Alkira Homes KDR (Ryde NSW) - DIY Landscaping

Forg · Nov 04, 2013 1:07 pm

Hi Greg,

Interesting! I'll bet part of why you're going to the expense of building, rather than just buying, is because you like the area and there's ABSOLUTELY NO WAY you'd buy anything with that much room for cars!!

We were only looking for 4 cars' worth in total, and have seen nothing come in the market (which wasn't just a knock-down on a slightly bigger block) in the last 5-6 years.

Our front garage is only a standard height ... let me think, it's about a 600mm step-down from the ground floor which has 2750mm ceilings ... so 3350 or thereabouts (that 600mm may not be accurate - can't remember with 100% certainty). External detached garage is 3800mm (should easily fit a car on a hoist as well as a car under).

You must have enough space on the block for a decent-sized single-story? If it's double, I'd need diagrams to understand your dilemma, as it should be possible (somehow) to get a decent-looking roofline if (at least part of) the garage section has a nearly-flat Colourbond roof.

Also, with getting rid of your own trees; that's OK under CDC, we've done so. We got council permission to remove first (3 of them were close enough to the house that no permission required, 1 is a rubber tree which also needs no permission, leaving us with two which we'll have to re-plant when finished), and then the build itself is under CDC. I know nothing about those neighbour's trees with respect to a CDC build ... and also, CDC doesn't allow you to go over 8.5m in total which might represent a PITA if you're trying to get a two-storey house with a neat roofline that matches a high lower level (our original plan for a 3.8m attached garage would never have worked under CDC, not without a flat roof - whatever they call that type of roof apart from "leak-prone"

).
Hrm, another thing about CDC is that, given your block must be a good size, 600sqm - 900sqm allows a 60sqm external garage & 900+sqm allows a 100sqm external garage. I know that'd completely rearrange your plans ... but could you get by with a normal-height attached garage & a big detached one (3-5 cars) with the raised internal height?

gpierce · Nov 04, 2013 3:16 pm

Hi Forg.

I will explain a bit more.

My wife grew up in the area, and we bought the house she grew up in from her mother. We knocked that down and built a house with a 3 car garage on it, but I have outgrown it:) She is not interested in moving outside a 2K radius of this place so fortunately I was able to find something right around the corner that would suit both our needs.

The block size is 1214 so there is no issue with the size of the house and garage per se. Yes, we could do an external garage, but I do work on the things so moving tools around back and forth is not ideal. Also the aspect of the block is such that we do have a view and putting something external would spoil that in some ways. Also I did not mention we have 4 very large gum trees in the back, and a pool right smack in the middle of the property. All the trees we want to remove are protected (native gum trees) and while we could apply to remove them before building, I am extremely doubtful they would approve given they are healthy and not within the specified distance from the current house.

At first we were going to do a single story, but it puts us too close to the rear gum trees and my partner is afraid of big limbs falling on us:) With the size of a main 6 car garage and all the other rooms we want (3 bed at least with a dedicated HT room) single story is pretty large. Now we're looking at the double story option mainly because of the above which puts us in the roof line predicament. We are planning on a tile roof so I don't think colorbond is an option at this stage for us (as in wife wants tile). Then the other problem with CDC is the total size of the house, which no matter how we do it is still going to exceed the CDC size limit. Well, unless we make the house smaller, but don't think the wife will approve my huge garage with only a one bedroom house;)

Did you get your tree permissions before or after you got an approved CDC plan? As in did you submit your CDC plan with the tree request?

Thanks,

Greg

Forg · Nov 04, 2013 4:16 pm

I can't really answer that question WRT CDC ... we made the removal request of council because we knew we had to regardless, and I forwarded that paperwork to the builder; it's possible they added it to the paperwork used by the certifier and I never knew about it. Also, our two trees were a tea-tree which had split in two & was dying, and a non-native which was also pretty ill; quite different to your situation. Plus I think you have to apply to council and pay a fee to even ask whether you're allowed to knock a tree down. Still, they may allow something like a 2-for-one deal if you're leaving three big trees in place, if there's any one tree which could make your life easier (that's both the beauty & the pain of going through council rather than CDC; with council you can stretch the rules if they allow you, and with council they can apply random made-up rules on you if they feel like it, whereas with CDC you know nearly 100% of what you can do before you even start).

