.JPG)
The ground floor frame of our house is almost complete. Took 5 days. I met our site supervisor on-site on Friday and he seemed pleased with progress. We did a walk through the house and he outlined what would happen next. He's confirmed that our house frame may even be complete by next week and certainly by the week after next. This is exciting.
.JPG)
This is the view standing in the corner of the garage and looking out towards the street at the front of the house. You can see the large floor joists overhead. These will create the floor of the first story. The first picture is the view standing at the back of the house and looking along the entry passage back towards the entry to the house.
.JPG)
This is the view standing on the front boundary of the property looking at the front of the house. The large steel structural beam spans the entry of the garage. This steel beam is supported either side by steel uprights that appear to be secured into the slab. Walking through the frame of the house gives you a great sense of the size of the rooms and the height of the ceiling. It's starting to feel real now.
.JPG)
We are concerned about something a friend picked up on. Left is a photo of one of the upright beams supporting the large steel structural beam spanning the garage entry. You can clearly see that it overhangs the slab. It also seems to be bolted into a section of the slab that does not appear to be finished as well as most of the other parts of the edge of the slab. We have no idea if this is a reason for concern or not. It may be perfectly normal. In any case, I will almost certainly ask our site supervisor about it on Monday. We really hope this is no problem.
Hi
ReplyDeleteDid you end up getting the updated contract specifications in your post contract variation? I'm also building with CG and I just noticed that my contract specs is dated OCT 2010 as well. My site start won't be until next month but thinking of hiring a private building consultant/inspector. I was told by one who had previous experience with CG that CG generally will talk you out of changing/rectifying items picked up by private inspectors as defective.
Also, I noticed that your 1st floor joist isn't posi struts - is this what you wanted? I was told that they would use posi struts in mine (better system) but unsure whether the 5K floor joist upgrade I paid for was meant for this system.
The wording in the contract specs was updated to add the notation (under Standards of Workmanship)
ReplyDeleteADD (to the end of the paragraph) ...... and in accordance with the Guide to Standards and Tolerances 2007 (GST). Where there is any difference in interpretation of quality, dimension or workmanship between the Australian Standard (AS) referenced in the NCC and the GST, the AS and GST will take precedence.
Through my discussions with CG, I understood they would be updating their contract specs for all clients (not just us) to accurately reflect their standard of workmanship. Perhaps ask why they're still working off the 2010 specs when new specs should be available. I'd be interested to know, if there is a new contract spec document, if it is more robust than the 2010 document.
Frame stage on our build will be complete this week and we will hire a private building inspector to check-over the frame. I'll let you know how this goes and indeed how CG respond to any items (if any) that are picked up during this inspection.
Thanks for your comment re our first floor joists. What are posi stuts? I don't know if we want(ed) them or should have got them, becuase we've never been told about them? Are they standard in 2 story builds? Why are they better? How did you know to upgrade to them? Why have you paid 5K to upgrade floor joists?
http://www.engtruss.com.au/floor.pdf - have a look at this web link regarding posi struts floor joist. i think the advantage of having this (among other things identified in the above web link) is that it is easier to run pipes, cables, and duct system for cooling/heating that need to run in the ceiling especially if you wanted to add something later on after handover. i'm still not sure whether i will be getting this. the 5k upgrade i paid for wasn't so much as i had a choice. it was more like part of the cost incurred due to my house being custom design. i still need to clarify this with CG.
Deletei'm looking forward to the outcome of your frame stage inspection.