Month: October 2013

Bushfire Upgrades

To determine exactly what is needed in the way of ‘Bushfire Upgrades’ .

A full examination of the location and the house design is required

Its your safety so its worth getting an expert!

Likely Extras

The following are typical extras for a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) 12.5 zone:

  • All roof vents, wall vents and weep holes to have ember/spark guards made from corrosion resistant metal mesh with max aperture size of 2mm (See Photo)
  • External doors and windows to be provided with corrosion resistant metal mesh (steel aluminium or bronze)
  • Upgraded glass such as A-grade safety glass (min 4mm)
  • Weatherboards should be fibre cement (min 6mm thick). You may be able to use some external wood features but it will depend on the location and the type of wood
  • All external surface material joints less than 3mm
  • Weather strips or draught excluder to garage panel lift doors with a max gap of 3mm. (Roller door may be a better option)
  • A tiled roof to have full sarking  installed directly below roof battens
  • All external above ground gas and water pipes to be metal.
  • Protect air conditioning as it can ‘suck’ embers towards it. (See link for Evaporative Cooling)

Expect to pay an extra $5000 to $10,000 depending on the size of the house.

With a higher BAL , the cost will rise further with upgrades such as fire shutters.

Not Fire Proof

Its worth bearing in mind  that the upgrades will make your new home ‘Fire Resistant‘ not ‘Fire Proof

 

To find out more see: ‘What is the Bushfire Attack Level‘

 

Bridging Finance Basics

Guest post by Callum Scott of Scott Finance

Buying Your Next Home

. . . .  but haven’t sold your current house?

You can put your home on the market, sell it, settle and then rent while waiting for your new home to be built. For some people this can be a real hassle!

The Alternative

You can obtain bridging finance.

In simple terms, it means that your lender can increase the amount of your loan to cover the purchase of your next one before the sale, or settlement, on your current one. On settlement of your original, funds are then applied to reduce the total loan outstanding.

Of course, over this period you will be paying out a lot more in interest payments, but it is usually for a short period such as six months for an existing property, or one year where a new property is being built.

One possible disadvantage with this facility is that if your home takes longer than expected to sell, interest repayments will be larger than expected. Therefore it makes sense to build this possibility into your planning. You will also need sufficient equity in your existing home to qualify for this type of loan.

Some lenders will charge a higher rate for this facility whereas others will simply apply their standard variable rate.

 

Saving Costs During Bridging Period

Most lenders will offer an interest-only option with the loan reverting to principal and interest once the funds of the sale have been applied to the total loan amount.

Some lenders will capitalise interest payments during this period. This means you make no interest payments, with the interest amounts being added to the amount that you owe.

At completion you then recommence repayments which would be typically higher as the principal you now owe is larger.

 

For no cost advice about new house finance contact: Scott Finance

 

 

Can $21,000,000 Buy An Attractive House?

Well what do you think? . . . . . . . . Looks like a fire station to me!

 

Here is what the Agent says:

” Reflecting the iconic modernism of architect Charles Gwathmey, this exquisite 8000+/- sq. ft. 7 bedroom, 11.5 bath, masterpiece displays his genius in use of space, light, materials and flow that blur the line between architecture and art”. 

Interested? . . . . . There are more pictures at: www.sotherbyshomes.com

 

For more Fails and unusual houses go to What the………….?

 

 

Levels of Bushfire Attack

A Bushfire Assessment of your new house will put it in one of the following 6 levels:

Bushfire Attack Level

(BAL)

Description of Predicted Bushfire Attack and Levels of Exposure

BAL – Low

There is insufficient risk to warrant specific construction requirements

BAL – 12.5

Ember attack (Burning twigs, branches or leaves  airborne and carried  on the wind ) with heat flux* up to 12.5kW/ m2 (Heat flux = Amount of heat transferred per unit area per unit time to a surface)

BAL – 19

Increasing levels of ember attack and burning debris ignited by windborne embers together with increasing heat flux between 12.5 and 19 kW /m2 

BAL – 29

Increasing levels of ember attack and burning debris ignited by windborne embers together with increasing heat flux between 19 and 29 kW m2

BAL – 40

Increasing levels of ember attack and burning debris ignited by wind borne embers together with increasing heat flux (29 – 40 kW/m2) with the increased likelihood of exposure to flames

BAL -FZ

Direct exposure to flames from fire front in addition to heat flux and ember attack

*As a comparison the Heat flux from the Sun is around 400 W/m2.

 

Remember these levels are based on the BAL when the house is being planned. If you build and then fill the garden with shrubs and trees a few years later the Level, and the Risk, will be higher!

 

Don’t think that because you are in a suburb that you will be automatically be in a ‘BAL Low’ Area. Some suburban areas can still be at risk!

 

What Is The Bushfire Attack Level explains what factors are used in the Assessment

 

Submersible Pumps

As well as the more common pressure pumps you will frequently see submersible pumps at your local supplier . . . . . So what’s the difference?

