Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 16, 2020 4:38 am Hi we are about to embark on a new journey to knockdown and build a new home. However, our major concern is that our block has a north facing front orientation and maximising natural light throughout the house is extremely important to us. Can anyone recommend a good custom builder in Melbourne south east area? Wanting to build a double storey home upto 60sq. Has anyone built with this home orientation? There are so many builders out there, however, we want to avoid a high volume builder as we do not want to compromise on the quality and design choice. Re: Knock down and new build 2Aug 21, 2020 2:31 pm Same boat, planning a single story and recently had someone suggest these https://illumeskylights.com.au/ to me. Essentially a solar powered light that mimics a skylight. Might be a nice option on the ground floor to provide a natural light feel. This assumes you can run the cable from the roof to the appropriate spot. Probably not the greatest option but an option for consideration none-the-less. Re: Knock down and new build 3Aug 23, 2020 1:56 am Undercover architect has tips in season 1 of her podcast. I would suggest bedroom at front and a courtyard/alfresco in the middle. Re: Knock down and new build 4Aug 23, 2020 11:06 pm mark1881 Same boat, planning a single story and recently had someone suggest these https://illumeskylights.com.au/ to me. Essentially a solar powered light that mimics a skylight. Might be a nice option on the ground floor to provide a natural light feel. This assumes you can run the cable from the roof to the appropriate spot. Probably not the greatest option but an option for consideration none-the-less. we've used both illume and Arcol brand Solar Skylights and are very happy with the price, light and ease of installation ... the flat light panel can be fitted on the ceiling or wall and is connected to a small roof top solar collector by a finger thickness cable about 9m long and quite easy to thread the cable through ceiling, between floors and walls... anywhere that electrical wiring can be installed but doesn't need a professional installer although it was convenient to have ours installed by an electrician when we were having other work done as they use similar installation techniques..we've had them installed in both new build and renovation and only problem is remembering that we don't have to turn the "light" off in daylight, they don't work on very overcast days and we still use standard electrical lights at night although i understand that some of the Solar Skylights can include electric light in the same fixture Re: Knock down and new build 6Aug 24, 2020 10:35 am mark1881 Do you find the level of light they provide matches the brightness outside or is it the same consistent level of light regardless of outside? in our windowless ensuite the Solar Skylight feels like the electric ceiling light is on all day on average sunny days but the brightness dims when it's overcast outside just as it would with a standard skylight or window (and there was no battery storage in our old 5year old Skyights ..may have been updated?) so there's no capacity to maintain the same brightness continuously but brightness is also related to the size of the Solar skylight relative to the size of the room..ie the ensuite has a 45cm square skylight and is excellent but a bigger room has two 30cm skylights (still better than no Solar Skylights) but we're planning to swap to the biggest model to improve brightness in the big room and that's so easy to do as we can just DIY the bigger fixtures over the old location and use the small ones elsewhere (down the hall?) Hi I live in a 100yr old semi and my neighbour added an additional floor last yr and our architect has advised that we can knock down our semi and build a free-standing… 0 37723 We've had the offer of a short term tenant whilst waiting for CDC/DA home approval and demolition for our knock down rebuild. It would achieve a pretty low rent as it's… 0 13759 How long is a "long period"? For a few weeks, it should be ok. It also depends on the area you live in...I would let your neighbours know that you will be away too and… 1 28574 |