Builder’s View Podcast

Jeff Zimmerman walks The Ranch on the Fôrt Hōmes factory floor in Grand Junction, Colorado — finished, and about a week from staging for transport.

The home is a four-module system: two lower boxes and two roof boxes, standing separately on the floor. It's 19 feet tall with 17-foot vaulted ceilings, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Siding and windows are in, tile is set, and everything is finished to texture and paint.

Jeff walks the primary suite with its tile, large closet and shelving, dual vanity and storage; the corridor and second bath; the laundry with a stackable washer and dryer; the entry and coat closet; and the kitchen opening into the living area with a sliding door, two windows, and a fireplace.

Three things that only make sense in a factory. The roof is covered in shipping panels that come off at location, which is why the vaulted ceiling isn't visible yet. Some interior walls are temporary — framed for the road, cut out on site, opening the kitchen and living room to the full 17 feet. And every remaining piece of material the crew needs in the field is found, stocked, and secured inside the module before it leaves the floor.

The underside tells the rest of the story: insulation, electrical, plumbing and mechanical all complete, so once the modules set on a foundation there's very little left to do. The metal roof gets finished in the field so it isn't damaged in transit, and a pre-built entry gets craned on and bolted into place.

Jeff's framing of the goal is worth repeating: this is modular, built on a foundation to IRC standards, and we never want our homes to look modular. The SIP panels and structural framing make them stronger than stick-built. Nothing about the finished house should announce how it got there.

Next: staging for transport, wrapping, the drive, and stitching the modules together with cranes.

Watch the full walkthrough: https://youtu.be/4HEDFqpa00A

Builder's View is a series from Fôrt Hōmes on how attainable housing actually gets built — the factory, the crew, and the decisions behind precision-built homes on Colorado's Western Slope.

Learn more: https://www.fortandhome.com/

Jeff Zimmerman walks The Ranch at the Fôrt Hōmes factory in Grand Junction, Colorado. Roof section framed, MEP complete and inspected, drywall hanging.

The roof sits separately on the factory floor. It gets set on top of the two lower boxes in the field, because the finished home won't clear the factory building. Four modules total, four trucks. Tyvek is on and the windows are being cut and installed.

Room by room from the far end: the primary suite with its own bath, blue board on the walls where the water is. Out into the corridor, past the second bath with a double vanity and the laundry room. Two bedrooms, closet in each. The entry with a coat closet. Then the kitchen and living room — large windows, a fireplace, and above it a 17-foot vaulted ceiling.

Some interior walls are sheathed in OSB instead of left open. Those are shear walls. They keep the module from racking on the highway and they stay in the finished home.

All the electrical home runs to a panel on the exterior wall. The floor is insulated from below. MEP is done and signed off. Once these modules set on a foundation there is very little left to finish in the field.

Two pieces of framing inside are temporary — a 2x4 wall and a set of LVLs holding the vaulted section together for the drive. They get cut out on site, and that's when the ceiling opens up.

The stitching is planned so the siding runs continuous across the joints. No visible seams.

A few more weeks before this one heads out the door.

Watch the full walkthrough: https://youtu.be/eoKxfag58ec

Learn more: fortandhome.com

Jeff Zimmerman walks the inside of a 1,400 square foot ranch on the Fôrt Hōmes factory floor in Grand Junction, Colorado — three bedrooms, two bathrooms, with plumbing going in this week.

Last episode was about the panels. This one is about the house.

The home is built as two modules, joined together on the floor so the interior reads as one continuous house. The roof section is not installed here: the finished home will not clear the factory building, so it goes on in the field. Each module ships on its own truck, and the complete home is four modules.

Jeff walks the plan room by room — the living room and fireplace, the kitchen with a bar and a large door out the back, the entry and coat closet, the laundry, both bathrooms, and the primary suite with its own door out. Two more bedrooms on the far section, each with a closet.

The plumbing is worked from the top, and the module is lifted so crews can run piping from underneath rather than from a trench. Once the plumbing is finished, the floor is insulated from below.

The electrical chases are already framed at switch height and plug height. Next episode covers electrical and HVAC, then the walls close for drywall.

In this episode:

Builder's View is a look at how homes actually get built, from the people building them. New episodes from the Fôrt Hōmes factory in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Watch the full walkthrough: https://youtu.be/Wrq3CDR5SpI

fortandhome.com

Jeff Zimmerman walks the Fôrt Hōmes factory floor in Grand Junction and gets into what a structural insulated panel actually is — a foam core bonded between two sheets of OSB, framed with LVL, assembled indoors into a home that stands 19 feet tall with 17-foot vaulted ceilings inside.

The panels go up faster than stick framing and there is almost nothing for heat to escape through: no repeating studs, no thermal bridge every sixteen inches. The result is an envelope so tight the house cannot breathe on its own, which is why a mechanical makeup-air system is not an upgrade on these builds. It is a requirement.

