There are lots of things to consider when choosing a block.
My basic preference would be an East facing block on a court.
This gives the best orientation of the house and minimises passing traffic.
Here are some of the things, besides price, that I think about when I look at a block:
Will it fit the house I want to build? Remember that there will most likely be a 5m setback at the front and you will probably need at least 2m from the back fence to avoid building on the drains and sewers.
In order to make a choice within a reasonable time scale most people will have to compromise.
For example our last new house is West facing at the end of a court, it has a good view westwards, but gets lots of passing foot traffic. It’s a very wide block, 25m+, but below the street level at the front.
I have only recently come across the term Spite House. . . . but this is a good example.
It’s a house that has been built to get back at someone the builder has fallen out with.
They were fairly common during the nineteenth century but less common now
The photo shows a more modern spite house after a developer wanted to build a house that filled most of a vacant block . . . but the neighbours objected.
The revenge was building the tallest, architecturally clashing house that could be built within existing permits.
The result was a 280 square metre home on 3 floors but less than 4m wide. (check it out on Google street view at 704 N. Barton St, Arlington, Virginia)
As a durable and stylish flooring solution, laminate flooring has always been a popular choice for homeowners or residential property investors who want to increase their property value.
Although you may be surprised to find that it has only been around for a few decades, technology has driven tremendous advances in developing new generations of laminate flooring in recent years.
Today, we are going to show you the latest innovations in laminate floors.
Water Resistance
In the past, laminate flooring would be a disaster in high-moisture environments, and you would need to clean up a water spill right away to protect your laminate floor.
That is no longer the case.
In recent years, the latest laminate floorings, such as Quick-Step laminate and Krono Swiss laminate, have launched laminate products that are water proof and you can install in your kitchens or bathrooms.
Easy Installation
With the development of click lock system, such as Uniclic Click system from Quick-Step, a lot of people can install their laminate floors by themselves.
The floor of an entire room can be finished in only a day. And this will largely reduce the cost of renovation.
Design
The use of super realistic printing technology has given laminate a new level of authenticity while avoiding pattern repeats. With the natural colouring and textures, customers can’t tell a difference between timber floor and laminate floor.
Stain Resistant
Thanks to the new water-resistant technology that is applied to the outer wear layer of the laminate flooring, it has become even easier to clean and maintain.
The surface of the laminate flooring is completely sealed, and the finish coating protects the floor from almost all stains and dirt, which can simply be wiped off with a damp cloth.
Scratch Resistant
Laminate flooring has always been durable compared to timber flooring, but modern technology is significantly increasing the laminate flooring’s resistance to scratches and indentation, keeping the floor looking newer and longer.
If you see a swarm of flying insects that have wings, you’ll probably assume you’re seeing an ant.
But you could be seeing a more concerning phenomenon – flying termites.
If you spot these pests, you know that there is a termite colony in your near your property.
When a colony is well established, it begins to produce winged bugs that start a new breeding cycle.
Once a new colony is established in your home, the termites can cause thousands of damage to your house.
Worse, you may not even know it’s happening, as they usually do it out of sight and can eat away at your home for ages without you ever suspecting it.
If you see swarming termites, it could mean you have the opportunity to stop them before they infest your home.
Alternatively, it means there is a large colony on your property, and it’s crucial to call in a pest control professional to find the nests in your home or yard.
Before you panic, you want to ensure you are dealing with termites in the first place.
Read on to discover how to identify swarming termites, what it means if you have flying termites, and what you can do to get rid of them.
What Swarming Termites Look Like
Homeowners often confuse ants with termites. Here is how you can confirm if you are looking at a swarming termite:
The insect is small, about half an inch long
It has a head, thorax, and abdomen (tri-segmented body) and has six legs
It is the honey-colored or cream but can range to black depending on the species of termite<
It has two pairs of wings that are the same size
The antennae are straight (ants antennae are bent)
The abdomen of a termite is straight (an ant is pinched)
Spot the clues
While termites have been known to swarm at random times of the year, they typically do so in spring and summer when sexually mature adults leave the colony to establish new ones.
They tend to appear when the temperature soars and you have experienced heavy rain usually appearing between dusk and 11pm.
