You’re not just buying material. You’re investing in your own future. Engineered, coordinated, manufactured, and delivered ready to build. Every trade accounted for. Every conflict resolved. Just build.
Lumber is what you buy at the yard. Standard steel studs are what you order from a supplier. Either way, your crew measures it, cuts it, drills it, and figures it out on site. That’s the old way. It works until you look at what it actually costs you — in time, in waste, in callbacks, in margin.
SmartBuild. You send us your plans. We engineer the entire project We engineer the entire home —mdash; framing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, drywall, finishes — as one coordinated build. We resolve the conflicts. We manufacture every piece to 0.1mm. We label it, sequence it, and ship it to your site ready to assemble. Your crew builds. Your trades install. Done.
This is where construction is going. The builders who invest in this now are building faster, building more, and building better than their competition. You either see it or you don’t.
We are that seasoned professional. Hips, valleys, corners, transitions, compound angles — decades of field knowledge. It’s not in one person’s head anymore. It’s built into SmartBuild. It’s what we do.
No-shows. Bad cuts. People not paying attention. Miscut a header, waste it, and cut another one. Material runs that should have been on the original order costing hours of labor. Plans don’t match the foundation, nobody catches it until the walls are up. We’ve lived every one of these problems. We built SmartBuild.
So we built SmartBuild to take the human error out of it. You can’t miscut what’s already cut. You can’t lose what’s already labeled. You can’t screw up the layout when it’s built into the sticker. We didn’t build this because we’re a tech company. We built it because we’re builders who decided to stop accepting the way things have always been done.
You buy lumber. Your crew measures, cuts, and builds on site. Every trade drills and notches. It works. But every cut, every layout, every coordination issue is on your crew to figure out.
You get the benefits of steel — fireproof, straight, pest proof. But you’re still cutting on site. Still drilling every stud. Slower than wood to cut, harder for your trades to drill. Same process, tougher execution.
All the benefits of steel. None of the field work. Engineered, coordinated, CNC-cut, labeled, trade-ready. Not just a better product — an entirely different way to build.
Wood and standard steel are what you build with. SmartBuild does the work for you. That’s the difference.
There’s a reason commercial builders, drywallers, and high-rise contractors frame with steel — it’s straight every single time. No warping. No twisting. No shrinking. No callbacks. ESS SmartBuild brings that same precision to every project brings that same precision to residential constructionmdash; residential, commercial, industrial, multi-family.
In traditional framing, if you’re within a quarter inch, you’re “close enough.” ESS SmartBuild CNC systems cut to a tenth of a millimeter — that’s 63 times more accurate than traditional tolerances.
Both options eliminate measuring, cutting, and waste. Both are pre-engineered for your MEPs. The difference is how much assembly happens at our factory vs. on your site.
Resort & mountain towns where framing labor runs $20–$30+/SF. High labor cost areas and low labor availability markets where finding skilled framers is the bottleneck.
This one-time fee covers the complete design and engineering of your plan before a single piece ships:
What this means: The engineer specs the header sizes and load paths — that’s standard. But the field knowledge? How a hip rafter meets at a compound angle, how two roof planes transition at a valley, how walls meet at corners, the filler pieces that make everything fit — that’s the stuff that takes a seasoned framer 10 or 20 years to learn. We are that seasoned professional. We figure all of it out in engineering and deliver it to your crew ready to assemble.
One-time fee per plan. Build that same plan 10, 50, 100 times — no additional design charges.
Every SmartBuild kit arrives with a sticker on the first piece that says “Start Here.” Your bottom plate, your first stud — it’s marked. From there, every piece is labeled and sequenced left to right, bottom to top. There is zero guesswork. You don’t need to read plans. You don’t need to figure out which stud goes where. It’s already on the label.
Lay out your bottom track. The first piece is labeled. Every stud position is marked on the track — dimples and swedges align everything automatically.
Each stud is labeled with its wall ID and position number. Stud W1-01, W1-02, W1-03. Headers are labeled. Cripples are labeled. Blocking is labeled — drywall backing, attic access framing, crawl space access framing. Every piece knows where it goes.
Studs snap into the track at the marked positions. Screw them in. Top track goes on. Wall is done. Stand it up. Connect to the next wall. Repeat.
You know what happens on a traditional job when the drywall crew shows up and there’s no backing where they need it? They stop. They call the framer back. The framer has to come open the wall, add blocking, and close it back up. That’s a callback nobody budgeted for. With SmartBuild, every piece of blocking is engineered in and shipped with the kit.
