Allen startup uses 3D printing to reshape homebuilding

An Allen startup that built its first home for $103,000 is trying to prove that 3D printing can do more than produce a novelty wall panel. Print3D Technologies, founded in 2023, says it can build “superior structures” with a cement-based material, not plastic, and turn a large-format construction printer into a faster, more efficient way to put up houses.

Co-founder Lance Thrailkill, the third-generation owner of Allen-based All Metals Fabricating, has tied the company’s pitch to the kind of housing math North Texas buyers understand: time, labor and cost. Print3D Technologies said it completed its first home in 2024, then followed with a $175,000 house in Mabank that measures 1,500 square feet and includes three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The company also says its printer can be deployed in one day, and that it is developing a Mediterranean-style printed home in Lampasas.

Those claims matter because the economics of homebuilding in Collin County remain unforgiving. If a printed house cannot cut enough time off the build, reduce labor needs or trim material waste, the technology risks staying on the sidelines. Print3D Technologies says it has been raising capital to scale the business and prepare for mass adoption, and it designs, manufactures and sells its own 3D printing equipment, which suggests the company wants to sell both the process and the machine behind it.

The next test is whether the concept can move from proof of concept to a repeatable housing product. A related filing shows a planned $14.8 million office and research facility at 3060 Summit Ave. in Plano. The three-story, 89,068-square-foot project is slated to start Aug. 1 and finish by August 2027, a sign the company is putting real money into its local footprint even as it tries to scale beyond Allen.

Texas is already one of the main proving grounds. Icon and Lennar’s Wolf Ranch near Georgetown, about 30 miles north of downtown Austin, is described as the world’s largest-scale development of 3D-printed homes, with 100 homes. Reporting in Texas has also shown the speed claims can be real, with smaller printed walls built in under 24 hours and larger single-family home walls taking 10 to 45 days.

But the code question still hangs over the business. The International Code Council developed acceptance criteria and evaluation standards for 3D-printed concrete walls because traditional building codes did not specifically address the technology. That is the hurdle that will decide whether buyers in Allen or McKinney see an actual benefit soon, or whether 3D-printed housing remains a promising but still experimental step in North Texas homebuilding.