Bluestone Sills & Base Brick Work

To get the house to look genuine "Victorian" we need to have blue-stone sills made for the windows and doors. However, for cost reasons we have chosen "faux-bluestone" made from concrete - it looks very real indeed - we wouldn't do it if it didn't look correct. I have placed an order for this, and will advise the supplier with 6-weeks notice before they are needed (they will be installed after the brickwork is done, so they don't get damaged).

In the case of base-brickwork, we are going to place faux-blustone tiles over the base-brickwork to make it look like the house is sitting on bluestone pitchers. Again, these look "for-real", and include a plinth/bevelled edge on the top course. We could save money and put really cheap bricks into the base brickwork, but we both think that it would be better to have the same bricks everywhere (if only to allow for the remote possibility tht we don't install the bluestone tiles).

There is one proviso with this product - that is the colour fastness of the concrete. The colour could diminish over time, but this probably won't matter, as the colour of stone work on old houses varies so much anyway.

Services: Water, Power, Sewer

We need confirmantion that a sewer service can be provided before a Building Permit can be issued. I rang the service provider for this, and we should have some form of an answer next week. I hope it works out, as it will really hold us up if we can't get the sewer service.

In the case of power, this has to come from a pre-existing in-the-ground pit. If we want a different supply point, then we would need to pay for a new pit (A$1500) approx.

For Water, this can come from either road frontage (the site is a corner-allotment), and from pretty much any point.

The reason I was chasing up detail on this, was to try and cater for any underground services when we do our excavation & footings work. But it might not work out to be prossible to predict these things, in which case we will leave the trenches for services until later.

Roof Cladding

We would like the house to have a roof cladding consistant with its architechtural period. This means corrugated steel, or slate, or slate-look-alike ("faux" as they say when they really mean "fake).

We have quotes on ceramic shingles, and on slate. The two are not that far apart, but we are uncertain about the quality of the slate. In many cases, cheap slate is not a good product. The best slate comes from Wales, but it is oh-so-expensive. Spain seems to be the main supplier of affordable slate. We need to investigate the quality issue though.

The ceramic shingles are thin, look a lot like slate, and have a 50-year guarentee. That's impressive. And its cheaper than slate. But we have not decided on anything yet. If we were sane, we would put Colourbond corrugated steel on the thing!

Progress on Quotations

This week has seen a number of minor happenings. We have received quotes for:
- carpentry
- brickwork
- roof cladding
- painting (which is not really the important focus atthe moment)
The brickwork quotes seem to vary a bit. In many cases, trades often charge more for the same labour when they are installing more expensive materials, even though the labour-effort required is the same. Brickwork & plaster seem to fall into this category.

We are still anxiously waiting for the excavation & footings quote. This is an important item that has to be sorted very soon, if we are to get started in the 2nd half of February.

Septic Tank De-Commissioning

In preparation for the demolition of the existing house, the septic tank was pumped-out today. The tank was badly cracked, and would definitely have been leaking straight into the ground around (the walls were made from bricks, about 5 feet deep). Between now and the actual demolition, some ground-water may seep back in, but the bloke doing the pumping said he could easily come back and remove that on the day of the demolition. The time-consuming part of pumping the tank empty was getting the sludge out of the bottom, and washing it out with a hose.

The Site

Here is an aerial photo of our block of land (or "the site" in building-industry parlance). The existing house on the block is about to be demolished, and our new home will be in about the middle of the site.

Demolition - "Formal Release"

We have chosen the demolition company. We sent a signed "release form" to them, togther with a copy of the Land Title and Site Plan. The demolition permit takes a few weeks to get, and demolition should happen soon after that. I have requested as soon a possible in February - the company has given a verbal indication that Feb 10 to 17 should be viable.

Site Set-Out Contractor

A request for quotation on site-set out has been sent. The site is pretty flat, and rectangular in shape, so I don't think we need a set-out for excavation pegs, since this does not need high accuracy.

After the excavation, the set-out for the house needs to be done. This means placing hurdles on the site to mark the perimeter of all external walls. This needs to be about +/-10mm accuracy, so you need a professional to do this properley.

Application for the Building Pemit

The application for the building permit went in yesterday, via a private Building Surveyor. All went smoothly. But I have been asked to get confirmation that the sewer connection can be provided to the house before the building permit can be signed off. Our application for a sewer connection has already been submitted to the relevent authority, so I will have to hassle them next week for a confirmation.

Building Permit

We have finally, after a whole year of planning, designing, re-designing, and applying for permits, reached the point of applying for a Building Permit.

Tomorrow I meet with the Building Surveyor we have engaged to go over the application. In hand I will have:

- Three copies of the "working drawings" (i.e. plans)
- Originals and copies of the Soil Test Report (Class M)
- Engineering computations & specification for the steel lintel
for the double garage door
- Energy rating certificate (4 star)
- Planning permit (from the council - this one took 6 months in gestation!)
- A cheque book.

More news tomorrow.....

Risk & Public Liability Insurance

Owner builders need to have Risk & Public Liability Insurance to cover the duration of the project. I have just contacted two companies offering such insurance. It looks like the cost of this could be in the range of A$2000 to A$3000, depending on the cost of the project and exetent of liability protection (e.g. A$5M). Quotes should arrive in the next few days. The cover would commence after the demolition of the existing house, and run for 12 months. One vendor can be found here.

