Worried about Alfresco pier

Hi,

I am building a new double storey house with Metricon. As we are in lockdown in VIC, we were not able to visit site. When our site supervisor sent us photos, we realised we don't have a brick pier but instead we have a "timber post on Galv stirrup with blade". It was an oversight on our part, we assumed it would be brick. My question is, is this strong enough to support double storey home? could it be a design flaw? Can I still get the brick pier constructed around it post handover?

Please see pictures and advise if possible.

Will they be painting those downpipes before handover?

Look at the structural Drawings/Details and not at the display as the builder can change minor structural details without consulting you
OT when I see that I start to wonder what the rest of the Structural elements are Like, what makes it worse is there are no photos of your build?
moving forward, you will need to have it inspected, easy to do at the framing stage.. not so now,
ask the builder/ss "would they put a room on top of their pergola?
BTW, You shouldn't have to add structural members to your build after handover.. are the pad footings designed for a brick pier..do you have footings.. that's the builders responsibility..
Cheers
Chris

@ Structural

BIM guy - Thanks for your input. Yeah, I would be hiring an independent inspector. The design wouldn't have been approved if its not safe, I guess. I am attaching the relevant structural drawing of my floor plan.

@SaveH20 - We were allowed one colour for gutter, fascia and downpipe. Matching gutter and fascia to roof tiles was more important to us. What colour would you recommend since it’s half brick and half rendered?

The black certainly stands out, particularly against the lighter colour. They need matching against the two clashing backgrounds. It would now be dangerous for a layperson to paint yet so easy if the builder had exercised some aesthetic values and specified colour blending pre install.

Sorry that I am not able to comment on the post, not my area of expertise unfortunately but it has piqued my interest.

I think you are confusing Stock Standard builders/drafting elevation details to engineers structural details
The plans you are looking for should have the following
The engineers name and details stamped on the plan. Cross check the Drafts mans (above) with the Engineers details
For a 2S house you should have a specific plan for Engineering Columns and Beams?
they should also be stamped certified by a Building Surveyor (BS)
IMO that column should be steel with base plate, if its an alternate solution then it still requires the engineers Signature and BS stamp
hth

I wasn't given a copy a copy of engineering structural details.
I was issued a building permit number by building surveyor.
I will check with Metricon regarding this.

Thanks

The engineering Drawings forms part of the building contract documents.. you should have initialled them and received copies ?
BTW, your Local Council Building department should have a complete set of the BS certified engineering as well

I have found out that the engineers have Ok'd this plan and I have been told Metricon has done it in several house without any issues. Apparently this is treated timber for outdoor use.

Now my question is, for my assurance, can I get a brick pier built around it for extra support? Can that do any damage to timber providing support?

The problem with you doing the brick pier is that you become second builder on the job. If something goes wrong you will be blamed even if it's not your fault.

Is this really an issue?
As far as I know any brick piers in VIC build , basically inside the brick pier is a piece of timber doing the actual support work. The bricks outside are just cladding..
However if the timber inside does fail then yeah the bricks will support it but then the section of the house will probably dropped minimum 10mm..
Don't think brick layer will lay the bricks exactly to support the main structure?? ...

i am worried about same thing,
when we went to the consulting sales person they showed us something nice, and we said ok if its gonna look like that,
but now at the end it is exactly like yours and it looks so ugly, like elephant with bird leg.
i dont know how do they approve a design like this these days,
metricon should be removing these kind of ugly and stick like pillar design.
just because of this i wont recommend Metricon to any one.
how did you go with your alfresco pier, does it look different now or its same.

Metricon assured me it is safe but I was still concerned and didn't like the look. I ended up hiring a brickie and building a brick pier around it. It looks so much better now. It cost me around $650. Got it rendered afterwards.

No wonder they will say it is Safe,
how could they design and approve such a Hideous design in 2021, you are not happy I am not happy with that pier , they told me it was going to be bit different ,like little bit raised concrete from bottom, sales person even showed me the design from Display house, when i saw that I said that looks acceptable. We trust them too much k think, We didn’t check design properly it’s too much to check. Now the piers looks Like old Man With A walking Stick. I will never go back to Metricon if they don’t Amend or change the design that looks at least acceptable I don’t like my new house even it’s not finished , and I will never recommend them as well with this kind of Hideous design I was forcing my friend to go with Metricon now I am happy they chose Someone else. When you said you hired someone to put Brick around it, does it Void the warranty or something, did you check with Metricon? Would you like to provide the photos how it looks like with the brick. Thx in advance.

This post made my eyes bleed.

I won’t sleep well, my whole life with that peers in my Mind, it’s a Nightmare.

The brick in brick piers usually isn't structural, the frame rests on the metal support inside the pier, not the brick itself.

[quote="strannik":1mxzz8s6]The brick in brick piers usually isn't structural, the frame rests on the metal support inside the pier, not the brick itself.[/quote:1mxzz8s6]
Thx for the info, even if that wood pier is strongest in the world ,here I am not talking about the strength I am talking about looks of the house ,how does it look at the end.0when people build house they definitely dream of a Dream House, even it always have error or changes here and there. First thing about house or Car or anything is look , we always wish things should be eye appealing, you can just guess how does it looks Like if a Elephant has a Girlfriend Mouse, it will look odd isn’t it, That pier looks exactly like that, you can see the pic. That’s the best way I can describe my feelings about that pier.it looks so odd, I wish there was no pier rather than that pier.

To look good it needs to be stained in nice colors, not painted. And the whole house exterior design needs to match.

This is going around in circles. It was on the plans, you signed off on it because you didn't look over them closely enough. This happens in building almost every day. The display is not what you're buying unless you've specifically specced the build as per display on everything. Life lesson.

Build a brick pier around it after hand over problem solved. You'll live.

Geez