This one is about the tradeoff. Better envelope, fewer callbacks, tighter tolerances — and a mechanical system you now have to design around.

In this episode:

Builder's View is a look at how homes actually get built, from the people building them. New episodes from the Fôrt Hōmes factory in Grand Junction, Colorado.

fortandhome.com

Most builders don't own their construction process. They coordinate it. There's a difference.

In this episode, Jeff Zimmerman and Fort Homes construction manager Greg Genho walk through the production facility in Grand Junction, Colorado while three homes are actively being built.

The walkthrough covers the full build process from the ground up. SIP panel assembly, foam-core splines, engineered fasteners, bridge crane roof installation, and what a completed unit looks like when it rolls off the floor ready to deliver.

No renderings. No concepts. A live production floor and the people building on it every day.

If you've spent any time in construction or development, some of what you see here will change how you think about what factory-built actually means.

Fort + Home builds workforce housing in Western Colorado. The factory is how we control the process, the quality, and the outcome.

New episodes every week on Builder's View.

Follow along at www.fortandhome.com

Most people hear "factory-built home" and picture a trailer park. Jeff Zimmerman walks through the Fort Homes production facility in Grand Junction, Colorado to show what it actually means to build this way.

In this episode:

— QC inspection sheets on every home, tracking every stage of production

— LVL floor systems engineered to shop drawings, with state inspection at every nail

— The Colorado Cottage — 2 bed 1 bath attainable home built from the inside out

— Backing pre-installed behind walls for every fixture location

— Elevated floor system for full MEP and insulation access

— Shop drawings vs. field blueprints — why the difference matters

— Labeled pre-built interior panels for precision installation

— LightRock sheetrock — walls fully finished before the home ships

— 12/12 pitch LVL roof framing that looks nothing like a mobile home

— The two-piece volumetric system: floor box + roof assembly, stitched on-site

— Pre-cut bulk materials and the waste reduction math

Jeff Zimmerman is the Founder and CEO of Fort + Home Companies, a vertically integrated housing platform headquartered in Grand Junction, Colorado. Fort + Home is building toward helping provide one million homes.

Learn more: fortandhome.com

Most investors have heard the term “accredited investor.”

In this week’s Builder’s View episode, I break down — in clear, simple terms — what it means to be accredited, why the rules exist, and how these structures shape access to private real estate investments.

This is a purely educational explainer — no pitch, no offering terms, and no projected returns. Just clarity and fundamentals.

► Explore educational resources → https://www.fortandhome.com/blog

► Watch more Builder’s View episodes → https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBlRacSbNBuPE5U4vnwyPP5P6oMq8WTYt&si=TjnqHD_NGTwEIPKv

► Subscribe for weekly real estate insights

#BuildersView #FortAndHome #AccreditedInvestor #InvestorEducation

Most investors understand the idea of a mortgage or a loan. Fewer have a clear, simple picture of how private real estate equity works — and how owners actually build wealth over time.

In this episode of Builder’s View, Jeff Zimmerman, CEO of Fort + Home, explains:

This audio is strictly educational and does not describe any specific offerings or projected returns.

► Read the Blog to Learn More →

https://www.fortandhome.com/blog/what-is-private-real-estate-equity-a-simple-guide-for-investors

► Watch more Builder’s View episodes → https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBlRacSbNBuPE5U4vnwyPP5P6oMq8WTYt&si=C0k5ruT2C_UjBSXa

► Subscribe for weekly real estate insights

#BuildersView #PrivateEquity #RealEstateInvesting #CapitalStack #CashFlow #WealthBuilding #FortAndHome #AttainableHousing #RealEstateEducation #GPEquity #LPEquity

Private real estate debt is often the “missing middle” between bank loans and equity — but few investors understand how it works.

This audio version is strictly educational and does not describe any specific offerings.

Read to learn more:

https://www.fortandhome.com/blog/what-is-private-real-estate-debt-a-simple-guide-for-investors

Watch full video:

https://youtu.be/jWrP_wlFyr4

Listen, subscribe, and share with anyone learning real estate finance or exploring fixed-income alternatives.

#BuildersView #PrivateDebt #RealEstateInvesting #CollateralBacked #CapitalStack #IncomeInvesting #FortAndHome #AttainableHousing #RealEstateEducation

Every great company starts with a story.

Watch full episode:

https://youtu.be/qI7zoTteFJY

Read to learn more: 

https://www.fortandhome.com/blog/who-we-are-inside-fort-home

Listen, subscribe, and share with anyone building the future of housing.

#BuildersView #FortAndHome #FortHomes #VerticalIntegration #AttainableHousing #FactoryBuilt #OffsiteConstruction #RealEstateDevelopment #PrecisionBuilt #HousingInnovation #RockyMountainHousing