This is why you don’t need a journeyman framer. SmartBuild takes all the field knowledge that a seasoned professional carries upstairs — how walls meet at corners, how hips and valleys intersect at compound angles, how studs step at different heights, where the filler pieces go, how everything actually fits together — and builds it into the kit. Builders using wood or standard steel have to figure all of that out on site. That takes years of experience. We are that seasoned professional. We give your crew everything they need so they can just put it together. A screw gun and the ability to read a sticker — that’s the skill level. That’s what makes it possible to double your crew productivity or split one crew into two.
If there are 100 walls in the project, there are 100 labeled bundles. Each bundle has a sticker: Wall 1, Wall 2, Wall 3 — all the way through. Inside each bundle, every stud is labeled with its position: W1-01, W1-02, W1-03. Your crew opens Wall 1, finds the “Start Here” sticker, lays the track, snaps in studs left to right, screws them, stands the wall. Opens Wall 2. Repeat. No plans to interpret. No figuring out which wall goes where. The stickers tell them everything.
Every panel arrives pre-built from our factory with a sticker that says exactly where it connects: Wall 1 → Wall 2. Wall 2 → Wall 3. Your crew stands up Wall 1, looks at the sticker, grabs Wall 2, connects them. The panels are indexed so they lock into each other at the right position. One wall connects to the next. The stickers tell them exactly what connects to what. Done.
It’s not complicated. Read the stickers. Use a screw gun. Follow the sequence. But if your crew hasn’t done it before, we’ll come down there and show you. You pay us like a crew member and we’ll walk your crew through it — first house, first wall, until they’ve got it. After that, they won’t need us. The only way it gets messed up is if someone doesn’t follow the labels — and that’s still a hundred times easier than what they’re doing right now.
Think about your typical 4-man framing crew. Two people are measuring and cutting. Two people are assembling. The cutters are feeding the builders — and the builders are waiting on the cutters. With SmartBuild, there’s nothing to cut. Those two cutters just became two more assemblers.
Keep the same 4-man crew. All 4 are now assembling instead of 2. You’ve just doubled your productive framing output on the same payroll. A 10-day kit job becomes a 5-day job. No skill upgrade needed — if they can use a screw gun, they can assemble SmartBuild.
Take those same 4 crew members and split them into two 2-man crews. Each crew can frame a SmartBuild house independently — no skilled cut man or foreman needed. You’re now framing two houses simultaneously with the same people you had on one.
Half of every trade’s time on a traditional job is layout, measuring, and prep — not installing. SmartBuild handles the prep in engineering. Plumber, electrician, HVAC, drywall, trim — every trade walks into a wall that’s ready for their work. In the right sequence. Coordinated against every other trade.
Layout, measuring, drilling or notching every stud for pipe routing. Calculating slopes. Working around trades that got there first. Half the rough-in time is prep work, not installing pipe.
Knockouts sized and positioned for the actual routing on this plan. Heights set. Chases built. Plumber walks in and installs. The prep work is done.
Water supply lines and most routing — fully pre-coordinated. Drain lines that run inside walls can require sequencing with framing in some configurations. For the majority of residential plans, this is handled in our engineering phase. On complex drain-in-wall layouts, we flag it during design so there are no surprises.
Drilling every stud for wire routing. Measuring box heights. Marking locations. With field-cut steel — sharp edges, broken bits, and hours before a single wire is pulled. Then working around plumbing that’s already in the wall.
Knockouts pre-punched at every wire path, coordinated around plumbing. Box locations marked. Electrician walks in and pulls wire. No drill needed.
Chase dimensions that don’t match. Returns that conflict with structure or other trades. Rerouting ductwork after framing is complete. Problems found at the wrong time.
Chases sized, returns positioned, duct penetrations verified — all resolved in engineering. HVAC crew connects ductwork. Conflicts were handled before manufacturing.
Straight walls, exact dimensions, all blocking in place. No callbacks for missing backing. Crew hangs sheets — the prep is done.
Exact cut lists for every baseboard, door casing, and window casing. Pre-cut from verified dimensions. No measuring walls, no wasted material.
Every trade benefits. Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, drywall, finishes — each one walks into a system that’s already coordinated for their work. Less time on your job means they’re more profitable per hour, which means your job goes to the top of their list. That’s how you build more houses with the same subs.
This isn’t about squeezing your subs or paying them less. Pay them the same. But think about what happens when your job is the easiest one on their schedule.
ESS doesn’t just cut steel — we engineer the entire project using AI-powered tools that analyze your plans and catch conflicts that humans miss. Every wall is verified against every trade before it ships.
