Bryan & Petersen Build in Ballarat (VIC)

SOME POST-BUILD INFO & PHOTOS...

Replying to a personal message just now reminded me again I was going to start posting up some pics and info after we moved into the new house in October 2019.

Firstly I should mention that for anyone looking to build with Bryan & Petersen in Ballarat (they also have an operation out of Warrnambool), well things are looking better for the future. The previous owner who has successfully built the business up over many years has taken back control of the business, from what I have been told (by both a past customer and current employee). We hit a few 'obstacles' with the person who was taking over the business during our build and I personally think it is a great move to revert back to their previous ownership/management setup. ** If anyone from B&P reading this post wants to contact me to confirm this, I am happy to make any edits or provide additional info **

Now that some of the 'old' crew have returned to the business I felt more comfortable contacting them for assistance. Aside from our fairly crap laminate flooring install, we only have a few minor issues since we moved in, including:



The house itself is going well. This is our first winter and after experimenting with different heating options (we have gas central heating and 3 individual split systems), I have now found we can keep the whole house comfortable at around 20-21deg with just the one small 3.5kw split in the rumpus room (almost middle of the house). So for example yesterday it was around 9 degrees I think and I had the split running all day with the boys home schooling and me in the study (off the living area), and we used just over 10kwh for the whole day (total power use, not just the aircon), as the split once up to temp seems to sit around 300-350 watts.

So this aircon sizing is fascinating, as the place we used were adament that our main living zone needed a 7.1kw unit (55-60sqm), and we can instead run the entire house on just a small 3.5kw unit?? I wish now I had just put in a 2nd 3.5kw unit in the main living instead of that big unit. When we do use the 7.1kw split it takes not time to get to temp then either turns off or just blows 'air' around. It was definitely overkill, and that also goes for the massive central has heating system. It is simply not needed, as I think I have run it maybe 3 times to test it out. It blasts the house with heat then maybe turns on again once or twice more that night to blast us again! The splits just trickling along give off a much more consistent, less noticeable heat.

Our gas heating system is rated at around 29 kw, which is just ridiculous. Our 3.5kw split running @ say 350watts to maintain temps, illustrates that the house is only losing about 4 times that wattage (COP ~ 4 on that split), so lets say the heat loss is around 1800-2000 watts to be generous.

Anyhow if the sun is shining like today, then the main living area gets up to 22-23 deg with no heating (8-9 deg outside). We never run heaters overnight, and typically the house is around 17-18 degrees in the morning, so it's only losing 2-3 degrees overnight which I think is fairly good. Our overnight temps through winter are typically 0 - 4 degrees. We set our heaters to around 20-21deg normally.

So overall I think the main things that are helping us with better comfort levels (incl. over summer) and lower energy use in this house are:

• Orientating our main living areas to the north - arguably the #1 thing
• Decent level of insulation (R5 ceiling w/ R6 perimeter batts and R2.5 internal/external walls)
• ...and importantly alot of effort in reducing gaps in insulation
• Air sealing things like skirting boards, architraves around external windows/doors, central heating air return etc
• Double glazed windows I am sure help to some degree, but by how much??
• We also sealed up most of the top plates<>plaster joins in the roof space before insulation went in

I think that will do for now! We have more to show with the veggie boxes and deck recently built. But will save some more photos for later on.

Great update!

I agree! Amazing update with some great ideas. Your north facing windows are wonderful.

Thanks Hillsbuilds and Countrybuilds, actually those usernames are kind of matching! I wonder what type of landscapes you are both building/built in?

We've lived a few different houses now with various aspects and I have to say having that natural light and warmth from the sun is definitely what I like most about this house. Much research and thought went into the window designs (size, placement etc) and I can honestly say we got lucky and wouldn't probably change it.

Anyhow it's dark now and we just got back from a late walk. Cold outside but lovely to walk into the living area still hovering around 20-21 degrees.

I will admit most of my motivation for building in a more energy efficient way was originally about saving money. But I now realise the comfort level is as much if not more of a benefit. We certainly still turn on the a heater from time-to-time, but they don't have to work hard so you don't feel so much of that 'artificial' warmth.

Thought I would post up a couple of pics of our deck we built recently. We've been trying hard to not spend too much more money on landscaping so doing it all ourselves. Being in a virus lockdown has helped with the spare time around the house at least!

Hi Darb,

Really nice build, we have recently moved to Warrnambool ourselves. I may have missed it, but any chance of getting a rough build price on completion?

Cheers

Hi,

Mid $300k's was the end cost. I think the contract price was somewhere around $325-330k from memory? We ended up upgrading all the windows/doors and lots of other smaller items that did add up in the end. I think the final price did also include all the extra cash deals with did with some trades along the way. They are pretty good for doing stuff like that as long as there are no issues and everyone gets paid promptly.

I should also mention a little while ago I contacted the new manager (although has worked for them for many years in a different role) - since the previous owner took back control of the business - and she was fairly helpful in sorting out some things that were not dealt with properly towards the end of our build.

There is a whole other back story to some of the issue we had, but most of it related to dealings with the person who was taking the business over but has since left. Having the previous owner take back control was a very positive thing in my opinion and with the changes I thought I would make contact.

