Insulated Slabs and Why You Should Use One in Your Build

Queenstown is a beautiful place but it is also a rather chilly place to live in winter. It's so so important to consider this when designing and building your new home.
One of the first things that kick off the building process of your new home is the slab, and it is also the first part of your build to offer insulation. After years of building homes for others and for ourselves, we can now genuinely recommend both professionally and personally a fully insulated slab, as the best decision you can make for your new build. It is 100% the way to go in Queenstown and should not be overlooked.

Now because it comes with so many more benefits than a normal slab, there are extra costs involved and this is why it is so important to make considerations with your budget as early on in the design process as possible. You need to consider what is important to you and what is less important than you could perhaps give up on or compromise on? For us, it was the health of our family that was ultimately the most important element, and so we compromised on fully tiled bathrooms (later down the track in the design process), to enable us to spend the extra money on getting an insulated slab. Sure a fully tiled bathroom is pretty, but it doesn't come with a hell of a lot of other benefits. MAXRaft on the other hand comes with a long list of benefits, both for our families health and for our financial health in the long term, and much much more. We decided early on in our design process, with the help of our amazing architect, Daniel from DF Design, that the two things we weren't willing to compromise on were insulation and glazing.

We lived in a rental home in Queenstown pre-build, that had carpeted floors, tiles in the kitchen area and bathrooms (with no underfloor heating) and standard double glazed windows. The heating option was a single-walled heat pump in the living area and a wood burner fire. At the time I was a mum of two under 2 and it was a hard way to live! The kitchen was cold, slippers were essential. The bedrooms were cold and damp from the condensation build-up (they were double glazed windows but low quality) and there was no heating in any of the bedrooms, so panel heaters were the go-to. The heat from the fire and heat pump, because of the design of the home, would get stuck in the lounge area and make it really hot, but not transfer to any other part of the house. So then we would let the fire go out, to try and even out the heat and by 3 pm the house was cold again and the process of trying to warm it would start all over again. The heat felt false and just escaped as quickly as it entered. It was a great (though hard) lesson to learn.

So for our build in Jacks Point, Queenstown, we used a MAXRAft slab because it is New Zealand’s only fully insulated concrete slab and to us, it seemed silly to be thinking about insulating everything else in the house and not the floor beneath us. We put shoes on our feet and a hat on our head to keep in the warmth right, well the same should be happening with your house! A MAXRaft slab is like having Merino socks and heavy-duty boots on your feet! Having the heat enter the room from the floor, makes it not feel like heating, but just leaves the room feeling a constant, perfect temperature, plus the slow release makes it more manageable and enjoyable.

The insulation creates a thermal break between the foundation and the ground around it. This reduces the transfer of energy from our home into the land surrounding our home, allowing us, not the surrounding environment, to dictate the temperature within our home. If a thermal break is not created, we could lose the same amount of heat as leaving a window open in the middle of winter. We are a young family, our children are young and they are at all times our priority. Keeping them warm in order to keep them safe, happy and healthy is a must. Once we had discovered the benefits of the MAXRaft slab from our research and discussions with people we were not willing to overlook this option.

4 months after moving in, we were already noticing the difference. We have underfloor heating in our slab, which is why the insulation is SO key, and it worked out very affordably to run. We would wake up every morning to a beautiful warm home, the heat STAYS in the home and the floor beneath us is always cosy and warm, which is great for the little people who are always down at that level playing. We often have people who come into our home and comment on how incredibly warm it is and ask how we are warming it- and while the response is always 'underfloor heating', I also always tell them about the MAXRaft insulated slab and the glazing which means the heat stays put better than in many other homes. And hey- we don't sell MAXRaft, we have no links whatsoever to the company and yet I would still happily campaign their product to any potential building clients because I have experienced first hand the difference it has made for the US and OUR family.

Fun fact: Ensuring your home is ready for winter, also means making your home friendlier for our hotter months in the summer too. We often think of insulation as something to do with the cold of course, but it is also important for keeping your home cooler in the heat. It's an all year round win for everyone.

Almost 2 years on and we often discuss the things we would do differently if we were to build again someday, and the things that we would always do the same. MAXRaft insulated slab is the constant- it will always be something we opt for in our home builds and we will educate our clients about the slab too so that they can make the decision that is best for them in their home too.

It's fair to say I am one happy (and healthy) mum with a warm, happy and healthy family, and that should be something we all get to feel. Consider a MAXRaft for your next build, and give us a call to talk about how we can ensure you build a winter-friendly home for your next new home in Queenstown. Email us now mel@fergusonbuilders.co.nz