Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum 1 Jan 22, 2011 1:56 pm Hi all, I have been lurking around here for a few months now I need some 'steering' in the right direction. To the mods - I have posted in the owner builder forum as the kind of house I am building seems to fit in this category better than the new home section, feel free to move if you wish. While I have done a few projects myself in the past and will do a lot of work myself, I am using a builder that I have used previously to help take on this project. Quick bit of history. I am about to turn thirty,. I bought my first place when I was twenty yrs old. A commonly built timber framed, corrugated iron clad exterior with the timber slate plastered interior from the the early 1900's. I did some small reno's which included gyprocking, re-stumping, new kitchen, painting etc. I then built a place with Stirling homes at Craigmore ( SA ). 233sqm total, 9ft ceilings, triple garage, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, all the normal stuff. Stirling built the basic house which I finished myself. Timber/laminate hardwood flooring, curtains, painting, landscaping and the list goes go on. I got bored very quick and stumbled across a Stone fronted rammed earth house on half a acre @ Kersbrook in the Adelaide hills. This is the kinda of building that I had been brought up in. So I sold Craigmore and bought Kersbrook. This house was only Four rooms with an outdoor bathroom – It was so run down I basically did a demolition out back, had a builder do a shell for me which brought the bathroom inside, I then installed a kit kitchen, large rainwater tank, a nice deck etc. I then completely stripped the inside out of the original house and started from scratch. From the subfloor up to the ceiling, everything was replaced or reworked. In this same time I tidied up my first house which I was renting out to a mate, subdivided then sold off the house and land. This meant I owned my house freehold with a small amount left over. I was completely debt free and decided to build a rental property with Adelaide Designer Homes. As it turns out I didn't like Kersbrook. I recently sold up and moved into a mates house. I am purchasing a small block of 249sqm @ Mawson lakes, settlement due the 14th of February. I have started drawing up plans for a possible reverse something veneer home. It will be the smallest house I have ever had. Approx 160sqm including double garage, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small study area and one living area containing kitchen/ dining/lounge area. I am looking at a medium spec home with 10ft ceilings, 30degre roof pitch that will contain a small attic. Double glazed windows throughout and a little bit of effort in reducing my energy consumption. I have attached a sketch which was done a while ago and been modified since. The house outline has not changed just the configuration of the bedrooms bathrooms, I also done this on a A3 sheet which I have no way of scanning – sorry. The outline of the house and the thermal mass wall through the middle won't be changing though. The same goes for the majority of the windows. So a couple of ideas of the materials. I am trying to find the best performing thin wall possible. At the moment I am looking at a few ideas. My first idea was reverse brick veneer using 90mm deep blocks on the inside, then insulated timber framed stud wall, blue board on the outside. This would probably be too much thermal mass. My builder told me to look at hebal AAC panelswhich are 75mm thick. This looks like a very attractive option if I can get away WITHOUT using the 40mm spacer which attaches to the timber frame that the hebal panel is screwed to. This will give me a slim wall with some thermal mass, good insulation/sound deadening properties and a 'solid feel' to the house. My only concern is the render that is used on hebal is a specialised product and may not be suitable for indoor use with my main concern being off gassing. My builder had also mentioned limestone bricks in a reverse brick veneer construction. These are 100mm deep which means the wall is starting to get a little thick, but not too bad as long as I don't have to do a gap betwwen the bricks and the frame. I cannot find much info on the bricks as far as insulation/mass etc goes. He tells me that they are 3 times more insulating than brick. I could also so a single skin construction using limestone and maybe use a stick on foam for the outside to insulate the bricks. In any scenario, I will have a solid wall going through the middle of the living area which separates the kitchen from my bedroom, this will most likely be limestone and left unfinished as feature wall. My Garage walls will be timber framed with the blueboard exterior, gyprocked interior and insulated. The front of the house faces north and will have double glazed awning windows to help heat it up in winter. Down the north-west side of the house which faces my tiny backyard will be a big set of doors, still not sure what style but they will be double glazed with some sort of removable shading like a shade sail or other structre. In my bedroom and my little boys bedroom I am a little undecided with glass. I was going to get double glazed but I am more concerned with noise than thermal properties. My builder uses Southern Star Windows which don't really rate that well on weers. They have a commercial range but no ratings for them. While my builder is quite good and honest, he is terrible at getting back to me and doing any of this sort research. I only just got the draftsman number who loves this sort of thing. Also to add my house on the east and south boundary, has got two and three story buildings. My back/side yard faces north-west and the other side of the fence is a big park. So any ideas, preferences, advice anyone? http://img87.imageshack.us/i/houseplan.jpg/ Thanks Aaron Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 2Jan 25, 2011 1:36 am Hi Aaron, i've had a look thru ur proposal & from my experience with north facing house i would have either a verandah on the north side, or if size is a problem a wider than usual eve on the north. i have a verandah & over all window areas have used 1/2 length roofing iron from wall to centre of verandah, then clear pvc sheeting from centre line to gutter. this keeps summer heat off the wall, but allows good lite into the windows in winter. Other question i have is re use of sandstone wall internally. i'm not familiar with this, so i just ask can u "seal" the limestone. reson i ask is that i had a house with internal brickwork that couldn't be sealed and the dust was a problem on that wall?? re builder doing research work - not surprised, most builders will pass on "experience" to u, but don't have time to do research if its new to them - i recon u might have to do that & run ideas passed them. best of luck with it cheers T&V. Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 3Jan 26, 2011 2:56 pm I've built a mostly RBV house recently. North and West walls are 110mm bricks (+internal float n set) and 90mm stud, with blueboard cladding and acrylic render. Total thickness approx 222 mm. I'd say it may be hard to go thinner with the traditional materials. You may consider V or other sandwich panels, they've very high R value, but are expensive. Chris My father rode a camel, I drive a car, my son flies in a jetliner, his son will ride a camel.Saudi saying Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 4Jan 26, 2011 3:13 pm T&V,how wide are your verandras Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 5Jan 27, 2011 4:43 pm kristofw I've built a mostly RBV house recently. North and West walls are 110mm bricks (+internal float n set) and 90mm stud, with blueboard cladding and acrylic render. Total thickness approx 222 mm. I'd say it may be hard to go thinner with the traditional materials. You may consider V or other sandwich panels, they've very high R value, but are expensive. Chris Hi Chris, I have been following your thread very closely. I am pretty much copying what you have done, just with something different to bricks. I have even printed off your pics so the builder doesn't give the old 'what the' look. What do you mean by V or other sandwich panels? Do you have any links? I'm leaning towards 90mm solid blocks. My builder is old school and prefers the KISS simple principle. I think that with what I have in mind it will be a lot better performing than the majority of new builds anyway. Aaron Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 6Jan 27, 2011 9:15 pm aza0 kristofw I've built a mostly RBV house recently. North and West walls are 110mm bricks (+internal float n set) and 90mm stud, with blueboard cladding and acrylic render. Total thickness approx 222 mm. I'd say it may be hard to go thinner with the traditional materials. You may consider V or other sandwich panels, they've very high R value, but are expensive. Chris Hi Chris, What do you mean by V or other sandwich panels? Do you have any links? Aaron I've seen something called SIP (?) panels at the Perth building expo. They're polysterene boards sandwiched beyween external layers of marine grade plywood. My friend's building from V-panels. I've link for neither handy. I've had a look at Energy-lite http://www.energylite.com.au/, but the price and the problem with council approval for the boundary wall made me go RBV. Chris My father rode a camel, I drive a car, my son flies in a jetliner, his son will ride a camel.Saudi saying Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 7Jan 28, 2011 1:33 am pattycake4 T&V,how wide are your verandras Actual wall to gutter roof length 1.750m, verandah flooring wall to edge of concrete 2.000m Over the years i've found its just good policy to have the verandah posts set just in from the outside edge of the verandah. this depends a bit on how u set the posts in - i like to use good stirrups and IMO u dont want the stirrup post sitting right on the egde of the verandah line. Just how i like to do it...hope that helps. Cheers Tony. Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 8Jan 28, 2011 7:35 am Good idea about posts,my verandra will be 1.6 from wall to gutter.I was told this let in winter sun and keeps out summer sun[off windows] any wider and you can lose light Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 9Jan 28, 2011 9:50 am Hey Aza, Have you considered that with such a small house, the internal blade wall being of limestone will be sufficient thermal mass for the house, especially if connected to concrete slab? Then you only need to have insulated clad walls on exterior. Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 10Jan 28, 2011 4:00 pm Hi Barker, I certainly have. I am actually worried about having to much mass. Another consideration for me is noise and the 'feel' of the house. I like solid walls I have lived in places with 14" thick rammed earth walls and they 'feel' bullet proof. As far as noise goes, I can't stand barking dogs - even though I have two dogs of my own and do like dogs, I find no matter were you live, there is always someone who doesn't care for there animal and it will bark all the time. I actually sold a house for this reason previously. When speaking to the builder doing a house in hebal vs bricks is not that much different in cost. I will not do a total lightweight home as the sound deadening qualities are not good enough. I built a extension out of corrugated iron/sound screen batts/ 13mm sound check gyprock and one 4m*2.4m door/window frame with 6.38mmhush glass. It just didn't block out enough noise. I want to get it right this time. Thanks to everyone with there input so far. Aaron Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 11Apr 17, 2011 4:38 pm Well the reverse brick veneer idea has been shot down. Mainly because of the price, as I wanted high ceiling and hard plastering it just became to expensive. I have now decided to with limestone with a limestone wall through the middle that will be sealed and exposed as a feature. Unfortunately I came in around 116sqm for the living area, I was aiming for 125. This means that I don't have a laundry and even in a cupboard as the plan shows it is not quite deep enough. So while I am struggling with that idea I thought I would post a picture for anyone who wants to have a look so far. Aaron http://img851.imageshack.us/i/floorplann.jpg/ Re: Reverse 'something' veneer build Please give some input! 12Apr 17, 2011 6:26 pm Hey Aza. Post your plan on the custom designed floorplan thread. Lots of people look at that and can give you ideas. Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Hi All, Our current 16 year old ducted gas heating is broken and needs an urgent replacement and appreciate any advise from the industry experts to make a decision for… 0 3961 I work with owner, he/she is my man on the ground and I instruct them when to visit the site and take photos and I have other tools in the bag. 4 16355 Hi Everyone I learned something this week that I thought would be worth sharing. In NSW a lot of developers of subdivisions put covenants on the land which normally… 0 6912 |