AU2011101242A4

AU2011101242A4 - Prefabricated House

Info

Publication number: AU2011101242A4
Application number: AU2011101242A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Rufus Harold Harding
Original assignee: QUICKSMART HOLDINGS Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Twynam Qsh Holdings Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2010-12-02
Filing date: 2011-09-27
Publication date: 2011-11-03
Anticipated expiration: 2019-09-27

Abstract

A method of building a prefabricated house, wherein a first module sized and shaped to that of a standard ISO shipping container is initially placed on a building foundation. The first module contains only wet areas of the prefabricated house and all internal plumbing of the wet areas 5 within the first module is completed offsite. A plurality of second modules containing only non-wet areas of the prefabricated house are subsequently adjoined or abutted to the first module. ELl El 5/8) (N

Description

1 PREFABRICATED HOUSE TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a prefabricated house and a method for building same. In 5 particular the present invention is directed to a "wet area modular unit" that significantly reduces the labour required and overall cost in constructing single dwelling prefabricated houses. BACKGROUND 10 Prefabricated housing has been known for many years. One of the well known types of single dwelling prefabricated housing is modular housing. Modular housing typically involves a single-storey or two-storey house constructed in a factory and shipped to site. These houses are usually designed and constructed in a small variety of layouts and models and generally do not leave much scope for a customer to modify the design of the home to their preference. 15 Such houses generally require substantial finishing work on-site involving all the trades, a foundation and significant construction time. Attempts have been made to utilize prefabricated modules which are factory built and shippable within standard international container (ISO) dimensions. However, in constructing 20 prefabricated houses they also suffer from not giving the customer much scope to modify the design of the home to their preference. Attempts have been made to provide flexibility of customer selected layout. One type of prefabricated modular house system which allows the customer to select from a variety of 25 layouts is that shown in US Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0059792 (Tiramani) which utilises modules having foldable panels. In this system, like other prior art modules, the core modules have included "wet areas" together with other non-wet area living areas. For example in the abovementioned US Patent Application a core module is shown in Figure 8, which has within it "wet areas" namely, bathroom area, laundry area, kitchen area in 30 combination with "dry areas" namely a living room area, dining room area, staircase, etc. By putting these wet areas in a single core module it lends itself to ease of plumbing connection when the module is placed on site. Whilst this arrangement does give some flexibility in housing design, it places the "wet areas" in a fixed space on the module and utilises foldable 2 panels to create the dry areas of living space. In order for the core module to be transportable, it must be compressed to its "ISO shipping configuration" for transportation. When the core module reaches the building site the foldable panels must be mechanically opened to form the living space. This arrangement where both "wet areas" and "dry areas" are included in the 5 compressible core (or primary) module makes the actual module complex and expensive to manufacture. Another disadvantage of the abovementioned prior art, is that generally all of modules are sourced from the one supplier. This can add considerable "materials handling" costs if the all 10 the modules are sourced from one supplier, as they may all originate from a source that is quite remote from the building site. It would be advantageous to have a prefabricated house made of modular units, where the normally expensive part of a house is mass produced in modular unit form in a single location, is whilst the less expensive part of the house may be sourced closer to the building site. The present invention seeks to overcome at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art. For the purposes of this specification a "prefabricated house" is a single dwelling substantially 20 manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. For the purposes of this specification the "wet areas" of a house or prefabricated house, are those areas which require the provision and removal of water, namely the kitchen, laundry, 25 bathroom and en-suite areas. SUMMARY OF INVENTION In a first aspect, the present invention consists in a method of building a prefabricated house, wherein at least a first module sized and shaped to that of a standard ISO shipping container is 30 initially placed on building foundation, said first module contains only wet areas of said prefabricated house and all internal plumbing of said wet areas within said first module is completed offsite, and wherein a plurality of second modules containing only non-wet areas of said prefabricated house are subsequently adjoined or abutted to said first module.

