Housing fit for our future
Two Taranaki companies in the construction industry believe they have a potential solution to the housing shortage puzzle.
UrbanFrame is the brain child of Shed Boss owners Grant Scott and Hayley Baird and Taranaki Steelformers owners Darrell and Brendon Back, who say the use of light-weight steel framing would help keep costs down for new home buyers.
Steelformers’ Frame-Tech machine can churn out framing for two complete houses a day and its new company UrbanFrame aimed to complete builds within four weeks.
The machine punches, pinches, dimples and creates service holes for electrical wiring and plumbing one wall at a time.
As each component is finished it is numbered so when they’re assembled on a framing bed it’s as easy as connecting the dots.
Scott said UrbanFrame aimed to meet the changing needs of the housing market.
‘‘Housing is becoming more expensive and so to get people into the market we need to be able to build smarter and we also need to be able to build a bit smaller to control costs.’’
He said there was a move to smaller sections around the country and homes would have to get smaller to meet demand.
‘‘We need to be able to get smaller well-planned pieces of land that we can get smaller wellplanned houses on to.
‘‘There is no use having a small well-planned house and still having to put it on to a large section.’’
Brendon Back said creating design efficiencies helped to minimise wastage in the building process and wasted space in the finished product.
‘‘Everything has got its place. It’s a bit like paint by numbers, every piece fits into the puzzle so there is no waste,’’ he said.
‘‘We are only starting small but we have got the capability to mushroom.’’
The modular homes, which left the factory as finished products with building consent, could be delivered as a flat-pack kitset or prefabricated to a site.
The company has five plans ranging from a one-bedroom option at 17.5 square metres to a four-bedroom option at 87.5 sqm.
Base plans included a bathroom sink, shower, toilet, walls, electrical and plumbing but were flexible enough to be customised to suit a customer’s needs.