Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Balcony
The brick layers have done a great job building the balcony, we are having tiles in the balcony and therefore we have 2 large openings for the water to exit.
PD has put the floor in the balcony, as you can see it does not look very nice. You can see the ply and cement sheeting from the water exit points. I hope that when the tiler does the tiles this is covered be metal edging (like what they use between carpet and tiles).
It makes me think about fitting down pipes after handover to prevent the brick work being stained, the garden destroyed by the water runoff when it rains and to hide the look of this finish.
Why doesn't the carpenter build the floor so when the tiler does the tiles, it is flush with these exit points. I think that this would of been a nicer finish.
PD has put the floor in the balcony, as you can see it does not look very nice. You can see the ply and cement sheeting from the water exit points. I hope that when the tiler does the tiles this is covered be metal edging (like what they use between carpet and tiles).
It makes me think about fitting down pipes after handover to prevent the brick work being stained, the garden destroyed by the water runoff when it rains and to hide the look of this finish.
Why doesn't the carpenter build the floor so when the tiler does the tiles, it is flush with these exit points. I think that this would of been a nicer finish.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Building, hmmm
I know that building a house is a complex task, but I would expect that people supervising the construction would be on top of everything.
Having said that, I can appreciate the complexity when you have multiple houses that you are supervising with owners all giving you things to fix and the business always pushing you forward to completion.
During a site visit I noticed that the waste from the ensuite was running between the floor joists, through the laundry and into a void in the powder room. Currently the waste pipe in the laundry is just there, I believe we are missing a void to hide the pipes, this has been confirmed by our SS.
I am amazed that given we are about a week from plaster, this has not been noticed. We are on our second SS, had two sets of framers, multiple inspectors/inspections and a set of owners that know the plans like the back of their hands and still this gets missed.
I am amazed and concerned that this might not be the only thing missed.
I again put the issue straight at the contract documentation. I went to the plans (section where they provide a view of each room in each direction) and found the only reference to the bulkhead.
The electrical plans, small plans, large symbols. When we had our electrical consultation the consultant places symbols on the plans to identify the locations of power points, light switches, lights, etc. The electrician then looks at these plans (and what ever else they use) to determine the exact location of each point. The location of these items can easily be addressed if wrong and fixed before plaster, but after plastering they become an problem.
Over several weeks we have identified position issues with the electrical. In this time we identified stupid things like light switches behind doors (previously posted about this), doors opening in different directions because we changed the options in a room (again fixed by CSC and SS), lights not centred in a room, passage lights not evenly spaced, prewiring for stair (wall) lights not centred and light switches further into a room that you would expect.
The SS has had the electricians out a couple of times to fix some of these problems, the rest are still to be addressed. I believe they will be further highlighted when the electricians completes their work, at which time we will have lots of small patches in the plaster. Some of these problems can't even be fixed without making large holes in the plaster, the passage lights need to be moved between a set of floor joists. I can only hope that all the items identified can be addressed before plastering.
So the question is, who is responsible for checking everything against the plans? Ultimately I think the owners should be responsible given its their house being build, the problem with this is that you don't have access to the house during the complete building process. Therefore the owners and the SS will most likely be responsible for insuring the house is as expected.
Only time will tell
Having said that, I can appreciate the complexity when you have multiple houses that you are supervising with owners all giving you things to fix and the business always pushing you forward to completion.
During a site visit I noticed that the waste from the ensuite was running between the floor joists, through the laundry and into a void in the powder room. Currently the waste pipe in the laundry is just there, I believe we are missing a void to hide the pipes, this has been confirmed by our SS.
I am amazed that given we are about a week from plaster, this has not been noticed. We are on our second SS, had two sets of framers, multiple inspectors/inspections and a set of owners that know the plans like the back of their hands and still this gets missed.
I am amazed and concerned that this might not be the only thing missed.
I again put the issue straight at the contract documentation. I went to the plans (section where they provide a view of each room in each direction) and found the only reference to the bulkhead.
The electrical plans, small plans, large symbols. When we had our electrical consultation the consultant places symbols on the plans to identify the locations of power points, light switches, lights, etc. The electrician then looks at these plans (and what ever else they use) to determine the exact location of each point. The location of these items can easily be addressed if wrong and fixed before plaster, but after plastering they become an problem.
