Site Set Out

The position of the new house on the site is marked out by a "site set out " contractor. This is a two-step process:

Prior to any earth works, the site is marked with "excavation pegs" (also called ex-pegs). These pegs mark the major outline of the house & verandah, and don't need great accuracy in placement, as they are only use to guide the excavation works.

After the excavation is complete, the site is then set-out with accuratley placed pegs which mark the perimeter of all the brick walls in the house. Two "hurdles" are used for each wall-segment (with a nail in the top of the hurdle so a string-line can be run between a pair of hurdles). For a rectangular house, only eight hurdles are needed, but most houses have a more interesting design than that, so more hurldes are needed. Also, we have a fireplace, which will need to be marked as well. I would estimate that the accuracy required for the building set out is approx +/-5mm.

Our excavation pegs were placed last Friday, and our excavation contractor will be starting works this Monday or Tuesday.

Here is where the old house once stood. The site for the new house is just past these earthworks.

Deposits for Windows, Frame and Roof Trusses

This week saw our first really big committment to the project in financial terms. We sent off the "acceptance of quotes" and deposits for all the windows and doors, as well as for the frame & roof trusses. A 25% deposit was required for the windows & doors (and requires progress payments as the manufacturing proceeds), while a 50% deposit was required for the framing (and requires full payment prior to manufacturing). The important thing now, is to keep these companies informed of the project progress, so that the windows & frame are ready when required.

Demolition Completed

Tuesday 22 Feb 2005, the demolition was completed. With the exception of the floorboards and the roof tiles, the whole house went away to become landfill. We contemplated keeing some bricks for paving, but quite a bit of work is involved in cleaning the mortar off, and they were not our choice of colour, so they too went to the tip. Apparently, the demolition work provided lots of entertainment, as our neighbours said the whole street was out watching.

Here are the footings being removed in the final stages of the demolition work. The house next door can just be seen in the background.

Demolition Begins

Last week, the demolition company moved in to demolish the existing house. They removed most of the floor boards by cutting our internal walls, probably with a chain saw! The boards will be recycled. The terra-cotta roof tiles will were also removed for re-sale.

Next a large machine was floated (brought to the site on a semi-trailer), and the real demolition started. After the first day,it was about half-done. By tomorrow, they should be finished, making for about 4 working days to demolish the place.

Before demolition we did remove some of the fittings that were useful to us (e.g. fluorescent lamps, which I can use in the sub-floor or roof space of the new house).

The next thing to do is organise the set-out for excavation pegs.

Building Permit Arrives

Last Friday - Feb 16 2005, we received the Building Permit! To do this we engaged (i.e. paid) a private Building Surveyor to review the plans, and to the approriate processes. (The Council will do it too, but I think there is value in having your own surveyor).

The plans we submitted were all drawn by myself. The technical design is all taken from Australian Standards (e.g. AS2870 for Footing Design). However, any steel beams supporting roof-load must be designed by a certified engineer (e.g. the steel lintel over the double garage door). Also, our soil is "Class M" for medium reactivity to moisture. Some sites with "problem" soil can require a qualified engineer to design the footings. Frame design can also be taken from the standard, but in our case we are having the frame pre-fabricated off-site, so the supplier will design it.

The building surveyor commented that the plans were very well drawn.

Frame & Roof Truss Quote

Well, we have a good quote for the roof trusses & frame - cost is around $29k, _and_ they can do the 3600mm wall heights without requiring a consultant engineer to do the design. As it turns out, the quote indicated that the walls are conventional F5 pine, 90mm studs. There are couple of finer points that need clarifying in the quote, but otherwise I think we are close. (Another company quoted $22k for just the roof trusses).

A colleague at work said to my that I should get a copy of all the wall frame designs, so that if I ever need to run services in the walls after the house is built, I can measure out stud locations. This could be a good idea. Some people take photos of each wall frame to helpo with this too.

Excavation & Footings - Alternate Quote

We have been trying to get an excavation, footings and drainage quote from a contactor we were recommended. He has had the building information for over a month, and we have even met on-site to dicuss it. The longer this goes on, the more I am inclined to lose interest in him.

Fortunately, the carpenter we have engaged has some very good contacts. So I arranged to follow-up on his recommended excavator contractor. I met him on-site, and he seems very motivated and competent. Once the existing house is demolished, he will quote us on the required works. While this looks promising, it also adds to the confusion of choosing contractors. One of the most important things though, is the ability to have a sensible discussion about the way the work should proceed, and in resolving problems. In this regard, this alternate contractor hit the mark.

High Pressure Sewer

The service provider for the sewer system has given us a verbal agreement that they can connect out proposed house to the system. The Building Surveyor said that he needed this confirmation before he can sign-off on the Building Permit. So its good news. We should get written advice in about a week, hopefully with some info about where the connection point would be, and what on-site infrastructure is required (e.g. macerating pump, one-way fail-safe valves etc.)