
Demolition prior to construction approval
Most if the demolishers I spoke to required me to provide fencing. The fence hire company charged me the same whether I kept it for a week or 6 months…

Dryrod - any good ??
I have an old Edwardian brick semi-detached house, that has has ongoing rising damp issues along one wall. i am not keen to spend too much on it at this…

Evaporative Cooling / Gas heating vs Refrigerated cooling
We just did KDR in Melbourne, and our temporary rental had Evap. I am so glad we didn't put it in - it was terrible. Didn't do much on those…

Looking for advice on a foundation issue
Agree, may as well have smeared peanut butter on it

No floor waste in wet areas - problem?
None of the new houses I have seen around here have floor wastes.
Anything is possible but i guess it would be expensive, as you will need to remove tiles, cut…

A&L awning windows with very restricted opening
I have the same winders with the plate and hole, I removed the plate by inserting a bent nail and pulling. Unfortunately the chains are very short, so already at…

Upper floor - Floating timber / engineered timber floors
It is this one in Cream, it was an upgrade from the standard laminate. I wanted to go timber, but lost that negotiation.
A lot of people think it is timber…

Upper floor - Floating timber / engineered timber floors
Builder was Urban Edge, house Andu 43, timber Frame, KDR in inner Melbourne. Here is a pic of upstairs
and entrance

Upper floor - Floating timber / engineered timber floors
We just built and have laminate throughout upstairs (no carpet anywhere).
We were very worried about the noise, so put an acoustic underlay under the laminate and also soundscreen insulation…

NBN Connection Process
Same here, the ISP should chase NBN.
If you use a decent ISP the process will be a lot easier.
I recommend Aussie Broadband, who I used after my KDR. I…

Darbecca Quote on Inspection Reasonable?
best money I every spent when building my house.
Was 0.8% of the overall build cost - not somewhere where you want to skimp

Please help convincing me we didn’t make our house too big!
You can never have too much open space.
And just because space is there doesn't mean you have to fill it with furniture and things (aka crap)

Samsung UA40C6900VF
Only 9 years late - suspect he hay have bought one by now!

KDR + Building Urban Edge Andu 43
Darbecca were pretty good. We did all inspections and they found quite a few things, many of which were minor. UE responded to each item on each report and fixed…

Best pool size with children
Our old pool that we filled in recently had the deep part in the middle and shallow at both ends (one shallow end was a bit deeper than the other).…

Builder won't let us nominate our surveyor (Victoria)
My builder did the same - said if I didn't use Group 4 there would be delays as they have SLAs with them etc etc etc . I expressed displeasure…

Comment on floor plans
You don't have much garden at the back. Assume double story is not an option to give you a smaller footprint and some garden at the back?

Replace skirting boards
1. You probably wouldn't even see nail holes. Can't tell from your picture how big the existing skirting is - If the new one is thinner a bigger problem you…

Timber Laminate Floor Sinks in Corner of Room
I agree with this, I have seen laminate layed on uneven concrete and it does what you describe
During my build my inspector checked and picked up that the concrete was…

Protecting your Slab
Yes we did, pic below. The concreter drilled into the side of the slab and put some dowels in to tie it together. We will paving it and the alfresco…

Removing this Structure
I did this when I demolished an old house. Much to my amazement someone came and took it away and gave me a few hundred dollars into the bargain.

Electrical Plan Feedback
Very good point. Ensure that they are perfectly lined up on the drawing and positioned properly in the center of the rooms etc . When my house was built the…

Electrical Plan Feedback
I'd put in a lot more power points, pretty much on every wall, including in the garage, and on your island bench. I went crazy with Power points ($50 for…

Ensuite lay out - please advise
The one on the right has the advantage that the door doesn't face the bed, so if one person gets up during the night, less disturbance (light and noise) …

KDNR Urban Edge/PD/Henley? Which is 'better'?
I recently did KDR with Urban Edge in inner city Melbourne, and overall pretty happy with the result. Had some minor issues along the way (as expected) but in general…

Difference between site superviser and building inspector
Site supervisor - the guy or gal employed by your builder to basically run the building of your house and supervise all the trades. If you are using a volume…

Australian standards re toilet placement
Sorry I don't know the answer, but if is was a standard surely they would know about that when they did the drawing??.
Sound like they are trying to cover up…

Electrical Appointment Tips
Re the power points, go crazy!. My builder only charged $50 for a double, and I put in heaps...but now still finding places where I would have liked one.
Re…

How to raise lawn 200-300mm ??
Update..... found an earthmover on gumtree who was happy to dump 7m3 of soil at the front for free - it was to my surprise really good stuff. Took me…

Hot water system - heat pump vs continuous flow vs solar
We have Chromagen Solar in our new house. It is a complete PITA. When it switches over over from Solar to continuous booster you get up to a minute of…