Market Indicators

 

20130514_rocksolver_drystone_wall_01_and_02        

Market for Rocksolver

A pilot survey recently conducted in Sydney asked respondents which type of building material they would prefer for a house, given the choice of random rock, brick or rendered concrete. 1/3 preferred rock yet very few houses are built from random rock indicating a very large unmet demand.

Another indicator of demand for Rocksolver is the popularity of our 3D models which are being downloaded from Google's 3Dwarehouse at a rate of over 30,000 per month.

Currently our most popular models are the dry-stone walls and areas of paving (see images below and to the left) which were constructed following the plan devised by Rocksolver.

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Landscaping

Seawalls

 

The Market

Unprocessed rock is approximately 10% of the price of competing products.

By enabling the use of a very cheap, local resource and by reducing the cost of labour, Rocksolver will reintroduce unprocessed rock into several large global markets.

Rocksolver will help individuals, communities and industries use a sustainable local resource to create a durable and sustainable built environment.

 

Market Segments

Unprocessed rock has been used for thousands of years to build housing, landscaping and infrastructure. Although unprocessed rock is amongst the cheapest, most sustainable and most durable of building materials its use is limited due to the difficulty of building with irregular-shaped material. Rocksolver will remove much of that difficulty in all of the following markets:

 

Landscaping

Unprocessed rock lends itself to small-scale domestic landscaping and larger-scale landscaping of public areas and new subdivisions. These markets are worldwide, numerous and highly fragmented.

Land Stabilisation

Valuable land and infrastructure often require protection from storm damage and erosion. The cheapest material to build mass-gravity stabilisation structures such as retaining walls is local, unprocessed rock.

Coastal Protection

Coastal communities are coming under increasing pressure  to protect valuable coastal land from rising sea levels and storm damage. The cheapest material available to almost all of those communities is their resource of local, unprocessed rock.

Infrastructure

Road, rail, waterways and ports are being built at an increasing rate. The deliberate placement of irregular-shaped rocks to form an interlocking strcuture is often used to build embankments, floodways and the armour-layer on breakwaters.

Housing

Unprocessed rock is readily available just about anywhere. It's use in housing is limited by the lack of a modern technical solution to dealing with irregular shaped building material. Rocksolver is providing that solution.

 

Note on photos: The seawall was built by Coastwide Civil. The other works are by unknown stone masons. Housing photo by J. Lambert.