As a green contractor in Brooklyn, NY. I can post an add on Craigslist.org and get a hundred responses in an hour of highly qualified people asking very little for their work. Such is the nature of the economy, a highly skilled region and immediate technology.
But here is the kicker: I get people asking to work for free on my jobs because they love green building. There is a hunger for it. It allows them to fulfill something normal building does not. It is principle driven instead of money driven.
Anyway, all this lends itself to the availability of a lot of highly skilled cheap workers. So for me it makes a lot of sense to get old school and return to a more old fashioned way of building. This is where you use more basic materials that are cheaper instead of paying for the convenience of pre assembled materials.
It has nothing to do with loss of speed since you simply put more workers on the job. You can afford to do this because you aren’t spending extra money for the more convenient products. Instead of buying pre cut stair stringers you buy the wood and cut it yourself. Instead of buying pre made counters you buy the glass and concrete and mold them yourself.
The workers are no longer robots tightening the pre made widgets into place. They are artisans who get a lot more satisfaction from their creations.