In his new home, Richard Houghton has only turned his heater on five times this winter – a huge change from his last home, a double storey villa built in the 1880s, where you could see your breath on the air in the mornings.
Still, at one point Houghton and his wife, Nina, nearly did relocate another old villa to their 15-hectare property at Mahurangi, near Warkworth, north of Auckland.
Houghton had been scoping the project, and during his research decided on using SIPs panels – pre-fabricated structural insulated panels – for the build to optimise the home’s thermal performance. But building companies advised it would be cheaper to build with standard construction.
But when the price for that – built to Houghton’s performance specifications – came back at $6000 a square metre, Plan C was called for.
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Houghton’s wife reverted to the plan of moving a villa on to the land, but they couldn’t find one suitable. Houghton also said, after owning a 140-year-old house for 14 years, he was keen to get his weekends back.
Plan D was back to a high performance home, built with SIPs panels and airtight construction, but with a mono-pitch roof contour rather than gabled.
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The three-bedroom house is 120 square metres in a simple shape typical of energy-efficient builds.
The family had decided to downsize from their 250m² home of 14 years in Wainui, in the Rodney district north of Auckland, as three of their four children had left home, and they were noticing “urban creep” in the area.
“It was the three of us rattling around in a big old house that was an absolute nightmare to keep warm,” Houghton says.
“The brief from my wife was to be able to keep warm in the house, and for it to be industrial, agricultural, concrete polished floors, maybe iron.”
She also wanted plenty of land to be able to graze her own horses on the property.
RAY WHITE
Houghton’s former home in Wainui, built in the 1880s, was relocated from a site next to Greenlane Hospital.
Houghton, a civil engineer, has worked for decades as a construction planner for heavy industrial projects including chemical plants, hospitals, shopping centres and super yachts. The biggest project he’s worked on “had 5500 people on site” – a $7 billion nuclear power station in the UK.
While this project was “small fry” in comparison, he was able to use some of his experience in residential apartment construction to optimise the home’s operation on a small footprint.
The three bedroom, two-bathroom (main and an ensuite) home covers only 120m² – the couple sought resource consent for two builds on the land and this is the smaller “worker’s cottage” which had that maximum size specified. They don’t have immediate plans to build another house.
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Richard Houghton’s new home in Mahurangi, north of Auckland, is a complete contrast to his last historic home.
Houghton, his wife and son, lived in portacoms on the property for two and a half years before the house was built, which was no picnic.
It was “freezing in the winter and boiling hot in summer”, Houghton says.
“My son would turn his aircon on, and it sounded like a jet plane landing. The family were about ready to kill me by the time it was time to move out.”
The new house is sited to take advantage of the views and sun, looking out over rolling hills to the north. The kitchen is on the southeast corner and gets the morning sun.
The house has a Lunos “through-the-wall” heat recovery ventilation system, which provides fresh air while “recycling” the heat.
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“The walls in our place went up in two days and the roof was on in another two days,” says Houghton.
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The home has a fully insulated slab, using QuickSet foundations.
The house has 53m² of windows. “To the north, we have big overhangs,” Houghton says, “so we get the winter warmth on the concrete slab when the sun is low, but in the summer it won’t heat the home.”
Would he like to see more people building with SIPs panels?
“Absolutely. One of the considerations through doing the job I do was always to find smarter, faster ways of doing things, and because they are preformed panels, that just need to be locked together, there’s a lot less wastage.
“The walls in our place went up in two days and the roof was on in another two days. Apart from the windows, we had a fully enclosed building in four days.”
IMAGES BY LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF
Davy’s new home is made from recycled timber and power poles found on demolition sites.
The family has been in the home since mid-May and find it “very liveable”.
In terms of how it looks, Houghton likes the way it “hunkers down into the rural landscape”, but its main benefit is being warm and dry.
“What we’ve built is really comfortable, well-functioning,” he says. “It doesn’t have the features of a villa, but it’s really comfortable to live in.
“One of Nina’s friends who lives in a little old villa said to her: ‘Don’t you feel robbed not having your villa?’ She asked, ‘What do you do when you get home?’ and the friend said: ‘I put a big thick jumper on, get the fire going, and try to warm up.’ Nina says, ‘I get home, open the door and strip down to a T-shirt.’ It’s so damn warm.”
“A cold morning here is probably 18 or 19 degrees.”
Build details
- Architect: John Twigg from Plan:It Architecture
- Structural Insulated Panels from NZSIP, Cromwell
- Structural design services for SIP superstructure: Healthy Home Cooperation
- Slab: Cupolex with QuickSet permanent formwork
- Walls: 115mm NZSIP
- Roof: 165mm NZSIP
*Richard Houghton’s home will be open to the public as part of the Superhome Movement’s annual tours on September 24 and 25.
Downsizing but upgrading: From a 250sqm, two-storey 1880s villa to a new build half the size & Latest News Update
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