[ad_1]
“Each house is sustainably built, with solar panels and batteries on the roof, so energy bills are very low,” Joe said.
“You can control things like heating, lighting and garage doors using an app on your phone.
“I wasn’t there but I saw a light was on in the bedroom of one of our sons after he fell asleep so I was able to turn it off. I can even do that overseas.”
The wood is not left to sit in the rain on the construction site. Credit: Kate Geraghty
Factory-prepared, prefabricated timber-frame homes break the mould of Australian housing, offering a credible alternative to traditional on-site building methods.
The high-tech process is designed in Japan and sent along with computers and equipment to SHAWOOD’s only factory in Ingleburn, Australia, where the house is built according to the design created here and then sent back to Japan to be transformed into a digital blueprint.
Inside the factory, these robots guide machines that cut beams and columns to precise sizes, assign a code to each, and then instruct workers how to assemble them into roof trusses and wall frames, which are then carefully wrapped in waterproof plastic and shipped to the construction site.
Machines cut the beams to size, and workers then assemble them. Credit: Kate Geraghty
“That means there’s no room for human error because everything is done in a controlled environment,” said Anthony Zerafa, operations manager. “The wood isn’t sitting on site for two or three months, getting damp and warping.”
“When the pieces leave the factory, the builders know exactly where each part should go; everything has its place. Everything is ready, down to the millimeter.”
David Malvern, general manager of Sekisui House Australia and a former builder, believes prefabrication should play a greater role, especially during a time of severe housing shortages.
Workers in the factory assemble roof trusses and wall trusses.Credit: Kate Geraghty
“In my opinion, this is the future of housing,” he said. “It takes a lot of the guesswork out of it in terms of precision and quality. The trade in Australia is very specialised, but here everything is cut to the perfect length and pre-assembled so there’s no guesswork involved at all.
“It’s almost like IKEA furniture, it comes with a set of instructions and it’s hard to go wrong. That element of prefabrication is invaluable. You see a lot of construction defects on new homes because the industry relies on a lot of unskilled labour and there can be a lack of supervision, but when you send out a kit, structural defects can’t happen.”
Comparing these prefab homes to similar conventional builds, Malvern estimates that a single-storey home will take an average of four months to build compared to six months for a conventional home, and a two-storey home will take six months compared to nine months for a conventional home. “If you compare the same homes, the cost savings will also be significant – up to 25 per cent is possible,” he said.
loading
The structural timber is made from laminated timber sourced from sustainable forests in Finland, the timber for the roof and trusses is sourced locally and sustainably, and no brickwork is used. Instead, it features a cladding system made from cement-bonded wood particles made in Japan, which is part of a system that naturally cools the building in the summer and keeps it warm in the winter.
Understand the nature of climate change and environmental issues. Subscribe to our biweekly environment newsletter.
[ad_2]
Source link
