Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [slab dow 21Apr 24, 2015 10:34 am malsannie: lol...i will keep the portaloo for you then. Ah...the blue background is our couch at home. I am not sure if we are moving it with us just yet. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [slab dow 22Apr 24, 2015 7:09 pm Hi Sofia I am just jealous that you have a much nicer porta loo out the front of your house. On a serious note could I suggest that when you are on site as well as taking photos of the weekly progress, you take some photos of things like locations of pipes, trenches and in particular when the walls are chased inside and outside the house for electrical cabling and pipework before they are rendered. You will notice that the cuts are not that straight or vertical and it is good to know exactly where the pipes, cables and sewerage lines are before you start to drill walls or plant trees. If you know the size of the bricks in the pics you take, you can easily guestimate the location of any cables or pipes you are trying to avoid. Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [slab dow 23Apr 24, 2015 8:10 pm Good idea, oaknew! I'll take note on that. The last thing you want to do is to drill through the cable. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [slab dow 24Apr 25, 2015 12:04 pm I did that too and it has already come in handy as some powerpoints were covered up by the plasterers. I was able to confirm the electrician had actually done them by just looking through older photos I'd taken. Our tiler wasn't aware of the existence of two powerpoints in the kitchen so rather than waste his time and have to redo something I sent an email to my CLO just to ask if our SS wanted to tell the tiler now (since he has cut out beautifully precise rectangles for the other points). The photos of pipe locations will also come in handy when I want to drill for shelves above the washing machine and in the bathrooms and kitchen. That could be disastrous! Yanchep build with Dreamstart Homes ____________________________________________________________ Our build thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73323 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 25Apr 30, 2015 6:04 pm Bricks delivered on site and brick work has started. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ First layer of brick work. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Window frame has been bent. This is exactly what i was worried about two weeks ago when i saw the frame sticking out the curb. We tried to move it but couldn't because of other frames sitting on top. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 26Apr 30, 2015 6:21 pm Hope to see more progress this weekend. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 27Apr 30, 2015 9:42 pm Woo hoo congrats on the start of brickwork Sofia!!!! How exciting! It won't be long and you will be walking through your house! Yanchep build with Dreamstart Homes ____________________________________________________________ Our build thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73323 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 28May 01, 2015 6:50 am Yay congratulations I'm so happy for you! How frustrating when you did warn them about the window frames - you'd think they'd want to save themselves the hassle and money not to get it damaged grrrr Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 29May 03, 2015 1:18 pm Unfortunately, no progress on brickwork this week. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 30May 06, 2015 8:20 am Don't worry Sofia, I know it's frustrating but hang in there and try to keep busy so you're not thinking about it. Our bricklayers were off for about three weeks over Christmas, but once they returned it was all finished in a week. Try and busy yourself thinking about other things- I switched to thinking about landscaping front and back yards and exactly what plants I was after. Yanchep build with Dreamstart Homes ____________________________________________________________ Our build thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73323 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 31May 06, 2015 11:13 am haha...you know that i have one important thing to think about right now than the house. But hubby doesn't really manage it but me. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 32May 06, 2015 11:14 am I was going to say.....!!!!! Yanchep build with Dreamstart Homes ____________________________________________________________ Our build thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73323 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 33May 09, 2015 5:39 pm Our brickies were on holiday last week. That's why no work has been done. They were back this week but only 2 days on site as far as I know. We were quite surprised to see our next door neighbour almost have their brickwork done. They were 3 weeks behind us in getting the slab! Their brickies were on site today and we had a quick chat with them. The upside, ours have done an excellent job on the storage. Too bad, i couldn't snap any picture because the brickies were working on the wall right next to our storage. I didn't want to get in their way. The dowside is that some places are not as good. For examples: This is our wardrobe. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This is one of our internal walls (kitchen). If you zoom in, you can see that they only put mortar horizontally. There is no mortar vertically between bricks at all. I don't think this is good if you want to put a nail into a wall regardless of having plaster to cover it up later on. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Corner. Look at one with a gap. I can see through it from the other side. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ There are gaps between bricks for the external, first layer of brick. They seem to be with an interval. Does anyone know the purpose of them? I suspect that is deliberated. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 35May 09, 2015 7:55 pm Thanks. That's what I suspect since it is at a regular interval. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 36May 12, 2015 12:11 am We sent our questions regarding the brickwork to CLO. Messenges were sent to SS. Reason was given for the non-filled perpends but we aren't convinced. We were told that the crumbly mortar for our wardrobe wall is ok as well. A plate height meeting with the SS will be arranged so we can ask our questions. We were told that the brickwork is schduled to finish either later this week or earlier next week. However, judging from how slow the progress was in the past 2 weeks (if we don't count a week when bricklayers were on holiday), I doubt it will be on time. I am pretty sure that it will be more delay once we bring in the inspector. Into the 4th week since the brickwork started. Sigh.....i really don't know why we are so unlucky given that we have the same bricklayer team as JJ whose bricklaying only took about 2.5 weeks. In fact, when we checked out the house last weekend, we were a bit surprised to see our neighbor almost has all the walls done! His slab went down 3 weeks after us. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 37May 12, 2015 5:37 am Hi sofia I'm sorry to hear you're worried about your brickwork - and the time it is taking. The one thing I can say from being on here for a year and following people's builds is that you should try not to compare your build time with anyone else's - it just brings you down. I know it is hard not to though I hope your inspector will give you either peace of mind that things are acceptable or the ammunition to get your builder to fix what isn't. Hang in there Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 38May 12, 2015 11:18 am yes, you are right. It will only bring me down if i compare the progress. I'll try to focus on something else. Ha....if only hubby is willing to take over the management part. I am like his assistant. LOL. Report to the boss. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [update] 39May 12, 2015 10:14 pm OK, after some digging. Perhap what the SS said is true. My engineering friend has never heard of the reason. I look up AS3700 and AS4773. All say the perpends have to be filled. I look up Brikmaker's website and try to find the technical specification of the brick that our builder uses. I can't find the exact match. However, if I look at one general purpose brick for the internal wall. It says at the bottom of the sheet that the perpend joints can be laid open as long as it is less than 10mm. I'll call up Brikmakers to confirm. I guess it is the natural of my profession that draws me to find evidence when in doubt........ I am now satisfied with the answer, although it would have been nice if they are filled. "Can be" doesn't mean "must be". Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Village of Wellard build with Dreamstart homes [brickwal 40May 13, 2015 4:12 am Glad you got your answer, sofia! 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 17616 3 48399 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74715 |