Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 14, 2011 9:30 pm Hi everyone, Just thought I'd mention to make sure you check your drawn up house plans, electrical selections, etc as many times as you can before you sign your contract! I am currently nearly half way thru my build & I missed a few things I wish now that I could change! Example: really stupid, but I didn't notice a little space between my laundry troff & bench! Stupid design! Stupidly I just didn't check the laundry lol! Didn't check some little things & now impossible to change! Arghhhh Mel Re: New builders: check Your house plans 2Jun 14, 2011 10:11 pm I know what u mean, I didn't check for eaves on the front of the house. The portico has an eave, but I assumed the roofline over the master bedroom to the rt of the portico had an eave too.....I'm especially miffed as it faces west! D'oh Luckily one thing on the plans which i didn't notice (a void in the wall, it was just a bit too short to look good) the ss did! Thank god he did! And then there's the overhead cabinets over the fridge...glazed...they look silly, but again, I overlooked it in the contract. It stated all overhead cabinets to be glazed (correct!) but I should have added ..except solid doors over fridge...d'oh!! Re: New builders: check Your house plans 3Jun 14, 2011 10:27 pm Ditto, I went as far as re-drawing the plans using free modelling software: sweethome3D. I know the plans off by heart now! Re: New builders: check Your house plans 4Jun 15, 2011 12:23 am i will second this thread x 1,000,000. i thoroughly checked my plans many times and had to send it back to drafting over 6 times because i kept finding little errors. and after i signed i still found some! things to look out for: Fridge width/dept Our builder had specified only 900mm (880mm after plastering). Most double door fridges these days are 900mm wide and some are even 1000mm so make sure you have at least 1000mm width to allow for 900mm fridge which allows for 40mm gap each side. Allow for at least 700mm depth, especially if you have a cold water tap behind. Cornices Check on elevations where cornices are used. Do you want a cornice there? Last minute i notices builder had places cornices under kitchen bulkhead which would of looked ugly. Walls Make sure you are happy with location of every wall and i mean every wall. i noticed that one side of fridge the wall was 700mm long, the other side was 600mm. this would of looked bad when finished as it would of looked uneven (im all about symmetry). Tap locations check locations and heights. That is all i have for now. Re: New builders: check Your house plans 5Jun 15, 2011 11:15 am I think more than just checking the plans yourself, you should find other people who have built and ask them to check your plans. I think most of them would enjoy doing so, because it takes a certain obsession to be crazy enough to build in the first place You can check your own plans ten times, but if you've never built before you don't know what to look for. And each person has had different issues with their build, so getting many people to look at your plans will show up many problems. Issues for us: 1. Garage roof is plastered - why? It never occurred to me to think of this, I just assumed there would be no roof there. Building inspector said the plastered roof with no access panel may be problematic later. 2. Data point termination height was not specified, and it got placed at floor level in the broom cupboard Not good as we now have electronic devices sharing with vacuum cleaner and brooms. Nothing we can do because we didn't specify the height in our contract. 3. Rainwater tank provision not specified in enough detail - luckily the placement was ok. A slimline tank requires a long blank wall with the water pipes NEXT to the blank wall. 4. We didn't put any power points in the main hallway upstairs. Now we can't put nightlights in the hallway. 5. Should have put two double power points in the ensuite, his and hers. 6. Eaves - as others mentioned. Talk to other people about their eaves. 7. Check finished ground levels around the house on the plan and make sure the builder maintains them THROUGHOUT the build. At no stage of the build should there be poor drainage around the house. I don't regret putting 3 double power points in every bedroom. All I regret is not putting even more power points elsewhere! Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: New builders: check Your house plans 6Jun 15, 2011 1:31 pm A few of the things I noticed on my plans were: - The render instructions didn't make sense as shown in 2D. The plans originally had the walls to the side of the door one colour and then the same wall a different colour above the doorframe. Because that wall is partly obscured by portico pillars, the error was somewhat hidden in a 2D view. - The pantry doors weren't lined up perfectly centre- out by about 20mm. - Doors to home theatre were originally too close to the corner of the room - which would have limited the ability to place proper bass traps in that corner. - The window on one of my toilets was also very slightly offset, though this was actually intentional due to brickwork dimensions. - The hot water gas system wasn't actually drawn on the plans to scale (sort of understandable given the model might change) but it meant it didn't show if it might obscure the view from the laundry window Re: New builders: check Your house plans 7Jun 15, 2011 1:40 pm definitely a great idea to double and triple check all your plans and specs! we also have this epic thread, you might like to have a read through to see if you have covered everything, and/or feel free to add anything that hasn't been covered! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5823 "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." — Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: New builders: check Your house plans 8Jun 15, 2011 2:16 pm Veefy A few of the things I noticed on my plans were: - The render instructions didn't make sense as shown in 2D. The plans originally had the walls to the side of the door one colour and then the same wall a different colour above the doorframe. Because that wall is partly obscured by portico pillars, the error was somewhat hidden in a 2D view. - The pantry doors weren't lined up perfectly centre- out by about 20mm. - Doors to home theatre were originally too close to the corner of the room - which would have limited the ability to place proper bass traps in that corner. - The window on one of my toilets was also very slightly offset, though this was actually intentional due to brickwork dimensions. - The hot water gas system wasn't actually drawn on the plans to scale (sort of understandable given the model might change) but it meant it didn't show if it might obscure the view from the laundry window Noticed this one too late i would suggest nothing is unreasonable for PCI. we did all sorts, including checking the hot water, checking all the GPO's had power, testing that the showers were… 9 98623 Really tight at the top of the stairs- how to get furniture into those rooms? 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