Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 10, 2023 4:49 am Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 6Aug 10, 2023 10:27 am Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 7Aug 12, 2023 8:24 am Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 8Aug 14, 2023 8:01 am Hi Everyone Quick update. Demolition is well underway and should be completed in the next few days. After a lot of trial and error I think we have finally found an awesome demolition crew. We have had so many bad experiences over the last few years, and I know a lot of other forum members have had similar experiences where the demolition companies find asbestos in the soil that shouldn't be there. And then make some decent coin removing it. This is the 3rd home we have had demolished by this crew and every job has been super professional. This is an all Vietnamese crew who are meticulous and recycle everything, Structural Plan showing encasementLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ if that is important to you. I would be more than happy to recommend them. The company is NSW Demolition & Excavation. The owner's name is Kien and his number is 0432 546 516. Following demolition we will survey the site, then jump straight into sewer encasement and then the pool. I have attached the the encasement plan so you can see what it looks like. Basically, one of our CC conditions was to get Sydney Water approval and peg out and then their plan get's overlaid with the structural plans. I have put big red stars next too the two areas of encasement. Sydney water have approved contractors who undertake the work. We are budgeting $20,000 for this. The other thing we are required to do is to get Sydney water to inspect the pier holes near the encasement prior to pouring concrete ( these are marked in red on the plan). As the process proceeds I will get some photos of this stage to give some more relevance. Other than that, I hope you all have an awesome Monday Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 9Aug 14, 2023 1:30 pm It's a shame that you're based in Sydney. I would be extremely interested in working with a builder that has your level of engagement with the community. It's very clear that you're passionate about building and thanks for sharing your knowledge with everyone. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 10Aug 14, 2023 2:24 pm Showatt It's a shame that you're based in Sydney. I would be extremely interested in working with a builder that has your level of engagement with the community. It's very clear that you're passionate about building and thanks for sharing your knowledge with everyone. Thank you so much for your kind comments! And thank you for reading my blog. I hope by breaking down each step of the process it may help demystify building, and if I can educate and make it simple it might help some when dealing with their builder, as sometimes builders use fancy technical jargon that can be confusing. AT the end of the day, building is generally just a bunch of relatively simple steps, even on difficult sites. Thanks again Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 11Aug 14, 2023 4:19 pm I agree with Showatt, I wish you could build in Canberra. Thanks for taking out time to share the pics for your other house last week. Most of the builders would not even entertain you if you are not thinking of building in their zones. Much appreciated. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 12Aug 15, 2023 8:50 am suku18 I agree with Showatt, I wish you could build in Canberra. Thanks for taking out time to share the pics for your other house last week. Most of the builders would not even entertain you if you are not thinking of building in their zones. Much appreciated. Thank you so much! And you are welcome to call me or message me anytime with questions. If there is ever anything you are unsure off just reach out. Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 13Aug 15, 2023 9:18 am Today's topic is stormwater: When we design a house or a duplex, often one of the more complex issues we need to deal with is how to handle stormwater. Especially when site falls away from the street to the rear. Most councils in Sydney require some type of onsite detention otherwise known as OSD. Essentially OSD is a method to retain a portion of the stormwater onsite in big downpours so that the council stormwater system is not overloaded. In it's simplest form, an OSD system has a tank or pit in which the roof and yard drainage system discharges into via either 100mm or 150mm diameter pipes and then slowly releases via a 50mm pipe, and in doing so, slows down the flow. Traditionally, the lazy and most expensive way to do this is to build an underground tank, out of concrete or blocks. Depending on the engineers calculations and site conditions these are typically between 10,000 to 20,000 litres and building them this way can cost $30,000 plus. In my opinion this can be the lazy method as it doesn't require a lot of thinking and creativity on the part of the engineer and builder. It is just easy to pass this cost onto the homeowner. Although, sometimes building an underground tank is the only solution, however this is rare. Over the years, with our engineers we have come up with a variety of solutions which cost a fraction of the cost and we are able to pass the savings onto our customers. In fact, over the last 5 years I have only had to construct one underground tank. For this project, the solution we have used are two 5000L above ground tanks which work as a combination of retention and detention ( detention