Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 04, 2009 4:15 pm We are building a house with a flat roof, and i have some concerns about being able to get an electrician in the roof after its built to change the batton lights to downlights. DOes anyone have any experience or can ease my mind. Especially cause builders seem to charge so much to put downlights in, we'd rather wait till after handover to put them in. Re: Flat roof home 2Jul 04, 2009 7:57 pm What is the size of the roof cavity? Will your house have a manhole in the ceiling? The answers to these questions will answer your question. Someone I know have a low flat roof. No manhole. Cannot get ducted A/C. Only way into the roof cavity is to remove the roofing. May I add, it gets very very noisy when it rains heavily. Re: Flat roof home 3Jul 04, 2009 8:02 pm My parents home that I grew up in was a flat roofed home and TBH it was a PITA, I wouldn't live in one, let alone build one, usually there is NO roof cavitey at all, so no downlights or ducted a/c etc etc, and I have to agree with the above comment on the noise factor, it's horrible. Whats the reason for building a flat roof home??? Can you change it to a pitched roof? Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13002 Site start: 8th July 2009 Handover: 11/12/2009! 5 months total build time. 40 sqs of luxuary...Bliss! Re: Flat roof home 4Jul 04, 2009 8:10 pm Well a silly stuck up architect in Toorak designed the house, as we are on a sloping block. The way she designed the house a flat roof suits better than a pitched one, plus she was very convincing. We can thankfully get ducted heating in the floor, and we can only get split system air cons on the walls. I'm really not too sure what the roof space is, but what i can see from the plans it looks like approx 700mm if i read them correctly. And we're at the point in time that we cant change the roof, cause we'd have to start from scratch and pay extra to get the drawings done, and this is our third builder in the last 16 months. One builder didnt want to build on our block, after they took some of our money and the second builder took 8 months adjusting plans etc that they still hadnt got a building permit. So third time lucky! Re: Flat roof home 5Jul 04, 2009 8:14 pm tmsoutt Well a silly stuck up architect in Toorak designed the house, as we are on a sloping block. The way she designed the house a flat roof suits better than a pitched one, plus she was very convincing. We can thankfully get ducted heating in the floor, and we can only get split system air cons on the walls. I'm really not too sure what the roof space is, but what i can see from the plans it looks like approx 700mm if i read them correctly. And we're at the point in time that we cant change the roof, cause we'd have to start from scratch and pay extra to get the drawings done, and this is our third builder in the last 16 months. One builder didnt want to build on our block, after they took some of our money and the second builder took 8 months adjusting plans etc that they still hadnt got a building permit. So third time lucky! Holy moly, well in that case I wouldn't be changing it, have you got some plans we can see...Please??? Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13002 Site start: 8th July 2009 Handover: 11/12/2009! 5 months total build time. 40 sqs of luxuary...Bliss! Re: Flat roof home 7Jul 04, 2009 8:42 pm Hey tmsoutt - our last home had a flat roof. We had ducted reverse cycle air con through the roof with vents in ceilings / at the top of walls, no problems at all. There was no man hole, anything that had to be done through the roof meant removing the roof to do so - and that will cost you. I liked the sound of the rain anyway! It was lovely. JL Re: Flat roof home 8Jul 04, 2009 8:48 pm houseofl Hey tmsoutt - our last home had a flat roof. We had ducted reverse cycle air con through the roof with vents in ceilings / at the top of walls, no problems at all. There was no man hole, anything that had to be done through the roof meant removing the roof to do so - and that will cost you. I liked the sound of the rain anyway! It was lovely. JL Hi, how would you take the roof off?? Ours is a steel roof of some sort so i can't imagine getting it off easily. I'm hoping there is a manhole! I'll have to ask on monday to make sure. As much as this house loks nice, architects dont seem to design with practicality in mind! Re: Flat roof home 9Jul 04, 2009 10:17 pm houseofl Hey tmsoutt - our last home had a flat roof. We had ducted reverse cycle air con through the roof with vents in ceilings / at the top of walls, no problems at all. There was no man hole, anything that had to be done through the roof meant removing the roof to do so - and that will cost you. I liked the sound of the rain anyway! It was lovely. JL Did they have to make the gap bigger to allow for the ducting, or do anything special to adequately insulate the ducting? I would imagine something as extensive as ducting would in practical terms almost HAVE to be done at the time of building. I saw some people doing something to a flat roof once. No idea what. They took off a section from the top. I hate to think how much work would be involved to access each downlight location. Another thing that occurs to me is are there any restrictions or added precautions you have to take with downlights in such a restricted space to reduce fire risk? Re: Flat roof home 10Jul 04, 2009 10:38 pm Hi there, we're also having a flat roof and our builder and electrician have both said that we basically get one shot at it. In other words, it's going to be much easier incorporating what we want now during construction than trying to add anything after they finish. That's most probably not what you wanted to hear though. 'chelle We have a hand-over date...15/10...but I won't hold my breath! http://people-in-glass-houses.blogspot.com/ Re: Flat roof home 11Jul 05, 2009 4:32 pm tmsoutt Hi, how would you take the roof off?? Ours is a steel roof of some sort so i can't imagine getting it off easily. I'm hoping there is a manhole! I'll have to ask on monday to make sure. As much as this house loks nice, architects dont seem to design with practicality in mind! It looked pretty easy - we didn't build that home but completed renovated it including putting in new ducting. The builders got on the roof, unscrewed it and took it off - it looked pretty basic however, they took the ENTIRE roof off. [quote="Macy"] Did they have to make the gap bigger to allow for the ducting, or do anything special to adequately insulate the ducting? I would imagine something as extensive as ducting would in practical terms almost HAVE to be done at the time of building. [quote] There was a gap. I am not sure but I think the ducting was something different as well - didn't really take too much notice to be honest. And, no it wasn't done at building - as I said we replaced all the ducting when we renovated the property. JL Hi all, Been browsing project builders' website and saw Masterton with attached granny flat design Seeing bad reviews from masterton in this website/facebook, does… 0 18379 I would suggest you simply go and talk to council about your proposal, most councils are getting onboard with ancillary dwellings. There is no benefit in keeping it… 1 4158 I think I know the answer but just checking to see if anyone has had experience with it. I want to build a small 20 square metre retreat in my backyard, it will have a… 0 13974 |