EIGHT-DAY HOUSES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4754, 22 September 1924, Page 2

EIGHT-DAY HOUSES.

RAPID CONCRETE WORK. A new company with a nominal capital of £250,000 in £1 shares has been formed in Melbourne to develop an Australian invention for the construction of concrete houses in eight days. The system permits of .the concrete work in the building of a house being completed in seven hours, the remainder of the eight working days being devoted to roofing, tiling, and internal finishings. Construction is comparatively simple, and singularly adapted for standardised building on a large scale, with the employment of a good deal ol unskilled labour. The main features of this so-called monolithic concrete construction are these: Walls and partitions are poured to full height in one operation, thus obtaining uniform initial setting. Forms are of oregon, framing zinclined in variable section of full height of walls, and admirably suited for standardised building. Sections are easily assembled and handled. A motor-driven overhead concrete mixer of simple design is employed witli a capacity of about nine cubic yards an hour. Walls and partitions throughout are reinforced with steel rods about lOin mesh ; external walls arc 4in thick; partitions 3in thick. All external walls are coated with damp-proof preparation, to prevent weather penetration. A house at Brighton, near Melbourne was “poured out” in seven hours, and completed in eight days. It gained the approval of the chief architect of the Housing Department of the Melbourne Savings Bank, which carries heavy mortgage liabilities in respect of houses for its clients. The cost of a monolithic concrete house is said to be practically similar to that ruling for a house built of timber.