The only reason I even mentioned the CDC thing is because, depending on the compliancer you use, the detached garage can be counted as an "outbuilding" and not included in your floor-space. So given that you're allowed 430sqm max for your house & 100sqm max for the garage, and 40% site-coverage for both buildings so approx 1214 x 0.4 = 480sqm for the total of both, that theoretically leaves you with potential for a pretty massive house ...

. And you could build it so there's only something like 1m between the rear of your "house garage" and your 100sqm "working garage" ... and as a post-construction modification you could have a short section of covered/shaded walkway between the two (the ground concreted & perfectly smooth so as to allow dragging engine-hoists & tool-chests & compressors etc if required).
But all of this totally ignores your outlook & views & tree-issues & where the pool is etc. It really sounds like those things need the flexibility you get going via council (unfortunately with the associated extended wait - but given that you've got a custom build, you'll probably save in the build-time what you lose in council procrastination).

Forg · Nov 15, 2013 4:04 pm

Phone call today!
They're starting onsite next week ... yay!

Forg · Nov 19, 2013 6:06 am

Fences today!
Despite the rain (you can't really see in this photo how wet I was getting taking it

).

Forg · Nov 30, 2013 12:36 pm

... and we've had a wee bit of progress ... waffle-pods are onsite (and held down with some string

), some reo, looks like all the waste-water pipes have gone in, and the start of formwork for the slab.

I'm not sure whether piers have already been put in ... there are little doohickeys poking up out of the dirt, I presume that's where piers will be going.

joy66 · Nov 30, 2013 9:40 pm

Great, now we are at brick stage, same SS as you. NICE ONE!!!

Forg · Nov 30, 2013 10:01 pm

Where're you building, if I may ask?

And how'd you know we have the same SS?

joy66 · Dec 01, 2013 8:30 am

Messaged you before internal selection a while ago. You may forget already.
Asked SS before, he said all north side is his

Forg · Dec 09, 2013 1:03 pm

Yes, joy66, I remembered that after you reminded me ...

Well there's been some more progress, the photos are a bit dark but we now have a slab!
I can't see the pipes for the kitchen island-bench, I guess they rebate them later?

I think they'll have a few more things to do before Christmas (they're currently digging the hole for the water-tank in front of the house), but we won't see a lot more progress until after Christmas now, as the frames have been ordered for then.

AKB · Dec 10, 2013 4:38 am

Conslabulations

Forg · Dec 10, 2013 7:09 am

Why, thankyou!

Now gotta process the progress-payment - graagh!

joy66 · Dec 11, 2013 10:26 am

It's great slab up, frame after holiday. We are just keep fingers crossed wish they can finish the roof before holiday.

AKB · Dec 11, 2013 10:37 am

Forg

Now gotta process the progress-payment - graagh!

Yep that's the part that hurts :-)

Forg · Dec 11, 2013 11:50 am

joy66

It's great slab up, frame after holiday. We are just keep fingers crossed wish they can finish the roof before holiday.

Well they're probably trying to ... sounds like our shared Site Ssupervisor is running 'round like a mad thing trying to get as much done by then.

joy66 · Dec 11, 2013 2:29 pm

Wish so

Forg · Jan 30, 2014 11:09 am

Finally, there seems to be some vertical progress!
First set of frames have started going up ...

AKB · Jan 30, 2014 11:42 am

How exciting :z:

Forg · Feb 04, 2014 8:17 am

... and a bit of wall & upstairs floor support, along with some of the steel beams:

Forg · Feb 14, 2014 3:21 pm

So some windows & doors turned up yesterday ... I really only took photos so it'd feel like there'd been some progress, what with it having been Monday the week before last since they last did anything.