 

Characteristics of Submersible Pumps:

Most domestic submersible pumps come with an attached float switch which switches the pump on when the water level rises, and off before it runs dry.

  • They’re Quiet  The surrounding water absorbs any noise.
  • Don’t Need Priming  As the pump sits under the water it doesn’t need to be primed, which also improves efficiency.
  • Rarely Block These are centrifugal pumps, which can pass reasonably large solid particles.
  • Pump From Bottom of Tank/Well Useful  for emptying things, but bad if you need the best water quality (The worst water is typically at the bottom of a tank see: Understanding Tank Water Quality)

Uses

Best for transferring water in constant flow rate applications such as:

  • Emptying tanks
  • In a sump to keep basements dry
  • Pumping Storm Water
  • Pumping Grey Water
  • Irrigation systems (make sure there is a filter smaller than any nozzles)

 

Make sure you get the correct size pump, see: Pump Size

 

What is the Bushfire Attack Level (BAL)

The BAL is a number that indicates how severely a bush fire is likely to affect your new house. It comes from the Australian Standard AS3959 – 2009.

The number is calculated by considering the following  factors:

  1. The Fire Danger Index (FDI)   The probability of a bushfire starting, speed of spread, intensity and difficulty of fighting the fire.For Victoria the FDI is 50 for an alpine area or 100 elsewhere. For other states you will need to check with your state regulations.
  2. Classification of Nearest Vegetation   In all directions. 
    • A – Forest
    • B – Woodland
    • C – Shrubland
    • D – Scrub
    • E – Mallee / Mulga
    • F – Rain Forest
    • G – Grassland
  3. Distance to Vegetation   Horizontal distance to the main part of the house.
  4. Slope   This is the slope of the vegetation, not the slope of the area between the vegetation and the house.

In the above example this is a ‘Down Slope’ as the slope of the vegetated area is Down as it goes away from the house ((Even though the intervening space slopes up). ‘Down Slopes’ are higher risk than ‘Up Slopes’ because fire moves quicker going up hill.

By the use of tables the FDI can be calculated for each direction with the highest value being the overall FDI.

Although it is possible to get guides and do it yourself (For example: Victorian Building Authority) I think where safety is involved it’s worth getting an expert in. They will be able to do the assessment and give you advice on requirements and improvements.

 

This link explains the various BAL ‘Scores’

Roof Trusses

Although  roof trusses only started being used in Australia in the 1960’s they now have around 80% of the total ‘Pitched Roof’ market.

They are all designed using well proven computer programs and manufactured in factory conditions. (the whole process is high tech and relies on specialised equipment…….site work is limited to erection of the completed trusses).

Trusses can span large areas without needing intermediate supports. Because the individual components are engineered to share the stresses acting on the roof the total amount of timber is usually much less than an equivalent ‘Conventional Roof’.

Components

The following diagram is of a standard timber roof truss.

For more complex roof shapes there are a range of special trusses that can be made.

Steel roof trusses would look generally similar although they would use a different jointing method rather than nail plates.

The timber components are normally pine and will be either ‘F’ or ‘MGP’ graded. The size is determined from the  manufacturers computer program.

Nail Plate (or Gang Nail)

The chords and webs are joined by nail plates. The plates are galvanised steel sheets that have spikes protruding on one side.

 

The plates are hydraulically pressed into the timber at the manufacturing plant, with one plate on each side of the join. They form a solid fixing that is very strong.

As well as joining chords and webs they are quite often used to splice timbers together particularly when a long bottom chord is needed.

 

 For more about house construction see: Basic Timber Frame

 

 

Where Is The Other House?

I saw this curious looking house one rainy day.

It looks like it’s one house short of a semi-detached pair.

I can only assume the owner saw an example of the house and liked the layout so much they thought they would copy it.

A problem that is not so apparent from the photo is the blank wall faces North so most windows face either West or East with a few facing South

A little more thought and …….

  • The house could have been handed  (Built as a mirror image) for better orientation.
  • The parapet wall could have been deleted so the both sides had eaves.
  • The windows positioned more centrally in the walls.

 

For more Fails and unusual houses go to What the………….?

 

Protecting Underground Pipes

One of the problems that happen all too often during a new house build is that Sewers and Drains get filled with concrete.

Its normally happens on:

  • A knock down and rebuild project where the sewer connection wasn’t sealed during demolition.
  • A Battle Axe block subdivision where the new home is built close to the pipeline.

During the pouring of the foundations the concrete gets into the pipeline through the unsealed connection, or a cracked pipe, and then flows along the pipe.

Our company then gets brought in to remove the concrete using a hyraulic impact cutter like this.

Don’t think its cheap though . . . . . . It normally takes a team of three plus a high pressure jetting truck so the costs is upwards of $200 an hour, and its not unusual for one job to take 2-3 days.

To understand more issues when purchasing land see: Buying a Block

 

Exit mobile version