A U.S. homebuilder estimates that increasing the domestic content of new houses by just 5 percent would create 220,000 American jobs.
Anders Lewendal is putting his money where his mouth is, as he constructs a Bozeman, Mont., home entirely of U.S.-made products. And shattering the conventional wisdom that domestic goods cannot compete on cost, Lewendal, an economist-turned-builder, says the house's price tag is barely 1 percent higher.
Goodbye, Chinese drywall.
Lewendal's homemade "Build America" campaign caught the attention of ABC News, which reported that the Montana dwelling is constructed with 120 products produced in 33 states, including Florida.
The drive to increase domestic content in new home construction makes sense on several levels, industry observers say.
"Licensed professional builders that construct for quality, as opposed to quantity, are likely already using many of these domestically made products," says Edie Owsley, a former spokeswoman for the Florida Home Builders Association.
"I think you could certainly pivot from the 'Made in America' story as potentially being a way to put Floridas construction industry back to work," added Owsley, now with the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
The National Association of Home Builders is only slightly less bullish than Lewendal, estimating that a 5 percent increase in domestic content could directly create 175,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Ed Dion, president of Dion Builders in Tallahassee, said he tries to purchase materials that are locally made.
"It's not difficult to do. Plus, the warranties tend to be better, compared to throwaway products from overseas," he said.
Additionally, Dion noted that buying domestically is "more green. There's less shipping involved."
But there are limitations. Long, straight lumber needed for vertical construction is a rare U.S. commodity, but plentiful in Canada -- so Canadians dominate that niche, Dion said.
Similarly, homebuyers who demand Italian marble and other imports will always prevent builders from going 100 percent American.
Woody Knobel's Alumacart aluminum-fabricating company makes railing for high-end customized homes. Since Florida's housing market began tanking five years ago, the Jupiter-based firm has scrambled to add other boutique product lines, including trellises, wagons and carts.
Knobel said tight financing has slapped a double-whammy on small U.S. manufacturers.
"The biggest problem is not price of the worker, it's the working capital to be competitive with China. You can't be competitive with country that finances its business and helps them with working capital. It's not the same playing field," he says.
Knobel extends his ire to Wal-Mart, a prime purveyor and marketer of Chinese goods.
"Wal-Mart hurts the U.S. more than al-Qaida," he asserts. "The Chinese set the price. Our regulators need to go to the other countries and apply the same standards we have."
For his Montana home, Lewendal found that a box of U.S.-made nails cost $5 more than those made in China, and he paid $146 more for each bundle of steel. But he also discovered that the domestic nails were less prone to jamming nail guns.
Lewendal purchased American-made windows at the same price charged by foreign suppliers, and Lem Quist of Miami-based CGI Windows said U.S. manufacturers remain competitive in residential projects.
Using aluminum from Lakeland and glass from Ocala, CGI's 130 employees assemble impact-resistant windows, mainly for high-end homes.
"Because windows are heavy and expensive to ship, the product gets produced pretty close to installation," said Quist, the company's director of marketing.
"There are thousands and thousands of moving parts, and the ability to service is critical," he added.
Yet even with the transportation and warranty advantages, CGI sees more competition creeping in from China and Colombia, especially on larger-scale commercial projects.
A Florida plumbing supplier has used the courts and the Internet to protect and build its business.
Robert Easter, head of Coast Products, leveraged state enterprise funds to locate his company in Panama City Beach. One of four original U.S. plumbing suppliers, Coast has fallen into bankruptcy while the others moved to Mexico.
Determined to protect Coast's patents on toilet valves and flaps from infringement by cheap knockoffs, Easter said, "We've identified the culprits and will dry dock them through litigation for violating our trademarks."
Coast, meanwhile, is using the Internet to build a profitable retail supply chain, following in the footsteps of Zappos' success with shoes.
"Plumbers want to see this American thing work. Our average plumber purchase online is $270 a month," Easter reported. "We're creating shelf space on the Internet where there was no shelf space before -- and we do it with customer service."
As for the overseas competition, Easter said his 40 employees, earning an average of $17 an hour, can outperform cheaper rivals from Mexico, Taiwan and China making $2.50 a day or less.
"We don't care. We're really efficient, and we'll get more efficient. We'll out-produce them," said Easter, who expects his staff to grow to 150 to 200 workers within the next five years.
Easter believes that a four-fold increase in insurance costs for shipping, along with rising international transportation expenses, will steadily tip the scales back toward U.S. companies.
"The [old] economies of scale said it was OK to leave stuff on the shelves," he said of high-volume imports. "But banks are balking at that.
"Now we're beating Home Depot's prices."
In-O-Vate Technologies, a small but dominant company based in Jupiter, provided the laundry dryer box for Lewendal's Montana home.
A metal container that recesses into the wall, the dryer box saves space by compactly housing the dryer hose connection. Eliminating the old protruding metal elbows that are prone to damage during construction, the dryer box allows household dryers to sit closer to the wall.
"We call it the $20 no-brainer," In-O-Vate President Rick Harpenau said of his patented product.
Since the former general contractor started his company in 1996, In-O-Vate has sold nearly 3 million dryer boxes.
Already in more than 40 percent of new U.S. homes, In-O-Vate's dryer boxes are well-positioned to expand their presence when residential construction rebounds.
"Weve had lots of opportunity to go abroad with our manufacturing, but we continue to fight the urge.Our [three] employees have also been persistent in stomping any momentum to have our product made overseas," Harpenau said.
Harpenau acknowledges that the lure of labor savings abroad is "a difficult struggle," but he says that's outweighed by "the pride of being able to display the American flag on our package.
"And also the good feeling I get when I retire at night knowing how many American livelihoods I effectively support."
Reach Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
