| 93 T T Sue Russell Healthy portable homes Able Spaces’ clients can choose from a number of plans, all able to be modified, ranging from studio to four bedroom homes. Able Spaces: Pukerua Bay BUILDING With a vision, born out of a strong belief that a better, more healthy, more sustainable solution could be found to meet growing demand for quality housing, Norma McCarty established Wellington-based Able Spaces in 2017. As a professional women with a wealth of experience behind her, Norma was concerned at the less than top quality offering in the transportable housing sector available for people to choose from, so she set about creating a building system, using the best possible building materials. “I had entered into a License Agreement to build a range of portable prefabricated buildings back in 2015 and quickly saw the limitations of this arrangement from a business perspective and also from a quality perspective. I wanted to have the freedom to steer my own ship and create a housing product I was proud of,” says Norma. Key to progressing the vision was sourcing a structural building panel that would deliver on strength, flexibility, aesthetic quality, durability and ease of use in the building process. After researching the market Norma found what she was looking for, delivering all these benefits, in Durapanel™, a structural panel system which replaces the traditional stickframe or steel-frame structure and plasterboard for the internal lining. Able Spaces is based at its new manufacturing plant in Trentham, Wellington, where clients can select from a number of plans, all able to be modified, ranging from studio to four bedroom homes. Each home comes with full consenting and code of compliance and clients can choose to have Able Spaces project manage the whole build, through to settling on a site, or engage their own on-site team to take care of placement of the home on their section. “Rightly or wrongly I never liked the idea you have to have A, B or C in the transportable home sector. I wanted my customers to feel empowered and free to create their own bespoke design.” And in recognition of their values and success, Able Spaces entered the Wellington Gold Awards twice in 2019 and 2021 both times winning outright in the ‘Emerging Gold Products’ category, an achievement Norma is very proud of. The business also launched its ‘kitset’ offering last year to provide customers with difficult access with an affordable home option. “It’s another way for us to offer customers choice. If they purchase a kitset, we have contract builders who can assemble it on site, or they can use their own builder.” When Council consent has been granted, construction of a dwelling takes a maximum of 8 weeks in the Able Spaces workshop. Key to achieving this time-frame is having all your ducks in a row when it comes to ensuring all materials, fixtures and fittings in the home are at the factory site prior to construction starting. “Everything in the build process is scheduled. I put it into a system with all my contractors. It works really well for us and them as they know what is coming up and can plan their business activity around our build.” Norma is a firm believer in the place of the transportable homes have an important place in the greater residential build market. Huge increases in building costs over the last few years have created the perfect storm where demand for good quality housing and the reality of what many can afford drift further apart. Transportable homes can close this gap. By using Durapanel™ structural panels it is typical to stand all exterior and interior walls up in one day. “Then the next day we’re on to the ceiling and trusses. If you were to walk into one of our homes you would think its Gib on the walls. The best thing we did was to move to Durapanel™ in 2022. You can nail and screw into the panel, which gives owners so much more freedom as to creating wall fixtures and fittings and personalising their design.” The company’s new site is just under 6,000sqm and it is also home to a new showhome to provide prospective clients with an example of the standards Able Spaces builds to. “We use the show-home as our office. I feel really blessed to be able to work in such cool facilities.” Norma says the business couldn’t have got off to a better start and she’s positive, with the groundwork done and with an eye toward continual improvement, Able Spaces will remain a very attractive, value-driven choice for home-owners to consider. NEBULITE WELLINGTON 5 Manchester Street, Paraparaumu 04 298 3736 | info@nebulitewellington.co.nz W I NDOW AND DOOR S O L U T I ONS ® We have a proud history of supplying our customers with high quality aluminium windows & doors.
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