13 Hours Weathertight.

Flexi House - the home of the future - is being built now at Forest Lodge Orchard on the outskirts of Cromwell. It took just 13 working hours from when the Hiab arrived onsite to assemble a weathertight structure out of unitised panels manufactured offsite.

Manufacturing offsite provided a significant reduction in time on site and ensured quality construction and easy assembly. The panels were transported from Wellington to Cromwell over the weekend and assembled onsite to achieve weathertightness by lunchtime last Tuesday.

A mere 13 working hours elapsed from when the initial floor panel was placed until the final gable panel was screwed off.

How did we get here? A windless, wet morning on Friday the 8th saw the arrival of our two trucks at the Makers Fabrication factory in Gracefield. Having already stacked our unitised wall panels on the toaster rack and stacked the roof and floor panels, the Makers’ team helped cover the panels in tarpaulins and roll the toaster rack out the factory door so the Hiab could lift it. Once the wall panels were on the truck and tied down, truck one left to catch the midday ferry and we began loading the longer second truck. 

Next went on the floor panels which were double wrapped to prevent moisture ingress. It was critically important that the floor panels didn’t get wet during transit - and, later, assembly - as the insulation in these panels was already installed. Wet insulation trapped in a cavity would not dry out and would need to be replaced. Next, our roof panels were stacked on top and tied down, before the internal walls were lifted onto the tail trailer and the second truck was on the road around 4 pm.

The Flexi Team touched down in Queenstown mid-morning on Sunday the 10th and drove from there to site in Mount Pisa. Truck 2 arrived mid-afternoon and dropped off its trailers. The following morning, truck 1 arrived at 8 am with the unitised wall panels and both truck drivers unwrapped the goods. Lifting began when the Hiab arrived shortly after, and the floor was down just after midday. Three wall panels were lifted into place before we stopped for lunch, and another 9 total wall and roof panels were positioned before the end of day 1.

Day 2 started a little warmer than the first day but with the threat of rain all morning. The boys found their rhythm quickly, and soon enough the remaining panels were flying into place. Fortunately, our efforts paid off and the weather held up, allowing us to assemble the entire envelope onsite before the worst of the weather set in. The final gable panel found its home shortly after 12 pm.

Flexi House would like to thank the team at Makers Fabrication for their hard work as our build partners, seeing this first project through from offsite manufacturing to onsite assembly. The next few weeks will involve fitting out the interior with our cosy wool insulation from Terra Lana, Intello vapour control layer for airtightness from Pro Clima and applying our prefinished plywood wall linings from Ply Masters with the concealed Fastmount clips. We look forward to the end result!

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