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A curved mansion of straight and true LVL by Carter Holt Harvey This impressive residence in Whangaparoa is high on a cliff top with panoramic views of Auckland's harbour, overlooking the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. A home upward of $3 million to build, it is now claiming the name of best house in this up and coming area. It is the contemporary dream home designed by award winning architectural designer Don Nelson of Takapuna, and perfected using Hyspan Laminated Veneer Lumber and Hybeam Engineered I-Joists in its structure.
The Whangaparoa home sprawls over three levels and 800 square metres, with a sweeping curved design that includes curved glass in the windows. The top floor houses the master bedroom, ensuite and large balconies to maximise the view. The second floor comprises of living areas, large balconies and a self-contained granny flat. The lower floor contains a gym area, a large games/entertainment room opening out to the outdoor pool area. There is an impressive 'porte cochere' and entry with a curved stairway leading to upper and lower floors. The curve is carried through the entire structure, which presented a large challenge to builder Peter Broome of P J Broome Builders Ltd. of Browns Bay. While Broome specialises in homes at this end of the market, he needed to bring the architect's vision of boat shaped curved walls, decks and windows into being. The house is constructed around a framework of steel beams, curved horizontally where needed to form the complex shapes. Timber horizontal curves are formed using glue-laminated timber and by pro?le-cutting stress-graded timber wides. The upper floor, ceilings and roof structures use a combination of Hyspan and Hybeam. They were chosen for two main reasons. ?rstly they are stronger and stiffer than sawn timber, to provide the required spans within a limited floor or roof depth. The presence of a number of curved overhangs ensured that the LVL was 'working hard'. Secondly the LVL is straighter and more uniform than ordinary timber. The house features a number of large rooms and access spaces and LVL provided a structure that allowed a high quality of ?nish. For Broome this was the ideal choice. "Because they are engineered, they don't need to be as large or wide as other beams. With restricted height it helps because you can have longer spans. If these are continuous over two or more spans, it makes the beams stronger again. Conventional joists are up to 6 metres long whereas Hybeam joists are up to 12 metres long, this is a great difference." While this was the ?rst time Broome had built with the Carter Holt Harvey engineered building products, he was struck by the many advantages. Not only were the beams so much longer and stronger but they required less blocking, and installation of services was simple. The mid-floors are also more 'silent'. Even living in the most impressive homes of award winning design, people are not going to be happy getting up in the middle of the night and squeaking around the house. As Broome points out, for most people he builds homes for, their biggest complaint about their houses are the squeaking floors. Now introduced to LVL, Broome has discovered a simple way to help to eliminate this problem and will be using the materials again in future projects. Broome and his team also found Hybeam easy to work with because they don't warp or bow. In most packets of conventional timber that arrive on site there will be some beams that are faulty but because the LVL is man-made this takes the 'knots and the snakes' out of them. While Broome says the home is proceeding really well, he says it was a challenge as there is not a parallel line in the place. "I might have to buy the architect a set square," he laughs. 
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