Boutique Homes

Are you guys venting the heating (& range exhaust) into the ceiling? Seems to be the default option on both but doesn't sound too healthy to me - not that I know anything on the topic. Exhaust fans from bathrooms are probably more of a concern due to the moisture.

We didn't realise things were vented into the ceiling as standard until it was too late so we're going to have to get them vented externally after handover. I'm more worried about the rangehood rather than the bathrooms, simply because of the hot grease that could potentially start fires in the ceiling.

But yeah, the bathrooms would be a worry too.

Hmm didn't think of that either . But our roof has sarking and has a vent in it

Our slab got poured today

Venting to the roof almost got me as well, but was in the "things people forget when building a house" thread. One of the things it also mentioned was that if you have sarking and vent into the roof cavity then the sarking can end up attracting mould due to the moisture so venting externally is certainly something you want to do. I cant find the exact point in the thread but

<quote>
13. Most of the so called rangehoods installed in modern homes are ornamental. They simply recirculate the steamy air through a form of filter to remove grease and some odours.
If you are serious about ventilation, the rangehood needs to be exhausted to the outside air.
Just discharging the air into the roof spaces merely transfers the problem. (We have seen significant water penetration problems that could be traced to condensation on the underside of the sarking caused by bathroom and kitchen vents discharging moist air into cold roof spaces.)
</quote>

From http://www.advancedinspect.com.au/information_mould.htm

And the viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5823&start=300 things you should remember thread.

Apparently this is part of the BASIX recommendations as well : https://www.basix.nsw.gov.au/basixcms/b ... ation.html

Had a good chat with my Boutique pre-start person about this today. I asked about both rangehood venting and bathroom - she went & got some expert input on this:

• Venting into the ceiling is standard on almost all builds, they rarely get requests to change it & no negative feedback.
• More of a consideration if you have a colourbond roof. Ventilation is pretty good with tiles.
• Ventilation with tiles is not as good if you have the busfire package (due to sarking) but then you get wirlybirds to ventilate the cavity.
• I don't need the bushfire package where I am, the advice is the unsarked tiles provide quite good ventilation & it's really unlikely to be a concern.

I can't vouch for the advice but it all seems pretty logical. My oven is on an internal wall so venting outside would be a bit expensive, so I'll leave it be & place my faith in non-airtight tiling.

Great stuff Wazza. Are you getting an independent inspector for this or trusting your SS to do the QA?

Thanks for that Bandha. Our situation is really similar to yours - tiled roof, no sarking and the rangehood is on an internal wall. I think I still might get it vented externally though, mainly because I'm paranoid.

Yay Wazza! How does it look? Smaller than you expected?

I haven't seen it yet am away for work. Won't get to see it till the frame is up

No havent organised an inspector. Might do for the frame stage. Have you got your report back yet genghis.btw love the starwars cut genghis lol

Thanks Wazza. Had to throw a Star Wars reference in there somewhere. Got the inspection report back last Thursday and it was long! Thankfully most of the problems were paint touch-ups that the SS had already picked up. So as it stands, I'm waiting for the final invoice so I can send it off to the bank (they've already done a valuation which is good). The SS had to order another front door because he ordered the wrong one and I think that's coming on Thursday. Then we go have another look at the house and sign it off before picking up the keys.

Our floors are booked on Monday (because our SS assured us that we'd have the keys by then) and even though we most likely won't have the keys our SS said he'll open the house up for the installer which is good.

Meanwhile I've been trying to sort out our phone and internet connection with Telstra. Geez they do my head in.

Think they do everyone's heads in do you have nbn there ?

No, only ADSL.

Have any of you guys who are just starting your builds doing blogs ?

I don't know how people find the time, don't they have jobs? Some of the blogs are terrific, huge amount of input. Would be a nice record to have. (I'm in IT, so turning on a computer after work is not at all relaxing.)

I have a blog Bandha, but I'm on maternity leave at the moment so I update it while the bub's feeding or sleeping!

Yeah I have an app on my phone makes it really easy to update the blog. I think it's a good way to document the journey

Is that app for a Homeone blog?

No it's blogger