READY-built two-storey townhouses are being shipped to Perth from China.
In a Lego-style building operation, six homes were trucked from Fremantle to Cannington this week after arriving from China this week.
Innovative WA builder Craig Forster said he was forced to build offshore because no WA steel-frame home manufacturers could meet his demands.
The homes, completely finished with all the cabinetry, tiling, flooring, plumbing and electrical fixtures, were erected on Cannington’s Oak St in Cannington in just one week.
“I wanted concrete floors for the upper levels as well as the ground floor,†Mr Forster, of Dream Homes WA, a licensed builder and civil structural engineer who designed the family homes, said.
“That was too difficult for the WA companies I spoke to. While these homes are all constructed using steel-framed walls, I wanted them to have the solid sound of brick walls.
“So the steel frame walls have been filled with insulation that is 14 times denser than normal insulation, so thick you can stand on it without compressing it.â€
To ensure Australian standards were met, he had a minimum of two people on site in China for the four months it took to build the homes and at critical times flew in specialists, including a quality control manager, welding supervisor, plumber and an electrician.
The townhouses come fully equipped with double-glazed windows, airconditioning and low-voltage LED lights and have an energy rating of about 7.5 stars.
There are bamboo floors downstairs, carpets upstairs, glass splashbacks, floor-to-ceiling tiles and even a waste bin under the sink.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes with double carports range in size from 128sqm to 142sqm and will sell from around $530,000.
He said the homes are Cyclone D-rated, to ensure they survive the boat trip from China.
He said building these homes on site with traditional materials would have taken him two years with the added costs of security fencing, scaffolding and site waste clean-up.
He spent six weeks on site in Cannington installing the infrastructure; a week erecting the modules; and it will take six weeks to pour concrete driveways and carports, join internal and external services and run in the remaining plumbing and electrical infrastructure.
While it wasn’t cheaper than building the homes in WA this time around, Mr Forster said “it will be a lot cheaper next timeâ€.
“It should have been (cheaper) but I made a few mistakes and we had some learning curves because this was the first time,†he said. “But it will be a lot cheaper next time.
“But my main reason for going offshore was I couldn’t get the specifications I wanted here.â€
He plans to open them to open them for public viewing for a short period at the end of May.
