Porter Davis homes

Rammy do you have any pics of the slab. From what I could see, our slab looked good and smooth as.

I would be upgrading to North facing bifold door with 3m overhang roof. Thought this will keep the house cool in summer and warmth in winter. fingers crossed my neighbour wont be building a double storey house. There is only 5m apart from the north roofline to neighbour potential build area.

I reckon that's a common misconception when it comes to energy efficiency - north facing windows are a good thing to have for 6-8 months of the year (depending on your location) as they benefit more from winter sunshine and heat loss can be minimised with well fitted internal drapes.

In summer north facing windows will collect heat if directly exposed to sunlight but they can be shaded using eaves, external blinds/shutters or even shrubbery/trees if they are positioned appropriately.

Yes over-sized windows to the north are a bad thing in all seasons, but blanket statements that north facing windows are bad for energy efficiency isn't necessarily 100% correct - in fact in every single document I have ever read on making a home energy efficient it is recommended to have living areas (which tend to have larger windows or things such as sliding/stacker/bifold doors as a norm) oriented to the north so that they benefit from what sunshine there is in the cooler months.

Plans are then based around protecting the exposed windows for those hot days/stretches in summer in whatever means is most appropriate - I would presume that there would be some sort of "critical mass" tipping point past which the drawbacks of having a lot of glass surface area to absorb heat in summer would outweigh the potential benefits of letting sunlight in during the cooler months, but until that tipping point is reached you can't automatically say that north facing windows are a bad thing.

Indeed in many respects I think you'll find that west facing windows are as much of an issue (if not more so) than north facing windows are.

p.s. This is just my $0.05 based on things that I have read and a little common sense - I'm not a qualified expert in determining energy efficiency by any means...

Edit: Here's a nice document explaining it all for the conditions we have in Victoria: http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/Window_placement.pdf

Hi rammy,
Good to see you back on the forum and I’m glad to hear your build is going well now. Your SS is right in saying that every builder is different however if don’t feel quite comfortable you definitely should bring this up with your BC or even wait to see what other people on the forum have to say, perhaps post up some photo’s like eli-kay123 suggested. Cheers, Ebony

Agree with Ebony.. COMMUNICATION is key.

Frames are delivered today.. will pop out tonight to have look.

Discovered last night that I have walls - my blog has been updated!

I don’t know how to post photo here, but check out my blog to see the queue at the opening of IKEA Springvale. The queue is at 7:30am waiting for the 10am opening. I'm going to avoid this place for a month.

Looks good

I had a look at your blog and it's looking good. I can't wait till my walls are up and have that same excitement, because at slab stage I nearly died as I thought every room was too small. But I have been told to wait until the walls are up, the rooms will look larger. I am so looking forward to that moment. I am glad you are happy A&O.

I thought the same thing - the bedrooms looked so tiny I was really stressed......but just wait for the walls - it really does make a huge difference!

I understand all of that, but I may not have been completely clear in my response. I was commenting specifically in relation to the question of whether upgrading north facing windows would impact star rating on a PD house, since this is a PD thread. It was by no means a "blanket statement" as you said.
I realise that North facing windows are best in general, but my comment was only in response to what visine had posted, hence why I quoted it.

The house would already have optimal window sizes for the star rating, my comment was specifically in response to increasing those windows in size. So yes, in an already star rated house, by altering or adding north facing windows you may negatively impact on star rating in the eyes of PD.
We added one large north facing window (for all the reasons you mentioned above and because I do have a little common sense) on our PD house on an otherwise blank wall and because of that had to increase insulation and add some double glazing.

In a perfect world, should this be the case? Probably not. But in PD world, adding or altering north facing windows will most likely negatively impact the star rating and the reason they will give is that the house is designed with windows at optimum size and larger windows will let in more sun in summer.

As I said, perhaps I should have been clearer in my response and explained it better and I probably shouldn't be writing quick posts on here when I should be doing uni assignments!

