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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

A different kind of build thread …


Artful69

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The weather has been patchy here for the last few days ... vacillating between bright and sunny to stormy and rainy. A sure indication that the weather is finally turning toward winter ... unlike a lot of countries or regions where the change incurs freezing temperatures with constant rains or snows, a typical West Australian winter (below the tropics) is characterised by cooler weather than the summer with an increased propensity for rainfall. This is perfect building weather as any cement used will cure at a measured rate ... rather than with extreme rapidity - as in the hot summer.

I received a courtesy email a day after my last visit advising me that bricks were due to be delivered to site within the next week. Since I can't fly back to work, I'm stuck home until the COVID symptoms dissipate ... and with the weather being calmer yesterday, I decided to take another trip down to the block and have a look to see if anything had changed. It's actually a nice relaxing drive ... and definitely not "Just around the corner".

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With the way that the weather has been, I wasn't expecting much to be honest, but I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived.

The block has been cleared up, the trench on the RHS rear filled in, the footings cleared and building supplies delivered to site.

As I drove around the bend in the road, these are immediately apparent:

The portable toilet (also referred to as the "site shitter" or "dunny") along with the portable tool shed (which at this point houses the shrink-wrapped pallet of cement and lime bags.

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A truckload of "brickies sand" has also been delivered along with the two types of bricks used in the build ...

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The grey doorframes are those for the interior ... bedrooms etc ...

They will be painted much later in the build process at the same time as the attached doors, cornices and the ceilings.

The powder coated white frames are plastic coated (to prevent scratching) - these are external window and door frames ...

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You can see that the site has been well cleared ... Very well done, I think!

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The bricks have been placed strategically around the site in order for the brickies to have them to hand for building, rather than have to constantly wheel loads of them into the area being worked on.

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On every wall of the house - except for those at the front (viewed from the road) - The red clay bricks are built up on the slab edge ... while the lighter 'limestone' coloured bricks are built up from the footing as a "face" brick ... this will leave a 50mm "breathing" cavity. At the front of the house, the red bricks will be "Face" bricks also - as a render will be applied to them.

In order to get my budget sorted for the rest of the process, I called the builder admin to get some projected timeframes ...

From "Slab Down" (beginning of May) to "Plate high" (walls built to roof level) should be around 8 weeks or so ... which means the walls should be up by around the end of the first or second week of July. From the there the next stage is "Roof Cover" which should take around a month after "Plate High" and from there another month until "Lock Up". At that stage all the interior works will be commenced and the next official stage will be "PCI"  (Practical Completion Inspection). At "PCI" I will go around the house with the building supervisor and note any issues that will need to be redressed before "Hand Over" ... which is when I take possession of the house.

Rog :)

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Sweet! 
couple interesting points I see.  
1). The brick design is completely different than the brick style made here in the US.   Are the outside walls going to be made of brick only or studded walls with brick attached?  Here we use a much larger concrete block if solid brick without studded walls. 
2) metal door frames.  Here those are mainly used in commercial/industrial applications. Housing 99.9% of the time always get wood door frames and doors.  Nicer builds get solid wood doors but hollow doors are common as well for interior doors.  
 

Semi-related story.  A close friend helped (financially, not putting his back into it) build a school/orphanage in Liberia.  Due to corruption within the entire county and not having trust in anyone, they made their own cement blocks.  If the bought them half would have broken during delivery due to low cement content.  Mostly “mud blocks” because mud is cheaper than cement. So you make your own.  
But they bought the block molds and a cement mixer and all the supplies and produced their own.  Now here’s the catch. 
They had to hire an armed guard to keep them secure from theft since walking away with a block in each had is equal to a weeks pay.

Building materials getting delivered had to be almost doubled due to loaded trucks going through check points by local police.  Each check point they had to give them a few sheets of plywood or lumber to be allowed to pass through.  Corruption runs so deep in that country.  That was the biggest hurdle my friend had to overcome when he started assisting with the project.  He even had to pay off the public education officials just to get a meeting with them. 

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1 hour ago, ScottsGT said:

Sweet! 
couple interesting points I see.  
1). The brick design is completely different than the brick style made here in the US.   Are the outside walls going to be made of brick only or studded walls with brick attached?  Here we use a much larger concrete block if solid brick without studded walls. 
2) metal door frames.  Here those are mainly used in commercial/industrial applications. Housing 99.9% of the time always get wood door frames and doors.  Nicer builds get solid wood doors but hollow doors are common as well for interior doors.  
 

