Alternative product use increases in home construction
With more people escaping city life, 'alternative' building solutions are becoming more prevalent. We need some proper structure and building guideleines to ensure the safety of these modern day pioneers.
A combination of extreme property costs, societal breakdown, financial distress and vaccine injuries post covid era has created a significant increase in buyer numbers for rural and semi rural properties well outside metropolitan areas.
Specifically the vaccine injured and financially destroyed are creating this incresed wave of awareness of new and unusual ways to create habitable structures.
the most common of which are;
Transportable- and container homes, either purpose built or customised on site over time
Sheomes -(shed homes) converted or purpose built commercial size sheds that are customised inside to the owners particular requirements
Earthships- the ultimate in recycling and fast replacing straw bale homes. Not only because of the reduced cost, but the better structural integrity, thermal properties and reduced engineering demands.
Transportable home manufacturers have enjoyed a massive surge in sales over the past few years any way, but the sales have been put on steroids since 2020. These are essentially a small home which is constructed in a factory setting then split into (usually) 2 halves, then transported by road to its designated resting place. The manufacturer will then sit the home above ground on concrete or timber stumps , ensure it it joined together seemlessly, they will also connect all the services available . This ensures the brand new home is not only fit for purpose, but impossible to differentiate from one that was built on site.
Container homes vary from single container residences to suit a single person, built in a factory and delivered as per transportable homes , right up to 2 or 3 storeys of interconnected containers that have been put together to resemble an exotic mansion type dwelling. The majority will be created by visionary owners who literally start with preloved standard containers and work from there. However, there is a rising trend for 'flip out' container homes, these are essentially pre designed homes whose walls, floors and sometimes roof can be packed down into one or two single containers. The main benefit of this method is the much lower delivery costs, because it does not require traffic management, nor travel out of hours.
Sheomes are essentially large steel sheds which are altered to create (usually) temporary accomodation during the process of building a permanent residence. It is common in areas that are hundreds, if not thousands of kilometeres away from city life.
Earthships are built with used vehicle tyres filled with compacted earth and stacked in the same way as traditional clay bricks. they do require the use of steel reinforcing bars if the structure is to be anything other than igloo shaped. Because this is a time consuming process, and also requires tyres of similar sizes, it is definatly not a job for a weekend warrior, rather a creation that is added to on a daily basis by someone living on site. This kind of construction also needs space for the collection of tyres, as well as acess to lots of good quality heavy or clay soil.
If you have an interest in any of these building methods for your block, contact us with your questions and we can get you some more information.
Container home construction in Tasmania
Starting with 2 used containers, this home is designed in such a way, that adding more 'pods' in the future will be a relativly simple process.
Jayne Saunders
Jayne is the face of the business and has a lifetime of building and developing experience. She continues to activley participate in property developing and spends most of her time teaching at seminars, writing and working with clients who find themselves a little stuck.
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With 30+ years experience, Jayne is an industry leader with an extensive knowledge base, and is the face of this family business.
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