This is a copy of Csiro foundation maintenance and footing performance. Has good info on soil types and type of movement that occurs on buildings. http://www.unitcare.com.au/pdfs/Foundation_maintenance_csiro.pdf [Edit: Advertising links removed by moderator]

Building inspector, can they take those bricks out and replace them or will they walls that are affected need to be re done? With the bed joint issue you can remove three or four bricks at a time and re-lay. The level they are at would be -1 course from your slab which is your paving/landscaping le...

Although there are tolerances for width of perpend joints and bed joints. They are normally applied in the context of them all being uniform. That is to say if one bed joint was 15mm then it woul require them all to be 15mm. Where you have an example such as yours this would not comply. The first co...

Often they will allow you to pay a license fee for the design but sometimes the cost is unrealistic. [Edit: Advertising links removed by moderator]

Only looks like 3-4m3

The tolerances for masonry are outlined in A.S 3700. if the neighbouring property wall is already up then cleaning excess mortar is really all they can do. Most people end up bridging the gap with fencing after handover to hide the small gap. [Edit: Advertising links removed by moderator]

Usually you will enter a preliminary agreement where the builder prepares plans ,contract documents,survey of the block and engineers details. This is usually known as an agreement for preparation of plans and will normally state that the deposit is non refundable if a contract is not entered into a...

Can't see any photos but based on what you have said this would not comply with A.S 3700. [Edit: Advertising links removed by moderator]

Can you apply Consumer Law to this issue ie state that you have not got what you paid for? Not if they are laiyed to what is considered by an authority to be an acceptable standard [Edit: Advertising links removed by moderator]

So going by the standard the tiles are ok, as porcelain correct my if im wrong is not a polished tile. Does the builder have a display home? Check out the tiling there if they do, they are required to provide you with a finish equal to the quality of the display home. Porcelain is usually a polishe...

2mm for lippage is for normal ceramics porcelain is 1mm. See the below excerpt from the Australian Standard. From A.S 3958 “The lippage between two adjacent tiles should not exceed 2 mm. In the case of tiles where the surface has been ground flat for example polished tiles, the lippage should not ex...

Yes you are correct. moisture will migrate through the wall via capillary action from the retaining wall. You can seal the limestone wall with bitkote 5. Also be mindful that moisture can penetrate your single leaf garage wall even if the retaining wall was not there. The Building Code of Australia ...

Not sure about this but I have had a dispute between an owner and Clipsal that I was involved in regarding the Saturn series switches. The complaint was that if you have a three way switch only two led surrounds can bit illuminated and the third is not. They don't make it clear in their brochure and...

if your builder is doing crossover and the requirement is 60mm pavers, the builder has to use 60mm. builder can not ask you to upgrade crossover pavers as he is required to use only 60mm. Actually that is not entirely true. If the building licence comes back approved and says the crossover is to be...

If the crossover is part of the contract then the builder would want to do this for ease as it is easier to set the paving up if it is all 65mm. It can be done in standard 52mm pavers. If the crossover is part of the building license then it has to be done to their spec but the driveway does not [Ed...

This provision in the contract is really to give the opportunity for the builder to review their price if you fail to provide all necessary approvals within the specified timeframe. As it is a fixed price contract if an owner fails to provide finance and land approval within the specified time and t...

Many moons ago I worked as a contracts manager for a large home builder. My interpretation was always finance, land, shire and water. I think they might be taking Liberty suggesting final plans can be part of this. I suppose the real question is what do you wish to achieve. If you wish to cancel the...

The 45 day clause from all approvals in the H.I.A contract isn't soley the builders responsibility. You need to prove you own the block and have finance approval. If you don't provide this with the specified time then the bullder can cancel the contract and re-negotiate the contract price. The term ...

You normally sign an authority for the bank to release the money. On final payment the bank may want to do an inspection which usually is just a drive by to make sure it is a 100% complete. As the payments are released by the bank you usually have to start paying the mortgage for the amounts paid to...