Bricks, Roof, Plumbing, Electrics, Insulation and now Gyprock!
Posted by Benjamin Close on October 20, 2009 under Country Living | 
5 Comments to Read
Wow, how time flies! It’s been almost 2 months since I last wrote about the progress of our house and lots has happened in that time. Our supervisor has been absolutely awsome, great to talk too, willing to listen and also willing to deal with concerns that we have had. Actually most people that have worked on the house have been great.
For instance the bricky really looked out for us. First a little background. We’ve no mains water hence we’ve only had water available for the bricky via a 1000 litre tank. Initially we didn’t even have a pump hence it was all gravity fed. This gave the bricky great fun trying to clean his tools – he had to fill buckets up and use them to make his mix. However, he didn’t complain, just went about his job. He mentioned he would need pressurised water for his saw but that would be later down the track. We are also madly trying to collect rain so that we have water when we move in. Hence once the roof was on we put some temporary down pipes in place. These led into the tank.
One morning I noticed a piece of steel proped between the shed and the tanks. After talking to the bricky about this it turned out the previous day when it had been raining, the downpipe had shifted in the wind, spilling water everywhere. After one attempt to put it back in position – where he got covered by water, he grabbed a spare piece of steel and wedged the pipe back in place.
There was many little things like this that really made having the bricky working on the house great. He also did a fantastic job with the bricks!
The roofing guys (that I never met) took a little longer than expected to get the roof on. They put it up in stages, with the rain being an issue as well as the wind (we’re in category 3 wind zone). Each stage it went up we were trying to collect more and more water.
The sparky’s took 1 day to get the house ready. Very neatly done and all spot on the first time.
The plumber on the other hand really had no idea. We requested a hot water plumbing loop but this was not done.. well not properly. 1 call to the super and he said he would take care of it. Which he did. The plumber came out again and the setup got even worse – certainy not the super’s fault though. Another call to the super and this time he got me to meet the plumber on site. After quite a few attempts of explaining the concept he (and his super) finally caught on and got this done correctly.
To Format Home’s credit, the issues with the plumber were the contracting service that they use. Something that they have indicated they might re-consider in the future. The whole time the super was excellent in dealing with the issue.
So now it’s a new week and everything is happening. Monday the bricky finished – sad to see him go. The gyprock and the insulation was also delivered. Mid Monday, the insulation got put up (Walls anyway). Today (Tuesday) the gyprock started going up and within the day, all the bedrooms are done! Tomorrow the plaster starts.
Check out the progress shots of things happening….
hans kungel said,
hi just checking to see if you are in your new home yet , are you the couple building in the clare valley
cheers hans
House construction Progresses – We’re past Lockup – Solar System is installed » ClearChain said,
[…] the corner it’s time for another house update. Things have progressed quite a bit since the last update but also a lot […]
Benjamin Close said,
Howdy,
We’re actually at Gould Creek. Sadly we’re not in our new home yet – looks like after Christmas.
I’ve just posted an update with some photos: http://www.clearchain.com/blog/categories/country-living
Armil of House Insulation said,
Wow, it seems you have a lovely house. I very much like the pictures of your house development. By the way regarding house insulation, you better go for straw material because this is fire resistant.
eric said,
Hi ben You have been really lucky. we used format and nothing but stress. We only wanted grey mortar but now have bright yellow which doesn’t match any other part of the house. Format will do nothing Apparently its natural variation and our expectation of grey was unreasonable. we have 40 holes in our mortar, 60chipped bricks, roof end stick out above gutter, and main lounge window is still crooked after 3 attempts to fix it. Abusive phone call from superviser and little normal things like dodgy paint and doors which have been fixed. House by another buildr had no issues , even grey mortar.
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