I recently saw an advert for ‘MyPlace’ a ‘Virtual Build Information System’ by Burbank.
What Is A Virtual Build Information System?
MyPlace is a virtual construction site which provides a visual aid in the progress of your home’s construction. It lets you check out what’s happening on-site of your new home without having to leave your couch.
If you build your new home with Burbank home you will be able to log into ‘MyPlace’ at any time. You will then be able to:
Download documents.
See photos of your home being built.
See updates from the Builder.
Is it A Good Idea
Well it sound ‘Modern’ and ‘High Tech’ but I’m not convinced.
I always like to be able to have signed document in my hand, not electronic documents!
Is it just a system to try and keep you away from the site, and stop you asking awkward quality questions?
How much detail will the photos really show to help you gauge the build quality?
Many people building have problems in getting a weekly phone update from the Site Supervisor, so how frequently and up to date will the information be?
I might be interested if I was having a house built a long way from where I lived, but in my mind nothing replaces regular site visits during the build.
If you have used one of these Virtual Build Information System I would like to hear about your experiences.
Lets face it, building isn’t always easy. Each house has its own problems and the builders have to deal with the weather.
Things do go wrong . . . so the measure of a good builder is how they resolve the problems.
Here are some excuses you shouldn’t have to hear. . . . together with some suggested responses from me.
“That’s the way we always do it” – Response “Well why did you do it differently in the show house?’
“You don’t understand.” – even “You’re a women you wouldn’t understand.” – Response – “I didn’t think you needed to be a brain surgeon to get a job as a builder, so explain it to me.”
“The Regulations say its got to be like that.” – “Response “Show Me the Regulation” This one was tried on me. After the Site Supervisor heard my response he said “OK it will be fixed tomorrow.”
“The delay is due to the weather” – Response – “As the standard contract requires you to make allowance for bad weather you had better show me the records the weather has been worse than usual.”
“We build them outside in all weathers – not in cosy factories” – Response – “I thought you were an experienced builder familiar with the problems of working on site”
You can’t get good tradies around here, so quality suffers. – Response – “You contracted to build to that quality so it sounds to me you are just trying to save money by not paying the going rate, and/or not supervising them properly.”
What excuses have you heard?
Too many excuses and it could be worth getting your own Building Inspector involved
Unfortunately brickwork overhanging the slab like this is more common than it should be. . . . but it’s often not the brickie’s fault.
How it Happens
Normally the problem is that the slab has been constructed smaller than the required dimensions.
This wouldn’t be a problem, but for the fact that most houses come with prefabricated frames which mean the frame is too big for the slab. If the frame components aren’t ‘adjusted’ to make them smaller they will overhang the slab, and as a consequence the bricklayer overhangs the brick to maintain the wall cavity.
How Much Is Too Much?
The Building Code of Australia (BCA), Part 3.2.2.7, Edge Rebates, states ‘Exterior masonry must not overhang more that 15mm past the edge of the slab’.
Interestingly the maximum overhang permitted for the frame is only 10mm from the edge of the slab.
Solution
To my mind the best solution is to bolt a steel angle to the slab using masonry anchors.
The reason the masonry anchor is 50mm from the top surface of the concrete is to prevent it breaking out.
I have heard of people suggesting pouring concrete, or a cement grout I wouldn’t recommend that. To do it properly would require dowel bars to be drilled into the concrete and reinforcement fixed before trying to bond a thin piece of concrete to the slab.
Well this is the Optimal Traveling Independent Space(OTIS) It’s a 6.7 square metre “living system” that can be towed on a trailer.
The pod-shaped tiny house includes indoor ‘plumbing’ in the form of a composting toilet, a rainwater collection system.
It also has a single 120-watt solar panel to provide electricity and a wood burning stove!
Want to see more tiny houses? . . . go to the Tiny House Blog
For more Unusual House Photos, and Fails, have a look at: What the………………….?
For the typical modern house with slab on ground base there are two minimum heights above ground level that need to be considered:
Next to the building.
Distance of 1m away.
The reason for these minimums is to keep water out of the building, including the structure and foundations.
Next To The House
Floor level above external finished surfaces must be a minimum of:
50 mm above impermeable (covered paved or concreted areas) that slope away from the building
100 mm above the finished ground level in low rainfall intensity areas ( 5 minute intensity of less than 125mm/hour for a recurrence interval of 20 years -see: Rainfall Intensity to check your site), or sandy well-drained areas
150 mm in any other case.
Distance of 1m
The external finished surface surrounding the slab must be sloped away from the building, for the first 1m by a minimum of the following:
25 mm in low rainfall intensity areas for surfaces that are reasonably impermeable (such as concrete or clay paving)
50 mm in any other case.