This was built in Buhl, Idaho — by builders who needed a better way to do their actual job. We didn’t start with technology and go looking for a problem. We started with the problems — the miscommunications between trades, the conflicts found too late, the rework that eats your schedule and your profit — and spent years developing tools to catch them before they cost anyone time and money.
This isn’t a buzzword. This is pure dedication to finding the best way to build — from people who’ve been on the job site and know what goes wrong. The technology is available now. We built the tools to use it. And it works.
Your architectural and MEP plans are loaded into our AI engineering system. Every dimension, schedule, and detail sheet is cross-referenced. The system builds a complete digital model of your project before any steel is manufactured.
The AI walks every wall and verifies that electrical, plumbing, and HVAC routing all fit without conflicting with each other or with structure. It checks clearances, knockout sizes, and chase dimensions against actual trade requirements.
When the AI flags a conflict — an HVAC return that doesn’t fit, a plumbing route that hits a header — it’s resolved before manufacturing. The builder gets a clean report showing what was caught and fixed. No surprises on site.
Only after every conflict is resolved do the CNC machines run. Every stud, track, header, and connector is cut to 0.1mm accuracy with all trade knockouts positioned exactly where they need to be.
Before panels or kits go up, we can verify the foundation is square and level using scanning tools. SmartBuild walls are built to exact dimensions — if the foundation is off, we want to know before the first wall goes up, not after. On a 500-unit community, even an extra day of verification saves weeks of compounding problems down the line.
We’re not promising perfection. Construction is hard. Things happen. But our AI tools, engineering software, and CNC manufacturing systems eliminate the preventable problems — the ones that come from measuring wrong, cutting wrong, miscommunicating between trades, and finding conflicts after the walls are up. We can’t control the weather or your sub’s schedule. But we can make sure the work they walk into is right.
LGS framing is roughly one-third the weight of equivalent wood framing. A standard flatbed carries up to 48,000 lbs. That means more material per truck, fewer deliveries, and lower shipping costs per house.
Kits ship flat — studs, track, headers, and connectors bundled and banded on pallets. Extremely dense packing. Multiple houses can ship on a single flatbed load. Ideal for production builders running the same plan.
Panels ship as assembled walls, stacked and braced on the truck. Weight is light, but volume limits capacity. Larger homes or complex plans may require 2 loads. The tradeoff: you save days of on-site assembly time.
Use the calculator in The Numbers tab to enter your distance and freight rate. It calculates per-house shipping for both kits and panels, including telehandler rental for panel sets, and tells you whether panelization makes financial sense for your market.
A typical 4-man framing crew spends 2–3 weeks framing a 2,000 SF house. A huge chunk of that time isn’t nailing — it’s measuring, marking, cutting, and re-cutting every piece on site.
Your crew can frame 3 houses with kits or potentially more with panels in the same time it takes to do 1 traditionally.
* ESS provides pin guns for qualified build packages at no additional charge.
ESS supplies specialized fasteners for steel framing. They drive in just like a nail — fast, easy, no pre-drilling — but back out like a screw if you ever need to make a change.
ESS is a major light gauge steel supplier for Builders FirstSource, the largest building supply company in the United States.
On a 2,000 SF house, builders typically order 10–15% more material than the takeoff calls for — extra to cover bad cuts, warped boards, and offcuts too short to use. That’s $2,800 to $4,200 you pay for that goes in the dumpster. ESS SmartBuild: Zero over-order. Zero waste.
Construction productivity studies show that only 45% of paid framing labor is actual assembly. The other 55%? Reading plans, snapping chalk lines, measuring, cutting, walking for material, waiting on the saw. The higher your labor rate, the more money you’re burning.
Enter your actual costs, your crew quality, your trade rates. The numbers speak for themselves.
⚠ Telehandler / Gradall required for panel set only — not needed for kits. Typical residential: 1–2 days single-story, 2–3 days two-story. Rates vary $300–$600/day depending on market. This cost is included in the panel total on the right.
| Wood | Std Steel | SB Kit | SB Panel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material + Trusses | $30,000 | $40,000 | $35,500 | $31,000 |
| Labor | $24,000 | $28,800 | $10,800 | $5,400 |
| Material Waste | $3,000 | $1,920 | $0 | $0 |
| Dumpster Fees | $1,500 | $700 | $0 | $0 |
| Design Fee | — | — | $3,000 | $3,000 |
| Equipment Rental | — | — | — | $900 |
| Freight (per house) | — | — | $97 | $875 |
| TOTAL | $57,000 | $66,160 | $47,300 | $45,400 |
SmartBuild eliminates the waste, the rework, and the coordination problems that have been reducing margins for decades. Your crew builds. Your trades install. Your business scales. The numbers are in the calculator. The decision is yours.
