Framing stage complete & slab fix ups

Today we had the opportunity to go onsite with our site supervisor and look at the completed frame and were even allowed upstairs via a ladder (not kids). So excited that I didn't even take one photo! Oops. Must have been the fact we had 4 kids with us at 7am that made me forget! 

All walls stable and rooms all correctly laid out. Doors all look like correct type, size, height, direction of slide, opening, and some frames already in situ (didn't take tape measure but seemed fine). Windows appear to be correctly centered and heights, size etc look ok. Window companies should deliver in next week or two, delayed because of Xmas holidays.  Roof cavity looks TINY and I totally understand why it's better to do all wiring with PD and not wait to do post handover. I noted the height of the sliding wardrobes in kids rooms were correctly increased to 2400 and not 2000 which is standard (no point in having a large bulkhead as it's wasted space). 

The frame looks good in my lay opinion. Obvious areas needing touch up and finishing touches (abstract nailing, bracing, remaining window framing), all will be sorted out later today as rain stopped; they had to finish early previous day due to heavy heavy rain. 

A few things that will require fixing that I picked up were:

- they were using plans which were not the final plans we signed off on! However that said they were the 2nd final plans so almost perfect. 

- At this stage that meant the recessed bathroom cabinet mirrors were not addressed in framing for master ensuite and kids bathroom. Will check other things missed later tonight. 

Slab Supervisor also reviewed site with concreter today:

- The overhang of steel frame in alfresco area will be fixed with and re enforced with a steel plate/screw or something like it & not just builders grout stuff. 

- friable edges will be fixed prior to Hebel installation next week. 

- rain water tank slab area which has snapped will be completely fixed and redone in a few months. Not doing it now so it won't get damaged again while exposed by trades/equipment/future scaffolding etc. 

The PD inspector also reviewed frame today after our visit so all his issues should be fixed before our independent private inspector comes on Monday to review framing stage. 

Overall we are really happy with how well they've done everything. All staff have been lovely to deal with and seem very happy to work with us and our questions. They have great phone manner and communication. Really considerate with neighbours and a temporary fencing issue crushing plants and reducing access to side path. They did say there are always a few things to fix with a slab and frame stages and I believe we are getting a very well built home as each thing is identified and fixed, no patch jobs or pacifying at all now all Trades have finished Xmas holidays. 

Next is roof tiling, and I believe while scaffolding up they put on solar hot water panels, evaporative cooling unit and guttering.  Once roof insitu i think hebel might be next. For those that are wondering what hebel is it replaces the need for bricks and has better sound, hear/cooling properties, cheaper and faster to build; read for yourself http://hebel.com.au

Will get a better picture soon. 

Framing Day 4 - ground floor

Only 4 days since framing started this is where we are at.

View from front door, stairway to paradise yet to come. 

View of back area - kitchen left, lounge fireplace right, back area are dining room left & alfresco right (yet to be framed). 

View if standing at oven area cooking, sort of see pool area to check no kids opening gate without me there.

Kitchen window view, ideas anyone?

View from back corner of garden.

Water tank slab waiting for concreters summer Xmas holidays to end next week. Two areas of frame overhang that I can see so far. All the rest looked good and still very much a work in progress. 

Slab issues & framing started

Porter Davis have started work again now after Xmas NYE break. During this break we sent a letter to them regarding slab concerns. A few bits from letter are:

The two main issues are:

1.      Poorly finished and friable edges/ corners

2.      Integrity of the hot water pad

 There several slab edges and corners that are unacceptable.  They appear quite friable and out of square.  There appears either to have been a problem with the formwork and/or poor compaction.  Either way the workmanship is poor.  It appears that the formwork has been removed before the concrete has reached the required strength before removal (15MPa as per AS3600 Table 4.4).

In particular, I am concerned that later construction work may need to accommodate these defects, possibly leading to other issues or complications.  

The hot water pad appears to be defective. It is a major concern that it is in such bad shape so soon after placement.  In particular, the edges and corners are friable and it is not square to the main slab.  There does not seem to be any expansion or isolation joints between the pad and the slab and there  appear to be some structural defects. I doubt this can be repaired without issues later.  It is not clear how it could possibly be fit for the purpose, nor how it is expected to last a reasonable timeframe. 

Photos at bottom of post. 

