Building Methods

Safe homes built to last.

Vanuatu Homes meet all local building legislation requirements, as well as the safe building methods and styles of Australia and New Zealand.

Building legislation in Vanuatu using traditional building standards has been haphazard in the past, however we take pride in being market leaders for building safe homes to New Zealand Earthquake and Queensland Cyclonic standards.

Our construction sequence for engineered homes

1. Foundations- set out general building platform corners and string lines up for bearer lines
2. Pile holes spray marked and dug (Inspection 1)
3. Piles concreted in
4. Bearers anchored to piles as per Lumberlok diagram sheets (Inspection 2)
5. Floor joists laid and checked for level
6. Flooring glued and nailed down
7. Trusses to be assembled
8. Stand Triboard walls (Inspection 3)
9. Ceiling sheets/ ridge beams/ rafters/ trusses installed (Inspection 4)
10. Purlins, fly rafters, tie downs, fastening straps for Triboard (Inspection 5)
11. Roof on
12. Building wrap – Black paper/ exterior battens/ lintels/ corners
13. Windows and doors installed (Inspection 6)
14. Prewire/ Pre plumb house
15. Exterior cladding including soffits (Inspection 7)
16. Install shower trays/ baths and line walls to showers fibre cement lining
17. Sand floors ready for Polyurethane or install tile and slate underlay ready for tiling
18. Hang internal doors/ fit out wardrobes/ shelving
19. Paint house
20. Fit out plumbing and Electrical fixtures, tiles, and finally install the kitchen and clean the place before final inspection.

Solid Panel Construction

Various systems employing rugged solid panel structural components have been developed. These systems have various similarities but all have certain distinct advantages and disadvantages when compared with other systems. Vanuatu Homes introduced a system in 2007 that employs a material called Triboard®; a composite engineered material that is comprised of a high density compressed timber strand core and hard fibre surfaces. The panels are 4 meters long by 2.45 meters wide and 36 mm thick weighing approximately 200 kg and can be handled (by 3-4 men) without the use of a crane. Triboard® makes a superior material for panelised construction due to its outstanding screw holding characteristics, stability of the strand core and paintable smooth fibre faces.

Most of our Solid Panel Construction buildings are situated on treated timber piles. The system can easily be built over a concrete slab but requirements for dimensional correctness and a superior degree of planarity (relative flatness) is difficult to achieve with the degree of skilled labour available in Vanuatu. This makes raised timber flooring a highly attractive alternative to concrete slab sub-floors.

Treated timber bearers and floor joists are attached to the piles with engineered fixings (galvanised or stainless steel depending on location), floor joists are secured over bearers and a deck of treated strand-board or ceramic sheet produces the sub-floor. Once the floor deck is in place the walls are stood and fixed to each other and the sub-floor structure.

All Triboard® structures built in Vanuatu are designed and engineered by Vanuatu Homes and are specified in detailed drawings. The wall panels, having been carefully considered and conceived, are professionally machined in an advanced offshore facility to our specifications. The basis of the building system provides for walls that interlock and are securely fixed to one another. All joints are glued with a high tech moisture activated adhesive and screwed to produce exceptional mechanical and structural strength. This system produces a structure that is extremely square & plumb and dimensionally correct within a few millimetres.

Wall erection and fixing typically commences in one corner of the structure and all walls, interior and exterior, are added and securely attached moving toward the farthest corner from the starting point. Once the walls are all up, the roof trusses are installed and 50 mm x 50 mm vertical battens are placed over a moisture barrier (building paper). The battens tie the floor system to the wall and the wall to the roof truss system. The battens create a 50 mm deep wall cavity within the outer walls in which most plumbing and electrical services are installed.

After all services have been installed and door & window joinery has been properly fitted, the house is clad. There are many options available for external cladding including masonry materials, various manufactured external siding materials and natural materials such as woven bamboo and thatch. Internal walls are ready for paint, trim and doors.