Semi-related story.  A close friend helped (financially, not putting his back into it) build a school/orphanage in Liberia.  Due to corruption within the entire county and not having trust in anyone, they made their own cement blocks.  If the bought them half would have broken during delivery due to low cement content.  Mostly “mud blocks” because mud is cheaper than cement. So you make your own.  
But they bought the block molds and a cement mixer and all the supplies and produced their own.  Now here’s the catch. 
They had to hire an armed guard to keep them secure from theft since walking away with a block in each had is equal to a weeks pay.

Building materials getting delivered had to be almost doubled due to loaded trucks going through check points by local police.  Each check point they had to give them a few sheets of plywood or lumber to be allowed to pass through.  Corruption runs so deep in that country.  That was the biggest hurdle my friend had to overcome when he started assisting with the project.  He even had to pay off the public education officials just to get a meeting with them. 

1) Brick design ... the industry 'standard' in Western Australia is double brick ... a standard brick size is 230mm long, 110mm wide and 76mm high ... and these are nowadays defined as a 'single course' brick ... however, looking at my photos, you will notice that most of my bricks are larger - because they are 'double course' bricks. These are becoming somewhat of a 'standard' on their own now ... as easy for bricklayers to lay as standard single course bricks and more 'area' can be laid in a day ... meaning more wall can be assembled in pretty much the same time frame as traditional builds. Of course, we have other methods of construction. These include Brick Veneer a stud framed wall on the inside with a brick wall on the outer. Another is a stud framed wall with plasterboard internal, insulation in the framework and some form of cladding on the exterior (Asbestos used to be used - until that became a no-no - now it's either colour-bond steel (like my corrugated roof will be), Fibero Cement or Hardy-Plank).

My walls will be double brick ... as per the construction standard laid out below ...

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The external wall is laid upon the concrete footing, while the internal wall is laid upon the slab edge. The outward facing brick is known as the 'Face brick' as that is the one that everyone sees when looking at the house ... and in my case those are the limestone coloured ones. The internal brick is traditionally rendered and then covered with a plaster 'set' ... although in my case I had a no cost option to select 'dry wall' plaster board. In this case the interior walls will be 'cleaned' up (no lumps and bumps) and plasterboard will be stuck to the brickwork. When I consulted a painter about the best option he said grab plasterboard if it's not going to cost you extra - no cornice join cracking or paint splintering and only one coat of primer required! Easier to paint also :)

The concrete blocks you refer to are still used here ... we call them 'Cinder Blocks' (for whatever reason?) and although there have been some residential applications ... mostly you see them (if used at all) in commercial applications.

2) Metal door frames have been used here for a long time. Mostly for internal doors (which are paper/wood ply) - while external door frames are still traditionally wood frames, the larger spec (1200mm) entrance door that I have included is all alloy frame and door with a toughened glass (Below - but with a white coloured frame) - I simply asked if my laundry door could be the same style of design. there is, of course, the traditional metal framed sliding door to the Alfresco area.

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Rog :)

 

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3 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

What about insulation and U values to be achieved?

 

Sorry, you will need to be more specific?

Are you referring to roofing insulation? ... What is a 'U Value'?

Rog

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A U-value is a sum of the thermal resistances of the layers that make up an entire building element - for example, a roof, wall or floor. It also includes adjustments for any fixings or air gaps. Typically the void between the two wall leafs would have rated insulation between to a specific U value…….

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14 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

A U-value is a sum of the thermal resistances of the layers that make up an entire building element - for example, a roof, wall or floor. It also includes adjustments for any fixings or air gaps. Typically the void between the two wall leafs would have rated insulation between to a specific U value…….

I have no understanding of 'U Values' ... so I'll leave that one to the engineers / drafts-people who have to get these things council approved.

I think that there's a thin thermal blanket installed onto the back of the Face Brick, within the cavity walls? ... I have seen it used on buildings but I have no idea if my house fits within that particular building code. I do know that every house built these days has to have some form of roofing insulation installed. But because there is no BAL (Bushfire Attack Level) or soundproofing requirement (highways or close industrial areas etc) registered against my house, it will only have standard ceiling insulation installed (Fibreglass bats) ... I would have liked to get sarking insulation also ... but that was cost prohibitive to my budget and I had other priorities which were more pressing.

