Roof Tiles are on

Well what can I comment on here ? Not much our gunmetal boral contour roof tiles are on. Looks pretty good I think.

Framing on the way to resolution :)

My site supervisor got back from his much needed break on Monday, thought I would give him a few days to recover befor hassling him about the frame issue that came up.

I must say a lot of people with other builders complain about there site supervisors, but my guy (yeah let's call him my guy) so far he is fantastic. Great guy to have a chat with and always manages to put your mind at ease at the end of the conversation.

He mentioned he is familiar with the design and is getting the framer back in the next week or so to fix up a few bits and pieces and this would be one of them.

Must say I enjoyed the conversation I had with him, very approachable guy.

Have also heard that roof has almost been finished and electrical rough in should start next week. Happy Days.

On a side note I'm wondering what happens to the excess bricks, do they typically get thrown out ? Or sent back to Austral ? Wondering if I can keep the excess for a few brick pillars I wanted to get done up after handover. Save that for my next chat with my SS.

Frame Inspection - Error 404 Part of Frame not Found

For a little bit of piece of mind I had a building inspection done. I used Gordon from Jim's building inspection to come and check out the frame and slab to give me some piece of mind that all was progressing well.

I should mention that Provincial has been good at addressing my concerns and questions so far, and I have been pretty happy. The sewer survey charge on the previous invoice was an error and amended with little effort which was good.

He did find two issues which were raised with the SS, I'll keep tabs on them throughout the build to make sure they don't get forgotten.

Minor things, were found like triple grips missing from the back of the house. Triple grips are what connect the roof trusses to the wall frames.

The other big item was that the frame in the hallway seemed to be floating in air. At the time I couldn't figure out why it was like this, and Owen the site supervisor mentioned he would look at the plans. Well a few weeks later it hit me when I was looking at pictures of the display home and the plans.

The plans state that they are building a half wall, which I thought was as per the display home, but it's not. The display home has three windows there with shutter's in them which we are planning on replicating.

This part of the house is a bit of a focal point and is going to look odd if it is built as is, and not as per the display. I'll be chatting with Owen and Provincial when they are back from the break to make sure it's completed as per what was expected. If it is built as is, the portion hanging in air would be a prime cadidate for plaster cracking and would be able to swing if hit hard enough. I don't know how this stuff up was missed.

This part here is hanging in the air, and I think even the framer probably thought it's unsafe hence the temporary bracing holding it up.

I guess this is where it would have helped if we had sat down and walked through the plans like we did with the first design. For anyone following and planning to build, make sure you sit down with your sales rep and walk through each and every room so you understand the design intricacies.

This is the design we currently have

And this is how it should look. Yeap I consider myself an expert in photoshop ;)

I'll be pretty annoyed if it's not fixed up as per the display, personally I don't think it's a huge fix at this stage.

I have sent a txt message to the site supervisor on the add chance he is working, but haven't received a response. I'll touch base when they officially open on the 19th of Jan.

Will update when the crew is back at work, and hopefully with a drama free outcome.

Stay tuned

Guttering & Facia Installed

Took a drive by the block to see if any work had been done and found that guttering and facia has been installed.

Still missing a length around the back, but it's nice to see they have started the roof.

Bricking Almost Completed

Well I didn't really get a chance to update this blog over the break, but I went and had a look at the house and found that bricking looks like it's almost complete.

Roof tiles had also been delivered on site, which suggest roofing will begin soon too.

I'll let the pictures do the talking, as mentioned previously the articulation joints aren't as per the plans so i'll be checking with Provincial to see what they have to say.

It looks like the brick work is ok, but i'll reserve comment till it is 100% complete

Pictures

My wife managed to get this picture when the brickies were on site with there permission, I'm a bit concerned about the mortar coverage from the inside of the bricks, but have been told by a friend whom is a builder, that typically the brickies come back and fill things in from the inside. Shall see what happens.

Bricking Started

Bricking kicked off last week, and rapid progress has been made.

Provincial will be shutting down over the Christmas break like all the other builders, but my fantastic site supervisor has mentioned that bricks should be completed and gutters and eaves may even be finished. Roof tiles are planned to start in early January.

I did notice that the rear of the house and one wall has less articulation joints than on the plans or as is required on the construction plans and as per the building standards. to put it loosely and briefly without quoting the guidelines, you are supposed to have an articulation joint every 6 meters on a wall. I reckon that working through the storms of last week they probably forgot to put them in. I'll see what the SS says but he did mention they sometime vary where they are. I do know that a waffle pod typically moves more than a raft slab, so maybe this is why they chose to use fewer joints, but the decision should ideally lie with an engineer.

Other than that issue everything else looked really well done, the brick layers seem to be doing a quality job.

I'll have to check with my SS to see if termimesh was installed as well.

One good thing I noticed is that the stacker doors as standard have tracks to add fly screens in later, I didn't check this at tender stage but it's great to know Provincial specifies it when you add them in.

Couldn't see any articulation joints along this wall, they may not be needed.

What an articulation joint looks like, the join over the door.

No articulataion joints that I could see along this wall, but when I zoom in on the photo (finally this DSLR came in handy). I can see one at the joint where the corner is. I don't know if more are required by engineers or not. On the plus side the brickies are nice, and neat and everything looks pretty damn straight.

Framing Complete

Framing took about 2 weeks from start to finish, they finished up last Wednesday and I received the framing invoice on Thursday.

I'm querying 1 amount on it (locating the Sewer $800) which I thought was paid during the first payment, so will see what the outcome of that is hopefully soon.

Edit/ Update: The sewer survey was an error, and fixed up promptly by the team. It's always good to keep track of how much your payments should be :)

Framing was interesting to watch and it's quite cool to see the house take shape, it's all happening now. Interesting how much of a difference the 25 degree roof pitch has made, it's definitely taller than the surrounding single storey homes... well according to my eyes.

I also spoke to my site supervisor over the phone for the first time. Seems like a really nice guy, hopefully I'll put a face to the name soon. I'm trying to organize a independent inspection to give me some peace of mind to make sure everything is going according to plan/specifications. Although from what I have seen everything looks pretty good, no frame overhang or anything like that.

On with the pictures.