Truely healthy homes.

What we do: Healthy Homes

For a house to be truly healthy, we believe it must be able to enhance both the physical and mental wellbeing of its occupants.

Through a thoughtful and deliberate design-led approach we make sure daylight, privacy, and accessibility are central to all FLiP homes. Building science informs our construction approach to ensure a healthy and resilient building. This results in internal environments that are warm, comfortable, quiet, and full of clean, filtered fresh air.

The result; smart, functional homes that don’t waste an inch of land or footprint, uplift the spirit and provide space for life to take place.

 

New Zealanders are living in damp, mouldy and poorly ventilated homes. These homes are making us sick and, in some cases, killing us. Along with this, because of a lack of supply and increasing unaffordability, finding a home in NZ (healthy or not) has been labelled a human rights crisis.

At FLiP Homes we don’t just build for a purpose, but we were founded for a purpose.

Why is a FLiP Home different?

 

 

Why are our walls different?

The walls of all FLiP homes are slightly different to most new houses built today. Their first job is to keep water out. Our claddings are installed over a drained and vented cavity, meaning any water that sneaks past the primary cladding doesn’t go any further - keeping your walls free from moisture.

A Rigid Air Barrier (commonly referred to as RAB) or better known as a plywood skin, is then installed to the outside of the framing meaning your walls are super strong (wind and earthquakes!) and protected even further from external moisture.

 
 

 
 

Insulation and Air Tightness

The walls of all FLiP homes are slightly different to most new houses built today. Their first job is to keep water out. Our claddings are installed over a drained and vented cavity, meaning any water that sneaks past the primary cladding doesn’t go any further - keeping your walls free from moisture.

A Rigid Air Barrier (commonly referred to as RAB) or better known as a plywood skin, is then installed to the outside of the framing meaning your walls are super strong (wind and earthquakes!) and protected even further from external moisture.

Our primary structural framing is then filled with insulation (to keep you warm) before a second layer of framing is installed as a service cavity. This is for all your plumbing and electrical and a little bit more insulation. In between these two walls is a smart membrane (air tightness layer) which helps to significantly reduce air leakage, meaning we can seal warm air inside in summer and trap the cool air in winter - less time spent heating and cooling!

 
 

Why are our homes healthier than others?

  • 1. Site Response

    No FLiP home is ever the same, neither are the sites that they are built on. Our design team are experts at understanding all the unique elements each site has to offer and how to best bring these together. We will consider access, parking for cars (or bikes!), privacy, connection to community, sunshine and shading, vegetation, views and prevailing winds.

  • 2. Windows

    The current practice of window installation in New Zealand, leaves them subject to significant heat loss, and at risk of condensation. FLiP homes alleviate this risk by recessing our windows into the line of the insulation. As well as double glazing being standard, we only use thermally broken window frames, which stops condensation forming on the interior side of the window frame.

  • 3. Ventilation

    FLiP homes recommend all homes are fitted with a mechanical ventilation system (aka. ERV – Energy Recovery Ventilator). Ventilation systems remove stale and humid air from inside the home, replacing it with fresh and filtered air from the outside. This keeps your home warm, dry, healthy and free from other pollutants, such as pollen.

    Ventilation systems (ERV) use clever, but amazingly simple, technology to capture the warmth from the inside air and transfer it to the fresh and often cooler air coming in from the outside. This further reduces the need to heat your home, and best of all ventilation systems are very economical to run.

  • 4. Shading

    Shading is often overlooked in modern homes, how we shade on the exterior effects our interior. Like a car left in the sun gets stifling hot, new homes built today are much the same. Because we build our homes airtight and with more insulation, they can become very hot. Science and common sense tells us the best way to prevent over heating is to keep the sun off the glass in the first place. Luckily for us the sun is predictable, and our houses don’t move. Thoughtful shading using external shading devices keep the sun out of the house when the sun is high in summer, and lets it in when it’s lower in winter.

  • 5. Walls

    The walls of all FLiP homes are slightly different to most new houses built today. Their first job is to keep water out. Our claddings are installed over a drained and vented cavity, meaning any water that sneaks past the primary cladding doesn’t go any further - keeping your walls free from moisture.

    A Rigid Air Barrier (commonly referred to as RAB) or better known as a plywood skin, is then installed to the outside of the framing meaning your walls are super strong (wind and earthquakes!) and protected even further from external moisture.

  • 6. Insulation & Air Tightness

    Our primary structural framing is then filled with insulation (to keep you warm) before a second layer of framing is installed as a service cavity. This is for all your plumbing and electrical and a little bit more insulation. In between these two walls is a smart membrane (air tightness layer) which helps to significantly reduce air leakage, meaning we can seal warm air inside in summer and trap the cool air in winter - less time spent heating and cooling!