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Preliminaries

May 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment

PRELIMINARIES

As we continue with our articles on the building process here is the latest where we talk about the preliminaries required.

This is where we start to make your dream home a reality by bringing together all your ideas, design input while ensuring we capture your individuality and formulate them into solid plans that can be used to build your dream home.

Here are the steps to do that:

  • Site Survey -  Collecting the information that will aid in the development of the completed design and establish boundaries, features and Ground Levels for  your building block.  Site plans should also outline location of utility services, setback requirements, easements, location of driveways and walkways, and sometimes even topographical data that specifies the slope of the terrain.
  • House Plan – is a set of construction or working drawings (sometimes still called blueprints) that define all the construction specifications of a residential house such as dimensions, materials, layouts, installation methods and techniques. To see a full list of plans provided by Scope Drafting and Design CLICK HERE
  • Engineer – A structural Engineer is used to design structural elements of the house and surrounding works such as retaining walls, pools etc. In general, they analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes into account the safety, technical, economic and environmental concerns, but they may also consider aesthetic and social factors.
  • Energy Efficiency Certification – provides a means of rating individual buildings – whether they be residential, commercial or public – (on how efficient or inefficient) they are in relation to the amount of energy needed to provide users with expected degrees of comfort on many factors including: local climate; the design of the building; construction methods and materials; systems installed to provide heating, ventilation, air condition or hot sanitary water and the appliances and equipment needed to support the functions of the building and its users. To obtain a building license all new buildings are required to meet a minimum standard of energy efficiency.

If you have any further questions regarding PRELIMINARIES ,  the team at Scope Drafting and Design would be happy to help.

Remember Scope Drafting and Design can help with all your owner builder questions, house plans, energy ratings and building design queries.

Please contact Scope Drafting and Design or phone 08 9537 2000

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Owner Builders – Would You Do It Again?

November 10, 2010 by Leave a Comment

To start a passionate conversation with someone who has owner built there house all you have to do is ask “Would you do it again?”

In return for this question you will either get a look of horror wash over their face and dialogue about the evils of owner building or you will get a smug smile and look of satisfaction followed by a detailed explanation of why everyone should be an owner builder.

How do you make sure you are in the second camp? How do you make sure your owner builder process is an exciting and productive one?

Here are a few tips on making sure your journey will be an enjoyable one:

Buy the right block of land. When buying your block do it with the end in mind, ensuring you can build the house you want. Some questions to ask are:

Are their restrictive covenants on materials I can use and size of house? If so am I happy to work within this?

Does the block need retaining? Has this been factored into the price?

What kind of houses will be surrounding me?

Get the plans Right. A cheap set of plans can start looking very expensive towards the end of the build when you have to start forking out money to rectify mistakes.

The easiest time to get it right is at the planning stage making sure you get a complete set of plans with all the details for trades to do their job quickly and efficiently, so there are no mistakes and no need to make changes on site.

To this end makes sure the building designer you use is approachable and willing to explain the whole building process and if required able to assist you throughout the building process.

ASK ASK ASK. Despite the sometimes dreaded reputation of people in the building industry the trades I deal with regularly are willing to help the owner builder with the questions throughout the building process. The only way to find an answer is to ask the question. As the saying goes the dumbest question is the one that doesn’t gets asked.

Find Support. Find someone you can question and get feedback from throughout the building process. Whether this is a friend or relative with building experience or your building designer it is handy to have someone who you can turn to ask the questions you can’t find the answers to.

For more information please contact Scope Drafting.

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