Over several weeks we have identified position issues with the electrical. In this time we identified stupid things like light switches behind doors (previously posted about this), doors opening in different directions because we changed the options in a room (again fixed by CSC and SS), lights not centred in a room, passage lights not evenly spaced, prewiring for stair (wall) lights not centred and light switches further into a room that you would expect.
The SS has had the electricians out a couple of times to fix some of these problems, the rest are still to be addressed. I believe they will be further highlighted when the electricians completes their work, at which time we will have lots of small patches in the plaster. Some of these problems can't even be fixed without making large holes in the plaster, the passage lights need to be moved between a set of floor joists. I can only hope that all the items identified can be addressed before plastering.
So the question is, who is responsible for checking everything against the plans? Ultimately I think the owners should be responsible given its their house being build, the problem with this is that you don't have access to the house during the complete building process. Therefore the owners and the SS will most likely be responsible for insuring the house is as expected.
Only time will tell
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Clean Site
Went passed the house this morning and PD was having the site cleaned.
It looks so much better now :-)
The garage roof joists have also been delivered.
It looks so much better now :-)
The garage roof joists have also been delivered.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
House photo's without scaffolding
Here are some photos of the house.
I think it looks great.
You can see where the bricks have been cleaned.
Site Visit
Had a site visit with our SS yesterday and identified some things that were wrong and somethings that are just dumb, thankfully both the SS and CSC agree that common sense will prevail and will be fixed (e.g. light switch behind open door).
I think that PD should look at changing the contract documentation process and simplying it. We have multiple documents for electrical (3 documents) and in the contract you need to look at different areas to get the full picture of things that need to be done. For example the plumbing description does not always match the visual layout. Therefore the power room was plumbed for the wrong taps, I can't really blame anyone, I think its just a result of documentation. I don't have an alternative approach, just think it should be reviewed.
While at the house, the fascia was being fixed, damage sections we being replaced.
The scaffolding has been removed and the garage roof will be completed this week depending of the weather.
The house is almost at lockup and plastering is going to start next week.
We are still waiting for a written response to our inspection report, but
all things being equal the house is back on track to be completed in October.
Will take some photos and upload them tonight.
I think that PD should look at changing the contract documentation process and simplying it. We have multiple documents for electrical (3 documents) and in the contract you need to look at different areas to get the full picture of things that need to be done. For example the plumbing description does not always match the visual layout. Therefore the power room was plumbed for the wrong taps, I can't really blame anyone, I think its just a result of documentation. I don't have an alternative approach, just think it should be reviewed.
While at the house, the fascia was being fixed, damage sections we being replaced.
The scaffolding has been removed and the garage roof will be completed this week depending of the weather.
The house is almost at lockup and plastering is going to start next week.
We are still waiting for a written response to our inspection report, but
all things being equal the house is back on track to be completed in October.
Will take some photos and upload them tonight.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Pre Plaster Inspection
The house is almost at lockup and we asked to be notified when we could arrange a pre plaster inspection for our our inspector (from New Home Inspections) which occurred last Thursday.
I had an agreement from PD about getting a written response from all the items in the framing report (Framing report was given to first SS) and any additional items in the pre plaster report from our current SS.
After receiving the report, I was really concerned. There were items on the report that (at least to me) meant we had major problems with the house.
When I finally get a chance to speak to our inspector and he explained what ways PD could resolve the items in the report, I was relieved. We also spoke about the items from the framing report, of which there are still three items which he was able to confirm as not fixed.
I am now waiting for our SS to provide a written response, but I noticed that he has been looking at the items because the insulation has been removed and a roll of sisolation was near the removed batts.
Insulation has been installed and the doors for lockup have almost all be fitted.
I had an agreement from PD about getting a written response from all the items in the framing report (Framing report was given to first SS) and any additional items in the pre plaster report from our current SS.
After receiving the report, I was really concerned. There were items on the report that (at least to me) meant we had major problems with the house.
When I finally get a chance to speak to our inspector and he explained what ways PD could resolve the items in the report, I was relieved. We also spoke about the items from the framing report, of which there are still three items which he was able to confirm as not fixed.
I am now waiting for our SS to provide a written response, but I noticed that he has been looking at the items because the insulation has been removed and a roll of sisolation was near the removed batts.
Insulation has been installed and the doors for lockup have almost all be fitted.
Not sure I like the way the insulation for the ceiling has been installed.
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