Lance Thrailkill: Interview on KURV

Following the Senate’s 85–5 vote on a bipartisan bill to limit how many single-family homes major investors can buy, PRINT3D Technologies co-founder Lance Thrailkill joined News Talk 710 KURV to talk about the future of housing.

The real problem: supply
Lance explained that investor buying and soaring rents make it hard for families to save for a down payment, a cycle he calls the “rent race.” The deeper issue, he said, is that the U.S. builds about 1.4 million homes a year against a need of roughly 7.4 million affordable homes, and the gap keeps growing. With a large share of skilled tradespeople nearing retirement and material costs up sharply since COVID, building cheaper per square foot alone won’t close it. “The real way to solve affordability is by automating construction,” he said.

How 3D printing a home works
A printer extrudes a cementitious material, much like a soft-serve dispenser, following G-code instructions. It prints both the exterior and interior walls, with a double-wall design that creates a thermal break for better energy efficiency. A 1,500 sq ft home takes about 40 hours of print time. Because the machine runs quietly, it can print around the clock where permitted, and a home can be dried in within about a month. One machine and two operators can replace the work of 40–50 tradespeople across framing, sheetrock, masonry, and potentially paint.

Built like a fortress
Lance contrasted printed concrete with “toothpick homes.” The walls are fire, mold, termite, and wind resistant.

Looking like a traditional home
To drive mass adoption, PRINT3D is focused on making printed homes look like conventional construction. The company built a new rotary printhead that automates a smooth wall finish, bringing a stucco look to even affordable homes at no extra cost.

Learn more at print3dtechnologies.com.

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