Design
Overlooking – Direct Line of Sight
An important issue when building a new house is Overlooking . . . . . . you won’t want to be overlooked by your neighbours . . . . . . and you need to avoid overlooking them, otherwise they…
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Habitable Rooms
What is a Habitable Room? You see the phase in several planning and building documents with regard to things like Ceiling Height (see Room Height) and Overlooking. Well according to the Building Code of Australia (BCA) A Habitable Room is…
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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…
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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…
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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: The Fire Danger…
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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…
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World’s Biggest Houses
New Australian homes are now the worlds biggest. Here is a diagrammatic representation of the size compared with three other countries. and here are the average home sizes in square metres: Australia 214 USA 201 Greece 126 Germany 109 Spain…
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Steel Wall Frames
With a steel frame house a standard wall panel, other than using a different material, is much the same as a Basic Timber Wall Panel. Once it comes to a panel with openings there are a few differences as the…
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Upstairs Windows
Have you got visions of being able to look out of your upstairs bedroom windows like this lady. Not anymore if you are building a new house. New laws to protect children falling out of windows have come into…
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Timeless Design
How old do you think this house is? What do you think 2 years, 5 years, or even 10 years old. It looks fairly modern with the ground floor brick and the upper floor a contrasting material. those wide eves…
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