Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 30, 2015 8:20 am Hi guys, My name is Yenny. I am new to this forum. My husband and I are planning to knock down our home and rebuild. We are planning to build single storey house, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, double garage with total living area of around 260-280sqm. We are thinking to go with rawson or masterton. Of course we have very limited budget (thinking about 400-450k max). Both of us have tonnes of questions but could i start with the following queries. Im hoping you guys can shed some light. 1. Have any of you ever built with rawson/masterton? If yes how was it? 2. I have heard lots of people say that building your own is hard and you will blow over your budget. Fyi, We are only planning to build standard home and not much variation. So my question is in what aspects can variation arise? And what possibly can cause us to be over budget? 3. Could i also ask, if money is not a problem (so say if we win some lotto tmrw ) what is a perfect home in terms of its foundation material, type of bricks, etc 4. Where or any website out there or books that i can improve my knowledge on this? As you can see, I probably dont know what i am talking about here. So please share your thoughts. Thanks guys!! Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 2Sep 30, 2015 9:00 am I see that there have been a few people view your post but not answer it, and I think that it because for some of the questions, there could be many, many answers, and some of them would simply be a matter of opinion/choice. ie some people prefer brick, some don't. I would like to say though that if you aren't going to have many upgrades then I would be very surprised if you couldn't get that size house well within your budget. Good luck! My blog: tashandpaul.wordpress.com Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 3Sep 30, 2015 1:08 pm I will answer some questions as best I can from our journey to date (plans go to council this week) - if I had an unlimited budget - I would build double brick or hebel, brick colour that goes all the way through, concrete floor between ground and first, I'd have double glazed windows, hardwood flooring, large tiles in bathroom (for less grout) and floor to ceiling tiling As for going over budget - if you can control yourselves and not want upgrades that will help. But basics like: we didn't consider quite large stormwater costs - which could vary based on area you live in and how big your house is compared to land size. Also, if your land has slopes that will add to build costs. Also if something comes up during eg excavation that could cost you too (eg. our neighbours dug and they encountered a small running stream so had to build an encasement(?) around it which was not cheap) We are currently building with Rawson and I'm don't know which house you are looking at but your budget will be right up there anyway hope that is of some help Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 4Sep 30, 2015 1:38 pm Quote: have heard lots of people say that building your own is hard and you will blow over your budget. Fyi, We are only planning to build standard home and not much variation. So my question is in what aspects can variation arise? And what possibly can cause us to be over budget? Almost everything - dont expect to build a house with all of the standard options. Theyre mostly so terrible you dont even want to entertain them - unless of course a choice has been built into the base price (eg 20 options of stone colour in the standard etc). Spend the money where it matters, kitchen, flooring etc. As to variations, ill answer this a little differently - forget about the variations and think about what needs to happen before the house even goes in. Demo, asbestos removal (simple demo can go from 10k to 22k in the blink of an eye), tree removal, rock removal, block leveling, do you need retaining walls, is there a septic tank on the property that might need to come out, because its a demo site, dont expect M class site. Expect P class, and the added cost of engineering on this. I have seen on this forum site costs in excess of 90k, even before a house can go on the block. So start thinking about how much money you really have for the house after determining these costs. Those are the likley surprises youll encounter. Quote: Could i also ask, if money is not a problem (so say if we win some lotto tmrw ) what is a perfect home in terms of its foundation material, type of bricks, etc Creator of superduperonium, expert at expert things, nobel laureate, can hold my breath for 10 minutes. Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 5Sep 30, 2015 5:35 pm fizzed I will answer some questions as best I can from our journey to date (plans go to council this week)... Thanks fizzed! I kinda get the idea. Luckily our land is actually flat but doesnt mean but we wouldnt encounter any problem. For example, im sure we will have asbestos problem with our old home. Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 6Sep 30, 2015 7:59 pm All the best I would highly recommend Bashworth's site http://www.anewhouse.com.au and his PDF guides (they'll cost you a cup of coffee, but well worth it) Also, go to the building blog thread and just read through people's blogs, especially KDR ones, will help you get a feel for what to expect. Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 7Oct 01, 2015 10:23 am With the budget you are talking about, you shouldn't have too much trouble. Depending on what area you're in, expect around $10k-$20k for demolition/asbestos removal and tree removal. Asbestos and trees generally don't cost too much if you get the demolition people to do it. You could guess maybe $30k above "standard" for footings and siteworks, but this can vary a lot There's also driveways/footpath crossings/paving/landscaping, which can take a bit of money. Other costs come in the selections. Double glazing and insulation can add 10-20k, and then there's all the aesthetics, like kitchen fitout items, appliances, lighting, bathroom tiles etc.. I don't think there's an ideal house you'd have with unlimited money. Often you spend extra money on things to reduce ongoing costs, but then that isn't an issue if you have unlimited money. Bricks are a desirable exterior material because they are low-maintenance, particularly those without a slurry coating. Apart from that, the difference between them is mainly aesthetic. Brick only construction has some advantages, and some disadvantages compared to framed construction. Nowadays pretty much everything is built on a slab, and that makes sense. I prefer a conventional raft slab over a waffle pod slab, but there's all sorts of arguments about the relative methods of each type of construction. In the end it comes down to a cost vs risk of various types of failure. Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 8Oct 01, 2015 2:50 pm yennylukas Hi guys, My name is Yenny. I am new to this forum. My husband and I are planning to knock down our home and rebuild. We are planning to build single storey house, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, double garage with total living area of around 260-280sqm. We are thinking to go with rawson or masterton. Of course we have very limited budget (thinking about 400-450k max). Both of us have tonnes of questions but could i start with the following queries. Im hoping you guys can shed some light. 1. Have any of you ever built with rawson/masterton? If yes how was it? 2. I have heard lots of people say that building your own is hard and you will blow over your budget. Fyi, We are only planning to build standard home and not much variation. So my question is in what aspects can variation arise? And what possibly can cause us to be over budget? 3. Could i also ask, if money is not a problem (so say if we win some lotto tmrw ) what is a perfect home in terms of its foundation material, type of bricks, etc 4. Where or any website out there or books that i can improve my knowledge on this? As you can see, I probably dont know what i am talking about here. So please share your thoughts. Thanks guys!! Be careful with Masterton. Check the Masterton forum under built a new home. Real Masterton homes owners talked about their worst experience with Masterton. $3900 deposit Oct 2013 5% April 14 Council submission May 14 DA Aug 14 CC Oct 14 Demo Oct 2014 Dec 2014 Slab 15 Sep 2015, roof tiles finished 16 Feb 16 keys Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 9Oct 02, 2015 8:12 am aloenyx All the best I would highly recommend Bashworth's site http://www.anewhouse.com.au and his PDF guides (they'll cost you a cup of coffee, but well worth it) Also, go to the building blog thread and just read through people's blogs, especially KDR ones, will help you get a feel for what to expect. This website is very good!! Thanks!! Re: Dont know where to start. Advice please 10Oct 02, 2015 3:58 pm When considering your budget, I'd recommend that you don't build a house that is bigger than you require. Australians build the biggest houses in the world, which is both bad for your hip pocket & the environment. Why do we often add a 'spare' bedroom, that is almost never used. It just adds to the cost of the build, a cost on the environment, & adds time when cleaning the house. Instead, why not have a multi-purpose room, which can be used as a second entertainment room for the kids, a study, & a place for guests to sleep. Along the same lines, many floor plans are inefficient in their use of space. Look for floor plans that use their footprint well, cutting down on things like excessive use of hallways. While discussing design, I'll talk about my number one point of advice (on many threads here). Orientate you house correctly! For just about every climate in Australia, living areas should face north (as should a large proportion of your glazing), where they can be warmed by winter sun throughout the day, while being shaded from summer sun, which is higher in the sky. I'd recommend you thoroughly study up on the topic of "Passive Solar Design", & designing a house to suit your climate. Your wallet (& the environment) will thank you, as your energy bills will be far, far lower. The best place to start is this government website, http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design Obviously with a volume builder you can't get the perfect design. But you should be able to get something that will work with you block. With living areas to the north, minimal W facing windows (to minimise summer heat), & if possible, bedrooms to the south. Most volume builders will allow you to flip their floorplans at no cost, & adjust plans (like eliminating W windows) at minimal cost. More significant changes could be costly. I would definitely consider upping the spec on insulation. Increasing insulation levels in the ceiling (& the W facing wall - to reduce summer heat) will have a significant effect on the comfort of the home, & reduce bills, at a minimal additional outlay of cash. I'd also make sure you get eaves of the appropriate length (which is usually not the case with volume builders). Correctly sized eaves will allow winter sunshine to enter the house in winter, while shading the house from summer sun. As for materials, this is hard one! I'm not a fan of bricks. They have high thermal mass, the ability to absorb & store heat. Meaning once they're hot (in summer), they take a long time to cool down, & if they're cold (in winter) they take a long time to heat up. Sounds like a pizza oven doesn't it! It makes