About the company

Getaway Homes is a subsidiary of Total Home Frames.

Getaway Homes are an affordable range of homes designed to keep economies in mind. We use unique building techniques that enable us to pass savings onto the new home customer. Getaway Homes has been the pioneer of framed, pole and stumped home designs in Western Australia for many years. Our quality pole homes are built using engineered floor and roof trusses that are designed to be built strong giving the customer many advantages. On difficult building sites, our pole home designs, eliminate expensive earthwork costs and consequently have minimal impact on the environment.

Chris Zencich has been involved in the building industry for many decades. His vast experience includes sales and marketing, building and construction, drafting and design, and NatHERS energy efficiency rating. Chris designed and created most of the home designs available in our ranges today. Chris and Ken Paulsen (Kib Homes) have joined to create and build beautiful timber framed homes throughout Western Australia. Ken is the registered building practitioner and has vast experience building timber framed homes especially pole homes. He has been building timber framed homes for over three decades. Together they produce quality timber framed homes with many being constructed throughout the Perth metropolitan area and especially country Western Australia.

All our sales and design staff are HIA accredited.  They are there to ensure you achieve the results you desire in your building project. Our professional staff make your building experience a fuss-free process.

Our framed home display centre and manufacturing yard is the largest in Perth and is located in Wangara. We have multiple display homes available for viewing seven days a week. Our homes are visited by hundreds of customers each year, especially the famous Queenslander Lifestyle design built on poles. Check our opening times or give us a call to book a personalised appointment.

 

Building Styles and Methods

Our raised, stumped home designs eliminate expensive earthwork costs and consequently have minimal impact on the environment, leaving the area under the house in its natural state. This also means avoiding the added costs of paving, concrete slabs, retaining walls and possible sub-soil drainage. However, all of our home designs can also be built on a concrete slab if required.

Our home designs use an engineered floor method, utilising a long reach style of floor truss, this creates many benefits for the customer.  Reduced amount of stumping keeps construction costs down and speedier construction times. Also creating huge open spaces under the homes which may be then used for car parking, workshops, storage area, or barbeque and entertaining areas. Our home designs utilise engineered roof trusses adding to the superior strength of our homes as they are an engineered component well before they are placed in a roof space and the construction starts.

Our unique designs using stumped and pole-framed homes are extremely strong and can withstand the test of time.  Our homes are often constructed in cyclone and earthquake-prone areas.  Getaway Homes designs are cyclone rated and can endure higher wind loads if required. Our homes are suitable for the variety of soil types found throughout Western Australia especially clay soil areas.

On flat building site’s you may request your home to be built on a concrete slab which is also available on all our home designs. See our latest price lists which allow you to build any of our designs on stumps/poles or a concrete slab.

 

GreenSmart and true natHERS 6 star plus energy efficient homes

Our home designs are constructed using treated renewable plantation resources, resulting in a near carbon-neutral product.  This is almost the complete opposite of typical steel-framed and clay brick homes that release enormous amount of greenhouse gases into the environment during the manufacturing process.  In opposition, our houses incorporate timber and fibre cement products that have a low embodied energy. Embodied energy is the energy consumed by all of the processes associated with the production of a material. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by manufacturing building materials is highly correlated with its embodied energy. The embodied energy of a fibre cement clad timber-framed wall system can be up to 60 % lower than a clay brick wall. Therefore, our plantation-sourced treated timber-framed houses that incorporate fibre cement products are one of the most energy efficient and environmentally responsible building systems employed in the Australian building industry. Our clients can make a difference to their world by simply choosing to build a smarter way – a timber-framed home.

Our homes are highly energy efficient, meaning that your daily energy usage for heating and cooling will be minimized, now and into the future.  We have large verandas around the home to protect from sun and rain, the result of which is a more stable indoor temperature throughout the day.  Cross-ventilation is maximised by selective placement of windows and doors.  North-facing windows allow for utmost heat gain during winter.  Other strategies for improving energy efficiency include double-roof insulation, ceiling insulation, fully insulated external walls and internal wall and floor insulation.  We design all homes to have minimal heating and cooling requirements, saving you money in the long term. Good thermal performance of a house will not only mean lower energy bills but will provide you with a comfortable, healthy, naturally lit home, reduce your greenhouse gas emissions and personal satisfaction in ‘making a difference’. Getaway Homes is committed to best practise approaches to sustainable design and building aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Many of our employees are accredited GreenSmart Professionals. The GreenSmart Professionals Program is a HIA industry initiative for achieving more environmentally responsible housing solutions.

Energy Efficiency: we use the ABSA certified NatHERS rating system (Nationwide House energy Rating Scheme) which is a star system out of 10. This system is used to conduct thermal building performance assessments which rate the energy efficiency of a home based on its design. This software evaluates the thermal efficiency of a new house design and can also suggest improvements. This is a mandated Building Code of Australia requirement.

 

Our Home Designs

The Cottage series (Granny Flats) have been designed from one bedroom and one bathroom size, up to three bedroom one bathroom holiday homes. These homes can be designed to be built to Lockup stage or Fully built.

The Panorama series designs are suited to fit on an urban or town block of 20 metres wide or less and are just as suitable on country acreage. The Panorama series of designs maximise the outdoor views from all rooms within the home. If you want to take advantage of ocean, bushland or rolling hills these designs are for you. All homes can be designed to be built to Lockup stage or Fully built.

The Homestead series designs send a statement! These large, ranch style homes similar to the Queenslander designs are well suited to large acreage properties. The front elevations of these homes are impressive – broad and eye catching with easy living in mind. All homes can be designed to be built to Lockup stage or Fully built.

For your peace of mind our friendly sales consultants will help you make the changes you need to create your dream home that suits your lifestyle and budget.

 

Processes, time frames and WA build radius

Getaway Homes designs use time-efficient construction techniques and because of the use of pre-manufactured engineered floor and roof trusses, our 4 bedroom x 2 bathroom homes weather permitting can be constructed within four months once starting at site. Getaway Homes/Kib Homes use superior design techniques which reduce building times on-site this creates cost-efficiencies for the consumer.

Our construction radius takes in the Perth metropolitan area, all of the south west including Esperance, Kalgoorlie and north Geraldton region. Whether it’s your own family home, an investment property or a holiday home we can help.  Our experienced sales consultants can work with you towards the results you require so give us a call.