If you suspect swarming termites but were not awake during these hours, look for discarded body parts such as their papery wings. Inspect the floor, ground, or around windows and doors.
As discussed, swarmers leave a colony when the colony needs to grow.
It takes about three years to reach a point where mature ants embark on this new journey.
If you spot swarming termites, you should call in a pest control team to inspect your property for other signs of termite activity and pinpoint the nests.
Regardless of whether the colony is inside the house or not, what you really need to know is how much damage has already been done.
So, you should look for additional signs you have termites to determine if you have an infestation. These can include the following:
Damaged wood, such as hollowed-out skirting boards or buckling of beams
Wet patches on walls and other signs of moisture
Fine sawdust called frass, which is a waste material left by termites
Mud tunnels that lead from the ground and run along the walls of the foundation and crawl spaces.
Termite control isn’t something you can tackle on your own or with store-bought DIY products.
A trained and qualified pest control technician will give you professional advice on how to deal with swarming termites, and recommend a long-term prevention solution.
You want to find a way to prevent termites from entering your property, and also setting up systems that warn you when they’re around.
Mouldings are commonly used to add beauty and character to windows, doors, and rooms within your home.
These mouldings usually have surfaces that are both convex as well as concave with integrated angles and planes to create a unique appearance.
If you’re wondering about moulding materials to use for your home, then you should definitely consider the use of natural timber, such as FJ Pine timber mouldings.
Here are six benefits of using natural timber mouldings:
1. Natural Insulation
Timber mouldings can act as a natural insulation that provides a barrier between cold and heat.
Wood has many air pockets inside its cellular structure that makes it a lightweight insulator.
Home designs that focus on energy efficiency can significantly benefit from natural timber as it contributes to minimizing energy use and maximizing comfort.
The thermal properties of natural timber also maximize the effectiveness of insulation materials because wood does not dissipate heat or become cold, thus requiring less nonrenewable energy to maintain the desired temperature in your home.
2. Burns Slow
Although natural timber is a flammable material, it also burns in a predictable, slow, and measurable way.
In regard to these factors, natural timber, performs better in the event of a fire, when compared to other flammable construction materials.
In the event of a fire, timber will form a layer of charcoal on its surface that provides fire resistance to the material.
The charcoaled surface acts as an insulator to the timber’s inner core that delays the penetration of heat, keeping temperatures low in unburned materials and allowing timber to hold its weight longer than other materials.
The protective surface also reduces the overall flammability of timber.
This self-defense mechanism of natural timber will enable it to survive fires while maintaining its stability and strength.
3. Environment-Friendly Production
The manufacturing process of timber mouldings uses considerably less nonrenewable energy per unit volume than aluminum, PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride), and MDF (Medium-Density Fibreboard), reducing the amount of pollution generated during the process.
A home with one cubic meter of timber in place of other materials such as aluminum, PVC, and MDF can save up to 1 tonne of toxic greenhouse gasses.
4. Renewable and Natural
Timber mouldings are one of the only few renewable and natural building materials you can use in your home.
The processes involved in harvesting and forest regeneration for the production of timber ensures that the material will be continuously available in the market.
When a single tree is harvested, it will be replaced by up to ten trees, thus creating a renewable cycle.
Timber as a natural resource is considered safe to touch, handle, and is non-toxic.
Additionally, it doesn’t break down into environmentally toxic materials and naturally ages with time.
5. Greenhouse Positive
Timber mouldings are carbon positive products with lower environmental effects when compared to other materials, such as aluminum, PVC, and MDF.
It contributes to the long-term reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
With forest regeneration, growing trees absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and stores it inside their leaves, trunks, and branches.
In fact, almost half of the dry weight of a tree is composed of carbon.
The carbon is stored throughout its lifetime and retained even after the manufacturing process.
6. Improve Well-Being and Health
Wood can have a positive effect on your health.
Exposure to wooden interiors and products creates the same health benefits as spending quality time in nature, as people are innately drawn towards it.
If you spend a lot of time indoors, bringing nature inside your home can positively affect your well-being and health.
