Benefits and Challenges of Building on Islands
Building a new home on an island can offer a rare sense of peace, privacy, and connection to the outdoors. Whether surrounded by freshwater or ocean, island living invites a quieter pace and a closer relationship with the landscape.
It also comes with real building challenges. Limited site access, difficult shipping logistics, exposure to weather, and local labor constraints can all make construction more complicated. Bensonwood’s offsite construction approach helps address those challenges by fabricating major home components in a controlled environment, then delivering them to the site for a more efficient assembly process.
For island projects and other difficult sites, this approach can reduce time on site, limit disruption, and help create a durable, comfortable, energy-efficient home built for long-term performance.
The Value of Bensonwood’s System
The main value of utilizing Bensonwood is the guaranteed labor for the largest part of the build process: the prefabrication and installation of the weather-tight high-performance shell. Labor can be scarce among limited island resources, often with increased competition among homebuilders to secure dates and guarantee the build timeline. Many islands, like Chebeague Island in Maine, have town offices that limit the release of building permits throughout the year to manage time and disturbance.
Benefits of Bensonwoods Panelized Approach to Homebuilding
- Simultaneous Site and Home Development – Prefabricated panels can be manufactured at the same time as the site and foundation work, greatly speeding up the process and minimizing prebuilt home construction time on site.
- Quick Onsite Raisings – The Bensonwood Building Systems Crew will also raise the structure within days, minimizing noise and disruption for neighbors. This way, our prebuilt homes are ready on a faster scale.
- Climate-Controlled Construction – Building a new home is also a significant investment that you will want to protect in the long run. Offsite construction frontloads the work in a climate-controlled factory, meaning materials are less exposed to elements, greatly reducing risks of mold and deterioration over time and protecting your investment.
- Ease of Shipping to Remote Areas – In terms of material handling when building in remote areas, materials often need to be shipped to the island due to limited access. Panels are preferable over modular units in this case as they are compact enough to be easily transported by ferries and barges. While some islands can accommodate big trucks by way of bridges, others may require the use of a barge or even helicopters for transport, in which panels are an excellent fit.
- Expedited Build Process – One main benefit of Bensonwood’s panelized components is that the materials are already fully insulated and complete before shipping, greatly expediting the build process and overall timeline.
Technical and Design Guidance
Building on an island involves numerous technical, design, and aesthetic considerations that Bensonwood can expertly guide you through. While our panels are robust enough to withstand coastal winds as is, island projects may require additional engineering to include fortified hardware or to accommodate a deep-energy retrofit.
Island foundations can also pose challenges, such as rocky terrain and high-water tables, typically making the slab-on-grade foundation the most economical option (although walkout or full basements are possible depending on the site).
The importance of resilient housing construction on exposed terrain cannot be overstated, as frequent storms and the effects of climate change can elicit unpredictable conditions.
Bensonwood’s panels, containing dense-pack cellulose insulation, triple-pane windows, and lasting airtightness, protect against overheating in the summer and freezing temperatures in the winter. This ensures the safety of families in extreme weather conditions. Bensonwood’s optimized home designs also offer a mix of modern and traditional aesthetics to choose from, ensuring a coherent look with the surrounding architecture. Designs like the Zum offer a modern take on view-capturing homes while blending seamlessly with more traditional New England cottages. Some of the smaller design platforms, like the Nano, offer flexibility for a variety of uses, including short-term rentals or year-round affordable workforce housing.
Affordable housing is a significant challenge for year-round island workers, and Bensonwood aims to address this by offering innovative and affordable home plans pre-designed for everyday life.
Where Efficiency Meets Experience
Bensonwood has completed home installations over the last 55 years on islands near Lake Winnipesaukee, the Great Lakes, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Block Island, just to name a few. Our portfolio includes a long history of deep energy retrofit projects for coasts and islands alike. Bensonwood Project Manager Derek Sherburne has managed many island projects throughout the years, explaining:
“There’s no getting around it – in one way or another, deliveries for island projects involve trucks AND boats. This makes efficiency imperative for keeping costs down. With panelized construction, materials such as framing, insulation, and windows are all consolidated into just a few truckloads of panels. This saves a client two very important things: time and money.” -Derek Sherburne, Project Manager
This kind of hands-on experience provides unparalleled value to future homeowners, especially those looking to build on islands.
Guaranteed labor, a resilient, lasting structure, and ease of transporting panelized components are some of the compounding benefits of working with Bensonwood that will help simplify the high-performance homebuilding journey. With our expertise in high-performance homes, you can confidently embark on your island construction project, knowing that every detail will be meticulously planned and executed for a lifetime of comfort and security.
