Photo courtesy EGGER As competition across the housing industry intensifies, it’s time to take advantage of time-saving products and services to improve your onsite eciency. After several consecutive years of sustained growth in the housing industry, recent changes in market conditions have translated into a slight decline in new home sales. HIA Economics recorded a fall of 2.9 per cent from January to June this year (compared to the last six months of 2017), and is forecasting a ‘modest decline’ for the remainder of the year. However, building activity continues to boom – especially in centres outside of Sydney and Melbourne – and in June 2018, the number of new home approvals rose by four per cent. Together, these conflicting figures show that many housing professionals across the country are operating in an increasingly competitive market, where the supply/demand equation has almost reached saturation point. As the market evolves and economic pressures increase, home builders can safeguard their competitive advantage by streamlining processes and prioritising quality. Get a head-start on your builds by choosing smart, innovative building systems, high-performance, dual-purpose products, and leveraging tech tools that can simultaneously speed up construction and deliver a high quality finish. By helping you improve operational efficiencies, these measures can dramatically reduce your labour costs, and allow building you to price more competitively. Structural solutions During construction, choosing products that go essentials together quickly can simplify the building process. EGGER OS’Brace 6mm bracing panels are trusted® by builders to provide a safe and easy solution for fast and uncomplicated construction. & smart solutions The panel size fits neatly to the timber frame construction used in the Australian building industry, meaning installation is quick and straightforward. Established as an effective bracing solution, the OS’Brace panels are engineered and tested to® comply with the relevant structural performance requirements of the National Construction Code, Suited to a wide variety of building solutions, the WHEN WORKING WITH and have been working well on Australian building panels have a full cross-sectional treatment against AN EBP, THE SELECTION sites for more than 15 years. termite attack so they can be used in all regions OF THE CORRECT EGGER OS’Brace is a resin-bonded, three-layer® of Australia. The high-quality, moisture-resistant COMPONENTS FOR THE wood material board created from specially oriented and innovative structural panels are designed and SPECIFIC APPLICATION strands of wood. EGGER explains that separate manufactured specifically for the Australian building IS CRITICAL strand processing for the core and surface layers, a and construction industry. special strand geometry, and a high level of orientationFor many builders, Engineered Building Products of the surface strands all optimise the structural (EBPs) offer the combined benefits of structural performance and physical appearance of OS’Brace.® integrity and streamlined construction. However, The orientation of the strands creates a performance when working with EBPs, the selection of the correct which is greater than required for strength and application-specific components is critical. To save stiffness properties between centre to centre of joists,you time and ensure peace of mind, MiTek has plus, depending on the application, it can provide developed the EasyCat App, which takes the hard bracing solutions for up to 6kn of pressure. work and confusion out of choosing the right EBPs. SEPTEMBER 2018 HOUSING 85 BUILDING ESSENTIALS • FEATURE PROMOTION