Check out these DIY “wood brick” houses you can assemble in days – Innovation – GCR
A French business has pioneered a home-construction system of machined wood “bricks” that you use location with a mallet.
After a ten-year battle to get off the ground, it has now offered more than a hundred systems, and has accredited the technology in Hungary and the Netherlands.The company, Brikawood, bills its system as “the wood brick that can be set up without nails, screws or glue”.
It states the air- and water-tight structure of a large, 120-sq-m house can be set up in 15 days.
“Extraordinary” mechanical rigidness
The “bricks” are actually structural cells formed by panels of sustainably grown Douglas Fir that interlock with self-tightening dovetail and rabbet joints.
Brikawood states the walls have “remarkable” mechanical rigidness and structural stability.
The wall cavities formed by the cells are filled with wood chips produced throughout machining, for insulation.
This and the airtightness of a Brikawood home qualifies it to fulfill the Passive House requirement for energy performance, suggesting very little heating or cooling is needed.
Homes above 50 sq m are put together by an experienced team (Brikawood)
Treated only with linseed oil, the Brikawood structure is developed to withstand the elements by itself, without external facades, plastering or other coatings.Instructions included The lumberparts are machined
according to a designer’s 3D drawing, and are provided to website in pallets, with instructions.Roof trusses and other joinery assemblies are also provided.Where a house is
listed below 50 sq m in location, the home’s owners can assemble it themselves with fundamental tools and no building experience.Above 50 sq m, a Brikawood-trained team puts it together.Kits variety in size from 20 sq m, about the size of a big garden studio, to 300 sq m, the measurements of a huge, multi-bedroom home. They can be multi-storey. The per-sq-m construction expense of a Brikawood house is reasonably low, at around EUR1,300, the business says. Inside a Brikawood house, with roof trusses on(Brikawood )Business president Patricia Dutreux told GCR that a current kit for a 100-sq-m
home was priced at EUR180,000, with whatever included.Probably would not do it once again Based in Laroque D’Olmes, near the Pyrenees in southern France, Dutreux stated it took 10 difficult years for Brikawood to get to this point.A commercial attorney, she stated she and thesystem’s designer, the engineer Alain Romero,
experienced resistance at every action, from efficiency evaluations, to insurance companies, and to building control authorities.”We were confronted with lobbyists who did not extra us, “Dutreux said in an e-mail.”We needed to handle some not really good scenarios. “She added:” We worked alone without monetary help, we had to offer whatever we owned and we had
to borrow big amounts of cash.”We take pride in what we handled to put in location. If we had to do it again today, we would give up.”
She characterised France as”not a country where eco-friendly development is accepted and supported “.”It’s difficult to attempt to alter
practices at a time when concrete is so important,” she states. “We had to combat at every stage”
They dealt with operational catastrophes. Multi-story sets are available(Brickawood )Initially they outsourced
the machining operations to a small subcontractor with a handful of workers who ended up being unqualified.Within 2 years the operation was facing monetary ruin.That led them to pick larger makers, utilizing around 400 people in overall, and the procedure began to work smoothly.By 2015, Brikawood had protected its copyright by obtaining all 11 of the system’s pertinent patents.”If projects are increasing today, it is since we attempted to start,”
says Dutreaux.”We had to battle at every phase.
“Transmitting the principle To date, 124 house kits have actually been purchased and assembled, with flooring locations varying from
20 sq m to 180 sq m. Dutreux states a lots multi-storey house packages have actually sold given that 2018. The company is now selling
licences to transfer the Brikawood idea internationally. Recently, licenses have been cost the special manufacture and marketing of Brikawood homes in Hungary and the Netherlands
. Leading image: The “bricks”are really structural cells formed by panels of sustainably grown Douglas Fir that interlock
with self-tightening dovetail and rabbet joints(Brikawood)