BuildIntegrated Hybrid Construction System
Native heart timber was the principal material used to build houses for the first 140 years of NZ history.
The principal materials used in house construction in the last forty years now include organic sapwood framing clad with structurally inadequate cement or plastic exterior sheathing & interior cardboard covered gypsum plasterboards which due to the damp and often humid climate provide the ideal food for toxic mould & wood rot.
Toxic mould is recognised as the principal cause of housing environmental human respiratory illnesses that cause unnecessary pain & death, costing billions of dollars annually.
This bureaucratic madness also has become known as the Leaky Building Syndrome with independently estimated housing repairs & replacement costs of more than $47 billion-plus an estimated further $7 billion in healthcare.
Unfortunately for new homeowners, the government’s official building code is still promoting the use of organic building materials that provide both potential leaky homes & food for toxic mould.
The obvious solution in this day & age is to build houses only using sustainable, environmentally healthy materials for humans.
However on the positive for 2021 with the application of a new low cost and non-toxic, invisible, antimicrobial timber preservative this unique product has proven to inhibit the growth of mould on plasterboard & the rot of the sap-wood.
The sap-wood is treated by pre-soaking before being the framing assembly. The exterior cladding is attached, and the closed-in structure is then further electrostatically sprayed with the antimicrobial timber preservative.
The plasterboard is also antimicrobial electrostatically sprayed on both sides before installation.
Liverpool University at the cost of thirty million Euro has concluded a series of extensive tests certifying that the non-toxic, non-carcinogenic, non-corrosive product with its mechanical action 7 log kill of 140 types of bacteria, virus and fungi leaves no trace residue.
Adjustable Foundations
For long term structural & environmental human health, the Future House designs require construction on adjustable, replaceable, galvanised protected steel pile foundation components with alternative ceramic options. The ‘One Day’ installation of the foundations is job-specific and engineered and designed according to the soil conditions of each site. The quick and easy to install footings can be used on a wide range of foundation projects & soils, meeting all compliance and building regulations. The engineering principles are calculated on the pile technology using a combination of skin friction and point bearing. A patented plate secures pins in place, resulting in a foundation spreading over a greater area achieving larger load capacities.
Floor & Ceiling Cassettes
The ground floor Clear-Span floor cassette system combines all required elements including floor trusses, strong backs & floor sheathing into a large but manageable cassette panel. The insulated floor and ceiling cassettes are 220ml thick with either sealed for life EPS or a HUD board insulation option. The ground floor, intermediate floor cassettes & roofing components are delivered to the site, & placed one on top of the other on the foundations to form complete working platforms. The construction posts are inserted through the female floor brackets & secured into the female pile posts ready after each floor's internal fit-out for lifting & securing into position on the appropriate levels in just hours.
Precision Structural Framing
The superior tried & tested engineered designed structural floor & ceiling cassette & post framing provides adjustable & replaceable powder-coated protected steel structural elements with ceramic options @ 3.6m wide grids up to twelve levels. The structurally robust Future House Clear-Span locking system is an ideal solution for the efficient design, fabrication, modular & brace-free construction that provides reduced congestion for floor plans & layout. This technology provides fewer working hours; the plug & play modules accelerate design from one to twelve levels allowing construction to complete in just weeks instead of months or years. The lighter & safer non-combustible structural elements are manufactured with precision and enable the other building components to be factory-built and on-site installed.
Internal Components
Installation of the factory-fabricated Interior walls, bathroom, stairways, kitchen & storage components takes place without the need for scaffolding. The topmost (penthouse) floor is the first floor to be internally fitted out with walls, bathrooms & roofed. The sub-penthouse internal floor is the second floor internally completed before jacking & securing into position until all lower levels have been internally achieved & positioned. A principal cost-efficient provision of the Future House designs is for all bedrooms to have back to back en-suites placed on internal structural wet walls. Each en-suite consists of shower, toilet, hand basin, cabinet & ventilation components. Expensive trade charge-out & time costs are reduced by up to 80% with the factory manufacture & on-site installation of the components.