Response so far was a pacifying phone call from a slab supervisor that neither dealt with our slab nor seen it in person. He assures me the concreter will rectify my concerns when he returns from holidays next week. Meanwhile the frame starts going up. I speak to frame supervisor onsite and ask him his opinion of slab edges and he gives me a realistic yet not reassuring opinion that it does need fixing before frame complete. The site supervisor calls me after I ask when concreter fixing slab and I want to know how it will be fixed not just when. He seems to think its no drama and frame can be wedged for now and next week concreter can fill in gaps if needed. Hmm, I called our independent inspector for help but he's away this week and returns next week and can review it then. 

So for now I'm pacified briefly there's nothing I can do but next week I will start jumping up & down for solutions not just patch jobs. 

In the mean time they've started our frame and in just 2 days they've done heaps and should be putting roof trusses on next Monday. Hebel planned for 3 weeks time. Amazing how fast this stage feels. 

Slab

Slab done. So glad we had our private inspector visit the site the night before the pour as he picked up lots of things that had to be corrected prior to concrete pour. All things were corrected and weather was good so now the site will settle for a few weeks and work should start again in a month, aka Xmas holidays. The slab looks good apart from the rain water tank platform a bit shitty, no water pooling except in alfresco area of slab just like it should for drainage. The height of slab shocked me a bit, I guess house stands higher than I thought but no dramas, will just add a bit of cost to landscaping as soil will need to be brought into the backyard now. 

Unsure what these drains/holes are for?

Water tank base a bit cracked and shitty looking 

Hope these cracks are normal?

Wow, it's up hill to drive which surprised me as we have flat land. 

Slab piers & plumbing started.

I remind myself we only settled on the land in July and here we are already watching the house be built. 

Slab process so far:

- scrape and levelling of the block, including cutting alfresco, porch and garage lower than floor of house. 

- lots of hollow metal poles in ground, the screw piers I think. I referenced them to engineering plans for slab and noticed a few not on there. A few calls to BC & SS, my answer eventually came from slab coordinator who returned from holiday and got the job of driving to our site to check them. Turns out more jobs done since I was there and he assures me they're all good. He actually said it was looking like a great flat site with good soil sand etc. 

- plumbing installed. Odd looking at location of down pipes, they look way too close to fence line. 

- now all the waffle slab stuff to get prepared before our concrete pour on thrs. I think they have a busy day planned Wednesday. 

- Got our private inspector booked to review slab Wednesday afternoon before concrete pour. 

Site start today. Scrape and porta loo

The day before site start Neighbour sends this pic along with a message saying concrete truck reversed over your mains and drove off water everywhere. 

Amazing Neighbour, he then reported to police the license plate number and slowed the water flow by bending remains of water pipe. South East water fixed the pipes within an hr of me calling them. No cost to us, just a quick bit of stress and all over. 

Yesterday's water gone, today site was scrapped and ready with a porta loo in situ. Wow this is getting real now. 

We still don't have final site costs yet and they've started already. 

Pool concrete shell complete

So happy I changed deep end to fence side. Concrete looks good and was poured on warm day and no rain for several days after so it well set. 

We can also see at 4.30pm this is the shade on the pool courtesy of neighbours massive tree. Unsure how long shade from tree will be there as house sold next door and they're building 2 townhouses we think so tree will probably be removed. 

This will be ledge for kids to play and sit on. Corner steps look small but hopefully they will be ok, have to trust pool guys that is what works. 

Kids decide mounds of dirt better play on than looking at than concrete shell. 

Exciting news is site start will be 28 November; I've called and pushed for earlier date so much but at least they're starting in November as contracted to do. Slab pour set for 11 dec. 

Front temporary fencing removed by demo team. Temporary fence around pool inanity now. Soil mounds gone. Bamboo forest starting in backyard thanks to neighbours bamboo - eek, time to get out the poison. 

We await slab costings still and insulation costing in post contract variation. Weird to start building before we even know site/slab final costings!

Pool - stage one the dig & framing

Marking out the pool dimensions and location on site was fun. A few hours with our pool BC was really helpful, so much so we changed the layout of the steps completely. He has 4 kids and thought the design was bad and unsafe, the sales guy and him need to team up I think. So instead of having a swim up ledge all the way along the pool we moved it to just one end and steps were to be triangles not squared as this will avoid cuts, injuries and things that i need want to think about. Great advice. 

