Biosolar House by Steinemann Construction & Design

The Biosolar house was completed in 2017 in Wairarapa.

This delightful home is a perfect example of the mix of Andi’s European expertise and Kiwi experience.

That combination created a house that’s suited to the idyllic countryside location, staying warm in winter and cool in summer.

The project had several key components. The building had to:

Be sustainable and have minimal ecological impact

Be draught-proof and extremely well insulated, to minimise energy requirements for heating or cooling

Have excellent detail solutions, so the larger goals were reflected in all the smaller touches and finishes

Come in on budget.

To achieve these goals, the project had a strong teamwork focus.

Andi worked closely with the clients to plan their dream home, and provided transparent quoting and invoicing.

He managed the process from design to move in, ensuring that the team philosophy kept everyone engaged and happy at every step of the journey.

Materials

Wherever possible, non-treated timber, wool insulation, screws rather than adhesives, and other non-toxic sustainable materials are used.

Timber is sourced from smaller sawmills, with Andi and Thomas viewing the raw product before it’s delivered on-site for prefab preparation.

Precutting

Almost every piece of the construction will be precut according to the CAD-generated inventory. Each piece also gets its own project number allocated.

Those numbers are shown on the 2D construction plans, giving a guide for fitting together all the components in the wall frames, ceiling elements, roof sections and so on.

Prefabrication

Each element is assembled according to the construction plans.

Walls are insulated with wool, lined with softwood fibre-board for further insulation, weatherproofed and covered with OSB (Oscillated Strand Board) or cellulose GIB board for bracing and draft-proofing.

All services like electricity, heating and plumbing are run in an installation cavity inside the wall so that there is no need to cut or drill the vapour-and draft-proof building core.