Renovations from start to finish Part A

Hey Namtrak.
Nothing to do with reno's but can you say why you sold the house in QLD and moved down to Albury is it ?
Just curious , ended up doing the same thing ourselves !
The other thing was what are your thoughts on spending so much on reno's , are you guys just thinking we want this and that is that type of thing , didn't want buy land and build instead for some reason or ?
The reason l ask is that's some serious reno mooler , do you add that to the house's price seeing what you get first or just have the leeway so who cares type of thing , as in bought the house 20 yrs ago for 35,000 or something ?
Tossing up about my own place that's all and just what to spend into it because l don't like digging into the equity too much but rather spend as little as poss' and build onto the equity's my thinking .

Cheers
MB

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

Hey Namtrak.
Nothing to do with reno's but can you say why you sold the house in QLD and moved down to Albury is it ?

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We moved to Albury, on a small part for work, but largely for family. A large part of SWMBO's family lives in and around Albury and Tallangatta, and once we had kids the choice was to get them near cousins etc.

When we first moved we tried to sell the house, but had no luck at all - so we rented it out. Which was great for the tax benefits and income, however whilst the tenants were all fine the house degrades without the attention of an owner. We finally decided to sell it when the cost of maintaining the house up North became too much and the cost of the potential bank loans was going to be too high.

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

The other thing was what are your thoughts on spending so much on reno's , are you guys just thinking we want this and that is that type of thing , didn't want buy land and build instead for some reason or ?

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Well, because when we first got here we were very cash strapped - we had the mortgage up North, the only place we could buy was a small, double brick house near town for $88,000. However like most people, we benefitted from the increase in property values through the early 2000's. As such, rather than sell up and buy another house further from the centre of town we felt it wiser to improve the house we were in. Besides we like the neighbourhood.

The cost of the renos (not including labour) is around $900 per sqm or $7000 per square. Not including the labour component, which will add another 30-40%. This is not an unreasonable price, especially given the size of the addition is fairly large.

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

The reason l ask is that's some serious reno mooler , do you add that to the house's price seeing what you get first or just have the leeway so who cares type of thing , as in bought the house 20 yrs ago for 35,000 or something ?

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We definitely consider the cost of the addition to the original cost as part of the whole picture. All things being equal, once the reno is complete we will have spent $88,000 plus about $25,000 plus say $110,000 ($223,000) on the house to end up with a 4 bedroom house, with ducted heating and cooling, ensuite and new kitchen. Our end mortgage will be around $100,000. And the property will be worth between $350,000 and $400,000. All this in a double brick house in a quiet street, 3 blocks from the main street of Albury.

If we were to sell up now, and buy a new house in the 'burbs, we believe we would have to service a mortgage closer to $200,000 to $250,000. Which isn't really progress as far as we are concerned. I think, for us progress would be a decent house on a few acres with no mortgage - which will probably be our next step - when the time is right.

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

Tossing up about my own place that's all and just what to spend into it because l don't like digging into the equity too much but rather spend as little as poss' and build onto the equity's my thinking .

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Well that's the $64,000 question isn't it!!! How to increase your property's equity without increasing your debt. There's a myriad of TV shows, magazines, books, hardware stores etc making millions and millions of dollars whilst people try to answer that question. At this point I should point that what we are doing works for us, and may not be relevant to the next person. One thing we did do, which gave us some clarity was to write out every option we had and the fiscal ramifications of each option and then we progressed from there. Figuring out the Dollars was easy, it's lifestyle choices that complicate things.

Cheers

Thanks for that l hope you didn't take it as knocking , l'm always wondering how people manage high reno's .
Must say l didn't realise you could pick up some thing that cheap in a place like Albury central l don't think you'll go far wrong with that one , comming along very nicely too by the way .

Yeah talk about it , don't kids change things , l know all about those lifestyle choices we moved back down for al the same reasons. Even though they won't wanna know their cousins or inlaws in a few yrs anyway.
But , we did pick up one shocker of a property , that few ac's you guys want one day .
Mind you anything being done right now has to be through brawn power or not at all still it's amazing how far that goes but hopefully we'll be able to put a few bucks into it in a yr or two.
Cheers
MB

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Originally Posted by namtrak

We moved to Albury, on a small part for work, but largely for family. A large part of SWMBO's family lives in and around Albury and Tallangatta, and once we had kids the choice was to get them near cousins etc.

