Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Mar 13, 2005 9:07 am Hi,
I am a 1st home buyer/builder and have chose to get my house built by a spec home mob. Anyway the after looking at heaps of builders and plans i chose one. I have paid the first installment on this building. The builders have been getting site tests and plans drawn up because i have had them modified. i got the plans back and noticed something looked wierd. Now the builder says "didnt i tell you the were no eaves". No they didnt. Not only does it have no eaves but it has strips of timber ubove all the windows(ugly) cause they tell me they cannot brick ubove windows that have no eaves. What i am wanting to know Is any problems from having no eaves. and is it possible to brick ubove windows when there are no eaves? Cheers Blondie Re: Help 1st home builder, builders didnt tellwhole story. 2Apr 07, 2005 11:16 am Unfortunately all to often people get a bad impression of the building industry when building with some of the different project builders. Blondie don’t feel bad because you are not the only one out there who has been disappointed because they were misled or conveniently not told about what was or wasn’t included. But to answer your questions, yes you can brick over a window in some cases with the help of a galintel, which is a metal angle that is placed above the window to support the weight. In saying this it is still not uncommon for builders to use timber over windows instead of brickwork, and yes there is a reason in most cases but no it has nothing to do with not having eaves, in fact by not having eaves it should make it easier to brick above a window. Please try to follow me. You see when a house has a ceiling height of 2400 the eave line is normally cutting in to the brickwork at about 2150 – 2250 off the floor level depending on the width of the eave. If this is the case then there is not enough height above the windows (normally windows have a head hight of 2100) to run enough courses of bricks to successfully tie them back to the house. And hence there is no other long-term option but to use timber above the windows. Unfortunately on face brick homes it can look a little unsightly. But by not having eaves you should find that there would be at least 300mm between window hight and your facia/gutter giving room for nearly 4 courses of bricks (I believe 3 courses are sufficient to tie back into the house). Note that this has been based on standard height bricks if you were using twin height size bricks then you would still not be able to run enough courses. Obviously bricking over a window is a dearer option then timber and for some project homebuilders they choose timber over all windows in all cases to keep construction costs down. I’m sorry for your disappointment Blondie. I hope your experience doesn’t put you off building in the future. Do you mind me asking who was the “spec home mob” you choose to build your house? Kindest Regards Shane We bought land in Tallawong Schofields NSW size 30m X 12.5m and planning to get double story house build around 350 sqm. We are thinking about having premium inclusions… 0 4042 Hi there, We’ve recently had plans approved to add a 1st storey addition to our existing house for a growing family in Sydney. With the current cost of building… 0 4250 Hi, We have a single story MacDonald Jones house, on a waffle pod slab with steel frame. Are we able to build a second story extension? Other info is we are 900mm from… 0 8373 |