Higgs Building Co

What is a high-performance home?

A homes function is to shelter you, keep you warm, and have the right spaces to suit your life.

A high-performance home is one that does this exceptionally, without requiring you to use heaps of energy heating and drying it. It’s built to be cooler in summer, and warmer in winter.

A Passive Home is the next level up and must be certified. It means your home is built to meet several energy-based criteria to achieve the passive house standard.

Both are a more efficient way of living, which makes for a healthier family, and less expensive power bills. In the long run, it also makes for a healthier environment by reducing energy consumption.

Current building standards aren’t up to scratch, leaving New Zealanders living in homes that are still cold and damp even when they’re new.

We are proud build partners with Formance NZ 

Formance Structural Insulated Panels, or SIPs are a high-performing building material for the ultimate energy-efficient home. We are proud to be a preferred builder for Formance.

What is a SIPs home?

Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are a proven, prefabricated building system that creates high-quality, energy-efficient, sustainable homes that can be built more quickly than homes built with traditional timber framing.

SIPs are an environmentally friendly and sustainable building alternative that provides excellent insulation - ensuring a warm, comfortable and healthy environment for you and your family.

Building a SIPs home is healthier for your family and reduces energy consumption.

Benefits of a SIPs Home.

Energy Efficient. Live comfortably and save money. SIPs are designed and built to reduce energy waste, lowering your energy bills and carbon emissions. Energy efficiency is effortlessly achieved with the SIPs, with skins of structural sheathing laminated on either side of a rigid foam core SIPs are strong, light, and incredibly well insulated. Reducing energy consumption means more money in your back pocket.

Faster Builds. SIPs can be a lot faster than traditional framing, particularly when you consider prenailed walls and roof sections. Formance prenail panels are assembled into larger sections at the Formance factory and supplied in walls, or sections of roof or ceiling. When delivered to site, these panels cleverer slot into each other quickly and efficiently.

Health and Well-being. Look after you and your whanaus health and well-being. A SIP framed house provides a healthier environment than an NZ Building Standard timber home.  A SIP home allows for better control over indoor air quality because the airtight building envelope limits incoming air to controlled ventilation. Controlled ventilation filters out contaminants and allergens, and also allows for incoming air to be dehumidified, reducing the possibility for mold growth. 

Eco-friendly homes. By drastically reducing heating and cooling requirements in a SIPs home, you're reducing your energy consumption. Formance SIPs use Oriented Strand Board sourced from responsibly managed forests. Around 85%-90% of the tree wood can be used to make high-quality structural panels, and the remaining wood (bark, saw trim & sawdust) can be converted into energy. While Formance SIPs do use Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), the Polystyrene is recyclable and it's the only rigid foam product that is. Production of the EPS panel core uses 24% less energy than fiberglass insulation of equivalent R-value. SIPs also have the ability to drastically reduce the waste generated during construction.

We are proud to be certified passive house builders, where we can guarantee our passive homes we build will keep you warm, comfortable and help you thrive. We are also members of the Passive House Institute NZ (PHINZ).

Our Certified Passive Homes are supremely comfortable and healthy. It will be 20-22 degrees inside all year round, in every part of the house. The air is always fresh. It never feels damp. The house has been built well, with quality fittings carefully assembled. All of this is verified by us and the Passive House Institute New Zealand (PHINZ). It’s a home in which your family will thrive.

Energy use in buildings contributes to our country’s carbon emissions. New Zealand has committed to being a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050. A Passive home is a significant way your family can do its bit towards reaching that goal.