Note that this is different to "Builders Warranty Insurance", which is only needed if an owner-builder sells the house in the future.

Windows, Bricks and Sills

The idea in any project is to keep things arriving "just in time", although arriving "in time" would be just as good. To do this, you have to keep in mind the manufacturing "lead times". Anyway, there are a couple of items that we have placed orders for, even though we don't yet have the building permit (that should be done this week though).

Just before Christmas I sent off orders, with deposits, for the windows and the faux-bluestone sills. Of course if you do this too soon, there is some risk that the actual requirements could change after they are manufactured. In our case, we have had detailed discussions with the suppliers about these items, and in addition I know that they will not start work on them immediately. But at least I have been allocated production-resources for them in the weeks prior to when I need them delivered (around March 2005).

In the case of the bricks, no deposit was required, as the number of bricks required for the base-brickwork (the initial stage of brickwork) is small, and can therefore be supplied from existing production.

Wall Heights - Pryda vs Mitek

We are starting to resolve the wall-height issues. There are two major software vendors in Australia for wall framing and truss design - Pryda vs Mitek. One of the companies using the Mitek software for design have declined to quote on the basis that they can't design a wall for wall-heights over 3000mm. However, two companies I have rung that use Pryda software say that can design, build and deliver the pre-fabricated 3600mm wall frames (and trusses). One company that uses Pryda software could design it, but not build it, as their jigs cannot work with sizes over 3000mm.

Note that the Pryda design software is available from http://www.pryda.com.au/. I was sent this on CD-ROM and have now installed it to do an initial "sanity check" on the wall frame design.

With our tiled roof (85kg/m2), 27.5 deg pitch, with a "RLW" of 3.6m (roof load width - approx equal to length of one truss top-chord), then the Pryda software is saying that the common studs in the wall should be minimum 90x35 F8 SSW not-notched (pine). For notched-studs, we need minimum 90x45 F8 SSW notched (pine). Note that we have a fairly small RLW, as the roof design calls for internal load-bearing walls. Over the 14.4m width of the house, this implies an RLW of approx 14400/4 = 3600mm.

On this basis it seems unlikely that we will need 120 common studs in the external walls (as was suggested by one of the wall-frame manufacturers).

Energy Certificate

Last Saturday we completed the energy certification. Our house has been rated "4-Star", which we think is sufficient to meet requirements (up to June 30 2005), as we are also installing rain-water recycling plant. After June 30 2005, a 5-Star rating is required. Our plans have been stamped, and the accredited rater has kept a copy of the plans. Our copy will be submitted with the building permit application.

Victorian Architecture

This is not our new home, but it has some architecural elements that we have used in our design. But we can't afford a tower!

Energy Ratings & Door Glazing

After getting nearly all the data for the building fabric into the Energy Rating software (First Rate 4.0), it seems we have to add some more glazing to the information. A door with glazing in it must be considered as both a window and a door -- so the glazing area for the glass in and around the door has to be included, and the door must also be counted as a "door", unless the door is nearly all glazing (so glazed sliding doors, and French doors need not be included in the count of external doors, but the glazing must be entered as a window). This additional glazing has caused the rating to drop a few points, from around 0 to around -4. This still gives us a 4-Star Rating, which should be sufficient, as we are including rain-water re-cycling in the design.

Wall Heights

The wall height in our house design is 3.6m. One of the framing suppliers has suggested that their computer-design package can't be used for wall heights over 3m (and that we may need to engage a design engineer).  I have told them that there is a design procedure published for the Australian Timber Framing Code (AS1684) that outlines how to do the design for 3.6m walls. So we are a bit confused by the info from this truss & frame supplier. We will resolve this after they get the current working drawings.

Energy Ratings

We need to get an "Energy Rating" for the fabric of the proposed residence. Currently, we need a 4-Star rating plus a solar-assisted hot water service, but in July 2005, this goes up to a 5-Star requirement. We have been using some sample software to get the energy design done. But to get the design officially rated, we need to get a certified Energy Rater to assess the design, and the stamp the plans with on official rating. The software we have used is called "FirstRate". Our design looks like it can get the 4-Star rating OK. A friend of mine in Melbourne is an assessor, so I have been working with him to finalise the rating. On Sunday we entered all the data in the software, and hopefully by later this week we will get the final energy rating.

Roofing Quotes

We have already obtained one quote for ceramic-shingle roofing (which looks a lot like slate). Today I have typed up two more letters to get a further quote for ceramic shingles from a different supplier, plus a quote for genuine slate (as a comparison). Apparently cheap slate isn't all that good, and is prone to cracking (and can't be walked on), so we are leaning towards the ceramic shingles. Fortunately, not all the roof needs to be clad with shingles, as we have a central valley in the roof design (to reduce the height of the roof). This valley is unseen and can be clad with corrugated colorbond steel.

Demolition

Our block is quite large and already has a house on it. (See link.) The house was built in the 1950's and we have to get it demolished. We received our first quote today for the demolition work - its A$7800 to removed the house, footings, septic tank and immediate vegetation. This includes a "demolition permit", which takes a few weeks to arrange via the council. The quote includes the cost of the permit, which the council charge A$660 for!