Forum Replies Created
- Originally posted by ShOw_Me_ThE_MoNeY:
Sorry, point 1 in my post i used the term mirror image, thats not correct. what i meant was just the garage and bedrooms swapped over.
I think I have confused you with my longwinded answers SMTM!
1. No, I would mirror image the entire plan for an east facing block.
2. Don’t buy a ‘north facing block, your ‘daytime area’s’ will be facing the south (too cold). Try to buy a South or South-West facing block (meaning your front door will be facing south or south west) so that your alfresco area is facing either North or North-East.
Regards
Julie
Thankyou Kum Yin, that is nice of you to say.
You’re most welcome to share in the ‘little’ I know.[exhappy]
I, myself, need to learn much more than I know!![confused2]
Regards Julie.
Daryl Fisher HomesSorry SMTM
I should mention that if you haven’t bought the land yet, that the best block that you could buy for this plan would be a South-West facing block. This would enable your bedrooms (apart from yours) to get the early morning sun which is nice to wake up to. The alfresco/casual/living areas would recieve the sun during the day (eaves or an adjustable external blind on some of the exposed north windows would help with the very hot summer sun and still allow the winter sun in to help warm your house). The less desirable setting sun would come down in the west where your garage’s corner is. Good luck.JulieHi SMTM
If you are in Melbourne you will be in the temperate coastal zone. The greater issue listed for this zone is winter heating rather than summer cooling. Your study will get morning sun only as it faces the direction in which the sun rises; the rest of the day it will receive only minimal natural light as you have firstly the wall of the bedroom casting shadow on the window as well as the large portico. You may well have your light on during the day sometimes. The sun will travel along the wall hitting your ensuite/bath and beds 2-4. If there are not any eaves or external blinds on these windows these rooms will get very hot on a hot summers day. Your meals and kitchen area will get the direct low setting sun in the late afternoon/evening which may not appeal if you are sitting down to tea and the setting sun is beaming in the back door on a hot summer day (if you are in a built up area then the you may be protected from the full brunt of it. In winter this alfresco area will be shaded from the warming winter sun until the afternoon also. Your living areas predominantly face the south (living/casual) and I notice the living has a large amount of glass. This area will most likely get quite cool in winter and unless your glass is double glazed or you have have heavy drapes and pelments this room will take some heating up. If you place the solar HWS over your bathroom/powder room it will only have a short distance to flow until it reaches all your wet areas except your laundry and the unit should not be visible from the road. A north direction will always be preferrable to a north west direction for solar units.
In saying that (I’m sorry, I am just trying to give you as much info as I can) this company will have to have a House Energy Rating done on your home and get it to five stars in order to comply with regulations. This may mean that you have as thick insulation in as you can. An eave or a small verandah on the north wall would be better as the main source of heat in those rooms will be firstly direct heat through the windows, then radiant heat absorbed into the bricks during the day, will be slowly released well into the night (not pleasant on the odd 40 degree Melb night). They may insist that the glazing is increased to double glazing. You could also use tinted glass for the bedrooms on that side and depending on the comfort of the people inside you may even put on an external blind to stop the sun heating up the bedrooms to much (it is much nicer to sleep in a cooler room. Then again if you have a double storey home on the block next door or a large tree you will obtain a fair bit of shade from it (depends how close).
The general principle of energy efficient design is to place the rooms that you inhabit during the day to the north/north east. The rooms that you inhabit during the night to the south/south east. Garages are a good buffer from the setting sun during winter and summer in the west. Wet areas places as near to each other as practicable (your design is as good as you could get on this) and are best to the south/south west where they can buffer the cold winds and the setting suns glare and heat on a hot day. Mirror imaging your plan on the same block would improve the rating and comfort factor.
I am happy to help any time and there is alot of info on energy efficient design on the Sustainability Victoria website (which also is the governing body for all House Energy Raters).Regards Julie
Daryl Fisher Homes.[smiling]In which State and City are you building SMTM?
