About Covaco

Particulars
Our company is located along Route 120 in the northern mountain area of Gunma, and at the time we mainly used imported materials for our construction. However, seeing felled trees passing by our company every day by lumber dealers, we realized that the lumber we use is American lumber. "Isn't there any way we can use this wood (lumber from Gunma Prefecture) for our construction?
Why do we have to use American wood?
In terms of cost, Okaregi wood is easier to procure with less waste. Instead, we were relying on imported timber." From that point on, he had a new idea, first turning his attention to domestic timber (timber produced in the prefecture) and consulting with a forestry company, and so began a new process of procuring timber.
However, even though they had obtained the logs, when they looked for a sawmill, they found that there were no sawmills in the area that could handle them. The need for sawmills had decreased due to the diversification of the use of imported timber. They thought that they needed to introduce a sawmill in order to use timber produced in the prefecture, and decided to install one.
At the time, the client wanted to build a house using 100% locally sourced materials, so we introduced a four-sided planer that was much larger than the machines used by ordinary construction companies! (It was necessary to accurately finish the main pillars, each of which weighed nearly 2 tons!) We turned our attention to locally sourced materials because it was the development of local industry and the ultimate in ecology!
= Use trees from within the prefecture, make chips from the leftovers, and scatter them in the mountains (return to nature), producing no waste. =
Once we were able to saw lumber in-house, we were able to use long timber.
Fixed length timber (3m or 4m) is used, and for a house with a width of 2 bays, two 4m pieces are joined together, but by using long timber, it can be constructed from a single piece of wood without any joints! Naturally, this is thought to increase the strength.

Authentic Japanese house
Originally, Japanese houses were built using trees from the countryside and could stand for hundreds of years. The 200-year-old houses that remain in the area were durable enough to last for many generations (4-5 generations), but they were demolished during the period of high economic growth, and now many houses have been built that only have a lifespan of about 30 years.
I get the impression that many people of the baby boomer generation were able to rebuild their homes, even to the point of building a second or third house, but today it seems that they are only able to build one in their lifetime.
Due to global warming, the era of disposable items is becoming a thing of the past, and now is the time to rethink how we can create homes that people can live in for a long time.
Therefore, a house that can be lived in for a long time must be a house that is naturally durable. Currently, the cost of demolishing a house continues to rise. (Due to the final disposal and treatment of chemical substances becoming stricter.) In the future, it will be essential to build high-performance houses using as many natural materials as possible.
A house needs to be durable and can be lived in for many generations, from the parents' generation to the children's generation, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren... We need to think about a house that can be lived in for at least four or five generations! For that reason, the basis is to build a house that can be easily modified to suit the style of each generation.
If you think about it, when people in the child-rearing age are looking for a home, they often choose a child-centered layout with the living room on the first floor and the children's room on the second floor. However, once their children have left home, they find themselves living in a small bedroom and the children's room on the second floor is left empty.
We also build homes that can accommodate your lifestyle.
Isn't this about creating a home that you can live in for a long time?