Rog :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's that time again! ....

After a week of additional convalescence - post R&R - I flew back to site for a week of night shift.

I flew home yesterday afternoon ... and slept through until 10.45 this morning - one of the quicker body clock recalibrations.

I took a drive down to the block stopping for a drive through lunch on the way. 

Bricklayers were on site ... and construction is well underway!

The bricklayers are starting at the back of the block and working their way toward the front - so obviously the view from here is less than spectacular.

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A much better result when looking from the rear!

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Here's a picture of that yucky kitchen window that I have to get fixed once I move in.

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... and from the inside ...

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The laundry and entry off the garage ...

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At the top right hand side of this photo you can see one of the spare bedrooms at the rear and the bathroom built next to it (in front)

In the next bedroom (in front of the bathroom) you can see the recess for the robe already ...formed.

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... While on the external walkaround I noticed an error ... There has been a recess created to fit the gas Hot Water System into the wall ...

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The Building company considered this to be an upgrade on their original drafting plans. However, I

1/ Didn't want an additional 'hole' created in the external wall ... and 

2/ Didn't want a space that was restrictive to a potential replacement in the HWS later on (for any reason).

... So I specified on my contract that I wanted the system to be mounted on the surface of the wall.

I supposed I wouldn't be so pedantic about it if the builder had been amenable to fixing the kitchen window (by deleting it altogether)

... or fixing the shower recess wall by deleting the extra 100mm off the hob wall and shower screen ...

But since they have refused (as they are allowed to do once certain stages of the contract have passed), I'm going to hold them to this part of the contract.

That's all for now ... Hopefully more on Tuesday before I fly back out.

Rog :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

I flew back home on Wednesday after a couple of weeks on night shift.

During my swing, I received an email from the builder advising me that 'plate height' (the industry term for brickwork completed) was nearly reached and timber for the roofing frame was scheduled to be delivered to site within the next week. The email came late the previous week  ... either Thursday or Friday.

So with barely a week passing since the email, I'm expecting walls up and maybe some timber in a neat pile ready to be installed ...

Nope ... We're a bit further along from that!

The roof carpenter (or 'chippie' as we call them here in Aus) decided not to hang around ... must have slapped this together in a couple of days!

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If you're really looking, you can see that the garage walls are higher that the main residence walls ...

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Also - steel posts are in supporting the verandah, Cement fibre sheeting is installed to verandah, eves and alfresco already. Colorbond steel facia in Shale Grey has been installed ... but not the gutters yet :) ... Gutters, downpipes, Roof sheeting will all be this colour as well as the render from the front door along the (right) front wall to the garage. The wall on the other side of the front door (left) will be a contrasting light blue colour (Calm Day) and the garage door will be a dark blue Colorbond colour called "Deep Ocean". Window frames, external door frames and steel pillars will be white.

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External walls (not to be rendered) are nicely finished off ...

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A few shots of the interior ...

Laundry ...

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Theatre room ...

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Entrance to the Master Bedroom ... with the WIRs on either side ...

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One of the other bedrooms with the built in robe taking shape ... 

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a couple of pictures of the ensuite ...

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The main roof won't be far away at this juncture!

Rog :)

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Along with a load of Birthday well wishers via Facebook on Monday, I received an email from the Builder to advise that "Roof Cover" had been achieved - a lovely Birthday gift to be sure! Roof Cover marks a stage of the build process where certain things have happened, including (obviously) - but not limited to - roof cover being completed ...

When the roofing cover is installed (Tiles or Colorbond steel) the surrounding guttering and downpipes are also installed ... but prior to that, all interior cabling (electrical or communications) and pipework (gas or water) is installed. Some ancillary items are also dealt with, such as the front facing render on the building and any unfinished work from previous jobs, such as nailing the external fibro-cement boards to the roofing timbers around the eves, alfresco and verandah.

Front rendering completed - sans patchwork and sealer ...

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The below section of the wall will be painted in a light blue colour called Calm Day.

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A few shots of the Shale Grey coloured Colorbond roofing ...

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This area of the render will be painted the same colour as the roof ...

