FASTER AND CHEAPER CONSTRUCTION IS CHILD’S PLAY
TWO Gold Coast entrepreneurs believe they have struck upon the secret to faster and cheaper construction — build just like Meccano models.
Doug McDonald and David Hancock are the brains behind the RockHouse International construction system, which has been decades in the making.
They say their system is 62 per cent cheaper than conventional building methods, takes 67 per cent less time to build and results in a 20 per cent overall cost saving.
The system uses three pressed sheet steel parts that are made onsite by mobile machines. Beams and spreaders bolt together to form floor and roof grids of the desired shape and size.
Flooring is overlaid with the grid and the structure is pinned to the ground by
“skew piles”. Virtually no concrete is involved nor scaffolding as water or screw jacks are used to elevate the columns.
Mr McDonald and Mr Hancock say because the entire structure is bolted together, it is cyclone proof.
They claim the parts for a 290sq m house can be completed in one day by the mobile machines and the framework, including the roof, completed within three to four days.
“There are many advantages to our system,” Mr McDonald, a mechanical designer, said.
“The mobility of the system is one because the production machines can almost go anywhere to make parts and then move on when the development is over.”
The two have built the frame for a RockHouse building at their Molendinar factory to show potential investors.
“This has applications across many areas, including domestic, commercial, industrial, defence and disaster reconstruction, because the components are formed in road-going mobile machines,” Mr McDonald said.
They say, having both entered their 70s, they are ready to sell the licence for the system in Australia and internationally and enter retirement. The US rights for the system, which is patented, are estimated at $28 million alone.