Our build is nearing completion and I have a bit of a doubt. The expansion joints in the external walls have a soft foam like filler but there is no…

How close was the tree to the house?

Your doubts are incorrect... there are some large fines (maybe not 1.1 million, but still in the thousands) that have been handed out... e.g.
$132,000 fine
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/brigh…

Also the wall on boundary is not a fence but can make a fence unnecessary.

Are you sure you can get approval to subdivide into 3? It would make it really high density.

We are in the process of building our house... the builder said we can put our own noggings in to support stuff we want to attach to the wall later.…

There was one glitch along the way... The digger hit some of the old footings were still in the ground. Apparently this rarely happens, but it happened to us.
Old footings
However…

So the other day I drove past the block and was amazed to find a truck parked in the front... the earthworks had begun!
Here is the start

Some old pipes they…

They did say it needed a lot of work done... "renovate or detonate"... something along those lines.

I've been busy reading lots of other threads, so I thought it was now time to start my own.
It all started out when we were looking to buy established…

Yeah we already have mains water connected
I believe it is Bay of Biscay soil.
So I'm still not sure if I should be querying the…

Either the sky or a sprinkler system Not sure if the text in my post above answers this question.
Your region (and block size) has not…

I think it could be because there was previously a house on this site and to try and re-hydrate that area.

Thanks for the replies.
To answer a few of the questions
The footing report was prepared in September last year.
There was a house on the land until February this year.
We…

I have been reading the topics on slab heave and want to make sure our build gets off to the right start.
Our engineers report says that pre-wetting the block is…

Thanks for the comments
So it was with great sadness that the house was to be no more... if anyone is interested, here are the items…

The footings for our place are similar but a bit deeper. Ours came in at about $55,000
Dimensions: 1200mm depth) 250mm wide
Reinforcement: 1-N32T, 1N32B
Ligatures: W10@800

Before I start with what's going to happen, here is some more history.
The house we purchased was really run down. Rotten floorboards, ivy growing everywhere (some of the ivy trunks…

Just to confirm, have the units been built yet? Or they are going to be built?

Just reading this with interest... but i'm left in suspense Did the fence stop the cars going onto your land? Or did someone take it…

You really want something to stop the sunlight before it gets inside the house. Blinds/drapes will help a bit, but the heat is already inside. Ideally you would stop the…

i'd only be interested in pics if the tradies were female

Just wondering why your footings are so deep? What type of soil are you building on?
Ours are also 1200 deep but its a double storey house with clay soil and…