When we first moved we tried to sell the house, but had no luck at all - so we rented it out. Which was great for the tax benefits and income, however whilst the tenants were all fine the house degrades without the attention of an owner. We finally decided to sell it when the cost of maintaining the house up North became too much and the cost of the potential bank loans was going to be too high.



Well, because when we first got here we were very cash strapped - we had the mortgage up North, the only place we could buy was a small, double brick house near town for $88,000. However like most people, we benefitted from the increase in property values through the early 2000's. As such, rather than sell up and buy another house further from the centre of town we felt it wiser to improve the house we were in. Besides we like the neighbourhood.

The cost of the renos (not including labour) is around $900 per sqm or $7000 per square. Not including the labour component, which will add another 30-40%. This is not an unreasonable price, especially given the size of the addition is fairly large.



We definitely consider the cost of the addition to the original cost as part of the whole picture. All things being equal, once the reno is complete we will have spent $88,000 plus about $25,000 plus say $110,000 ($223,000) on the house to end up with a 4 bedroom house, with ducted heating and cooling, ensuite and new kitchen. Our end mortgage will be around $100,000. And the property will be worth between $350,000 and $400,000. All this in a double brick house in a quiet street, 3 blocks from the main street of Albury.

If we were to sell up now, and buy a new house in the 'burbs, we believe we would have to service a mortgage closer to $200,000 to $250,000. Which isn't really progress as far as we are concerned. I think, for us progress would be a decent house on a few acres with no mortgage - which will probably be our next step - when the time is right.



Well that's the $64,000 question isn't it!!! How to increase your property's equity without increasing your debt. There's a myriad of TV shows, magazines, books, hardware stores etc making millions and millions of dollars whilst people try to answer that question. At this point I should point that what we are doing works for us, and may not be relevant to the next person. One thing we did do, which gave us some clarity was to write out every option we had and the fiscal ramifications of each option and then we progressed from there. Figuring out the Dollars was easy, it's lifestyle choices that complicate things.

Cheers

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Only 19 months after I started this thread and we are on the way.

We got the construction certificate from the Council with no dramas, and the soil test found soil, which was a good thing.

I have been busily buying up steel for the subfloor, flooring (thanks Studley), wallframing (T2 treated), trusses (not pitched as I was going to originally), windows and doors, I already have plasterboard for the internal linings, plus Hebel Powerpanel for the external walls, and roofing iron. At this stage, given the budget I prepared we are around $9000 under budget, for which I am confident SWMBO will find other areas to compensate. (we spent around $3,000 more than I budgetted for on the windows and doors - but they are schmicko).

The excavator was here yesterday, and he has made a god almighty mess of the yard! 58 holes and about 20 metres of trenches. I need to now go around and clean the crap out of each of the holes and get the sewer laid, along with the all important water and power for the shed.

In the pics you can see the big pile of dirt :eek: in the back corner. We are going to use that to create a raised garden bed about 7m by 3m square. We wont be able to do that until the trenches are in and the framing timber is moved.

The plumber will be here today to check the trenches for the sewer and water, and the sparky is going to take some measurements for the conduit. We are sticking a sub-panel in the shed.

I will ring the council, once I have cleaned out the holes to have the inspector come around.

I also got the workers comp insurance today $175.

Lastly I threw in a pic of the new apprentice, the old one (avatar) is too smart to follow me around all day.

To be cont......

What a great progress story! Our extension earlier this year was a joy, despite the few frustrations we had. Basically a 10 metre by 6 metre extension, with decked vernadahs 1.8 wide down the two long side, converting a bedroon into a new bathroom and hallway, redecking and reroofing an exisitng verandah that was about 10 metres by 3 metres, and recladding a part of the old house to match the new. Also got them to gut and straighten the walls on another bedroom, plus a few other minor bits and pieces.
Quote was $82,000 for the extension, plus $9,00o to reclad, reroof and redeck the old verandah. Not bad! Then we had to add vanity, fittings, extra electircal work (point and lights not in the quote) carpet, paint, bits and pieces (filler, tools, etc).
Just about to paint the last old bedroom that the builders cleaned up - we stripped the old internal cladding and I have to do all the fitting out. All up cost for a large extensiona and renovation will come to $120,00 neat - we have got exactly what we want, saved a few quid by doing bits and pieces ourselves.