Here are some of the health benefits of using natural timber as building materials:
Improved emotional state and self-complacency
Enhanced comfort and warmth
Lower stress levels, heart rate, and blood pressure
Improved air quality and breathing
Being surrounded by wood can also have a positive effect on people’s opinions and attitudes, such as:
Persons living in assisted living facilities communicate more with each other.
Most workers prefer a workplace with wooden desks and chairs.
Classrooms that feature wooden materials positively improves students’ stress levels and heart rates.
Closing Thoughts
Timber mouldings come in a wide variety of shades, finishes, and styles so it’s easy to look for something you’d like.
From light-colored pine to deep mahoganies, there’s a lot of varieties to choose from.
Whether it’s for your home or business, timber mouldings can be utilized to enhance and improve the look of walls, doors, and windows to bring a certain allure and elegance.
Have you ever thought about who has keys for the locks on the doors of your new house?
After all there are lot’s of tradies working on the house after ‘Lock Up’ stage.
Well these days most builders use Construction Locks, sometimes called Project, locks. These are a special type of lock which comes with two types of key:
The Construction Keys
Standard pattern ‘master’ keys which are given to all the tradies, who can with a single key enter any of the builders houses under construction
The Final Key
These are the keys which is given to you at handover. Once you use this key it displaces some ball bearings in the lock which should mean the Construction key will no longer work.
Some of the things you should know about Construction Locks are:
Before the end of the handover you should make sure you use the Final Key in every door lock in the house. check each lock with all the keys you are given. This will ensure that:
Every lock will be changed to only open with the final key. (It’s worth borrowing the site supervisors key to make sure his key no longer works)
All the locks, and keys work properly.
The locks the builder uses are unlikely to be expensive/high quality.
Although the construction key won’t work there will be a limited number of final key combinations for this type of lock. If you want in increased level of security it could be worth getting a locksmith to re-key the locks as soon as possible. The cost is going to be around $60-80/lock plus a call out fee.
We live in a world that is quite literally cloaked in all the marvellous feats of technological advancement and exponential digital growth.
We have created this world; it exists for no other reason than simply because we willed it, and then we worked to bring it to fruition.
Practically every facet of modern life, every industry with a notion in this digital age, has faced its own challenges and adaptive refinements in the face of technological absolution.
In the real estate industry, for example, we are now seeing what will inevitably come to be known as the humble beginnings of technological disruption in one of the most traditional industries in the entire world.
How did we get to this point, and where will real estate evolve to next?
A traditional industry embracing modern innovations
Historically, real estate is a traditional industry, through and through.
Today, that is all changing, with rapid digitalisation taking full effect, creating a new frontier for real estate the world over.
From the property marketing efforts, to the buyers agents for residential property, traditional advertising and marketing efforts are being slowly but surely pushed out of sole function and used in collaboration – or entirely removed from the process altogether – with modern marketing concepts.
Many of the innovations thus far are seemingly subtle, but they have made phenomenal waves and massive changes for the industry.
Technological disruption takes real estate by storm
Today, the global real estate industry is being shaken to the core by technological advancement – in all the best ways.
Everything from the platform that contacts are sent through from realtor to buyer, renter, or investor, to the 3D virtual reality inspection queues that are becoming the new way to inspect prospective properties, has all compiled to forge an exceedingly strong beginning to real estate technology.
This is the digital age, and these innovations go the distance in creating new, more efficient and faster alternatives to age-old real estate processes and systems.
Future of tech in real estate
Today, technological innovation is relatively new and thus small-scale in the realm of real estate, but tomorrow it is likely to have bloomed into a key function of the real estate industry, through and through.
Already we are beginning to see technology in real estate ramp up in every level.
The real estate industry is becoming more efficient, faster, and more accessible than ever to renters, buyers, sellers, and investors alike.
The technology in properties is fast advancing and becoming more of a staple, a must for new homeowners, rather than a niche bonus – and where that technology is likely to evolve to next.
This is the way of the future of real estate, and it is exciting to know that this is only the beginning as well.
Like much of the modern world, real estate is still adjusting to its digital re-vitalisation, but already the changes are making significant, overwhelmingly positive impact.
Real estate is becoming a tech-savvy field on all angles, and it speaks volumes of the dramatic and rapid pace at which technologies have swept over the entire planet.