Ceramic Curtain Walls
The 1mm ceramic material is laminated to either side of fire retardant rigid foam or mineralised HUD insulation to engineering tolerances in a factory environment. The completed panel is non-porous, super-strong through its proprietary system consisting of long silica-reinforced polymer chains, otherwise known as silicon carbide (one of the earth's most formidable combinations of compounds next to diamonds) & independently tested to withstand severe earthquakes and cyclones. When delivered to the site and erected, the exterior & interior walls, floors, ceilings, windows, doors and roofing panels are attached to the floor & ceiling cassettes & structural frames replacing more than 20 separate conventional construction processes. The walls, roof and floor sections are complete with internal services with no ongoing painting & maintenance required.
Composite Insulation
The factory machine extruded insulated panels are painted & decorated before installation. They provide a quieter safe, non-nutrient, fire & smoke-proof, sustainable house that is warm in winter and cool in summer providing long-term energy savings at a fraction of the build cost of conventional construction. The panels contain no organic material that is vulnerable to moisture, mould and fungal decay degradation. The initial insulation materials include a tried & proven ceramic encapsulated EPS insulation core. Future House is currently negotiating the supply of the HUD material from the rural sector. Future House will manufacture & promote its proven formulated HUD board as hemp is the ultimate recyclable & sustainable material with just 1 acre of hemp producing as much cellulose fibre pulp as 4.1 acres of trees. It is a low-density material and resistant to crack under movement, thus making it highly suitable for use in earthquake-prone areas.
Door & Window Panels
The curtain wall panels have welcoming entry doors installed with glass or decorative inserts to provide a continuing Structural Insulated Panel walled home. The external Door Structural Insulated Panels can be personalised with your distinct panel design or crafted using a solid painted finish to add colour. Internal doors, including cavity slider doors, can be incorporated into the Structural Insulated Panels to provide a seamless finish. Historical and modern building profiles incorporate the required period. The windows are manufactured in Germany under strict environmental regulations to exceed standard offerings resulting in reduced heat loss. The window design & materials used provide a greener, warmer, quieter, & safer, environment which does not contribute to deforestation or habitat destruction.
Final Fit-out
Decorative features include both original or composite cedar or weatherboard exterior cladding, walls with washed or formed elements, long-run metal sidings, stone or tile surfaced panels. Modular kitchens with fabricated wet walls are available fitted with quality cost-effective cabinets, appliances and whiteware and then positioned within the house with no requirement for additional waterproofing. The private access includes the entrance hall, stairs & lift. Storage includes tilt beds with bulk storage under the mattress. One metre deep wardrobes with cubic metres of bulk storage The spacious bedsits 3.6m x 3.6m with a 2m x 2m queen bed with side tables or two single king beds provide space for low & high boy clothing storage, office desk & chairs. The weatherproof balcony has a watertight roof with optional side closures, table & six chairs or lounge seating, refrigerator & deep freeze, food prep, wash up & cooking facilities.
Land Subdivision
Central & Local Government RMA & building consent processes often take several years, creating developers initial holding costs & loss of rental income usually more than $100,000.
The duplication of consultant report preparation & council review fees is now approaching a further $100,000.
Unnecessary & expensive, environmentally damaging earthworks to build foundations, stormwater & off-site sewage disposal & supply of potable water on site altogether is now approaching a further $100,000
Initial subdivision costs can now total $300,000 with the further ongoing prohibitive & long term unsustainable cost of the council water supply & sewerage disposal plus their other additional annual rating systems.
Certify independent qualified Urban Designers to prepare & oversee the development of sustainable satellite towns, villages & new suburbs each with their internal infrastructure, commercial activities, transport & job creation.
Sections are to be marked by a central peg with an internal ownership square, oblong or radius. The land in between the marked areas to be jointly owned & maintained by a community trust. No fences with native planted privacy screens.
To minimise earthworks increase the permitted building height by 2 metres, build on piles with maximum earthwork cuts of no more than 1.6m to minimise leaching & retaining.
On-site rainwater is to be harvested & supplemented with approved water-saving appliances & greywater processing.
Recycle & reuse, black water after approved treatment with on-site community land disposal.
Vertically follow the sun, solar panels with a back-up diesel generator supplemented with the approved use of energy-saving appliances.
Develop raised vegetable gardens, locate a hothouse, plant an orchard & further landscape with edible planting,
The project can now achieve a total subdivision cost of less than $60,000 with open book internal cost-sharing of both land maintenance & utility costs.