A smart future
New weatherboard house in Westmere with Smartfit® windows and doors, featuring decorative facing boards for a character look.
A two-storey duplex by Fletcher Living using panelised construction, erected in one day, featuring factory-installed Smartfit® windows.
Close-up cutaway detail showing the Smartfit® Top Hub with built-in cavity closer, head flashing, end dams and face fixing fin.
Partner content: Altus looks at Smartfit®, an easy to install, ready-to-fit cassette window system. The windows arrive with built-in head flashings, jamb flashings, cavity closers, end dams, sill support bars and clever water management features.
QUICK AND EASY
Smartfit® is a ready-to-install cassette window that is BRANZ appraised, CodeMark certified, and provides superior weathertightness. Because it comes with all components that would typically be built in separately, it is so easy to install that even a novice could do it.
Smartfit® is the perfect solution for a panelised manufacturing model as the windows and doors are face fixed, so you only need access from one side, with no need for PEF rods or expanding foam.
Not bad for a product that works out more cost effective through the whole build process.
SMARTFIT PREFAB FIT
Off-site, panelised construction is a crucial part of the government’s new KiwiBuild scheme to build 100,000 new homes in the next decade. Factories such as Christchurch’s Spanbild-Concision factory are working full steam ahead, where panelised technology will ensure thousands of homes can get built a year, instead of dozens.
Housing Minister Phil Twyford states that “the learnings from off-site manufacturing around the world is that you can deliver far better quality, faster, at a more competitive price.”
Smartfit® shows that there is room for innovation in the construction industry – we just have to be brave enough to challenge the status quo.
Visit altuswindows.co.nz/smartfit for more information.
ArchitectureNow works with a range of partners in the A&D supply sector to source appropriate content for the site. This article has been supported by Altus and first appeared in Architecture New Zealand magazine.