Regards Julie
Originally posted by v8ghia:Hi there. For my 14cents worth, for what it’s worth, after having moved from an almost South facing house on the NSW South Coast, to a North facing one, it is ‘chalk and cheese’. So much nicer in the mornings, and of course the main living areas are usually cooler during the day. Used to wonder what all the fuss was about myself but I now know why. All the best, [strum]
Hi v8ghia
I know I had a lengthy reply but the point that I was making was that it doesn’t matter where the front of your block faces but what type of rooms are where; a north facing block with the living areas facing north will be just as comfortable as a south facing block with the living areas facing north. And vice versa. This is why advertising a north facing block as a bonus is irrelevant; you can design a very comfortable house that faces south.
The reason I said that a south facing block performed better than north facing was due to the fact that house design currently places our main living areas at the back of the house with maybe the exception of a lounge. If you had a southish facing block these main living areas would get good natural light and warmth during the day when you are in them. Of course a north facing block would also perform as well if your lounge/kitchen/meals faced the front as well, but you would rarely see a house designed this way.
Your very hot north facing rooms probably had too much glass and no (or not enough) eaves/verandahs. I live in Mildura and yesterday was 42 degrees; my kitchen and living face north and we have a 1800 verandah around our house which still allows the winter sun in but shades the summer sun from our walls and windows. I don’t even need to turn our a/c on until we hit 30 as the wall and ceiling insulation in addition to the verandah save us from direct sun. We added the verandah ourselves, but before then, we were like you, cooking in the summer.
It is not just as simple as saying north is better than south. That is why all new homes use the CSIRO software; it’s not just about orientation it is about a whole range of things. All these things can affect comfort no matter which way your block faces. You cant change an existing house to a large degree but you can make significant savings when building from scratch.Regards Julie[exhappy]
Hi Duckster
My accountant told me that a kitchen was a capital cost and was subject to the building write off (2.5%); even an oven if it was built in was depreciated at 2.5%. but a freestanding stove, dishwasher etc all came in under the fixture/prime cost depreciation of varying amounts. Can you clarify, as I been doing my sums thinking that new kitchens would be depreciated over 40 years. I couldn’t find the kitchen listed in the ATO’s guide. Appreciate your advice.Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher HomesHi SMTM
Agents that try to plug north facing blocks are just jumping on the energy efficiency wagon without knowing their stuff. I am in Vic and am also an accredited rater, so the general principle is as follows…
The arc that the sun follows from dawn (when it rises in the east) to dusk (when it sets in the west) leans north. This arc is higher in the sky during the summer months and lower in the sky in winter months. Having a block that faces north is sometimes not the best orientation as in order to gain valuable points for your House Energy Rating (HER) , the living areas should face a northerly orientation with adequate eaves (there is a formulae) that will allow the low winter sun into your windows to solar passively heat your home but block out the high summer sun that will fry you. One of the Vic requirements of 5 star accreditation at the moment is to either have a solar hot water service on your roof or rainwater tanks to service your toilets. In order to function correctly, solar HWS’s need to have a north – northwesterly orientation, so if you go for this option and have a north facing block you will end up with a couple of solar panels hanging off the front of your home to greet your guests (and the valuer)…not a good look. If you also really wanted to take advantage of solar passive design should pick a site that allows you to face the majority of your general living areas along the northern side of your block, bedrooms etc are best placed on the southish sides, garages are best on the west and can act as a buffer etc. Basically if you are building a new home and are looking for a block then get one where the front is facing south and you can have all your living area’s at the back (open plan style); even adjusting around to south-east facing will still be easy for a rater to minimize the additional requirement. The better the rating for good design, the less money you will have to spend on additional glazing, higher R-value insulation etc.
Interestingly if you apply this knowledge to the purchase of IP’s, you would get a fair idea of how comfortable the home will be during the different seasons and in the case of people who are renting rooms out at a flat rate with all included this could save a few dollars in power/gas bills as you could attend to each possible problem (extra insulation etc) before you rent out the premises.