When we started planning the extension, about 2 years ago, we had an idea of what we wanted, used an architect, forked out $1500 for plans that were useless (he charged $500.00 a re-draw, and had no idea of converting our ideas into plans that even looked like what we wanted) and then went to the builder. Within about 3 weeks he had his draughtsman draw up the plans exactly as we wanted, and gave us a heap of really useful and practical advise about the functionality of our ideas - and all this was part of his price!

Look forward to hearing your progress, and I agree that maybe a new forum for renovations would be a great idea!
Jeff

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Only 19 months after I started this thread and we are one the way.

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The house I now live in didn't exist when you started this thread ;)

:D

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Originally Posted by silentC

The house I now live in didn't exist when you started this thread ;)

:D

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Yes, and how is the cardboard box....... :D

Tell me about it, I've watched dozens of houses go up in the same time. It's been driving me spare - not to worry, bum up for the next few months should see us get somewhere.

Cheers

Hi Namtrak
I'd say dozens of houses, a coupla bridges & an internal freeway bypass (almost) in our fair city.
I've been following this thread since this time last year when we embarked on our kitchen & bathroom reno. Thanks to these forums, which were gone thru with a fine toothed comb, we finished both projects a month ago. Both worked out great. SWMBO is as happy as. Now we are embarking on our next project - landscaping, garden, front fence & 9 x 12m shed in the back yard.
As Big Kev used to say.......
I wish you the best on your adventures

Now we are really getting somewhere. I have the subfloor down and we are working on the frames at the moment, with plans for the roof to go on next Wednesday.

With the subfloor, I got in an excavator to dig 58 holes 450 by 600 deep. I had to dig have a dozen by hand, and I also had to clean every one out by hand as well. Meaning there is no loose soil left in the bottom of the hole.

I then fixed the stumps to the bearers, with 'Homeguard' a similar product to Termimesh, in between the bearers and the stumps. Then using carjacks I levelled the bearers off before filling the holes with concrete - all by hand. I would have used a mini-crete truck, but I wanted to be able to spend time making sure each bearer was level and square, and I just figured that doing it by hand I wouldn't go too far wrong.

I am now working on fixing timber battens to the inside of the steel joists, this is to fix the timber floor to. I was hoping I could fix straight to the steel, but it seems using the secret nail profile, means that the nails would jsut skew off the top of the joists.

You can also see the first of the frames ready to go up.

POSTSCRIPT: These pictures are lost - oops

The bearers are set at around 1.3m and the joists are 450 centres, I am still researching some decking fixings. I managed to get some cleats which nail into the side of the joist and then fix to the side of the decking board, however they are too weak to fix into the hardwood.

A tradesman's fright,a handymans delight:D

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Originally Posted by silentC

Received our Owner Builder course in the mail last night. Cost $95. Study at home and complete a 4 page 'exam' (half is multiple choice). It's approved by Fair Trading, which is all I care about.

Going through similar process at the moment myself, only for an entire house. We're going with a kit home (2 actually), which is not an option for you, but will save us a heap. We are building a 39 square house and it will cost about $160,000.

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mmm I did an owner builders course in 1983. By 1984 I had finished the course and the house as well. The house came as part of the course and total cost was $42K. The exam was set by the shire building inspector at house/course completion. Got a pass on the second go.

I always found that cutting wood and laying bricks built it quicker than talking and writing.

And now we've got up a real head of steam.

The frames went up over two days. And I've even started laying some of Studleys flooring. The trusses are set for next Wednesday and roofing on Thursday.

Had a few 14 hour days in a row now - may take some time off in April, if I'm lucky.

Trusses have gone up. All was well, except for a couple of frames (not trusses but sort of middle supports) which were about 200mm lower than they should have been. Threw us out of wack for an hour or so.

There are still a few fittings to go such as, triple grips and cyclone ties.

