Colorado company receives state grant to expand 3D printed homes efforts
There have been several attempts in Colorado to help ease the housing crisis, but an outside-the-box effort by a company working in Salida just received some help from the state to the tune of $618,000 in hopes their success will lead to Colorado's solution.
Colorado's Innovative Housing Incentive Program was awarded to VeroTouch after the completion of their first 3D printed homes. But unlike standard 3D printers, VeroTouch printers use concrete.
The two homes in Buena Vista stand at 1,100 feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. They are just the start of the company's dream to help make housing more affordable for mountain communities. Their 3D printing process can help build homes more quickly, and create energy efficient, wildfire and weather resistant homes of the future.
The money is being put into the future of the company as well, according to Ashley Fant, Automation Engineer for VeroTouch.
"That'll provide us the ability to acquire more equipment and do more research into how to make these 3-D printed houses bigger and better, and then also provide us with the ability to research into other innovative ways to build houses," Fant said.
Governor Jared Polis weighed in on the grant, expressing his support of the company's mission.
"We are proud to accelerate innovation in housing to better address Colorado's housing needs," Polis said. "The unveiling of the first 3D-printed homes in the state is a great example of our state's efforts to support new construction methods and create more housing now."
VeroTouch is hard at work making more homes in Salida right now, with the hopes that they could end up costing around $600,000. That's below the mean average home price in Chaffee County, which is closer to $737,000 according to online real estate pages. It's a mission the team at VeroTouch feels passionate about and they want to continue to drop that price.
"Getting to a point where we can make homes that are much more affordable so that the people who live in this little banana belt can actually afford to live here," Fant said.