Once again if you live at the top of Australia then some of this advice may need adjusting for the different zone. Hope that helps sorry for the big reply (it seems to be a trait of mine).Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher HomesOriginally posted by Johno11:Thanks Julie. I appreciate your reply. it was very detailed and helpful. If this happens to be the case then the project will still come in at well over 210k which is still 30-40k above budget.
The other option I am considering is going owner builder. Is there a book or website somewhere that i can look at to see if this is an option? I know there are a number of financial benefits from going owner builder but what are the requirements. ie: do I need to have a builders licence? What are the insurance implication? etc…
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated[ biggrin]
Hi Johnno11
While you are considering the owner/builder option you could approach one of the big building companies like JGKing etc. If this is purely a rental then this level of quality may suffice and will certainly be cheaper than a custom builder. Ring a couple and see if they will quote your plan or they may have something you can use on your land.1. Before you get too excited about the owner/builder option I would talk to your lender.Many lenders ask for a bigger deposit of equity or cash from owner/builders. Your lender may also ask you to submit a breakdown of the construction costs to ensure that you have not left anything out. At the end of the day the house is more valuable to them as equity if it is finished. They do not want you to lend to your full capacity and then run out of money half way through and be knocking on their door for a top up.
2. You will not need to be licenced but you will need to employ suitably qualified contractors for the major structural works. Each structural trade supplying materials/labour for more than 12k should supply you with warranty insurance (a cost they will forward to you). Trades that you would expect to supply warranty would be concreters (many are still unlicenced although they should be), carpenter and bricklayer. Plumbers and electricians have their own industry body that inspects their work. A copy of the plumbers compliance certificate may need to be handed to your building inspector prior to occupancy to ensure work was done by a suitably qualified person. Warranty insurance among 3 structural trades could add up to 3-5k depending on the history and financial stability of the contractors. If you choose to employ contractors (structural) and not get warranty insurance for their work you will then have no recourse to the Building Comission, or them, to rectify any faulty workmanship or materials. As an owner builder you will not need to take out warranty insurance for yourself at the start of the job (a builder would) but if you sell the home within a 6.5 year time frame you will have to take out a pro-rata warranty insurance policy to insure the new owners for any faulty or defective work/trades on your behalf.
‘Sometimes’ there are financial benefits. This will depend on you to a large part.
1. Are you organized – can you keep the job moving along to minimize the construction time and therefore get a tenant in quicker. Remember as soon as the loan starts being drawn you start paying interest.
2. Owner/builders pay higher building permit fees than qualified builders.
3. Owner/builders pay higher warranty insurance when they sell than a builder would pay.
4. Get a couple of prices from tradies (that don’t know each other preferrably) for each of the major expenses so you can ensure that the prices are competitive. Inexperienced owner/builders often get caught out with greedy contractors and I would hope that there are not too many around. Often a referral from your building inspector will point you in the right direction towards some honest quality tradesmen.
5. All trades will look after their ‘bread & butter’ employers before rushing to ‘one-off’ jobs. To minimize delays develop a good relationship with your tradies and try to make sure your job is ready for them when you ask them to come. A busy contractor may not come back if you aren’t organized.
6. Get quotes – if you are on a strict budget this is a no-brainer.
Quotes for – drafting, permits, site insurance, tiler/tiles, carpet, cabinetry, kitchen appliances, frame, slab, engineers, plasterer, painter, fixtures, glaziers, pavers etc. You will then appreciate how quickly these costs add up and how hard we poor builders work to earn our small margins.Let me know if you need more info. Be prepared for the organizing stage to take longer than the construction of the house!!
Julie
Hi Carmelian
There is a new website launching on 27/2/07 which is advertised on page 7 of the latest API mag. It is called ‘NMD Data’ and will exclusively list National Mortgagee and Deceased Estate data. http://www.nmddata.com.au.Hope that helps
Julie
Hi Milly
I would suggest that measure out the rough size that you want to build your deck (is it roofed?). I would ring a draftsman and ask for a quote to prepare the drawings for you; some price by the area of drawing and others charge by the hour. Make sure you get it in writing and make sure you understand when extra charges may be invoiced to you. For example if you get a rough draft drawn up then this may be charged seperately, if you don’t like that draft and have another one you may incur the same cost again. I would also ring a builder; a nice one may come around and speak to you about what you want to do and give you an estimate (some builders may even organize the plans for you as well). You can also get a quote from the ‘spanline’ type contractors. Once you have a couple of prices in your hands you can see for yourself. Make sure they include permits.