being for use in the home) which then release the water into an underground absorption trench system in the rear yard. For this system our clients wont be charged any additional money. I have attached are the stormwater plans so you can see how it works. If anyone has any questions let me know Cheers Simeon West Pymble Stormwater designLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 14Aug 18, 2023 5:52 am Happy Friday Everyone, Today's topic is sewer encasement: So we finished demolition on Tuesday and that means today is sewer encasement day. I want to try and start the pool next week, and as the pool sits close to the sewer it needs to be encased. As a reminder we are encasing 19.5m. The process itself should be pretty straight forward: 1. We have a plan which has been approved and stamped by a Sydney Water services co-ordinator 2. A Sydney water approved contractor is engaged to dig up the sewer 3. The engineer who design the encasement comes to site and inspects before concrete is poured 4. We pour the concrete And that should all happen today ( hoping nothing goes wrong). If everything goes to plan I will take a bunch of photos to post describing the process. Monday we are cutting 4 trees down at the rear of the property. Being a flame zone property these are part of the asset protection zone NSW Rural Fire Service require. Then the site survey to set out the house and pool and then pool excavation. I really want to get the roof on by Christmas, I think it's doable ( just! my program has it finishing Christmas eve). That means we have to pick up some time before then as I don't want timber frames exposed over the shutdown. In other news, we have most of our trade tender prices in. We signed the contract in November 2022 while the DA was underway, and it looks like the budget is fine. It's hard to do a direct comparison as the GFA has increased by 24 sqm or 6.5% during the approval process, and I think we can absorb most of that within the original budget, rather than needing to pass it all on. I guess that means overall prices have dropped a little. On a square meter rate we could probably charge $84,000, but I think we can get away with passing on only $15-20,000 for a couple of trades who's prices haven't dropped such as gyprock. So good news alround I shall report back in later with some photos if all goes to plan cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 15Aug 18, 2023 3:25 pm The sewer encasement went well today. Basically what they do is locate the old clay pipes, remove them and replace them with PVC. An inspector then comes and approves, then they are covered with 150mm of concrete. Pretty basic and very expensive process. Attached are some photos which I hope explain the process Our pool is close to the sewer so we need a inspection of the pool formwork prior to pouring that as well. Have a great weekend and as always, if you have any questions ask away. Simeon Just a photo of the vacant site following demoLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Locating the old sewer at the rearLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Old clay sewer at boundaryThey have cut the old sewer at the boundary ready for the new PVC connection Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ New PVC sewerSo where needed the old clay sewer is replacedLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ LHS Clay pipesThese pipes already have a PVC liner so will remainLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Old pipes covered in 150mm of concreteThis will be covered over with soilLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 16Aug 23, 2023 9:06 am An updated render of the facadeLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hi Everyone Not much exciting happening this week, just did the survey set out yesterday, removed 4 trees to comply with the asset protection zone and starting our external stormwater. Have pool excavation booked next Monday, so that will be when the fun starts. Digging a pool in solid rock. In the meantime I thought I should share an updated facade render which came in yesterday that I am planning on using for marketing. Enjoy your week Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 17Aug 29, 2023 9:20 am Hi Everyone Just a quick update from site. Last week we installed the absorption trenches for the stormwater and this week we are excavating the pool. As you can see from the photo we hit solid sandstone pretty quickly. This photo was taken after one day, so I am expecting 3-4 days of jackhammering to get all the stone out. We are paying around $2000 a day for the machine, operator and jackhammer and then I think $600 per truck to remove the material from site. So we will hit $10,000 pretty easily. Then next week we can start forming the pool and installing all the pool plumbing. Cheers Simeon Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 18Aug 30, 2023 2:24 am Ashington Homes Hi Everyone Just a quick update from site. Last week we installed the absorption trenches for the stormwater and this week we are excavating the pool. As you can see from the photo we hit solid sandstone pretty quickly. This photo was taken after one day, so I am expecting 3-4 days of jackhammering to get all the stone out. We are paying around $2000 a day for the machine, operator and jackhammer and then I think $600 per truck to remove the material from site. So we will hit $10,000 pretty easily. Then next week we can start forming the pool and installing all the pool plumbing. Cheers Simeon Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hi Simeon, Can I ask if