Voideck

The client need

Voideck is an innovative platform that covers stairwell voids in upper stories of houses during construction – to prevent workers falling into them. Builders have traditionally nailed-up temporary planks for the same purpose, which has diverted them from their main tasks. 

Kevin Jury, the Company founder, had a scaffolding business in Australia and developed a temporary void platform system there. He returned to New Zealand and wanted to develop and introduce a next generation system here with improved components. A key to this was finding a trusted professional organisation with a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and innovative know-how.

The Metco experience in the client’s words

Demanding Design Requirements

“I stumbled across Metco on the Internet, looking for a firm in the Hutt Valley for handy convenience and to provide local jobs. I called in for a chat and showed Paul samples and photos, seeking to know their capabilities. I told them what we wanted, not how to do it, as I was looking for their expertise in this.

Because I wanted to build a strong brand, I required a superior product that would be robust and enduring for a rugged industry, while keeping costs down and minimising waste.

I was impressed by Metco’s setup and enthusiasm to be involved, and discovered their turret punching was an incredibly good feature to produce strong, non-slip, plank sections.

I also got an engineer involved and the three of us found some refinements to my original ideas. It took quite a bit of work to get the product to where I wanted it.”

The Emergence of a Superior Product

“Unlike other systems, Voideck is mounted onto wooden framing in upper floors, rather than requiring scaffolding from the bottom floor (which gets in the way of lining walls). It also has a mounting frame to hold ladders at exactly the right angle recommended by Worksafe, and can’t be moved or stolen.

The product is completely modular, so it can be setup to fill any shape and size of stairwell space. It is also more durable using Aluminium rather than Polypropylene which breaks down in UV.

It has turned out far superior to our previous Australian product.”