Regards Julie
Daryl Fisher HomesOriginally posted by Johno11:Hi everyone,
I am currenlty at the construction phase of a my project and have been getting quotes from builders that I feel are very exorbitant.
I am building a 14sq single story brick unit with two garages (one for front house & one dor rear unit) 3 square each. That works out to be about 20sq in total. The developement is in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and I have told the builders that the unit is destined to be a rental so leave the marble back at the warehouse.
So far I have been quoted 243k from one builder & 260k from another. That works out to be about $12500 a sqaure including the garages, landscaping, driveways, fences etc.
Is this right??? The advice I was given is somewhere between $8500 to $10000 per square.
Hi Johnno11
As builders in regional Victoria our prices may differ slightly to yours in materials/transport costs but maybe we don’t quite have the union headaches that metropolitan builders do, which can add significant costs.
Square meterage prices are very deceptive and a bit dangerous to quote as every home is unique. For example a house under a rectangular iron roof with a gable each end or 4 hips will be much cheaper to build than one with bay windows and twists and turns. Every hip, gable and valley has a plumber working at about $60 plus per hour here and that is just labour. That same example is then reflected in the brickwork underneath; a rectangular house with 4 corners will result in less offcuts and less bricklayer labour for set out than one with bay windows, and 15 corners for him to negotiate. Our bricklayer charges us an additional $500 on top of his price-per-thousand for a bay window shaped wall. So you can see that the intricacy of the home can impact the price. Also the same for the fittings; you can spend 5000 on a flat pack kitchen or get a custom job for 20k. You can buy tiles for 20 dollars per sq and tiles for 200 per sq. What is your soil type and site elevation. Clay soils need deeper footings than loam type soils, everything can impact. No’one would be able to guess at the value for money you were getting unless the specifications and plan were available (and then not everyone has the experience in new homes to assess either).
As a general rule of thumb with standard fittings and fixtures we usually end up around $11k per square (of living area) including gst and that includes the garage area (we can usually fit that in without using its area in the cost unless it is really large). That doesn’t include landscaping or fencing or large amounts of concrete for driveways etc. You have got to remember too that little Johnny Howard is taking 1/11th of that price to pay for his superannuation fund so maybe your builders prices are not too bad. This is a personal opinion and as our business is 6 hours away there may also be others costs associated with your builders that we don’t have to have. Just make sure they are all licenced with the Building Commision and that they take out the building permit on your behalf (you will have to provide them with a letter to this effect). You may not get warranty insurance if they list you as an owner/builder.Regards
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher HomesHi Krautcan
We have just put on hold some land to build one or two homes for that age bracket also (in Mildura). I wanted to build something very low maintainance but I also have noticed that many retirees these days (for all you early retiring property tycoons I mean elderly retirees) like to travel and often have their own caravans etc. I asked a friend of mine (REA) if provision for storage (additional room in garage or a shed) for something like this is in high demand and he said “absolutely”. He mentioned that he was currently trying to sell villa’s in a gated community with many features similar to what you have described except room to store a boat and motor or caravan so the interest wasn’t there. His price for these units had to stay 20k or so below the competition to attract any sort of attention. I suppose what I am saying is make sure you do your research on your target buyers so you know what they would like in a potential property. Good Luck with your development.[exhappy]
Julie Fisher
daryl fisher homesHi FITH
Someone has to have experienced the ‘hindenburg’ before others thought to check the exits and make sure they took a parachute! We are all here learning from the experience of others thus to avoid a mistake of hindenburg proportions! I bet all the people that witnessed that disaster told enough stories about it to ensure that it was never again a popular form of travel…can’t say I’ve ever travelled on one. You are a cracker! big lolJF
Hi Fox
Love your sayings..lol. But I would suggest that it is better to have four forks in one pie than no pie at all.If cannot afford to do it alone and you set it up properly with provisions for people to get out of the deal in the future, then go for it. Even if it is disbanded in the future, you will still end up with more than what you started with if you do your due diligence and get a good deal in a good area.
