Decision seems to have been made... need assistance

hey looking good Dingo, that will be fun for sure.

I dunno too much about such things but have had a go a couple and once you can get the plans and owner builder thing past the council its pretty much a matter of finding a local registered builder to help you erect it or doing it yaself if you have at least 2 blokes.

The main task is the layout, stumping, alignment of frame and roof stuff, like spirit levels, laser levels, string levels etc and general all round accuracy. Cos its already cut and measured its just following the plans and having someone whos good at accurate layout and joining techniques, the correct joining/jigs and proceedures etc main thing is get the frame right and the rest should slot together just like meccano as u say...;-)

have fun!

Everythings going really well so far and surprisingly so far everything is coming in under budget with quotes :2tsup:

So as we now have no choice but to drop 5 trees out the back as they land either in the verandahs or inside the middle of the house they have to come down so I thought right go to the shire and get some info... needed to find out from them how high above the now known flood level they require it to be built anyway

So of I choof up the road to Harvey to have a chin wag with the building fella... so I ask "how high above the flood level mate?" expecting him to say somewhere around 200mm... but nope... "AT LEAST 800mm above the known flood level and better if a meter" says he!! friggin shyte!! but I will get back to this in a tick

I then asked him about the cypress stumps theyre quoting on (actually have a choice of either cypress or concrete stumps) his eyes go blank he shakes his head "cypress as stumps? no that cant be right mate must mean ironbark or something like that not cypress" and off he goes to make some checks and I rifle through the present paperwork to check yep says right there in black and white "cypress stumps 100x100"... so back he comes "yeah thats okay but they have to be F5 treated" a quick check of the paperwork at hand again mmmm F5? nope they go to F3... mmm could be an issue... then he starts goin on about them needing to take in the run of the floodwaters in the supports and such and such and so forth and then they would have to show that its got lateral support sufficient to take the load"... Im sorta looking at him and was about to say well Im sure they will mate when they get the land drawings and sort the heights and such... when he says "if theres a choice between cypress and concrete take the concrete it will have an easier passage through council if you do..." shaking his head muttering "cypress for stumps what next mdf?" Bit of a galah this bloke... actually just quietly the whole shires like that... galahs I mean
So concrete it will be... a splash of mission brown paint and bobs yer uncle!:; .. so when I get home I check the heights... I had given the height for the stumps at 2mtres at the lowest end where the land dropps away toward the creek rather than the high end... so I did some measuring

Seems were gonna get our Queenslander regardless if we wanted it or not!! :o

The stumps need to be 3.2mtrs in length at the lowest end and 1.6mtr at the highest end to cover the 600mm in ground and the height of the flood PLUS the extra 800 - 1mtr BLOODY HELL says the missus WHAHOO says I... so whats a good height to go for in a Queenslander? mmmm? 2.4 off the gound? or 3mtrs off the ground? We can still change this bit... It will be 2.4 at the lowest end at the rafter height couple of bloody nice big Jarrah sleeper staircases I can see in the making!! :2tsup: Will not only end up having a birds eye view of the creek but also right over town the way were goin!! :U

He couldnt make up his mind about the grinding of the stumps so I'll just go ahead and grind the suckers out then all gone and end of story

Checking pricings for the wall and ceiling claddings on Monday... the leccy should be here on Tueday so Ben reckoned so we can get approximate prices (with family discount :; ) on that side of things... gotta get onto western power too! then theres the plumber/gas fitter and the builders registration board to get the owner builder permit and demolition permits and so on and so bloody forth!!... acutally having a ball so far:2tsup:

The missus is out checking prices of bathrooms kitchens etc while the eldest daughter the assistant manageress is already planning the lighting...

Actually wanted to ask... instead of the usual plasterboard crud that they use on walls what would be a good alternative? same with the ceilings... gotta find out who does a good price on acustic insulation while Im in Bunbury next week... anyways updates as we go along... plan is to have the lopper do the trees in a week or so

you got the shites opps shires permission IN WRITING to drop those trees buddy.
For your walls this is just a thought how about mud bricks but about the same size as floor tiles say 200mm x 200 x 10 youd have to strenghten them but I recon once up would look neat.

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Originally Posted by Tonto

you got the shites opps shires permission IN WRITING to drop those trees buddy.
For your walls this is just a thought how about mud bricks but about the same size as floor tiles say 200mm x 200 x 10 youd have to strenghten them but I recon once up would look neat.

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Shites... shires permission in writing to drop a few trees? bullshyte!.. you gotta be kidding right? Its not suburbia mate... when I broached it with them there was no interest whatever and only suggested I check with the Ag department if they have any probs regarding the sorts of trees coming down... Actually when we dropped the 10 humungous Tuarts in Mandurah (which definantly was suburbia) no permission or written okay was gotten by anyone and I put the shed up after they were down... didnt even consider it and the bloke that dropped them never asked nor did this one either the only reasons I asked them anything was due to the stump grinder bloke wanting to know what they wanted done with the stumps otherwise they werent mentioned... or considered... wankers! its my bloody block I'll sodding well tear down every friggin tree on the place if I choose to damn paying them a flamin fee to drop my trees on my property thats a semi rural property anyway... ahem... but sigh I will ask around to a few bods I know and see what they reckon... but from the shire building supervisor and the planning nob that I saw they didnt mention needing a license or permit or anything else werent in the slightest bit interested... hell I wouldnt have even gone there if I wasnt curious myself about the stumps!

Will see

The mud brick "tiles" is an interesting idea cheers!

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Originally Posted by Wild Dingo

Actually wanted to ask... instead of the usual plasterboard crud that they use on walls what would be a good alternative? same with the ceilings...

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I think thats plasterbaord or gyprock or something similar. The main alternatives would be old style pannelling, like the frame and then thin wooden boards, maybe interlocking, like in old wooden houses. Other alternative is ply, good quality 5 or 7 ply and you can pick the outer wood to give you a grained effect or make it easy to paint. Quality building ply or marine ply is really strong and wont warp or crack etc, check with a mainstream ply supplier not Bunnings or secondry supplier. Mr plyood over here told me he could get 'any' combination of woods. Which means blackwood, hoop pine, Jarrah eucalypts or whatever as the top layer.

check here for panel timber..

http://www.misterplywood.com.au/flash/home.asp

business search here

http://www.plywoodaustralia.com/

Hi Dingo,
I've been out of the forum for a while due to having an Alternate Dwellings house taking up my time. Didn't build it ourselves but did customise the plans quite a bit. Very very happy with the house, the builder and the kit and overall pretty happy with Alternate Dwellings.

As you say you don't get plans for council until you sign up. Luckily my builder took on the job of submitting plans to council. It took a year to get approval from signing up with Alternate Dwellings. 3 months to get the plans, 8 months making council happy then another month to get the 3 titles on our block consolidated. Our council verges on incompetence when assessing and approving building applications. Anyway our persistence was rewarded.

We are still finishing skirting/architraves etc but love the house. see attached.

Good luck with your endeavour.

Cheerio
Phil