For the owner builder, unless you've had experience putting up trusses then I would seriously consider having someone with experience with you. This has been the most complex piece so far (largely because of the extra valleys and hips), and I was grateful for the services of a builder for the day.

A small prize (well maybe not) but kudos to anyone who can spot the 300mm error. Not the one I referred to earlier but another one.

Cheers

And I might add I am the only person in South Eastern Australia currently praying for no rain :)

Well Namtak
Its good to see the progress you are making I started my extension about nov 2004 about the time I found these forums and I have been watching your progress with interest

As i remember getting the trusses up, was quiet a hard job for me and the misses and kids but we managed to get them up on top.


keep up the good work

cheers ;)

The roof is all but on, and I guess there are some lessons here for the OB punter. At the end of the day, it will still work out cheaper than getting in a specialised roofing team, but I think some of the dramas may have been avoided.

First things first, I had two sets of blokes working. One removing the old iron, fascia, gutters etc and starting to replace the new iron. And the other set, (who were roofing plumbers who were mainly plumbers and did the roofing as an afterthought) who started working on the fascia and gutters. At the end of the first day we had replaced 70 percent of the fascias and gutters and and 25 percent of the iron.

The issues at this stage were matching in the height of the of the new gutters and fascia with the existing. Took some time because of the cantilevered trusses which were set to match, but seemed out by about 50mm.

The following day we started to continue, when around 11am we realised the big problem. Remember we had been working in very thick smoke from the North East fires, but around 11am the smoke had cleared and then we realised we had two different coloured roofs!!

A quick call to the supplier confirmed that we had ordered the correct colours, and indeed the correct fascia, gutter, roofing screws and valleys were correct, however the roofing iron was BLUE not GREY. It was very hard to pick up, as the photo from the front shows, but once the light was okay it stood out like dogs balls. I will try and get another pic.

The supplier was around in a shot, and we had the new iron rolled the following morning and delivered by 7:30am. We decided to plow on and leave the odd coloured bit until the new year.

However, problems continued!! As we finished, we were going to re-use the old gutter to patch the balance of the gutters and the old ridge capping - when we figured out that both were a different profile (ever so slightly, but enough) It turns out the mob we bought the existing roof off roll their own iron with their own profiles. I guess at qualified roofer, or proper builder may have figured that stuff out earlier, but thems the breaks. Hopefully I can figure out a deal with the supplier as I will be out of pocket by about $1500 once the roof is finished. I will aim for them to replace the bit that we have left and also leave the roofing iron (wrong colour) which we haven't used yet. That would be nice for the shed!!

We have started putting in the doors and windows as per the pics.

Namtrak,
gutters, ridgecap and bargecapping are a real trap as everyone seems to roll their own profile. I've got offcuts from all the major players in my area so I can match them. Maybe at the end of your project you could post a heap of tips/hints in the relevant section titled "traps for the new owner builder" :rolleyes: (hopefully you won't have too many to post)

Mick

Hello namtrak,It certainly doesn't worry me much at all but seen you asked if anyone could spot anything unusual in one of the pictures.The only thing that I noticed with a quick look was that the pitching beam is about two or three hundred mm back from the birdmouth.Is that what you are referring to?Everything is looking good and I hope it all turns out just the way you expected.You certainly approached the job very professionally (costing,scheduling,etc)and deserve to get a good result as I'm sure you will do.Regards Terry

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Originally Posted by Terry1

.............was that the pitching beam is about two or three hundred mm back from the birdmouth.Is that what you are referring to?........

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Right on the money, another thing that took us a couple of hours to figure out. I reckon the estimator for the truss mob mucked it up, as they took the measurements after the sub floor was laid down. Anyway, they gave me some specs on how to strengthen up the trusses with some laminated beams and whatnot - no biggie. Good spot!

Ah, Coopers Ale. A man with taste.

Good thread namtrak. I just read through it and it would be very informative for prospective owner builders. I'll be following with interest. :2tsup:

I'll be doing a reno on my kitchen shortly and I'm thinking about the same island bench on locking castors. Could you tell me how big they are?