your insulation work harder, making it less effective. I would never consider using brick for the second story of a house. As heat rises the upper storey becomes warmer throughout the day. Due to the high thermal mass it will be very difficult to cool off the upper storey in the evening, making bedrooms feel lie furnaces! Bricks also take a fair bit of energy to produce (embodied energy), which is not good for the environment. The main advantage with bricks is that they are virtually zero maintenance. But this advantage will not be as significant if they are rendered. For something similar to bricks, I prefer hebel. These have lower thermal mass than bricks & higher insulation values, due to the fact that they are full of tiny bubbles. This also makes them lighter & easier to handle by tradesmen. Hebel contains a high proportion of fly ash (a waste product from the power industry), so using it is also very good for the environment (you should consider using fly ash in concrete too). The most sustainable building product is timber (when sustainably sourced). It has very low embodied energy, & actually takes CO2 out of the air, locking it in your build. However, timber requires a high level of maintenance when used externally. If you don't like the sound of this you probably wouldn't want a timber clad house, but should consider it for framing (instead of a steel frame or double brick construction). Other cladding options could be fibre cement, which is common, but not great for the environment (cement has a HUGE amount of embodied energy). MgO is a newer option for cladding, which holds a lot of promise. It contains 50% timber, & has a low embodied energy. Care must be taken where it's sourced from, as some boards from China have been found to contain high levels of Cl, resulting in swelling & corrosion issues. Concrete panels are another option. But they are costly, have high thermal mass, & contain very high levels of embodied energy. Concrete isn't all bad though. If you are going to have a slab foundation, you should consider having a polished concrete floor in your living areas. As I already mentioned, concrete has a high thermal mass. This also isn't always bad. Outside, it causes problems, as it can't be protected from the harsh summer sun. But inside, where it can be shaded from summer sun, it can be beneficial. If it allowed to cool off overnight, it will slow summertime internal heating thoughout the day. While in winter, if sunshine is allowed to fall on it throughout the day, it will keep the home warmer at night. Other high thermal mass materials can be used inside your house in this way. Such as tiles, internal masonary, or even water! Another option is polystyrene cladding, which is rendered. It's like an esky, so has very good insulative properties. But some people can't get over the fact that the exterior of their house is made out of foam. Steel can be used as a cladding material, although it has fairly high levels of embodied energy. One place where it probably should be used is on the roof. It has much lower thermal mass than a tiled roof. The problem with tiles is that they heat up, take forever to cool, & greatly add to the 'Heat Island Effect'. This is the fact that cities are around 2-3C hotter than surrounding countryside. Can you believe this, all because our roads & roofs heat up & don't cool down overnight! So tiles are a bad choice of roofing materials, as are dark coloured roofs, for the same reason outlined above. I'm not sure about the embodied energy of zinc or other metals, but the use of high levels of aluminium should be kept down, due to it's extremely high levels of embodied energy, they've got whole power stations running, just to manufacture this stuff! An unusual option (which I can see having a very significant role in the future) is structural insulated panels (SIP's). These are quite new to Australia (we're slow, they were invented in the 1950's, rediscovered & now are playing a bigger role in the US & Europe). A SIP is a panel that contains 2 sheets of board (which can be one of a number of materials, like timber OSB, FC, steel or MgO), which are bonded together with a layer of highly insulating foam (such as EPS, XPS or PU). These panels are very quick to erect & often cutting months off build times (as they are fabricated off-site, in a factory, before they are required). They have extremely high insulation values, & greatly reduce the levels of draughts through the structure (often a problem for poorly built volume builds). This is new technology here though, you're unlikely to find a volume builder that builds with SIP's, although many granny flat builders do. Another unusual one is Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF). A little similar to the foam panels that are rendered, ICF's are foam blocks (similar to hollow peices of lego), which are filled with foam. The structure is the rendered. Again, you won't find volume builders building with this. Then you have the real out there products, such as hempcrete. Made from hemp (the second fastest growing plant, after bamboo), it has high levels of insulation, medium level or thermal mass, & is an extremely sustainable building material. Then you have strawbales, getting very hippy now, & the most hippy of them all abode, mud brick (or maybe earthships, which incorporate old car tires in the build)....................... Any that I've missed? I had an old shower unit that broke on me and when I took it off, there were only 2 water pipes, instead of the normal 2 water pipes and a shower head pipe. S o I… 0 36944 The most definitive answer to your question James is this taken from the James Hardie Axon Cladding Installation Guide - i just happen to have it… 5 3686 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 18120 |