A Washington home construction company is adding a commercial division that will mean more work for its large manufacturing facility north of Ferndale.

Method Homes, which builds prefabricated homes, recently launched a commercial division called Method Prefab. The new division will focus on custom design-build projects that include offices and commercial buildings.

The commercial work will be done at its 55,000-square-foot facility off Grandview Road, said Courtney Peterson, a spokeswoman for the company. The facility recently doubled production space to handle the commercial division.

The number of additional employees hired will depend on the number of commercial projects the company signs, Peterson said. The Ferndale facility currently has about 20 employees.

"We are fortunate to have a great diversity of (residential) projects in a wide geographic range. As we take on more commercial projects, we see this growing to be a good portion of our overall construction business," Peterson said, adding that they expect 2013 to be a growth year.

The company already has a couple of commercial projects in the works, including a custom ski lodge that will be in Utah and a 21-module expansion of Seattle's Taproot Theatre Company.

Off-site construction of commercial structures offers several benefits, according to the company. Those include less construction waste, limited site impact and reduced risk of material exposure to the weather. One other important factor is that construction timelines can be met consistently because the factory doesn't close during inclement weather, said company co-founder Brian Abramson.

The company, which is headquartered in Seattle, was at the top of the Puget Sound Business Journal's list of fastest-growing private companies in Washington last year. According to the list, the company grew 784 percent between 2009 and 2011. Method was also named Emerging Manufacturer of the Year by Seattle Business magazine.

Reach Business Editor Dave Gallagher at 360-715-2269 or dave.gallagher@bellinghamherald.com. Read his business blog at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/business or follow him on Twitter at @bhamheraldbiz.