Normally in clay soils I would allow another 15-20mm to allow for any ‘Soil Heave’. (See:Building on Clay Soils)
Overall
To meet the Building Code the range of total heights above ground will vary between 75mm and 200mm depending on circumstances. If you want a smaller step between inside and outside (for reasons such as Better Accessible Design) you will need to talk with your House Designer about a detail which meets the intent of the Building Code (Keeps water out of the house).
I frequently see comments like “Ceiling insulation is next to worthless in summer.”
I have even heard people say “With a hot roof space it will be overwhelmed.” and “After the sun has gone off it stops the house cooling down.”
Here is the truth:
All insulation works by slowing the rate of heat transfer. If the roof space is hot some heat will pass through to the room below. The insulation will slow the rate that the room heats up from the roof space.
Ceiling insulation isn’t enough to keep the room cool by itself. The room will still get hotter if heat is leaking in through poorly insulated walls and windows.
Ceiling insulation, by slowing the heat gain from the roof space, will reduce the cost of mechanical cooling.
In a well insulated conventional ceiling minimal residual heat remains in the plasterboard and ceiling insulation. The heat in the room is just hot air. The best way to remove the hot air is to open the windows when the air temperature outside is less than inside, or run the air conditioning.
When most people think about rainfall they think about the amount of rainfall . . . . . . . . . but it’s just as important to understand how hard it can rain, the ‘Rainfall Intensity’.
The ‘Rainfall Intensity’ is important when thinking about things like; Roof Gutters, Down Pipes, Stormwater Pipes , Tank Overflows, and even how high your house is above ground level.
Photo courtesy of www.mirror.co.uk
Recurrence Interval
When talking about heavy rainfall you will frequently hear talk on the news about things like a ‘1 in a 100 year storm’. What that means is that a statistical calculation indicates that a storm of that strength is only expected to occur once in any 100 year period, the ‘Recurrence Interval’.
There are two rainfall intensities that the building codes normally consider. They are based on the peak 5 minutes during a storm for vaious ‘Recurrence Intervals’.
Intervals can be from: 1 in 20 years to: 1 in 100 years (See this link for more information: Roof Choices)
Intensity Calculation
Statistical intensities have been calculated for all locations in Australia and are available at the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Website.
Search for ‘Intensity Frequency Duration (IFD)’
To Use the IFD
Enter “your town name ” “coordinates” into Google and write down the coordinates
Click on the Create An IFD button
Enter the coordinates into the Decimal Coordinate box
Enter the town name in the Location Name box
Tick that you accept the Conditions of Use
Press the Submit button
Click on the Table tab
The following is the top line of the table for Werribee in Victoria.
Duration
1EY
1 year
50%
2 years
20%
5 years
10%
10 years
5%
20 years
2%
50 years
1%
100 years
5 mins
44.9
60.1
83.4
99.7
121
153
179
The units are mm of rain in 5 mins (Multiply by 12 to get an hourly flow rate)
Low Rainfall Intensity
Parts of the Plumbing and Building Codes refer to areas of “Low Rainfall Intensity”.
A location of “Low Rainfall Intensity” means the 5 minute rainfall intensity for an average recurrence interval of 20 years is not more than 125 mm/hour.
Well ‘Smart Wiring’ is really a generic term that covers anything from control of home automation, to high speed data services. Probably the best descriptions is to talk about ‘Hard Wired’ and ‘Wireless’ components with a well set up new home using both.
A typical modern home can now have multiple laptops, tablets, smart phones, network enabled gaming consoles, network printers and many simpler devices that can all use a wireless network. You will also find media streaming devices such as media centre PC’s designed to plug into your TV/Theatre for music and photos.
Entertainment, including; HD video, surround sound and gaming applications requires speed and integrity of signal. Wireless can struggle to deliver the required signal, especially when multiple applications are occurring simultaneously.
Hard Wiring
The thing that makes your wiring ‘Smart’ is a main router served by the incoming connection from the street. From the main router individual cables run on separate circuits to each room that you want to serve. A separate cable should be used to serve the Wireless Router is you want to locate it away from the main router.
The main router should be kept away from extremes of heat so is best located in a cupboard rather than the garage.
I would suggest you use Category 6 cable, which has 8 wires and can carry a 1 gigabit/sec. The wiring can be used for distributing a phone line to rooms and sending video signals from room to room.
Wireless
Wireless router speeds have improved over the past few years, so its probably worth getting a new router rather than moving your existing unit to your new house.
Although your ISP controls how fast your Internet connection delivere, a faster speed router does help with the internal network performance. This is important with multiple devices accessing the wireless simultaneously.
Costs
Expect to pay around $120 per data point, so it’s going to be cheaper to buy a $50 ‘switch’ to run multiple devices in one room than have multiple points.
Adding smart wiring to a 2 storey house after the build will be difficult.
If you are building a single storey house it should be relatively easy to add smart wiring after the build. In that case it may be worth getting a price from a specialist installer before your Selection/Pre-Start Meeting.
For more posts about getting the details right see Selection
