Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 10, 2015 1:43 am Hi, I am building a new house in The Ponds area. it is a narrow block with 10 m frontage. I am looking for some advise/recommendation in terms of > private builder / big building company > design of the house > steel frame / wooden frame Thanks in advance Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 2May 10, 2015 2:35 pm @explore55, i would strongly recommend a big company builder over a private builder. A steel frame is better due to it being stronger and termite proof (but it can cost more.) Design wise, i would highly recommend building with champion homes as they have a selection of narrow lot designs with very good layouts and excellent prices. I have friends who have built with them and were very pleased with the cost, quality and workmanship. You can visit the designs that would suit your lot by visiting these links: http://www.championhomes.com.au/home-designs/Oxley http://www.championhomes.com.au/home-designs/medway http://www.championhomes.com.au/home-designs/san-remo http://www.championhomes.com.au/home-designs/toscano Just select 'narrow lot designs' and you will be shown many different types of houses. The great thing abut them is that their are so many types from the smallest (3 bedrooms) up until a 5 bedroom design all suiting narrow lots. The starting price (for a whole package with all the bells and whistles) is about $215 000 ish for a three bedroom design up until about $320 000 for a huge 4 bedroom plus study double storey design. They have built many houses in The Ponds so they are aware of the guidelines and requirements. Hope that helped! Good luck with the building experience! Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 3May 11, 2015 12:51 pm Consider the orientation of your block. Usually it's advantageous to place your living areas facing north, to benefit from passive solar heating in winter, while being shaded from summer sunlight. As you have a narrow block you may also have to consider overshadowing issues caused by your neighbours. See the government's Your Home website for lots of advice on orientation & passive design here, http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation Personally I'd prefer to have a wooden frame. There's nothing wrong with a wooden frame, most houses are built with them. As long as it's designed & built to the appropriate standards you shouldn't have issues with a wooden frame. It's also a much more sustainable choice. Steel has a much higher embodied energy than wood (that is the energy it takes to produce a product). Steel also conducts heat much more than wood (ie. steel is a worse insulator). This results in "thermal bridging", where heat is conducted into your house through your frame, between your insulation, making your insulation much less effective. Steel framed houses can also be much more noisy, creaking, as the steel frame expands & contracts due to changes in temperature. Have you seen the Planet Ark with Peter Maddison (host of Grand Designs Australia). Sustainably sourced timber locks carbon in it's structure, removing it from the atmosphere. Can't be a bad thing (if sourced correctly). Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 4May 12, 2015 11:55 am Thanks for reply @Fairwater Buyer. I will certainly go through the links that you provided. Thanks @ddarroch. Many thanks for providing the link for yourhome.gov.au . That will help me a lot. I will also enquire more about Planet Ark. Thanks again. Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 5May 12, 2015 2:04 pm Hi, having a narrow frontage can limit your design choices but nevertheless you'll find something to fit on it. As far as comparing wooden & steel frame goes they both have their own pros and cons. Builders do provide upto 25 yr termite resistance guarantee for wooden frames. Building a steel frame house can cost you another $30K (depending on your house size). Not all builders do steel frames. MJH is one & I think Metricon too. So if you deciding on steel frame that can further limit your design choices. Built a Masterton's Symphony Elite @ Oran Park Slab pour 01/03/16 PCI 28/09/16 Keys 7/10/16 Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 6May 12, 2015 3:48 pm explore55 Thanks @ddarroch. I will also enquire more about Planet Ark. Thanks again. Nothing to really enquire about Planet Ark. All I was saying was, that as stated, Timber is mainly derived from cellulose, an organic (carbon based) product. So using timber will "lock" carbon into the product, instead of having released into the atmosphere. Which is good for the environment. Interestingly, there was a bit of furore about this ad, & it was labelled as "greenwashing". As Planet Ark was sponsored by Forest and Wood Products Australia, part of the timber industry. This group uses the Australian Forestry Standard, which is seen as a weaker form of certification than the internationally recognised Forest Stewardship Council. But the initial point stands, as long as you know where your timber is sourced from. Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 9May 13, 2015 3:12 pm Hi, Can you please review layout of land, design of the proposed building design and provide me some feedback? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ [A] EASEMENT TO DRAIN WATER 1.2 WIDE (APPROXIMATE WIDTH) [S] SEWER LINE (SUBJECT TO FINAL DESIGN) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Best regards Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 10May 13, 2015 5:00 pm Your proposed design, the Da Vinci 17 by Wisdom Homes has a great layout and even though it doesn't have a display home, I've actually had the chance to view it a little while back. The inclusions are pretty good considering that it's part of the The house size is pretty good and is very functional but what i am concerned about is the fact that this design suits an 11 metre frontage so you will have to take off a metre in order to be able to fit it (due to designer guidelines you need additional space between the house and the side fences) and if you take a metre off you are stuck with 3x2 metre bedrooms and a 3x1.8 metre kitchen. It's up to you and your lifestly but that's simply not enough space and it will feel cramped. Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 11May 14, 2015 5:51 pm explore55, I'd definitely consider flipping your house plan, which shouldn't add to the cost of the build. That way the majority of your living areas (leisure, dining & lounge) will face north. It's ok for bedrooms & bathrooms to face south. It looks like your sewer easement is on the north side of your block. This is good, it will mean you build will be closer to the south (as you can't build on the easement). This will reduce any overshadowing issues from your northern neighbour. Is there anything built to your north, or do you know what will be built there? A double storey neighbour may greatly affect the amount of northern light you receive. If overshadowing is an issue you may want to investigate plans with skillion roof, & north facing clerestory windows, though this may add to the cost of the build. I'd also think about how you will restrict western sun from entering the leisure room windows. As this can greatly affect summer comfort. You may want to consider planting trees, or using a window treatment to limit sun entering these windows. Try to choose a design with eaves. This can be troublesome for narrow blocks. But for a flipped version of your above plan, a north facing eave above bed 3, dining & leisure area will allow winter sunlight to enter, while shading your house from summer sun. Edit: I hadn't noticed the dimensions of the block. As there's an easement down the side of the block which I assume you can't build on (I'm no expert), plus you'll have side setbacks you can't build into, the house would have to be very narrow indeed......... Whoops, second edit. Sorry, I thought the sewer line was an easement for a sewer main. Ignore my comments about not being able to build on the northern side of the block. Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 12May 15, 2015 1:57 pm Fairwater Buyer @explore55, i would strongly recommend a big company builder over a private builder. A steel frame is better due to it being stronger and termite proof (but it can cost more.) Design wise, i would highly recommend building with champion homes as they have a selection of narrow lot designs with very good layouts and excellent prices. I have friends who have built with them and were very pleased with the cost, quality and workmanship. You can visit the designs that would suit your lot by visiting these links: http://www.championhomes.com.au/home-designs/Oxley http://www.championhomes.com.au/home-designs/medway http://www.championhomes.com.au/home-designs/san-remo http://www.championhomes.com.au/home-designs/toscano Just select 'narrow lot designs' and you will be shown many different types of houses. The great thing abut them is that their are so many types from the smallest (3 bedrooms) up until a 5 bedroom design all suiting narrow lots. The starting price (for a whole package with all the bells and whistles) is about $215 000 ish for a three bedroom design up until about $320 000 for a huge 4 bedroom plus study double storey design. They have built many houses in The Ponds so they are aware of the guidelines and requirements. Hope that helped! Good luck with the building experience! Exact opposite opinion. I have a friend who has built with them who had a terrible experience and would recommend never to build with them. Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 13May 20, 2015 4:50 pm Thank you all for your feedback. @ddarroch thanks a lot for your detail analysis and advise. I will certainly look into this. Most likely both side neighbours may go for double storey. My preference is single storey but not quite decided yet. Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 15May 29, 2015 5:13 pm I would make the Lounge a bedroom or study with a robe. Do people really use two lounge area these days (other than home theatre)? You can always put lounge furniture in that room but I would still Fitbit out as a bedroom. Re: Building on a narrow block (10 m frontage), recommendati 18May 29, 2015 7:09 pm The new layout is great! But will The Ponds designer guidelines allow you to build this home on a 10m lot when it suits an 11m frontage? I have had a look at the designer guidelines and they state that you must have at absolute MINIMUM 1m gap on each side of your home (between the house and the side fences)....that means that you need a bigger frontage.... 4 4416 dimensions on your original plan are inconsistent and with accurate dimensions (including site plan, upstairs and down) i could make a proper scale drawing with furniture… 3 7485 i did click it, still couldnt make it out rofl. in any case, doesnt look like too extreme a slope, you may be in luck. Just shoot out some emails to volume builders in… 3 18508 |