On my way to Christchurch I visited friends in Sydney where I sat on the patio and watched the sun rise, all sorts of bird life about, not to mention monkeys chattering in the background.
This fantastic house is the first timber-framed house I’ve stayed in and it’s amazing. Its finishes put our standards to shame.
I’ve been walking around knocking on the walls to prove to myself that it’s all dry-walled partitioning. Massive flat screen TVs hang off the walls and everything is so solid I can’t believe it’s not constructed from bricks and mortar. I’m certainly going to study these construction methods in more depth and see how we could use them back in South Africa.
The first thing I noticed in bed last night, were the built-in cupboards. Sliding folding doors are used to screen off the cupboard area, so you don’t have lots of single doors opening into the room.
The three doors slide behind each other and you are left with a dressing table, a shelving area, and a hanging area with enough space in front to walk into. A clever design and something to think about for your next renovation. The cupboard is deeper than the norm, so some floor area is lost, but this is negated by not losing space when the doors are opened.
The kitchen is small and compact, but with white panelled doors and thin granite tops it appears to be much larger than it really is. Dark kitchens always appear claustrophobic to me, but this can be overcome with the correct lighting. Again, to save space, the pantry is hidden behind a built-in sliding door. We don’t use enough sliding doors; properly fitted they save so much space.
Talking from bitter experience, never plan your kitchen around your existing fridge, especially if you are going to build it in, as once you have it surrounded by fixed units, the opportunities for a more modern, larger fridge are dead and gone.
Ensure you have proper drawings and designs for your cupboards, showing exactly what you want and where. There are many excellent smaller built-in cupboard contractors out there, but many of them don’t have the design skills of the larger contractors, so they need something to work off.
I’ve found over the years that if you have three-dimensional sketches produced, it makes kitchen and bathroom renovations easier for the team to understand.
Handy hints – structural cracks and subsidence continued.
In Christchurch, the damage caused by the earthquakes is most depressing.
The loss-adjusting company I’m consulting to has already logged more than 5 000 claims, and it’s expected that most of the buildings and houses in the city will need some kind of repair.
The authorities are bringing in new regulations to ensure all future buildings will be built to new earthquake-withstanding specifications. Even the buildings being repaired will have to be re-constructed to different standards.
All this has impressed on me the fact that the design of your foundations and structure must be of the highest standard, taking into account local ground conditions.
And remember, it’s imperative that your contractor follows the specifications regarding depths of excavation, strength of concrete etc.
These steps should help prevent structural cracking at a later date.
First check to see if you are building on virgin ground and not on top of an old rubbish dump filled or reclaimed land. Also check if there are any underground streams in the area.
Your second step should be to dig a trial hole. Once you have reached what appears to be solid ground, take a steel rod about 8mm thick and push it into the bottom of the excavation.
If it sinks in easily, there could be a problem. Stop and consult an engineer. The amount of your tender could change dramatically if the builder is not given the right information at the start. It’s not his responsibility to ascertain the ground conditions, unless this is requested in the tender documentation.
With the right specification you can start to build.
Before casting the foundations, ensure your building inspector has checked the excavations and signed them off. He should also re-check after the concrete has been cast to ensure it’s the correct thickness.
It’s a good idea to line the bottom of the foundation with a layer of clean, well-compacted sand or a thin layer of concrete, to ensure levels are maintained.
Even if your specification does not call for reinforcement, it’s worth the extra minimal cost to cast reinforcing bars into the concrete.
Foundation brickwork must be properly constructed with the necessary cavity filling and brickforce and ties built in.
All walls, even internal 110mm walls, should have a foundation underneath; this could be in the form of a thickening in the surface bed.
Surface beds should only be laid on top of well compacted and watered clean filling that does not contain vegetable matter or old debris.
As with foundation concrete, I believe the extra cost of laying steel mesh in the surface beds is good construction practice.
Finally, ensure all surface water or water from down pipes discharges into proper channels and does not have the opportunity to soak into the ground around the foundations. - Weekend Argus