3 Preferably said first module contains all of the wet areas of said prefabricated house. Preferably said wet areas can be used once a water inlet and a sewage outlet are connected to said first module. In a second aspect, the present invention consists in a wet area modular unit for a prefabricated 5 house, said wet area modular unit comprises a standard ISO shipping container which contains only wet areas of said prefabricated house and all internal plumbing of said wet areas is completed offsite, such that in use said wet area modular unit is adapted for transportation to a building site and placed on a foundation for subsequent interconnection with at least one non wet area modular unit placed on said foundation to form said prefabricated house. 10 Preferably said wet area modular unit comprises all the wet areas of said prefabricated house. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a front perspective view of a first preferred embodiment of a wet area modular unit for a prefabricated house in accordance with the present invention. 15 Fig. 2 is a rear perspective view of the wet area modular unit shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a front elevation view of the wet area modular unit shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a floor plan schematic of the wet area modular unit shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a prefabricated house using the wet area modular unit shown in Fig. 1. 20 Fig. 6 is a floor plan schematic of the prefabricated house shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of a prefabricated house using the wet area modular unit shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 8 is a floor plan schematic of the prefabricated house shown in Fig. 7. 25 DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Figs 1 to 4 depict a primary module 10 for use in constructing a prefabricated house. Primary module 10 comprises all the "wet areas" of a house, namely it comprises a kitchen 11, laundry 12, bathroom 13 and en-suite 14. A feature of this module 10 is that it only comprises "wet areas" and does not comprise "dry areas" of the house. 30 4 Figs 5 and 6 depict depict a first embodiment of a two bedroom prefabricated house 1, made substantially of modules constructed offsite, shipped to a building site and assembled on a prepared building foundation (not shown). The most important module is primary module 10. The "dry areas" 5(a)-(d) of the house, namely decking, living/dining areas, bedrooms etc, are 5 provided in a plurality of secondary modules. Primary module 10 is sized and shaped to that of a standard ISO shipping container so that it may be handled and shipped utilising standard ISO shipping container infrastructure and transportation. It is preferably manufactured in a factory and all the internal plumbing of the 10 wet areas is completed offsite. In order to build (or construct) house 1, primary module 10 would be shipped from the factory to a building site and placed on the prepared building foundation. As all the internal plumbing was completed offsite, the only on-site plumbing required is to connect the water inlet and 15 drainage/sewage outlet to primary module 1, thereby making the wet areas operational from a plumbing perspective. Once primary module 10 is placed and secured in its required orientation on the foundation, it becomes the central reference point of construction, with its sides and edges acting as 20 "reference markers" for further construction. The remaining secondary modules comprising the "dry areas" are built around primary module 10 by adjoining and/or abutting them thereto. As can be seen in Fig. 6, the dry areas include, decking 5(a), combined living and dining room 5(b), master bedroom 5(c) and second bedroom 5(d). 25 The connection of the water inlet and drainage/sewage outlet to primary module 1 may be carried out either before or after the secondary modules 5(a)-(d) comprising the "dry areas" are built around primary module 10. The "wet areas" are typically the most expensive components of a house. By placing all of and 30 only the "wet areas" in the primary module 10 it can be mass produced in a factory, with all plumbing done at the factory, and then readily shipped. This means that the most expensive part of the house is mass produced in a single modular unit. The mass produced primary module 10 can then be used with a variety of house plans. For example, the same primary 5 module 10 used for prefabricated house 1 can be used in a variety of house plan layouts. For example, a second embodiment of a three bedroom prefabricated house 2 utilising the same primary module 10 as the first embodiment, but with a different layout is shown in Figs 7 and 8. In house 2, the dry areas 5 include, decking 5(e), living room 5(f), dining room 5(g), 5 master bedroom 5(i), second bedroom 5(h) and third bedroom 5(j). It should be understood that third bedroom 5(j) may be for some other use such as a study and/or entertainment room. To highlight the flexibility of the present primary module 10, it should be noted that in the first embodiment prefabricated house 1 as shown in Fig 6, the combined living and 10 dining room 5(b) is on one side of kitchen 11 of primary module 10. However, in the second embodiment prefabricated house 2 as shown in Fig 8, the living room 5(g) and dining room 5(g) are on opposite sides of kitchen 11 of primary module 10. Detail options on primary module 10, such as colours and styles of cupboard doors, may be is customized when the primary module 10 is manufactured, if required. By having the primary module 10 with all of and only the "wet areas" of a house in a single ISO shipping container sized unit, which could also be referred to as "wet area modular unit for a prefabricated house", the flexibility of housing layouts is considerable. Also, the 20 advantage of excluding dry areas 5 from the primary module 10 is that the available space of the primary module 10 is more effectively utilized. Whilst it may be preferable to have secondary "dry area" modules capable of being handled and transported using standard ISO shipping container infrastructure and transportation, they 25 do not need to be. For example, some of these dry area modules may be constructed from pre prepared wall sections. An example of the flexibility of using primary module 10 is where prefabricated houses are being sold Australia wide. Primary module 10, may be mass produced in a single factory 30 location, either locally or overseas, and supplied directly to a building site for use by builders anywhere in Australia, whilst the secondary modules that make up the "dry areas" of those prefabricated houses, for example, may be made specifically for a layout that suits the environment and climate of the building site. This means that prefabricated houses being built 6 in tropical Queensland and the high country of Victoria may use the same primary modules 10. However, the secondary modules, which are the cheaper modules, may be made to suit the local environment and not necessarily supplied from a similar source. For example, the secondary modules may possibly be manufactured locally or closer to the particular 5 building site. House builders may choose to select pre-prepared prefabricated house layouts utilising primary module 10 and available secondary modules. Alternatively, builders may modify pre prepared prefabricated house layouts utilising primary module 10, to suit a local site 10 environment, or alternatively create their own house design around the primary module 10. It should be understood that in other not shown embodiments, primary module 10 may have a different configuration of "wet areas", so long as only "wet areas" are contained in the module. For example, for a simpler house, the primary module may only include a kitchen, is laundry and bathroom. The terms "comprising" and "including" (and their grammatical variations) as used herein are used in an inclusive sense and not in the exclusive sense of "consisting only of'.

Claims

1. A method of building a prefabricated house, wherein a first module sized and shaped to that of a standard ISO shipping container is initially placed on a building foundation, said 5 first module contains only wet areas of said prefabricated house and all internal plumbing of said wet areas within said first module is completed offsite, and wherein a plurality of second modules containing only non-wet areas of said prefabricated house are subsequently adjoined or abutted to said first module.

2. A method of building a prefabricated house as claimed in claim 2, wherein said first 10 module contains all of the wet areas of said prefabricated house.

3. A method of building a prefabricated house as claimed in claims 1 or 2, wherein said wet areas can be used once a water inlet and a sewage outlet are connected to said first module.

4. A wet area modular unit for a prefabricated house, said wet area modular unit comprises a standard ISO shipping container which contains only wet areas of said prefabricated house 15 and all internal plumbing of said wet areas is completed offsite, such that in use said wet area modular unit is adapted for transportation to a building site and placed on a foundation for subsequent interconnection with at least one non-wet area modular unit placed on said foundation to form said prefabricated house.

5. A wet area modular unit for a prefabricated house as claimed in claim 5, wherein said wet 20 area modular unit comprises all the wet areas of the prefabricated house.