
Blue gum trees
It's a potential problem if they are protected, which they may well be being that they are mature and native, as you might not even be allowed to prune them.…

Any volume builder who does "residential lift" provision
Don't know sorry

Any volume builder who does "residential lift" provision
You need to talk to the volume builders and lift builders. I doubt volume builders would put a lift on their contract (and honestly, I wouldn't use them for that…

Lexicon quarter walls with white trim
We did vivid white trims with lexicon quarter on the walls, for our internals. I think it looks good, would stick with vivid white

Spec Builders for 12m wide property
12m is heaps wide, and they can usually customise appropriately

alfresco above ground
We had about the same drop, and put 3/4 of it on the split which we integrated with the main staircase, because I hate seeing steps between living areas.
Wasn't cheap…

Take 3 at completion inspection with Big M
There's a Facebook group "Metricon disappointed home owners", quite a few examples of poor workmanship and site supervisors not doing their jobs, then doing half-arsed fixups or coverups until the…

Problems with Masterton Homes
What Joker said.
It's 'funny' and I think Masterton , Mojo and a handful of others epitomize this - they present themselves as the "experts" who will take care of…

Building Ridge RL and Max Height of Building over 8.5m!!
Join the club.
It's simply the height at that point as determined by projecting between the nearest levels shown on the site plan. Adjusting the roof pitch, if you can, would…

Comment on Price Estimate
I would say the price , while not cheap, is also not expensive for a custom builder with that level of finish and inclusion (council levy, 3000 ceilings , double…

Building price increases
Surely Doozers numbers can't be right
If a bricklayer in Perth has gone up 228% since the start of the year and they were on $70k they'd now be on $230k
Brickies…

Knockdown rebuild setback (Sydney)
lol Kuringai council
CDC is your best chance for a less compromised outcome, but you will not be able to use the church setback - that's if CDC is even possible,…

Sloping Block - safety rail required- who pays
Hi MPJ, I believe that generally speaking, if it's not on the plans you will need to pony up regardless of whether the builder has claimed they are offering you…

Screw piling chosen without the geotech report
Without meaning to defend the she'll-be-right-mate attitude of many builders who neglect details when talking to customers, I was wondering why specifically would engineering detail affect the CDC approval if…

Study rooms and nooks in the year 2021
What do people believe is the appropriate number of studies, and size of each study, and location of each study nowadays?
I think traditionally it was a statement of class to…

Cracking and Popping Noises from the roof
Oasiso, that is because steel expands in the heat just over twice as much as the wood in the trusses do.
Wood and clay tiles expand about the same, and…

Pandemic influencing home design
We've moved towards a split level that prepandemic we were opposed to. The idea is, the split provides a natural partitioning from the chaos of the kids, so we can…

Advice picking a builder
The truth is, any depth of discussion on these topics with builders, before you have land, will be painfully fruitless. Homeworld visits for example, will be pointless at this stage…

Knockdown rebuild, flat Sydney block - 220-250sqm home cost
Sounds about right to me. I remember in 2017 one of the big builders telling me that the last time they did a KDR in Sydney less than $500k all…

Build Experience
Probably the big thing at the moment is delays and cancellations - you want minimum time between build start and build finished, a decent penalty clause if they go over…

Build Experience
The builders are correct here, once the contract is signed it's the builders responsibility to get through all the approvals and compliance checks and everything else required to deliver a…

Extremely Shallow Block
Might have to do an attic-style thing to get two storeys with that sort of block.There are some volume builders who do livable attics and, I would think, be able…

Building design contracts
Personally I wouldn't accept that. I would require that the digital files be shared and wholly owned by me at all times. But then, I'm not a fan of architects…

Custom Build - Tender Presentation 24th Jan
Nice!
Is that a split level on both the ground floor and the 1st floor? I like it. I've been trying to get my favorite volume builder to do that…

Builder-subsidised plans & geotech - what's the catch?
I noticed it's become almost standard among the bigger builders that are not totally busy to offer architecture, tender prep, site analysis etc, for some low fixed cost amount.
If a…

Where do you follow peoples builds?
Really appreciate your posts here (and a small handful of other regulars) - keeps me visiting this place.