The Triboard® Solid Panel Construction system has been employed in a range of designs and sizes of homes in Vanuatu and is quickly gaining a reputation as a high quality, less expensive alternative to other building systems presently being employed. One of the system’s main strengths is the speed with which structures can be erected and finished. Build times are from 4 -16 weeks compared to 3 – 24 months with other commonly employed building systems here in Vanuatu. The relative advantages of Solid Panel Construction are:

• High strength, rugged finished product
• Cost effective(common building systems are more expensive by as much as 50%)
• Quick to build
• Semi flexible structures allow for limited movement in seismically active zones.
• Properly plumb and square walls simplify cabinetry work and furnishing
• Use of Triboard® for internal walls gives significantly more useable internal space
• Good thermal properties with breathable walls
• Can be insulated for air conditioned applications

Steel Reinforced Concrete Block Construction

The dominant system of construction employed in Vanuatu today incorporates steel reinforced concrete block walls. These walls are almost always built over concrete footings and concrete slab floors. Voids in the concrete block are typically themselves filled with concrete to add strength and ensure encapsulation of the reinforcing steel. The reinforcing steel is easily corroded if not protected and is critical for strength and absolute rigidity of the final structure.

The basic structural components in the steel reinforced concrete block building system include concrete piers and bond beams with steel reinforcing. The system also relies on concrete lintels over windows and doors that, like the piers and bond beams, are almost always formed insitu. The steel reinforced vertical piers are formed on each corner of the structure and at set spacings along the wall. Areas between the piers are filled with steel reinforced concrete block masonry. At set heights up the wall, horizontal bond beams are formed. These beams are also heavily reinforced with steel bars that are tied into the steel reinforcing from the piers.

The roof of the structure is tied to the steel of the bond beams at the top of the wall which is itself tied to the foundation through the reinforcing steel of the piers. This system ensures the integrity of the structure by rigidly, and unyieldingly, tying the roof components to the foundation through the structural strength components of the walls.

The Steel Reinforced Concrete Block building system is tried and true in Vanuatu. It has been in service for many years and is familiar to most all local builders. This system produces a very strong and extremely rigid structure. Its survival of seismic activity and long term environmental exposure is absolutely dependent upon the integrity of the reinforcing steel within its foundation and walls. This requires the walls to be well maintained. Any cracks that might develop in surface rendering or deeper into the block or in the concrete footer must be resealed to keep moisture and oxygen away from the internal reinforcing steel. A condition known as “concrete cancer” can develop when the internal steel corrodes and expands within the block and concrete. This action will destroy the surrounding concrete by exposing it to forces that it cannot resist (tensile rather than compressive).

The relative advantages of Steel Reinforced Concrete Block construction are:

Advantages:

• Very high strength, rugged finished product
• Well known and understood in Vanuatu
• Fire resistant
• Flood tolerant structure
• Excellent sonic isolation
• Good thermal qualities

Vanuatu Homes can also deliver Interlocking Aerated Concrete Block Construction

The relative advantages of Interlocking Aerated Concrete Block Construction are:

• Very high strength, rugged finished product
• Fire resistant materials
• Expected to be faster than more common building systems
• Flood tolerant structure
• Excellent sonic isolation
• Good thermal qualities

Vanuatu Homes can also build your piece of paradise through hybrid and combination systems

We have been open to combining materials and construction concepts from different system to create cost effective, quality structures that can be built quickly and with high levels of customer satisfaction. We have also been involved with several projects where multiple systems are combined on the same site to create an over-all desirable outcome.

Vanuatu Homes has been willing to stray from the everyday standard building methods to meet the needs of our clients. Our approach has been to incorporate the fastest, most cost effective and best performing materials and associated building systems in our designs. We always look for better ways of doing what we do; which is to design and manage the construction of structures that will perform for our clients while being economically sound and environmentally sustainable.