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Originally Posted by pawnhead

Ah, Coopers Ale. A man with taste.........thinking about the same island bench on locking castors. Could you tell me how big they are?

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I even brew it and bottle into the Grolsch flip top bottles, which I believe is the only way to drink a good beer!!

The castors? or the bench?

The bench is 100 by 100, however I mucked up by edging it with Merbau, I should have (and will replace the edging) just done breadboard ends.

The castors are good quality rubber ones, about 50mm diameter. I have skirting on three sides of the island, and the fourth skirting is shorter allowing me to lock in the brakes.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by namtrak

I even brew it and bottle into the Grolsch flip top bottles, which I believe is the only way to drink a good beer!!

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Good move. I put a couple of brews down a while ago. It tasted like sh*t, but it got you so I acquired a taste for it :hahaha:. I got sick of all the cleaning and capping though. Brewed by the keg, kept in it's own fridge would be the go I reckon.

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Originally Posted by namtrak

The castors? or the bench?

The bench is 100 by 100, however I mucked up by edging it with Merbau, I should have (and will replace the edging) just done breadboard ends.

The castors are good quality rubber ones, about 50mm diameter. I have skirting on three sides of the island, and the fourth skirting is shorter allowing me to lock in the brakes.

Cheers

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Thanks for that. I'm just interested in the castors. Yours looks great with the contrasting light and dark grain. I might do the same myself.
I was thinking about how high I'd have to make the bottom shelf for the castors. I saw one in a kitchen being installed on a job I was working on and they were huge (about 100mm diameter) and exposed with no skirting. It had a thick slab of composite stone on top. It was very stable.

My rotten old chipboard/laminex kitchen is falling apart and I want an island bench in the new one I’m building. I want to make it the same dimensions as the original one in this picture, about 700 wide with the bench top at 1200, overhanging 350 on one side for bar stools. I’m thinking of making just a pocket for each wheel with a compartment under the bottom shelf filled with sand for weight and stability so it’s less likely to tip over when leaning on the overhang. I’m also thinking of a removable ‘clip on’ kickboard for one side to access the castor locks on two of the wheels.
I could leave the bench in the middle of the kitchen, or spin it around to make an L shaped bar/ servery to the family room. In that pic you can see my new deck and bifold doors.

edit: In that first pic, it's supposed to say 'new doors to loungeroom', not lungeroom. I don't do much 'lunging', but I lounge around a lot. :)

This is a budget update on our extension.

We have the roof on, all but 2 windows installed, flooring down, deck down. Our next step is the external cladding, wiring and plastering.

In summary our budget to get this much done was $50,469 and the actual cost was $52,359.

The breakdown is:

Estimate Actual
Footings $11,055 $7,829
Trusses/Walls $14,600 $15,967
Roofing $6,610 $8,985
Flooring $8,964 $5,429
Doors/Windows $8,200 $9,862
Scaffolding $0 $800
Hire $0 $115
Tools $1040 $3,316
TOTAL $50,469 $52,359

Some notes on this, for those that are interested. I was actually hoping this figure would be closer to $45,000 however there have been some blowouts.

I spent around $1,500 on F17 ash lintels, which I didn't budget for. Likewise I have spent a lot, probably upto $2,000 on connectors, nails, grips, plastic, glues etc that I wasn't really counting on. Plus an extra $2,300 on 'tools', mind you most of that was for a car and some for a cement mixer. And finally we spent an extra $3,300 on a bi-fold door rather than a set of sliding doors. The door looks great, but was a fair bit more than I was hoping to pay.

I will be providing a bigger report on the sliding doors later, as well as the decking (for which I used dek-tie - which was discussed earlier)

Cheers

The decking was completed a few weeks ago, but I am a bit behind with updates.

The subfloor of the decking was a direct continuation of the main extension subfloor. Duragal flooring system, which was welded rather than the attachment as suggested by Duragal.

The decking used, was Belian (an African hardwood) which was 80mm wide and rates 1 on the Janka scale. The deck size was around 25 sqm, and the timber cost close to $1000 ($2.90 per lm)

I ended up using Dek Ties, as referred to by this thread. I did try the dek loks, which bang into the side of the boards but they were useless on the hardwood. These dekties, come up a treat, but be warned it was taking me about 20 minutes to do each 4.8m board, as they need to be biscuited, the dek tie inserted, pre-dilled (I was using steel joists) and then the next board marked. Also they are not cheap, including delivery they cost $200 for a box of 500 (40 cents each - about 30 cents over priced I thought) And I needed two boxes!