Suddenly things just didn't seem right when I was thinking about the steps and location against the fence. I tossed and turned all night long on Thrs and on Friday when they started digging I suddenly needed to move the shallow end to the other end and deep end against the fence. It was an 11th hour change of mind and TOTALLY stressful. I called the BC and he talked me out of changing, but 5mins later I call him back and changed it. Ahhh the guy was digging it and managed just in time to alter the deep and shallow ends, it was mentally exhausting but so glad I followed my instincts and changed it. 

Now our pool will look like the pic on the right instead of left, will probably put in 2 pool gates instead of just one and make left pool fence a bit further to left:

 

Depth of pool 1.2-1.8-1.4

Dimensions 4x7m

The Integrated Pool team worked over the weekend including Sunday to get all the steel framing done in time for the concrete pour/spray on Wednesday (today). The plumbers then came and installed the skimmer box and other pipes they needed to do. Later today I will visit the site and see our future pool complete.

A few pics

Unsure what copper pipes for, will have to ask later. 

Final construction drawings - signed off

So excited we are almost ready and paperwork issues almost finished. Signed off on final drawings now. Here are final images:

Final construction drawings - errors

An email asking when we sign off on final drawings as November was approaching got the ball rolling and bang I have the final drawings. The first set had multiple errors on it and lucky i was able to spot them all. Type of errors noted were:

p. 2 - Note re lattice screening to be full responsibility of owner "after" handover; this is not consistent with all other documents that state it must be complete "before" handover in order to get occupancy certificate.

p.5 - OVEN incorrect location; kitchen culture drawings are correct

p.7 - Note for front door incorrect; front door is PSLM201 translucent DG glass to sidelight (not PMAD104).
p.7 - the evaporative cooling unit is hovering in diagram, probably better to have it attached to roof!
p.7 - Vent for rangehood location not correct if you measure exact location of rangehood base on kitchen culture FINAL drawings.

p.11 - Section X-X must have 20degree roof pitch not 25degree pitch

p.12 - A construction drawing has been removed here for some reason. 'HEBEL' PANEL 470X470 PIERS scale 1:20

p.12 - Also a construction note has been removed
"-Top hat supports at 600CTS to manufacturers requirements"

"-Adjust nogging size to make assembly fit"
 

p.13 - for clarity drawing on right should be titled "GUEST" BEDROOM PROJECTION DETAIL - DETAIL 'A', not "Master".

p.14 - We have finalised all Kitchen Culture drawings and they are perfect as per designed in our Sales Meeting. The plans never reflected the exact Kitchen Culture drawings but we were always told to not worry as on our final plans they will be fixed once cabinetry confirmed. This is where I got worried when reviewing drawings today.  The rangehood and oven are incorrectly located. Our rangehood will not be centered against the window in final construction and this is due to bench requirements with oven not literally next to sink, there is to be a small bench between oven & sink. Here are correct measurements:
KITCHEN - A  drawing (sheet 14):
- along bottom are 5440 not 5430; this is reflected in p.5 also states 5540.

- along top are 1100 (correct), 2855 (not 2383), 950 (not 910), 1635 (not 2137), the top measurement is 2110 CL (not 2592CL).

This does mean the fidly drawings need to be altered, by doing this now come installation of cabinetry it will all fit and we wont suddenly have errors and lots of stress which no Site Supervisors wants.

 

p.15 - Missing half wall tiling to PDR - A & PDR D

p.15 - Missing Full wall tiling to BATH - A & B &C & D

p.15 - BATH - D drawing the mirror is a shaving cabinet the same as ENS - D on page16. The shaving cabinet is meant to be deep recessed BATH - A drawing, the same as ENS - C on page16.

p.15 - No birdseye view of WC toilet set up.

p.15 - WC - D missing location of towel ring next to mini basin

p.16 - ENS - D missing full wall tiling

p.16 - missing drawing of Ensuite toilet (Master bedroom), this toilet will have full wall tiles and also a toilet roll holder.

p.17 &18 - shower bases are tiled too.

Engineering drawings - does the slab to accommodate a concrete pad for hot water system or is this done post slab?

- part of front facade tiled as per national tiles contract, should this be mentioned on page 7 & page 8

Awaiting:
- final slab/site costs now
- insulation variation form
- confirmation of new rangehood as Meile promotion rangehood no longer available
- confirmation of site start...
- pool should be finished soon.