
“We like to work with customers to fully build and customize floor plans that they have as well,” he added.
Construction began at the site in December in partnership with Mack Construction in Lloydminster, which has been an approved Beaver Homes builder since the get-go.
Richard Mack, who heads the business, says his role with Beaver Homes is overseeing all trades, trade operations, construction cycles, shipping and delivering and managing the yard.
“We are trenching in power on the side of our yard right now,” said Mack, who notes three finished spec homes fronting the site are also for sale.
Rurka says they plan to install an array of solar panels on the north side of the property behind Store Right to offset their electrical usage for year-round construction.
Beaver Homes can also ship RTMs in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba efficiently to expand beyond their Lloydminster regional market.
“We’ve been able to work with some really unique customers that we otherwise normally wouldn’t have been able to work with,” said Rurka.
He says they can also provide a turnkey package, including the foundation and services within a limited geographical range from their location.
Some of the common benefits of building an RTM in a controlled environment include reduced material delivery delays and travel time costs for tradespeople and no weather-related delays.
“We are able to construct RTMs within a six-month build cycle and we build year-round,” said Rurka.
He says building on-site also means they don’t have to wait for county permits or wait on a lot of things that hold a project up on the starting phase.
“We are able to construct the RTM at the same time as the foundation is being constructed. The total time for a build is significantly reduced,” said Rurka.
He says when it comes to competitors in Lloyd, Rurka is confident no other company builds RTMs like they do or has the floor plan designs as they do.
“What sets us apart is our process in place and our ability to work with our customers and customize the build for them that they want to see at the end of the day,” he said.
There are usually two show home models at Home Hardware for customers to tour and view the different floor plans, products and upgrades available.
“Some of the standards we build into our models make us different from our competition, too,” said Rurka.
The expansion of Beaver Homes in conjunction with Mack is also generating new employment in Lloydminster.
“We’ve hired some staff and we have several positions that are currently open that we are looking for,” said Rurka.
He says all of the trades and builders they work with have had to hire additional support staff and equipment to help with the increase in projects.
“There’s a lot of new job creation in the area and we’re excited to be working with them and hiring more people and working with the community as well,” said Rurka.
