Browse Forums Eco Living 1 Jan 23, 2012 2:52 pm Hi, We own a 20 acre block of bushland in St. Andrews (Vic). This property was destroyed during the 2009 Black Saturday bush fires. We thought the rebuilding process would have been not too difficult. However this proves too be wrong! We had trouble to apply with the new regulations. Our property was classified FZ and it has cost us a small fortune to reduce it to BAL-40. The aim is to build a thermal efficient house. The problem that we now have is to find a building company who can take on this project. Our experience so far proves that most building companies have no idea about thermal efficiency. Finding an architect that would design a house like this proves to be way too expensive. Can anybody out there recommend a building company in the East Melbourne area who has a proven record building traditionally styled houses that are thermal efficient? The building design will be simple: Concrete slab, stone cavity walls, rectangular design. No bells and whistles needed. Just something plain simple, strong and efficient. Building to a lock-up stage only would do. We can take care of the rest. We don't want to use a timber frame as we live in a termite infested area. Of course the house will need to be build to meet the BAL-40 regulations and will need to be delivered with an occupancy certificate. The builders we found so far are either way too expensive or do not have experience in this field. Your advice would be much appreciated and many thanks in advance. To the builder companies: Do not hesitate to react to this message, we are happy to come along for an initial meeting. Re: Bushfire affected: Need builder for thermal efficient ho 2Feb 04, 2012 10:40 am I am assuming from your post you do not have a plan / working drawings yet?? If this is the case you need a building designer before you need a builder. If you dont want the cost of an architect look for a building designer / draftsperson that has good knowledge of BAL and a strong interest in sustainable design, as they will have ideas for a thermally efficient house. If you want to keep costs down you can do some research into the BAL requirements yourself. Each level has it clearly outlined what is required for various components of the house. If you have trouble locating the info I can help. Re the thermal design, again, if you want to cut costs maybe try to get a good idea of the design you want down, and then the designer to refine them. There are some good websites which can help with this but some of the basics are: Orient your house on the house on the block to have maximum North facing exposure. Aim to have living areas on the North side. Have no windows on the west side Double glazing all round, take into account the glass/air/glass gap in windows Have external shading of west walls, ie. large eaves or put your carport on the west wall. Dont make your house more than 2 rooms deep, so you can maximize the benefit of passive light and heat. If you are having a concrete slab you could use this as thermal mass where there are north facing windows, by having polished concrete floors. If not polished concrete, tiles will still give thermal mass. Timber flooring or carpet in these areas will remove the benefit of thermal mass. Try to locate your windows opposite each other so you can get crossflow across the house for passive cooling. If there are walls between try to locate doors or other gaps in walls directly between windows. If you are having a combustion wood heater, try to get one with a 'wetback' system, so it can also heat your hot water. If you can also hook a solar system into this you you get year round hot water Once you have your plans and drawings you can approach some builders for quotes. I would be surprised if you would find a project builder that will give the personalised design you require. Good luck Hi VK, I am now retired however I have stood beside over 300 owner builders in the past 18 years that have successfully built their own homes. First of all a building… 10 22664 Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20413 |