I have included a photo to show how they work, and as far as I can tell the only company selling them in Australia is the DeckKing from Melbourne.

I also included a set of external, step lights in the two steps for the deck. These look great at night and were well worth including for around $130, they come with a transformer and are definitely a DYI job.

As for the finish I ended up using Floods Spa & Deck, which cost around $190 for 10 litres from Bunnings. This product has received big props from people on these boards and so far I am happy with it. I ended up putting on 4 coats and will probably put another 4 on when the job is completed. It was simple to put on (although it does stain peripherals easily - such as doors, etc so be careful).

Not including the subfloor the deck cost around $1600 or about $64 per sqm. I am trying to dig up a photo of the completely finished deck, but that may have to wait.

POSTSCRIPT: These pictures are lost as well

You do know that OneSteel doesn't recommend screwing decking to Duragal? Don't know why but it's in the back of the Duragal flooring guide:

"The use of screws to attach timber decking to joists on external decks and verandahs is not recommended."

It also looks like you didn't end cap the joists. Are they internally painted? In any case they recommend fitting an end cap and flashing it with Norton Flashtac to keep out moisture.

We welded all ours too. Much better job than using tek screws but it's a b!tch to weld without distortion.

I have also finished installing the windows and two of the holes which tie the existing house to the extension.

The windows were from Wunderbar and are aluminium, with a powder coated finish. The glass is called super grey toughened which we think is pretty cool. The glass is essentially a privacy glass, which means we can look out but people cant look in (although at night the shoe is on the other foot - the show is ON folks!!) Essentially, what it means is that whichever side of the window is darkest is the one you can see through (light reflects off the glass making it hard to see through). We love them, and have ordered blinds for the night, but in the mean time the neighbours are getting a free peep show. They really open up the vision and have changed the feel of the place. Another caveat is whilst they are also great sound barriers, they are not a very good insulative product - the heat bears through. This will be the other use of the blinds, although we are considering awnings and trees outside as additional alternatives.

All up we installed 6 of these windows, with screens throughout the house and them plus a 3.7m Noosa bifold door (which blew our budget) cost just under $10,000.

When installing the windows you need to be careful with the reveals. These are the bits of timber which encase the windows. I used 135 by 19mm reveals on half of the windows and the door, but I used 110 by 19 mm on the three windows at the back of the house. This has ramifications for the outside cladding, which I will explain when I post up some stuff about the Hebel.

The holes I am referring to are the two places where we knocked out large pieces of load bearing walls and replaced them with our lintels. Firstly we took up the load with Acrow props, which are indispensible. Next we set up some drop sheets and tried to minimise the mess as much as possible. Then after some hand wringing we started knocking things out. I used a piece of F17 as the lintel, which sits on some of the remaining brickwork, we have also tied the new frame back into the brickwork with bother expander foam and dynabolts.

I have one more hole to go, then I can start mucking around with the plastering.

I will post some pictures of the windows once I have them, batteries are a bit dodgy on the digi.

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Originally Posted by silentC

You do know that OneSteel doesn't recommend screwing decking to Duragal?

It also looks like you didn't end cap the joists. Are they internally painted? In any case they recommend fitting an end cap and flashing it with Norton Flashtac to keep out moisture.

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Yeh, I actually talked to the steel supplier about that, and he didnt seem that fussed about it - so I ran with him!

And yes I forgot about the end caps, but I will put them on there in particular as that is the place most likely - wont take much to unscrew the facing boards on the step

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I actually talked to the steel supplier about that, and he didnt seem that fussed about it

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He wouldn't, it's not his house!!

