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The Building System is a made up of floor, wall and roof components, precision-engineered and manufactured in a factory and shipped by container to your site. Homes can be assembled with minimal site disturbance.

The galvanized steel support columns are embedded in concrete-filled foundation holes that can be hand excavated. The steel floor joists are all pre-cut eliminating material storage and cutting areas. The pre-assembled wall sections are hand carried to the site and then bolted to either the steel joist floor or a concrete slab, reducing the need for extensive access roads and most heavy equipment. The workers can easily install the roof trusses without the use of a crane. Since most of the components are pre-cut there is almost no waste during construction. All of these features of the system help preserve the site's natural beauty and the country's ecosystem.

Flooring System

In areas where a concrete foundation is expensive or difficult to engineer, the flooring system is an excellent alternative. Two precision-engineered galvanized steel components, a bearer and a joist, are the essential elements of the Flooring System

The system is supported on steel stumps set in concrete footings.

Floor bearers are provided with pre-punched holes for ease and simplicity of on-site assembly, and the steel floor joists nest securely inside the structural bearers. Floor sections come in multiple module (one meter) lengths.

When all bearers and joists have been bolted and screwed together, floor sheeting is fixed to the frame. Particleboard, plywood or a fiber-cement sheet can be utilized for the sub-floor sheeting.

The system can be quickly adjusted to suit sloping terrain. In desert or tropical areas, the floor allows important ventilation. The steel columns and cross bracing are very resilient in areas that suffer from earth tremors or flooding.

Wall System

The Wall System is advanced modular technology. The frame of each panel is composed of two simple steel components. One pair of each of these components, tab-locks together to form a rectangular frame. Fiber-cement sheets are then bonded to the frame, and a non-toxic polyurethane foam containing a fire retardant is injected into the panel. This completely fills the wall panel cavity to provide an impact-resistant panel with the thermal insulation properties of a brick wall 1.5 meters thick. The system includes two types of modular panels. One type is for interior use: the other for exterior.

Each wall panel has a 2-inch vertical chase pipe to simplify electrical installation. Wall panels attach to concrete slab foundations by special anchor brackets that are bolted into the floor with a special high-strength epoxy mixture.

When utilizing the floor system, wall panels are secured into pre-punched holes in the steel bearers with anchor brackets and bolts.

Two bolts join wall panels together - one at the top and another at the bottom. Standard wall panels are 1 or 2 meters wide and 2.4, 2.7 or 3.0 meters tall. For flexibility of design, doorway, window and other joinery panels are offered in a wide variety of sizes and are a standard feature of the Wall System.

The vertical edges of the interior wall panels are beveled. A gypsum compound is applied to the seams for a smooth interior wall finish. For situations where the wall panels will be taken down and re-assembled on another site, a PVC jointer strip is used to finish the interior wall surfaces.

A roof truss bracket with a threaded rod, washer and nut connects the wall panels quickly and securely to the roof truss. Once installed, exterior wall panels are ready to paint. Texture coating, plaster rendering or brick veneer are among the broad range of exterior options.

Roofing System

The Roofing System consists of strong, lightweight galvanized steel sections. All sections nest together to allow effective mechanical jointing. No welding is used and protective coatings remain fully intact, minimizing the possibility of corrosion. Roof truss components are pre-cut, pre-drilled, labeled and nested together for shipping economy and ease of assembly on site.

Roof trusses are bolted to the wall panels by special brackets designed to safeguard the roof against winds of up to 165 mph or 255 kmh.

Ceiling battens feature a pre-punched tab that allows them to be quickly snapped into position onto the flanges of the bottom chord of all trusses in preparation for ceiling linings.

Purlins are fixed on top of the trusses with self-drilling screws and allow for the use of a variety of conventional roof sheetings. Pre-painted galvanized roof sheets are securely anchored with up-lift resistant cyclone washers and pre-painted screws.

Fascia and guttering are easily clipped onto a special bracket attached to the roof truss, providing a clean, unbroken exterior finish

This Building System represents one of the most comprehensive pre-engineered building systems ever to be marketed globally. Engineers have long recognized the benefits of pre-engineered building systems where components are designed and fabricated to precision in a workshop environment under controlled conditions. This is the ideal dream of most engineers who constantly grapple with quality control issues in the field on building projects.
Most persons are by now aware of the pre-engineered steel frame type industrial buildings commonly used across the Caribbean. However, this system has taken this concept to a totally new height by offering residential and commercial buildings of the highest structural quality and finish, containerized and shipped ready for erection.
The system has been researched, developed and rigorously field tested under actual design conditions in Australia, Hawaii and the Caribbean. The level of structural analysis and detail normally produced for one of these buildings was found to be exceptional although this serves to confirm the quality of the product.
In addition, these buildings are supplied with a warranty against failure due to Wind or Seismic Loads, in itself an indication that the company is prepared to use their money to guarantee their product.
It is our opinion that the this Building System offers the consumer a structure of the very highest quality able to withstand the forces of nature often encountered within the Caribbean area in the likes of Hurricanes and earthquakes.
Moreover, the structural integrity of the system is ensured by their insistence that the components be erected under the supervision of a certified supervisor.

Conclusions & Recommendations
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This superstructure offers a quality assurance and a speed of erection that can't be matched by the locally constructed home. These qualities must be considered as an important part of the Lifecycle Cost of a home as the savings in the insurance premium and interest charges on the initial loan are not insignificant.

We recommend that two or three Model Homes be constructed as a pilot project to test market response and also to allow a detailed cost analysis of all aspects of a home construction using this system. It is also recommended that a comparative market assessment be made to establish the current market price of a similar 100 M² (1000 SF) home built using local methods.

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