Structure
Building On Fill – Concrete Piers
Its not unusual for the Site Investigation Report for your new house to reveal loose fill materials above a more stable clay or rock. It might also reveal the soil is in poor condition. To deal with the problem of…
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What’s The Side View Of Your House?
When most people look at a display home the two first considerations are: The Floor Plan. The Front Elevation. (Like the impressive facade in this photo) Sometimes that works fine when all the houses are in a line, and the…
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Roof Space – Access
One of the things that frequently gets forgotten is the hatch that gives access to the roof space. Location A usual location is in acorridor close to the secondary bedrooms. It doesn’t seem that important but when you need the…
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Your Garage – A Fire Risk?
How big a fire risk is your garage? Well in my garage there are the following fuel sources 50 Litres of Petrol. (in the car fuel tank) A litre of white spirit. A litre turps substitute. 2 x 5kg gas…
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Placing Your House On The Block – 10 Things To Consider
There’s lots to think about when you are positioning a house on a block. Here are some things that you should consider when comparing blocks and then deciding how to place your house, Statutory Limits There are usually the following…
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What’s On The Roof?
A METAL ROOF This covers zincalume, galvanised steel and colorbond. Following are a few thoughts: In general a metal roof is noisier as you can hear the rain (which I like) They are fairly light so they don’t put as…
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Upstairs and Downstairs
In my first 35 years living in England I always lived in 2 storey homes. I was never that keen on stairs for the following reasons: During that time I thought that the worst job around the house, when helping…
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House Style or Fashion Victim
Appearance is very much a matter of taste with different people liking different styles, there no right solution. If I put up a picture of something as the way to go than more people would think I was wrong, than…
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Timber or Steel Frame
The most common frame for the standard brick veneer house uses timber. Steel frames however are becoming much more common. . . . So why should you choose one or the other? Advantages of Timber Well understood by builders; Cheaper;…
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Rendered Foam Walls
This addendum was added to an original Post from 2014 as there has been a lot of publicity recently (late February 2019) about foam panels and certification has been removed from certain types of panels. A particular issue for apartment…
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