Locals win prestigious award

Kangaroo Island builders Luke and Sharon Kauppila are celebrating an extraordinary win at the Master Builders’ Association annual awards last week.

It is the first time Kauppila General Builders has entered the awards.

Ms Kauppila explained the award was not just for the housing construction but also took into consideration erosion, site management regarding waste materials and the builder’s environmental policy.

She also acknowledged the support of the clients, who wanted their property to “tick all the boxes” on sustainability.

The house includes a number of rammed earth walls, polished concrete floors with floor to ceiling glass in key rooms, double glazing on northern and western glassed areas, high Rvalue wall and roof insulation, cross ventilation windows and external airflow louvres.

A solar tube hot water system with LPG boost has been installed.

A non-mechanical worm farm system was built to disperse all waste water on the property and stormwater swales were established to minimise erosion and runoff to the sea.

Kauppila General Builders has been operating on the island for 10 years, splitting its efforts between residential and commercial work.

“We love the industry and we’re passionate about maintaining standards in all of our building work, no matter what the budget is,” Ms Kauppila said.

She said they had put a lot of effort into becoming pre-qualified for Category Four work through the State Government.

The company recently completed the new food processing building at Parndana Campus and the first food preparation lesson was held there last week. Work continues on the civil construction training centre, also at Parndana.

“When on-island builders can tender for this kind of work it benefits the whole community by keeping jobs and therefore money here,” Mr Kauppila said.