We are building in Mernda Villages. we haven't even settlet on land yet it was meant to be August after being delayed already...Don't know what we are waiting on for settlement...it's all finished and open...houses are already going up

We have tender on Monday. The structural changes we made were higher ceilings - 2700mm(?) extended the 4th bedroom in line with the rumpus and double door entry...

I love the 2 areas, our block is triangular and the court yard is on the main side so it worked well. After going through the house so many times i do think the laundry and bathroom are quite small and no linen cupboard!!! a trip to Ikea can fix that!!!

Hi mak_

Looks like we might bump into each other to... we have our Tender on Monday and contract appointment on the 3rd Oct
Just organised the Hopetoun and tile appointments today - they are the week before contract signing. Gonna be interesting to see how quick they can turn around the prices as I would like to review these before I front for contract signing...
Suspect the contract appointment will be pushed back due the pricing not made available in time - we'll see

Hi mak_

Looks like we might bump into each other to... we have our Tender on Monday and contract appointment on the 3rd Oct
Just organised the Hopetoun and tile appointments today - they are the week before contract signing. Gonna be interesting to see how quick they can turn around the prices as I would like to review these before I front for contract signing...
Suspect the contract appointment will be pushed back due the pricing not made available in time - we'll see[/quote]


Hi Alpal,

We most likely will bump into each other on Monday our appointment is at 1, im going straight from work (5 mis away )

And contract is same time on the 3rd October. I had a pre tender at the start of the year and they can give you a pretty good indication there and then. Im just a little worried once i get to hopeturn there are so many upgrades i love!! i been saving my butt off since Christmas so we can afford a few more upgrades

Im waiting on Hopeturn to call me back on a time as we are booked in at the end of October but everything has been pushed forward,

Maybe see you on Monday

Will have tender in a couple of weeks time. I will let everyone know the outcome. I will be upgrading North sliding door to bifold door from living to alfresco at about the same exposed area and 3m overhang and slightly larger North window from 600mm high to 1000m high with the same standard window width. I doubt this would have a lot of impact to the star rating claimed. PD should reassessed prior to contract, If any of the insulation needs to be upgraded, I would be asking whats the drop in star. Interestingly, a friend of mine went with standard floor plan and prior to contract they were told that their wall sisalation needs to be upgraded to batts, free of charge, due to not meeting the star rating. This is why the question was raised at the first place. PD have done the right thing. If they don’t meet the required rating, insulation where needed, should be free. Maybe its good to double check the rating of the house prior to tender before commit to any upgrade?

Hi everyone,

Has anyone who have the land settled at a later date avoided builders penalties.

We are in a situation where we were sold a house and land package but for some reason not known to us we are expected to deal with the developer for all land related issues.

So if the developer delays we end up paying the builder the penalties.

In a normal circumstance one would not sign up with a builder until the land has settled. I think only reason the builder/developer sell these house and land packages is to lock you in.

Hi Everyone, I have my colour selection at Hopetoun on Monday but as I'm not very confident with driving in the city I am trying to work out if I can catch public transport. Has anyone else tried / done it this way?

Hi cattycatcat

I actually work about 200m up the road from Hopetoun. People who catch PT to work get on the 109 tram at Spencer Street and get off at North Port stop in Port Melbourne.

You then need to walk about 10 min to get to Hopetoun. So walk to the side of the track which has the Albion Pub, the keep walking straight down Raglan Street until you get to Williamstown Road. Turn left, cross the road at the crossing, then turn right down Bertie Street (where Bunnings is). Then walk up Bertie Street about 500m and it is on your right at the intersection with Fennell Street.

Leanne

Framing has started.. wooshka!

I have arisen from the nomans land of building..hehe...hope everyone's build is going smoothly! Blog has been updated with the last months progress (wow that is amazing how the time is just flying by!) we are nearing the end. SS thinks we can have PCI on the 4th October now! YYYIIIPPPEEEE!!!