these costs are included in the Site Costs or are they unanticipated costs that require post contract negotiations between the builder and the home owner? Re: Building a flame zone house in West Pymble on a steep si 19Aug 30, 2023 4:05 am Showatt Ashington Homes Hi Everyone Just a quick update from site. Last week we installed the absorption trenches for the stormwater and this week we are excavating the pool. As you can see from the photo we hit solid sandstone pretty quickly. This photo was taken after one day, so I am expecting 3-4 days of jackhammering to get all the stone out. We are paying around $2000 a day for the machine, operator and jackhammer and then I think $600 per truck to remove the material from site. So we will hit $10,000 pretty easily. Then next week we can start forming the pool and installing all the pool plumbing. Cheers Simeon Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hi Simeon, Can I ask if these costs are included in the Site Costs or are they unanticipated costs that require post contract negotiations between the builder and the home owner? Hi Showatt Thank you for your really good question. I will answer your question in two parts: Part One Rock In this case, due to the fact that there was a rock shelf protruding from the grass, we included a provisional sum of $12,000 for rock. Rock is one of the hardest things to calculate the price of as a builder, as the quantity and strength is completely unknown until you are onsite with an excavator hitting it with a jackhammer. We had another site recently with rock and the jackhammer hit it and it all fell apart, so the pool only took a day and half to excavate. This one is solid and will take 3-4 days. Having a realistic provisional sum protects both the client and ourselves. The client has the ability to budget for it, and also under the provisional sum provisions of our contract, they also have the ability to come to site and observe the work being undertaken. On other sites where rock is not obvious, we will exclude it from the contract with a simple hourly rate if we hit rock, then we notify our clients immediately from site. We run Whatsapp groups with our clients so if work is underway they will all get multiple updates during the day like videos and photos from site, and we have a really good back and forth dialogue. So if we do hit an issue, everyone knows about it. Part Two Site Costs For people new to building, the cost of building the same home on two different blocks of land can vary greatly due to unique factors or site characteristics, such as: 1. Location - are you on a busy road which needs traffic control ( we have one site on Pittwater road in North Ryde and for every delivery we have to get a Police and Council permit, traffic controllers and close down a lane) It adds up 2. Trees - are there trees to come down, do we need to protect trees, do we need to install next boxes in trees for microbats and possums to live in, do we need a project arborist to monitor the trees during the build etc 3. Sewer - Do we need to encase a sewer, this involves the design work, fees and actual physical works 4. Geotechnical - Are there any land slippage issues. For instance Northern Beaches council has land slippage zones and you need to hire a geotechnical consultant to monitor excavation and sign off on the final build. This all adds costs 5. Soil Test results/slab type - ( FYI we don't do soil tests but I included this as other builders do) So typically your builder will do a soil test to determine the classification. My understanding of the soil type is that it relates in part to the amount of shrinkage that occurs when going through wet and dry cycles ie how much does it expand and contract, as well as tree roots and other factors that might impact the stability of the slab. We assume every site is the worst rated type of site ( P) design to that and if we encounter anything additional while excavating and piering we get on the phone to the engineer and come up with a solution. We have to give a 6 year warranty on structure and we don't want to have to come back. We will, we just don't want to. So to answer your question, sometimes these costs are hard to calculate before an approval ( mainly development approvals via Council rather than CDC) because we simply don't know what council will enforce in their conditions, so these costs need to sometimes be negotiated after a contract is in place. On this particular build, the main costs that came up in the approval after contract signing were: 1. Ecological consultant 2. 4 x Nest boxes for bats and possums 3. A man to climb the trees to install the nest boxes - not cheap 4. Sewer encasement - Including design, inspection fees, works etc 5. The removal of 4 trees for an asset protection zone All of these costs will add up to a touch over $20,000. I hope this answers your question. Apologies if it was too long to read If anyone has any questions about the individual costs of items feel free to ask. Totally open book on this one with the permission of my clients. Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Yes it had a house on it. But Melbourne water only wanted something the original size of the existing house. We managed to fit a 45sq house on. 10 34361 First time building 2 storey home, is under construction (in Framing stage) in NSW. I have 3 toilets and need bidet spray in… 0 17413 Building Standards; Getting It Right! Hi everyone Planning a large house extension in New South Wales northern rivers with a BAL 29 Fire zoning. Has anyone had experience with this type of zoning and how much… 0 6548 |