Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Our build with JG King 23May 27, 2010 9:38 am Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Our build with JG King 26May 27, 2010 12:06 pm contract signed: Nov 09 Released to Construction: 23 Jul 10 Slab poured: 9 Aug 10 Frame completed: 30 Aug 10 Windows & Gutters: 7 Sep 10 Bricks: 15 - 23 Sep 10 Roof: 24 Sep 10 Gyprock: 20 Oct 10 Lockup: 25 Oct 10 Kitchen: 27 Oct 10 Tiling: 6 - 9 Nov 10 Painting: 17 Nov 10 Carpet: 30 Nov 10 PCI: 15 Dec 10 Handover: 17 Dec 10 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=35943 Re: Our build with JG King 31May 27, 2010 2:06 pm Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Our build with JG King 33May 27, 2010 3:09 pm Putting this all together on here so far has been a good exercise and has helped me to see it more clearly. You're right - the BACV should be involved at this point. In the meantime, here's another part of the story... The brick rebate widths Our house is designed to have 20 mm foilboard insulation on the outside of the frame. According to the guide for standards and tolerances, the cavity - between the outside of the foilboard and the bricks - has to be at least 25 mm wide. Our house plans specify a brick rebate width of 150 mm. If 45 mm is taken up by the foilboard and the cavity, this leaves 105 mm for the bricks - so by design there will be a brick overhang of 5 mm. Clearly, the rebate should have been wider, but at the time we knew nothing about it all. When we originally asked JG King to include the foilboard, nobody told us about the cavity width and brick overhang issues. The maximum allowable brick overhang is 15 mm, so 5 mm is probably OK. But, when we were looking at the slab at some point in this whole process, we noticed a strange thing. Here are some of the photos we took (these photos are looking down onto the top of the brick rebate and the ruler is measuring the rebate width): http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/W16.jpg http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/W15.jpg http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/W14-nearEend.jpg http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/W13-nearNend.jpg http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/W12-nearEend.jpg http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/W11-Nend.jpg http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/W10.jpg http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/W8.jpg I think you get the picture. These photos were all taken on different walls of the house. We have more for other walls. In short, although the plans specified a 150 mm rebate width, the rebate width was actually 130-140 mm around almost the entire house. This has been a contentious point ever since. I'll spare you most of the details of the discussions. Here is a quote from the Project Meeting Report prepared by JG King's engineer after the April 12th meeting with them: "some concern by [hiker] re measured width of the existing slab rebate varying between 135 mm at cnr. 1 to 145 mm at cnr 2. This will result in 10-15 mm overhang and may even exceed 15 mm overhang wrt Guide to Tolerances and Standards - Building Commission. [hiker] reluctant to accept this despite it being non-structural." JG King's engineer felt that up to one third of the brick could overhang the rebate and it would be structurally sound. I was criticised for objecting to anything more than the upper limit in the Guide to Standards and Tolerances. JG King decided that a 140 mm rebate is acceptable and because of the places where the slab extended in front of the frame (thus essentially adding to the distance between the bricks and the frame) this 140 mm requirement would be met around the entire house. With the 20 mm foilboard and a minimum 25 mm cavity, this leaves 95 mm for the bricks i.e. there will be a 15 mm overhang (because the bricks are 110 mm wide but there is only 95 mm of concrete rebate for them). 15 mm is the upper limit for brick overhang allowed in the Guide to Standards and Tolerances. So what I don't understand is - if the brick wall is designed to have a 15 mm overhang and a 25 mm cavity, how does the brick wall get built without going beyond the limits set in the Guide to Standards and Tolerances? The poor brickie will not have any room for error at all - if he is 1 mm out either way he is immediately beyond the supposed limit of tolerance. In the end, we are bound to exceed the limits set in the Guide. JG King insisted the entire rebate met this 140 mm requirement. But here are some pictures showing that it does not. In some cases, we used a spirit level to make sure we were measuring the distance from the frame to the edge of the rebate: 100 mm: http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/rebate1.jpg 130 mm: http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/rebate4.jpg 130 mm: http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/rebate3.jpg 125 mm: http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/rebate2.jpg 135 mm: http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac141/hiker_album/rebate5.jpg If we can easily find places where the rebate is insufficient, why couldn't the builder find them? ...and there's still more to come... but I have to work on something else for a while now... Re: Our build with JG King 34May 27, 2010 3:47 pm I can't believe what you've been through so far, and you still haven't told us all of it. Very concerning. Maybe building a new house isn't such a good idea. contract signed: Nov 09 Released to Construction: 23 Jul 10 Slab poured: 9 Aug 10 Frame completed: 30 Aug 10 Windows & Gutters: 7 Sep 10 Bricks: 15 - 23 Sep 10 Roof: 24 Sep 10 Gyprock: 20 Oct 10 Lockup: 25 Oct 10 Kitchen: 27 Oct 10 Tiling: 6 - 9 Nov 10 Painting: 17 Nov 10 Carpet: 30 Nov 10 PCI: 15 Dec 10 Handover: 17 Dec 10 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=35943 Re: Our build with JG King 35May 27, 2010 4:17 pm I hope JG King read this forum.. as they need to pull their finger out or people aren't going to build with them after reading this. Re: Our build with JG King 37May 27, 2010 4:42 pm hiker Unfortunately, I suspect similar things happen with most project home builders once something goes wrong. Hiker, we are on our 4th build-and all have been with project builders (different each time). In our experience, whenever there has been an issue things have been rectified to contracted standards-you seem to have really drawn the short straw! Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Our build with JG King 38May 27, 2010 5:47 pm God thats terrible, I'd be speaking very seriously to a lawyer, so many mistakes! my new build thread- Ben Trager https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=89826 my switch build thread (2011) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36569 Re: Our build with JG King 39May 27, 2010 7:02 pm The frame The steel frame of our house has not fared too well during all this repair work. In some places, use of cutting and grinding tools adjacent to the frame has resulted in scrapes to the frame that have removed the zinc-based anti-rust coating. These sections are already showing rust. Here are some examples: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ According to our structural engineer's report and according to BlueScope Steel, any place where the abrasion is greater than 2 mm in width (as all of the above examples easily are) needs to be coated with a zinc-based primer so that it won't rust. BUT use of this primer voids BlueScope's warranty on the frame. In fact, the damage itself has probably voided the warranty. But JG King advertise that 50 year warranty. We have been told there is a 50 year warranty on the frame. So JG King need to fix the frame and also make sure the warranty is intact. They have not discussed this with us and I don't know how they plan to fix the frame problems while still providing an intact BlueScope warranty to us. Re: Our build with JG King 40May 27, 2010 7:24 pm Some more frame pictures. No attempt was made to keep the frame clean or dry during the delay caused by the slab problem. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 105591 1 7955 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17618 |