READ the small print

I’ve been driving past this lighting store with the Closing Down board outside for the last year.

It was only last week when I had a job in the area, and I was walking, that I had the chance to look more closely at the board.

This is a a photo of the top left corner of the board, which shows the writing you can’t see from the car.

It only goes to show…… You should always check the small print!

 

For more unusual and funny housing related pictures go to What the………………….?

 

Roof Choice – Risk

Something you might never have thought about when thinking about the sort of roof that you want on your new house is Risk.

Low Risk

A conventional roof which slopes to the outside can be considered to be a low risk roof.

In severe weather conditions heavy rain can exceed the capacity of the gutters and the downspouts causing an overflow. Blockages in the gutters and downspouts will also cause overflows

With a conventional roof the gutters will overflow to the outside of the building as shown in the diagram to the right avoiding damage to the inside of your home.

High Risk

A couple of other roof choices are of much higher risk.

These are:

Roof with Parapet

This sort of construction is used to give the effect of a Flat Roof, although there is actually a pitched roof behind the parapet wall.

As you can see from the diagram in severe rain, or a blockage, there is a greater risk of the overflow occurring inside the house.

Butterfly Roof

A butterfly roof is when two pitched roof panels fall to a central box gutter.

Again you can see the real risk of overflow into the house in case of problems.

 

What the Regulations Say

For a ‘High Risk Roof’ the regulations require the roof plumbing to be be designed for a heavier storm (1 in 100 years), rather than 1 in 20 years for a ‘Low Risk Roof’.

A ‘High  Risk Roof’ drainage system also require special  overflows to be installed.

This link will show you how to calculate the rate of rainfall used in design: Rainfall Intensity

In practice I hear of a number of non complying plumbing installations, and many of the overflows I see don’t look to have adequate capacity.

Did anyone check your roof drainage calculations? ……..If I chose a high risk roof it would be something I wanted to be checked thoroughly.

 

Also see Whats on the Roof

and Want a Flat Roof

 

Internal Doors

Most internal doors these days are of lightweight composite construction. Basically a light timber framework with two hardboard ‘skins’ and a cardboard honeycomb filler.

Not the best thing is you have got teenagers who love slamming doors !

These type of doors are really inexpensive……………..

I recently replaced a damaged door and the door cost less than $50 and came primed, complete with hinge plates. and with a latch already fitted.(Many builders now buy door frames with hinge plates already fitted and the doors are installed by just pushing a hinge pin into place.)

The question for you when specifying your new house is:

“Although the standard internal door is cheap is it the best door for me?”

Appearance

Here are a just 3 of a wide range of doors available at my local DIY store.

A couple of low additional cost alternatives to the basic painted door that I believe are worth thinking about are:

  • A veneer face, typically maple.
  • A formed panel skin.

Strength
Getting a stronger internal door such as a solid door can have the following advantages.

  • Lower noise transmission…………good for home theaters and to isolate the laundry noise.
  • Fire Safety……….good for kitchen doors and internal doors to the garage.
  • Storage……….easier to install hooks on.

Just remember though that if you want a particular look you can get it, but the cost could be $300 or more per door which can add up if you upgrade every door in your new house.

What type of internal doors do you like ?

 

Want all the information about Pre-Start/ Selection, with handy printable checklists?…….  Why not buy my E-book ‘Guide to Selection’ for just $4

 

$500 Down For A New House ….A Good Idea?

With the house builders doing it tough you see all sorts of offers.

On the radio the other day I heard an advert saying “$500 down and you could be on the way to a new house and land package.”

If you feel tempted here are a few thoughts:

  • Deals like this mean you are borrowing more than 90% of the price of the house. This is a high risk mortgage so the provider will be charging extra interest and insurances which mean the overall cost will be higher.
  • When you buy a new house there are a lot of extras you need to budget for curtains, blind, furniture, gardens, the list goes on (See What Will It Cost?). Its not going to be easy in your new house if you have a huge mortgage, and your credit card maxed out on furniture and fittings.
  • Have you got a reserve of money in case you or your partner looses a job, gets pregnant, or becomes ill.
  • If property prices go down and things go wrong you may find that you owe more than the house is worth, This is known as Negative Equity!

I would be very reluctant to commit to a new house unless:

  1. I could put down a minimum deposit of 10%.
  2. Had the equivalent of at least 3 months wages saved for emergencies.
  3. Spoken to a bank or other lender to see what they would be prepared to lend  us, and knew it would cost less than 1/3 our combined incomes.

Do you think I am being too careful?
 

Budget has more posts about finding a house the right size for you.

 

Rainwater Tank – Outlet Location

In Understanding Tank Water Quality I explained that the typical tank outlets is located close to the bottom of the tank. This takes the dirtiest water from the bottom of the tank,rather than the cleanest water near  the top.

So what can you do?

Well the simplest solution is to put a second  outlet further up the tank, as shown below.


The top outlet is then used for the supply to the house, while the lower outlet is used to supply a garden tap.

The following schematic shows a typical installation.

Normal operation is with Valve 1 open supplying the pump, and Valve 2 open supplying a garden tap. Valve 3 is left shut.

The garden top would only have the pressure of the tank so it could only be used for low pressure jobs like filling a watering can. At extra cost you could add a separate pump.

When the tank level drops below the top outlet Valve 3 can be opened to supply the pump. Although this water is taken from the bottom of the tank most of the substandard water should have been drained off to the garden.

The outlet should also be on the opposite side of the tank to the Inlet.
 

Outlet Modification shows a low cost modification to further improve the quality

To help you pick a tank see Round or Slimline Tanks

 

Leftover Bricks

Usually builders over order bricks. This is to ensure that all the bricks come from the same batch and there is no problem colour matching. (Each batch of bricks manufactured should be consistent within the batch, but will vary from batch to batch).

Some of the extra bricks may be used by the brickies cutting bricks, but there is usually lots of intact bricks left over that you could use for:

  • Path edging;
  • Brick planter boxes; or
  • Building a barby.

So whats the situation when it comes to getting those bricks?……………

Well for most house contracts you are paying for the completed walls not the actual bricks so the bricks are really owned by the builder.

In practice if there are complete packs/pallets of bricks the builder will probably want to take them off site for reuse. The reuse is typically for houses or fences that are going to be rendered.

For packs that have been opened its normally ‘too hard’ for the builder to load the bricks by hand so they go off to the tip during the clearance.

If you want the bricks the best thing to do is speak to the Site Supervisor. If you have a good relationship the SS may allow you to collect and stack the bricks somewhere on the site and make sure they are left there for you to use once you have moved in.

What did you use any leftover bricks for?

 

For similar posts see Garden

 

Levitation Bed

What do you think of this bed?

It certainly looks very “Star Trek”

I can see a few problems:

  1. It would be very complicated and expensive….you couldn’t install this bed in a conventional brick veneer house as the timber frame wouldn’t be able to support it!
  2. Once it was installed you wouldn’t be able to rearrange your bedroom.
  3. And most important for me …my wife doesn’t like me leaving my shoes under the bed and I would never get away with again with this bed.

I found the picture and another 17 unusual beds on the blogof.francescomugnai

 

For more Unusual ‘Houses’ go to What the………………….?

 

anewhouse blog 2nd Birthday

Well it’s the anewhouse blogs’s 2nd birthday this week.

As well as that milestone this week I have also:

  • Made my 250th Post.
  • Sold my 250th anewhouse Guide.
  • Got to a page view rate of 12,000 per month.

To all who have visited the blog and especially those who have bought one of the guides……Thanks,  for making me feel that what I’am doing is worthwhile.

Brian

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