Swerve house reno

[azsteve]

azsteve,
The economy in Australia is different so it's kind of too broad of a comparison. Coupled with that, I think they have a higher safety standard and I would suspect employed inspectors that love to drive around and bust nonpermitted work. Not worth it. Plus, as a homeowner you really need the permit to claim it for a future sale and take some tax deductions.
The thing that erked me was doing upgrades meant the county was going to "upgrade" my taxes too.

Lol, we've got plenty of those roving snoops over here too! I understand for purposes of appraisal/resale/taxes... but I doubt their safety reg's are as stingent as ours... at least for above board stamped and approved work... what it boils down to is $: how much the local//state guys want from you to sign a piece of paper, and no matter where on earth it is, govt. will always take as much as they think they can get... there never has been and never will be a commensurate service offered that justifies what permits cost, imo. The difference in cost between us and them I would think is more based on their govt leaning... lol, now I've strayed a little too close to politics... signing off before I go too far!

[Swerve]

Yep our process is all paper work

Step 1- Site Survey $800
Step 2 - Get plans drawn $3k
Step 3 - Engineering $500
Step 4- Lodge with Council for Development Application (only means your plans are approved, cant build yet) Costed about $4k
Step 5 - Wait about 6 weeks for approval
Step 7 - Depending on paid builder or owner builder (me) do owner builder course, get white card (ie construction site)
Step 8- Lodge CC appliaction (Construction certificate) wait 6 more weeks. Make various changes, meet pages and pages of certain criteria etc
Step 9- Once appoved start building, but council or provate inspecter, need to check every milestone along the way, before concrete footings pourer, before inplace concrete porered (slabs) once framing goes up, before roof on eetc etc etc.

I had other extra critera in as I was building over a sewer main and had another authority to deal with, plus extra expenses to dig up, replace and encase the sewer main at my cost .

30th April 2013 - Brickies half done

[bosque]

Steve,
This is the shot that shows....."it's on!"
I am interested in the doubled wall of adobe style bricks.
When a high stem wall is made here we either mason one row of 6 x 8 x 12 cinder blocks that are hollow and are then filled with concrete or we make a plywood form above ground and pour rebar supported concrete in place.
This has a very nice finish to the outside house all in one stroke. I imagine this is designed to halt wetness from getting to the frame coupled with an easy source of industrial clay/adobe in your area.? Two rows of bricks as a stemwall is something I've not seen. It goes to prove that there is more than one way to skin a cat! (I would not skin a cat btw! )

[norville]

I'm confused with the openings in the walls.. I assumed at first they were for ventilation but, now I'm not. It's a slab floor right? what's with the large opening in the rear? Opening for a crawl space??

[Swerve]

Bob,

Opening on the left next to the fence is a access hole to the crawl space, the next one is under my feet into the main house. Have positioned that at the lowest part so if ground water came up ( I have a clay base) it can freely exit. The high hole is a vent. The far away acces hole is under the new deck, I have added this purely for storage and so the dog can hide away. Will excavate 6" dirt and place my left over concrete there so he's clean and dry, will also most likely place the mower in there, only about 600mm high access.

Dave,

In Sydney ( and Melbourne) our colder climates in Australia most house construction is double brick (Queensland is wood as hotter). Most walls are double brick cavity, here I have opted for double brick no cavity. There is water proof membrane about 3 courses up from ground level to stop rising damp. I'm doing single stud wall construction (cheap and easy) ontop of this. So I will have my bearers running front to back start in that lower course of brick above teh side manhole, joists will then sit on top across the width of the block, again ontop the bearer and that higher course of bricks, then 22mm floor and then single stud wall ontop.

Between the bricks and wood I will also have to add a termite resitance membrane and also ant caps on the inside, also have to termite spray as part of council requirements. Cinder blocks are not common in Australia, If I was using slab in this part we could also back fill this with earth and then slab ontop. On the opposite side to here the garage slab is 180mm above this extension floor. I will be doing a cavity double brick wall to stop moisture coming from the earth into my internal wall. Will show photo's later when brickies finish that side.

Steve

EDIT - 80% of houses in Sydney, Melbourne are all double brick, or brick veneer. This was from late 1800's up to now (most new are brick veneer as bricks are expensive. Bricks keep teh houses cool in summer and retain heat in Winter. QLD use wood as houses dont heat up etc.

FROM WIKIPEDIA

California Bungalow in AustraliaThe California Bungalow style was particularly popular in Australia from 1913 onwards.[4] This period coincided with the rise of the Hollywood film industry, which popularised American clothes, furniture, cars and houses, and also with the increased importation of U.S. architectural magazines into Australia, a society which previously had been heavily influenced by British domestic styles.

The bungalow in Australia underwent regional adaptations, being built in the local red brick in Melbourne and the local liver-coloured brick of Sydney,[5] and in limestone in South Australia. The bungalow was also constructed out of timber — in tropical Queensland these were raised on high (eight-foot) stilts as the Ashgrovian Queenslander (the idea being to allow free movement of air in the hot climate). Key practitioners of the California Bungalow style were Peddle and Thorp, Kenneth B. Milne, Alexander Stewart Jolly and Cedric Ballantyne. One of the outstanding examples was Jolly's Belvedere in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne. Belvedere is heritage-listed.[6]

The Californian bungalow was also common in New Zealand during the latter 1910s and 1920s, and is credited with starting a trend towards bungalows and influencing new local styles of bungalow in New Zealand during the early decades of the 20th century.

ALSO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian ... ral_styles

[RiverPatrol]

Wow! They made fast work of that brick! It's really starting to take shape now.

[azsteve]

Wow! They made fast work of that brick! It's really starting to take shape now.

I was thinking the same thing... how many layers/carriers on the crew? I don't feel like doing the math, but with the bluprints you provided and precise quantities / time / crew we could figure out if you're getting your moneys worth or not...

That style reminds me of a neighborhood I lived in in fort worth tx a few years back... same double brick... homes dated from the 20's or 30's, iirc.

[Swerve]

That was two guys, 1 day (eight hours)

[Swerve]

Brickwork completed

[norville]

Brickwork completed

Looks good Steve, why not go up in level instead of out like you did? Just curious, no judgement.