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A few photos of the interior showing cabling and pipe installation

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Next up they will be fitting the ceilings and the plasterboard apparently ...

Rog :)

 

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Rog,  VERY COOL and Happy Birthday!!!  Awesome seeing how your house is coming together.  Very cool and looks very sturdy.  Do you have a completion date in mind?

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25 minutes ago, CANicoll said:

Rog,  VERY COOL and Happy Birthday!!!  Awesome seeing how your house is coming together.  Very cool and looks very sturdy.  Do you have a completion date in mind?

From here, the main stages go on this order:

* Lock up

* Practical Completion Inspection 

* Practical Completion 

* Handover

Lock up usually arrives about a month after roof cover and is done before cabinetry, electrical fittings, plumbing fixtures, tiles, carpets etc are fitted … since ceilings and interior doors are painted, this also occurs after lock up.

Apparently PCI happens about 3 months after lock up - usually … but we will see!!

Short answer is the handover could occur anytime between December and April next year.

Rog :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey everyone ...

Just a quick update ... 

I decided to take a quick trip down to the block on the day before flying back out to work, as it seems the builder is flying through construction!

So ... on Tuesday 30th July I travelled down to see what sort of progress was made.

The next building invoice and 'milestone' stage is 'lock up' - so before that happens, the house will need windows and external doors. At the same time, ceilings, walls and cornicing are completed ... and then, just before the final lockable door is installed (Garage) The shelving and rails are set up in the wardrobe and walk-in-linen areas.

So ... we have windows!

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... and the 1.2m glass front door ...

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Windows and glass doors everywhere!

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On both sides, inside the garage, wrapped Gyprock sheeting is neatly stacked, ready for the ceiling and (I assume) wall fixers to do their thing ...

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I head back home on Wednesday this week (14th Aug) after 2 weeks of night shift ... So I'll probably head down on Thursday again and see how far the plasterwork has progressed!

Rog :)

 

 

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I just love the look and feel of solid masonry. Brick and stone are not so commonly used in North America anymore. Great to see your dreams come true Rog. 

Cheers

Martin

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1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

The builder is really flying through the construction. Will the garage floor end up getting done in concrete after everything else? 

 

Heya Carl ...

To answer your question ... The garage will have a hardstand poured in concrete, yes ... The timing varies but from my client portal below - about when the tiling is done inside the house ... The external brick paving is one of the final jobs from memory.

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1 hour ago, belugawhaleman said:

Looks like an exciting project coming along nicely!

I'm quite a way ahead of the predicted schedule ... so the construction market must be returning to normal, I guess?

51 minutes ago, Martinnfb said:

I just love the look and feel of solid masonry. Brick and stone are not so commonly used in North America anymore. Great to see your dreams come true Rog. 

Cheers

Martin

In Western Australia ... Greater Perth, at least ... Double brick and Tile/iron has been a building staple since way back ... though, there are some varying construction methods (brick veneer, timber/steel frame etc ... even prefab concrete!)

Rog :)

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7 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Where is the stash annex going to be located?

At this stage, one of the rear bedrooms will be the stash room … until a storage attic can be built into the roof cavity.

7 hours ago, PanzerWomble said:

Sod the models        where's the hot tub for the pool party ? 

🤣🤣🤣 … at this stage there’s no pool … though there may be a spa later on …

7 hours ago, CANicoll said:

When is the pool party?  I need to make flight arrangements!  

I am advised that ‘Handover’ will occur sometime between end of February and end of April next year. :)

6 hours ago, PanzerWomble said:

One hopes it wont be Large Scale Models ......ladies a bit more petite perhaps ...

I like big butts and I cannot lie ???

Rog :)

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We’ve got some chickens in the Charleston area that have come home to roost here of late.  Seems that all the shoddy construction and planning has caught up and lawsuits are starting to fly. 
AC systems that barely keep the house at or below 80 degrees during the hot summer and then Tropical storm Debby came through last week and houses are getting flooded due to improper drainage built into the infrastructure when they were laying out the neighborhood.  
We’re talking hundreds of houses due to the real estate explosion in the area over the past 5 years.  
What’s even more amazing is these builders already had a bad reputation but people still bought.  
 

Oh, and Rog, better call the police to keep an eye on the place.  There’s a suspicious character snooping around.  
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