The future is here, and houses can now be built in a matter of hours with 3D printers.
That’s a seriously speedy construction job.
Nonprofit group Habitat for Humanity recently partnered with the 3D-printing company Alquist to print a home for Williamsburg, Virginia resident — and now, a homeowner — April Springfield. The printing of Springfield’s new three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,200-square-foot home’s liquid concrete foundation took just 12 hours. Usually, the process of constructing a home’s foundation takes about four weeks, SWNS reported.
Springfield helped subsidize the cost of her new home by helping construct it, a key tenant of Habitat for Humanity’s home-building program in the area: The houses are assembled cooperatively, in a joint effort between buyers, volunteers and house sponsors.
Indeed, Springfield said she put at least 300 hours of “sweat equity” into building the house, which was finally unveiled to her and her 13-year-old son this month. The collaborative arrangement also made homeownership a reality for Springfield, who makes less than 80 percent of the area’s median income at her job as a local hotel’s laundry facilities supervisor.
And should anything within her home from electrical outlets to doorknobs break, Springfield has been provided with her own 3D printer, to reprint new ones.