New to Australian Dream, plan to build a house.

Hi all

Me and family came here few years ago, and now are thinking knock down our old house and rebuild. and I got to say I learn lots from this forum, and from reading ppl's story we know the direction. however when come to deal with local council and the paper works, there are some confusion; from the local concil web site, we find the paper / guide, however just wondering if someone can explain for me, and please excuse my "not quite there English"..:p thanks.

here is the link: http://www.hurstville.nsw.gov.au/_uploa ... 20code.pdf

Floor space ratio? from my local council, max is 0.45:1, does this include every thing under the roof? i.e garage, stair, balconies..etc?

Basement garage: Is there anyone have done this, and if you dont mind me ask, how much roughly will it cost? say a 2 car space

thanks.

Phillip

Floor space is the total floor area, so if you have two storeys the floor space can be up to twice the "footprint" of the building. The external enclosing walls are included in the calcualtion. A double garage is excluded as are open balconies (that is, no overhead covering).

More officially, from the Hurstville DCP;

Floor Space Ratio means the ratio of the gross floor area of a building to the area of the site on
which the building is situated. Non habitable outbuildings are not included in floor space ratio.
Gross floor area means the sum of the areas of each floor of a building where the area of each floor
is taken to be the area within the internal face of the external enclosing walls as measured at a
height of 1,400 millimetres above each floor level, excluding:
(a) columns, fin walls, shading devices, awnings, open balconies or terraces and any
other elements, projections or works outside the general lines of the outer face of the
external wall;
(b) lift towers, cooling towers, machinery and plant rooms and ancillary storage space
and air-conditioning ducts;
(c) car parking needed to meet any requirements of the Council and any internal access
to that parking;
(d) space for the loading and unloading of goods; and
(e) internal arcades and through fares, terraces and balconies and the like;
(Amendment No. 19, Hurstville LEP 1994, Gazetted 25-6-1999)