Like I say, don't know why, they don't elaborate. I assumed it has something to do with corrosion prevention but can't work out what. Maybe the mositure follows the screw thread or something, where as a nail is sealed tight all the way around. They're very particular about pointing out waterproofing, tek screws with neoprene washers, flashtac everywhere. I followed the guide to the letter, that way if it fails I've got come back. We sprayed the insides of all the bearers and verandah beams with fish oil then welded steel end caps and welded top caps to the posts. Put end caps and flashing on all open joist ends. Joist tape under the decking. But then I'm only 5km from the ocean. It's borderline here whether we should have used it or not.

The next job we completed is the Hebel powerpanel.

As per the website:

"One Hebel PowerPanel is equivalent in area to around 72 standard bricks and can be installed in 3 minutes, making it a much quicker installation alternative to bricks or blocks.

A 2700mm long x 600mm wide panel weighs less than 75kg and is easily carried and lifted into position by two people. Panels are screwed to installed tophat sections and edge glued with Hebel Adhesive."

Don't be fooled by this blurb, if these things are 75 kg then I am a hairy coconut. They were friggin heavy and took quite a deal of maneuvering for two of us to put up.

The top hat took a fair bit of laying out, and it you need to have all your windows and doors in first. This was one trap I referred to earlier, because i used smaller reveals then I also had to use small top hats (the standard is 45 mm) I ended up using 28mm cyclone rated ceiling battens. This meant that the Hebel wouldn't sit proud of the window frame around the windows where I used the smaller reveals.

The Hebel cost $3,100 and included screws and adhesive (I bought my own top hat because I had a fair bit spare from the roof). Including labour, the Hebel cost about $4,300 installed which sounds very cheap, however as opposed to brickwork I still need to spend another $5,000 or so on rendering.

I was very cautious with the expansion joints, the installation guides suggest minimum every 6 metres, but I ended up sticking them around every window and door and every 3 metres in the longer sections. Of our whole extension, the Hebel crakcing and going pear shaped is my biggest worry. Every 2nd Joe that drops in has something to say "Termites love it, It cracks really easy, I hear its carcinogenic etc" Allthough I dont know anyone who actually installed it!! Time will tell I suppose.

And for SilentC's benefit who obviously has an eye for it, there is also a minor hiccup which you can spot in one of the photos - any takers?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silentC

He wouldn't, it's not his house!!


Maybe the mositure follows the screw thread or something, where as a nail is sealed tight all the way around.

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I know what you mean!!

I was going to use joist tape, but decided to go overkill with the finish, I am hoping that a large portion of the finish washes down over over the screw heads and acts as a sealer to some degree.

Anything to do with a downpipe?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silentC

Anything to do with a downpipe?

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Nah, it was the sill under the window. I should have cut them all at an angle to run up under the weather strip on the windows, but for a couple a left a little ledge. I think if these windows were sitting out in weather more, then water would just sit there or worse, run under the strip. Luckily the two windows with the 'protruding sills' are are under cover.

Damn! I thought you'd put the downpipe pop in the wrong spot, that looks like a bit of stormwater pipe sticking out of the ground on the left in the last photo. Trying to be too clever... :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silentC

Damn! I thought you'd put the downpipe pop in the wrong spot, that looks like a bit of stormwater pipe sticking out of the ground on the left in the last photo. Trying to be too clever... :)

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Nice try, but thats the escape vent for the sewerage. I'm not sure what you call it but thats where the crap flows out before it comes back up into the house.

OK, that's the gulley trap. You normally would put a tap over it because it needs to be always charged with water or you get a smell coming up from the sewer.

Yep thats it, and a tap is on the way.

I wait until I have a few jobs lined up until I get the plumbers back in!

Almost 2 years since you started this thread. I've read the whole thing and it is so inspiring but I'm feeling really tired right about now. Think I'll start small with a new carport.

Candu and others
Great to see an update, been wondering what happened to you
not trying to take any shine off your efforts Namtrak, but have a look at this thread for inspiration ( if you havnt already )

Absolutely spectacular - Read the bit about what they do in between time, tired, more like paralysed
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=25158

Yeh, Jill's stuff is superb. Already has me thinking about our next reno. For this one we have focussed on clean lines and a minimalist approach. We are only having the odd splash of timber throughout the house, to try and highlight it.

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Originally Posted by journeyman Mick

....Maybe at the end of your project you could post a heap of tips/hints in the relevant section......

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Done thanks Mick.