Concrete homes spark interest

The calming, soothing and tranquil feeling of a concrete home has to be experienced to be understood.

Warmer, drier, safer and energy-saving, concrete houses are pouring into the residential scene.

You could call it the concrete revolution - how concrete homes are making a real dent in our thinking.

Two fully insulated, cast in place, concrete show home have recently been completed for Compass Homes Auckland South in Twin Parks Estate, Papakura and Sandhurst Road, Papamoa Beach, in the Bay of Plenty.

Kumeu (Rodney) and Christchurch also feature these stunning show homes.

Outwardly, these houses look like any other typically built New Zealand house. It's not until you enter the house that your fascination will be drawn - not by the fact every wall within this house is solid concrete - but by its warmth, quietness and coziness.

Tap the wall and it is not as you would expect. Not one sheet of gypsum board nor stick of timber has been used anywhere for the construction of the walls.

While the house supports a traditional timber trussed roof with a plaster board ceiling, that is where the similarity to any other home built in New Zealand ends.

The entire wall structure of the house uses specially designed and imported aluminium forms. Once the steel reinforcing has been 'stood' and the services (like electrical and plumbing connections) have been strapped to the reinforcing, the aluminium forming system is erected - creating the complete house.

All the external and internal walls can then be poured with specially formulated concrete - in one pour. Not a joint anywhere.

The exterior forms are then stepped out to incorporate a continuous insulation blanket, which is unbroken around the perimeter of the house; a second concrete pour, specially formulated to act as a cladding, is then poured to form the exterior envelope.

The following morning all the forms can be stripped from the concrete shell ready to place the trusses. Depending on the size of the house, time taken from walking onto the concrete floor to stripping the forms will be anywhere from 10 to 15 days.

The interior finish is typically skim-coated and then painted, giving the impression the wall looks like any other plasterboard finished wall. Or leave the concrete exposed with a polished finish - that looks spectacular. The exterior can be plastered with the choice of several finishes - texture, sponge, smooth or adobe.

The benefits of a masonry house are numerous. Every box can be ticked when it comes to the benefits of a concrete home.

It is warmer and dryer in winter as concrete acts as a thermal sink - trapping the warmth accumulated during the day and releasing it in the evening. Conversely concrete is cool and refreshing in summer, maintaining the house at a much cooler temperature than outside.

But it's the quiet ambience of a concrete home that is immediately obvious to the first-time visitor. The calming, soothing and tranquil feeling has to be experienced to be understood. The difference is immediately noticeable.

A concrete house requires remarkably little maintenance, is extremely resistant to impact, knocks and bumps. Concrete's robustness, stiffness, strength and ductility are ideally suited to New Zealand's seismic conditions.

Simply put, this concrete house will out-perform any other traditionally built home. It will readily meet a HomeStar 6 rating without any additional design, construction or costs.

Compass Homes is expanding New Zealand-wide and will be leading the concrete revolution in the way we build residential houses in New Zealand.