Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Canberra custom KDR 10Oct 28, 2017 9:41 am Due to the weather forecast, the slab pour on Thursday was cancelled in advance. Which was a pity, because as it turns out the rain held off for the whole morning, and when it did come in later in the day it would've been well-timed to help curing. Oh, well, you don't know these things in advance! Pour has been rescheduled to Monday. The independent inspection went well with no major issues found, just identifying a couple of minor things to be finished off just before the pour. Alternative framing supplies and trades have now been sourced, with one exception. I'd specified floor trusses for the upper floor (Posistruts) - but the truss manufacturers seem to be all booked out until next year. The builder is waiting to hear back from one more (based a couple of hundred ks away) - but unless they come through, we'll need to make the call: I-joists (hyJOIST) with a framing start in mid-late November, or hold out for trusses but delay framing start until at least late Jan. I went with floor trusses over I-joists due to perceived vibration reduction advantages, although it's hard to find publicly-available solid scientific/engineering data on this. It's investigation time again... will I-joists be an acceptable alternative? As background, the floor structure overall needs to be very solid and firm, because I'm unusually sensitive to floor bounce and vibration (and I mean really sensitive - I can even pick it in up in some heavily engineered structures such as shopping centres and multi-storey carparks). I went with floor trusses over I-joists due to claimed/perceived vibration reduction advantages. I also specified the upper floor to live loading of 2.0kPa (above the 1.5kPa Australian single-building residential standard and in line with the Australian standards for multi-residential dwellings and hotel bedrooms). The Australian standards do seem a bit light-on for floor loading by comparison with other countries (e.g. in the US its 40psf live loading for residential living room floors, which is roughly equivalent to 2.0kpa - the US allows 30psf/~1.5kPa only for bedrooms and attics). The upper flooring itself will be Hebel Powerfloor - multiple reasons, including insulation, acoustics, thermal mass, solid feel, no squeaking, and reduced vibration. Hopefully either the last truss manufacturer will come through, or I can be satisfied that I-joists are an acceptable alternative (either on their own or in combination with the above factors). Otherwise I have a difficult call to make.... Re: Canberra custom KDR 11Oct 28, 2017 11:09 am Sorry to hear that the slab pour was delayed - hope everything is all good for next week. I think for me the aggravation factor'' would be the decider with the flooring. If the vibration will annoy you every day for as long as you live in the house, I'd wait for the right materials. Variegated Re: Canberra custom KDR 12Oct 30, 2017 9:59 pm Pour complete! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Note the very expensive and high-tech wet-curing system that is very definitely not jury-rigged from various miscellaneous garden watering components A warm sunny day with lots of wind was not ideal for a slab pour, especially when using N25 concrete (stronger than the standard N20), so we had to make sure that the slabs were properly wetted to prevent surface crazing (quite apart from the extra strength you get from wet-curing). Unfortunately, some of the slab-edge insulation was dislodged when the formwork was removed, but it should be readily fixed back in place once the slab has cured. And in the other big news of the day, the builder has managed to find replacement sources and trades for the frames and trusses, including the Posistrut floor trusses we wanted! Framing should now commence in three weeks' time (which conveniently works out to be a good length of time for the slabs to cure). Re: Canberra custom KDR 13Oct 31, 2017 7:16 pm That's a great looking slab - well done. Did you get some rain overnight as well? Good to hear that you can still get the framework you want as well. Variegated Re: Canberra custom KDR 14Oct 31, 2017 10:23 pm Variegated Did you get some rain overnight as well? About 5mm - another little bit of help for the curing! Re: Canberra custom KDR 15Nov 15, 2017 9:05 pm The slab ended up turning out quite well - good enough for a polished concrete finish, despite not being spec'd as such (we're going with tiles, mostly for aesthetic reasons). Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Not that you can see in the photo, of course, but there's only three small hairline surface cracks in the entire slab. Not bad, especially for N25 concrete! (the slab looks a bit 'blotchy' in the photo due to residual damp spots from recent rain that hadn't fully dried out when the photo was taken). In the bottom-left of the photo you can also see part of the hand-dug basic trenching system used to drain water away from a couple of spots near the slab that were subject to run-off pooling due to the fall of the land (one of those spots is visible in the bottom right of the photo). This was especially important during the wet-curing process, and given the weather forecast for the rest of the week will probably be just as important going forward! The green 'fabric' around the edge of the slab is the termite protection - Termigreen, which was selected primarily because it's a physical barrier which doesn't form a thermal bridge through the insulation (unlike metal solutions, e.g. Termimesh - another advantage of not using a metal barrier is not having to worry about rusting). Termigreen is actually a combination defence (physical and chemical), with the pesticide being impregnated into the fabric; this means that (unlike many chemical barriers) it won't leach into the surrounding environment and doesn't require regular top-up treatments. Thanks to the efforts of the builder, the schedule is now going full steam ahead, and we're aiming to have the framing completed and wrapped and the roof on before Christmas. It's by no means certain that this will be achieved - but it's now at least plausible, whereas a couple of weeks ago the odds of getting the roof on before the break were looking like zero. Unfortunately, it's already looking like there's going to be more unscheduled delays - the carpenters are due on site tomorrow lunchtime to commence the framing work, but the weather forecast for the next three days is for a lot of rain and possible thunderstorms. We'll see how it goes... In other site news, the resident apricot tree looks like it's preparing for a bumper crop this year! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Canberra custom KDR 16Nov 20, 2017 10:21 pm As expected due to the rain, Thursday was a washout, as was Friday. Then, today, this happened: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Ground floor frames are up! (Mostly, still a bit of finishing off to do). They seem pretty good to our inexpert eyes - generally square and flush, noggins throughout, no timber that we could see with big holes or other visible defects. Without measuring anything, the floor plan looks pretty right on first glance. It was an interesting experience walking around what feels like the first truly tangible signs of the house to be - the physical embodiment of the plans I'd spent so long working on and agonising over. For the first time I could see in full scale how the house works and how it interacts with the surroundings. I could check views from (future) windows, internal sight lines, distances and clearances, movement and flow in real life - fortunately, it's all working out well so far! (Not that that kept me from keeping on double-guessing the plan - should I have changed the window heights again? Should that display niche be deeper? etc. But on reflection and after the initial experience, I still think we've made the right calls). Re: Canberra custom KDR 17Nov 21, 2017 7:04 pm Looking good. It is a great feeling when you can see the house in the 'flesh' as it were. Keeping my fingers crossed for your roof prior to Christmas. Variegated Re: Canberra custom KDR 18Nov 23, 2017 9:20 pm As of yesterday - my precious Posistruts Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Locked together with strongbacks, these should form a very solid base for the upper floor, much sturdier than typical Australian construction. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here's an overview of the site, showing the garage in front of the house (the garage looks a lot larger in proportion due to the camera angle and foreshortening, it's not really that big!): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Mind you, there was a slight slip-up with the garage. We'd factored in the trees on our site, but it hadn't clicked that one of the neighbour's trees was overhanging the fence: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ A bit of trimming will be required! Re: Canberra custom KDR 19Dec 01, 2017 8:42 pm So, on Saturday the Hebel PowerFloor went on: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And then yesterday the upper frames went up: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The roof trusses have been craned up, but won't be installed until after the Proctorwrap (it gets wrapped over the top plate and then the trusses get placed on top. We then had an official framing stage inspection today with the builder - a couple of minor things to do (which he was already aware of), but nothing major - the framing stage is essentially complete (and invoice issued). It was a very wet afternoon, but fortunately we were able to see the views from upstairs before the rain set in - and it's as good as we hoped for! Getting up on ladders, flying camera drones, and estimating from what you could see on the ground is one thing - being able to finally see it directly in person is very different (and very reassuring, in our case). The existing trees provide privacy from our neighbours' yard (which was a concern for both us and them), and we've got excellent views all-round otherwise. Re: Canberra custom KDR 20Dec 02, 2017 6:43 am Looking good! What function does the proctorwrap serve? Being able to see the view instead of imagining it is a great feeling, and I'm glad that yours has met expectations. Hope the current rain doesn't slow things down for you too much. 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