Author Archive: Brian
Living While you Build – Cost
Living costs during the time your new house build can be much more expensive than after you have moved in. Its well worth planning for the additional expense. Why is it expensive? Well you will have either a mortgage or…
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Concrete – Pavement Joints 2
Contraction Joints have been previously described in Pavement Joints 1 The second most common form of Joint is the Expansion, or Isolation Joint. Although concrete does shrink as it cures, in hot weather it will expand. Unless an allowance is…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Outdoor Painting – Win
This looks like a quite nice little painting on the outside wall of a house I recently visited. Its not just a painting though…….. its actually the cover of the electricity meter box. A very neat, and artistic, solution to…
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$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.”…
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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…
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Damp House – Win
This attractive looking cottage has a ‘problem’ with damp. That’s because its an underwater sculpture 8m below the surface off Cancun, Mexico. It has been designed by Jason deCaires Taylor to be fish friendly. The photo below shows the view from…
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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…
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