Local carpenters 'retooled' to work on steel-framed homes
The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is committed to building at least 10,000 new homes over the next five years if re-elected, and the use of pre-engineered steel-frame houses will be an integral part of that undertaking.
This was revealed this afternoon by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley while touring one of the first prefabricated steel-frame houses from China under construction at Scott’s Gap, Britton's Hill, St Michael in the company of Dr William Duguid, Kirk Humphrey and Marsha Caddle.
“The commitment of this Government with respect to being able to provide at least 10,000 houses in the next five years is a real, real commitment, and this is the evidence of it,” Mottley said.
“I wish we [had] another two weeks … then you could see the entire house completed. But I think you can see enough here, both inside and outside, of what we are doing.”
The house the Prime Minister toured is the 850 square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bathroom model, but she explained that Barbadians would be able to purchase homes of varying sizes, which will be offered as single dwellings, quads, and duplexes.
“What is impressive to me is that the Barbadian workers who have worked on this project have mastered the technique of installation. We have local companies already in it who are working in a joint and collaborative approach with the Chinese company that has been doing it.”
According to the Prime Minister, the steel-framed houses are cool due to improved ventilation, fireproof, and hurricane resistant, allowing the Government to achieve its roof-to-reefs standards.
“I asked for a lot of windows because I really do believe that low-income and lower-middle-income housing in the Caribbean remains too hot with too little ventilation,” she added, “and that is one of the fundamental reasons why blocks exist — there is not enough room and not enough ventilation in our houses.
“Then, of course, it is fireproof in the sense that you are not going to see the house engulfed in fire in the way you would with a chattel house ... when in ten or 15 minutes the whole house is razed to the ground.”
The contractor building the Britton's Hill house, Nicholas Belle, of Light Gauge Solutions, explained they had completed more than 90 per cent of the work in just two and a half weeks, working with local carpenters and masons who had been “retooled” for the project.
The design, he explained, which included the use of bolts and screws rather than nails, would allow the houses to stand up to Category-3 hurricanes. The pre-engineering process, he added, removed much of the potential for human error during construction.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mottley noted that now that officials had been able to examine this home, it appeared that the concrete foundations might have been “over-engineers”, a conclusion that could allow cost savings in future construction.
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