There were a couple of things like a missing front water tap, and along with some eave vents I asked about having installed they agreed to get it all done for us. This is about 12 months after we moved in, so I can't fault that level of support. The maintenance guy has also been back a few more times to help me with some minor things, which again they're not compelled to do at this point.

So it now looks like they are keen to stick to the higher level of service they are well known for around this area, which is good for all customers....past, current and future.

I only have some eave vents left to get put in and we should be all good now.

If anyone has any questions about building in Ballarat or our house design/spec or the builder we used feel free to ask via the open forum or PM.

Loved reading your 'case study' of the house build experience; Bet you'd make a great project manager
Like you, we've had double glazing done in our last home and it made a ton of positive difference.
If you had to name the most important things to pay attention to while a builder builds for you, what'd you reckon they'd be ?

Again, thanks for a great read!

Hi Gee Mack,

Now that we've been living in the house for over 1.5 years, I agree decent windows and doors do help for sure. I think in the future though it would be good to see Australian window manufacturers coming out with framing materials other than just 'cheap' aluminium and 'expensive' timber. uPVC etc should be looked at more as when you ever touch the frames, in hot or cold weather you can feel how much energy the frames transmit. ** We had issues with our windows on installation in terms of the rubber seals....wrong type and incorrectly installed on several windows. I can't imagine many people check this, but at least open them up and make sure the rubber seals extend the full perimeter of the sash frame. I had to push hard to get this issue sorted by the window fabricator.

In terms of what I would prioritise for checking on during the build, it would probably be these things:

• Building Wrap - Ask if they can place insulation strips in the external frame corners (can't be done after wrap goes on).
• Make sure the wrap is properly sealed, at joins and windows/doors etc. I also taped the wrap to frame top plate myself.
• Push hard to NOT 'reverse-build'. i.e. get the house bricked before plaster!
• Prior to plaster definitely get a decent onsite inspection done yourself, checking things like plumbing/electrical placement, insulation gaps, any leaks in water pipes etc.
• After skirting boards and architraves are installed (prior to flooring) it is really simple (& cheap) to run quality silicon sealant between skirting<>concrete slab joins and window/door architraves<>plasterboard (external only).
• Make sure the garage internal access door, front door and any other external doors are properly sealed (jambs & ground)
• Ceiling insulation is often done fairly poorly so definitely get into the roof cavity before handover and look for gaps etc.

At the end of the build, on of the key issues as I see it is you have the Government mandating all these building code requirements, with energy ratings etc. That stuff means almost 'jack-@#$%' if the builder cuts corners along the way. Good example is if you pay up for quality double glazed windows, but yet the wrap isn't sealed to the frames (externally) and the architraves also are not sealed (internally), air can just go around the windows themselves. Insulation is another one, studies have shown that even ~10% gaps can result in a 50% drop in performance of insulation.

So it is the care and attention to detail of these things - during the building phase - that will make a big difference to the efficiency and comfort of your home, not necessarily the star rating it is given during the planning and design phase. ** This assumes the basics are done well though in design like orientation, glazing to floor area ratios.

I agree with darb74 that all of these things are really important.

However, if you want to make requests like these be aware that no matter how hard you push some of them will not be done by some builders. We were not allowed any site access to do anything like this. So even though we requested it be done, it wasn't. I am very happy with my build, my site supervisor and who I built with but if you want these things done, especially with the pressure on builders at the moment, shop around for a smaller local builder that will have the time and patience to do these things.

I also agree that it is difficult to get stuff like this looked at by most builders countrybuilds, especially in the current boom. I also don't have an easy answer to it, as we went with a smaller local builder but still had our share of challenges along the way.

We went into our build specifically wanting some of the more technical aspects of energy efficiency focused on, so we arguably paid $30-$50k more than what one of the other larger builders here would have charged for a similar sized house. We were lucky in that we did have a construction key, and apart from towards the very end there were no real issues for either us or the builder. But most builders won't even allow you past the front fence.

When I look back, even if you manage to convince your builder (or even pay extra for it?) to have maybe the skirting<>floor sealing done along with external window architraves (before painting). Then you only need to push for a decent insulation spec and install and the rest is arguably in design anyhow.

Having your living areas face north, with around a 25% glazing to floor area ratio and eaves (ours are 600mm) are super important items to tick off. I guess even if some of the sealing/insulation work isn't 100% I would rather get the design really good as this reduces your dependence on mechanical heating/cooling anyhow.

The other things I would probably have done in hindsight are:

• Ditch the gas central heating altogether (we don't need/use it with the 3 x split systems).
• Anticon roof blanket (we instead have permeable roof sarking, with 2 x powered roof vents).
• HRV (heat recovery ventilation) system - we run a CO2/humidity monitor and not having to open windows each day to flush the house would be good.

Thanks darb74 and countrybuilds for the insights. I guess most builders' sales teams are all charm and promises but the relations with the site guys might be less friendly. In a prev experience w a housebuilder we had 4 site managers and heaps of specced stuff was wrong, tho we were allowed on site accompanied to help them fix it before it cost THEM more dough. Thanks for sharing your experiences.