Good Luck Wriggles
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes.Hi Matt,
I don’t know of any builders in Sydney, but we have been referred work from our local building inspector on several occasions, so I would suggest that if no-one can help with a referral that your mate rings a local building inspector and asks them for 2-3 names of good quality tradesman for the type of job he has. A building inspector would have inspected work from the best and worst of them so he can be assured he will avoid the contractors whose work is substandard.Regards
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher HomesHi RG
I will leave the cf+ advice to the experts as I cannot help in that department yet, but I may with the asbestos.
Regardless of whether a home is regional or metropolitan, if a home is over 20 years old chances are any eave sheets, fibro lining (internal or external), cement sheet weatherboards/roofs/downpipes and more will contain asbestos in one of it many manufactured forms. But to keep a potentially long topic shorter, well maintained non-friable asbestos is perfectly safe. If it needs work done on it get a builder to come and check it out and advise you. Licenced contractors are required for more than 16mt sq in Vic while in NSW you can remove up to 200mt sq yourself before legally needing a licenced contractor. Not sure in other states as we only build in those two states. However if you don’t have trade experience, I wouldn’t encourage you to touch it at all, purely for your own safety. If it is in good condition then leave it and give it a coat of paint. Many of the people who are sick with asbestos cancer were involved with friable asbestos. Usually the asbestos in cladding is classed as non-friable. Although ripping it off a wall in a frenzy may reverse that comment. There is a specific way to remove asbestos with specific clothing as well and only certain tips can accept it.
Doing a course over a few days is only one component to getting an asbestos removal licence of which there a two grades. After completing a course with the training provider you have to apply to the licencing body with not only a pass in the course, but also a history detailing your asbestos removal experience (where, when and with who). So I would recommend just to leave it to the experts. We are also currently looking at purchasing a home clad in asbestos cement sheet for renovation in regional Vic and have no intention of removing the asbestos. Do your due diligence and go for it if the numbers stack up, you can find out whether that type of cladding has hurt sales of houses nearby if you plan to resell or ask the agent if it may hinder tenants if you will rent it. I am sure that it isn’t the only house in the area with asbestos cladding.Good Luck
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes.Seeing as no-one with more experience has replied I will throw in my advice as a builder with some smaller scale experience.
For roads (in most regional areas) we speak to the local council, they usually provide this service (as they assume the responsibility after the development is taken over in the case of a subdivision). You could speak to them and ask them what they need in order for you to obtain an estimate or quote. For power then your local Power supplier like POWERCOR who will be able to assess the available infrastructure in the area you are developing and let you know what information they would need in order to provide you with an estimate or quote (and timeframe) for the job. This will be the same for water, you will have to chase up your local water supplier with some information for them on what you have planned, and ask them what they need in order to supply a quote for the water services you need installed. Lasty the subdivision, if you pop into a building inspector he will refer you to a town planner who can give you an idea of if and how much. I would think that ‘rule of thumb’ costs for all subdivisions is a little too risky. Once you have plans you can always put out the infrastructure work to tender if you are in a suitable area. Your town planner will be able to give you more detailed advice.Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes.Hi Wayne
I was curious about all the different theories that people had on why they feel the reeds go up or down. I came across this website which not only offers another reason which I never would have factored into the debate, but also answers the fixing question you had and whether (or why) you would seal all ends. I noticed they placed importance on not driving in your screws or nails to deep as they will allow water to collect etc etc – I’ll let you check it out.[happy3]http://www.deckmaster.net.au/faqs.htm
http://www.deckmaster.net.au/construction.htm#Sealing%20cut-ends%20and%20jointsIt will look great when finished.
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher HomesSorry Guys, I just found out the the auction for Clovelly Ave was this morning. Sold for $273k. [blush2]
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes
