Framing Day 36 - Hebel Uplift!

Another large load of Hebel had been delivered and lifted (at around 80Kg each!!!) upstairs awaiting to be attached to the house.

The extra dwarf wall has been removed and frame repaired.

The Hebel panels are attached to the frame via a screw.

Hebel cement is used to join panels together and to cover screw holes.

Framing Day 36 - Roof finished!

Now that we have access again, it appears that the roof has been finished. The right number of screws, and of the right colour too! I had asked for some extra screws to be used, so that there is NO chance of the roof lifting off [with some of the microstorms in the last few years, this has actually happened!]. The roofing guys did agree to do it, but that was a few days before the right colour screws had been delivered, so I assume that they just forgot. Not something I can fix. It's in code, so I guess that it will have to do.

Framing Day 36 - Plaster has arrived!

It is amazing just how quickly this can come together. Two days have passed since the last visit, and the amount of heavy lifting (glad it's not my back!) done is staggering.

It's a big house, with a LOT of plaster!

Framing Day 34 - The dwarf wall that shouldn't be there

The sun sets so early at the end of May (and we have not had the shortest day of the year yet!), so apologies for the dark pictures.

The upstairs terrace needs to have privacy concerns addressed, so we have a dwarf wall installed, but it should only be one, not two of them. There will be modwood installed to a height of 1.7m for screening purposes.

This one should be here.

This one should not!

A quick call to our Site Supervisor, quickly resolved it. He checked the plans. It was not meant to be there. It will be fixed.

We can not ask for more!

Framing Day 32 - Scaffolding Back Up

Two days later, the scaffolding was back up!

It was right on dusk, so sorry for the dark, grainy pictures.

Framing Day 30 - Evaporative Cooling Installed

The overall ethos we approached this build with, was to minimise the running costs of this wonderful house.

It was not so much the cost of the refrigerative cooling (which is not cheap anyway!), it was more of a worry about the running costs of such a unit. We have three phase power anyway, but...

To that end, we chose to install dual evaporative cooling units. One will cool upstairs, and the other downstairs, which implicitly zones the house. We did do some further sub-zoning as well.

Two units fit in rather nicely.

They do not stand out too much.

Framing Day 30 - Power Meter Installed

The electricians have installed the power meter.

Probably the lowest reading you'll ever see.

Framing Day 30 - External Progress

It had been a week since we visited, and lots of progress had been made!

Framing Day 25 - Roof almost completed!

The roofing guys had finally managed to get the right coloured screws delivered to them and attached the roof in a more permanent fashion.

The correct colour.

The correct number of screws.

Framing Day 25 - Shower Bases

The plumbers had also put in the first (of many) shower bases.

Framing Day 25 - Heating and Ducting

The heater has also been installed, and the duct work has begun. The roof space that once looked massive, now looks very cramped. The roof space needs to hold ducts for two evaporative cooling systems as well as the heating ducts.

The heater is in place. Note the Anti-theft warning.

Framing Day 25 - Hebel has started!

Even though we'd had some really bad weather of late, I was really surprised to see the guys working on Saturday. The guys were really nice, and were even happy to talk to my boys. They earned their beers! :)

Hebel is cut with a masonry saw, moved into position and then screwed into place. The hebel adhesive is then used to seal the gaps and then cover the holes from the screws (like putty).

A cross section of an off cut showing the steel re-enforcing.

The screws used to attach the hebel.

Framing Day 25 - Extra Gas point installed.

I was more than happy to see that the plumbers had been back and installed the extra 3/4" gas line that I'd requested. I also have one in the alfresco as well. This is considerably more than the usual gas line for domestic appliances; it is commercial grade! It will allow me the future expansion capability to put in either a commercial wok or cook top. All I need to do is to put them in and add lots of stainless steel and a commercial range hood! :) Dreaming? Perhaps, but...

Future expansion gas point.

I'd also like to thank the plumbers for thinking. Whilst I was on site, they thought to ask me if I wanted a cold water point ("you've got everything else!") for the fridge. We'd um-ed and ah-ed about it, so in the end, we said why not? If it is not there, then we can not use it, however, if it is there and we do not use it then there is no loss.

Framing Day 25 - A Dwarf Dwarf Door?

In trying to squeeze every cubic inch (showing my age here...) of storage out of this 44 sq. house (Wot? Like the extra high ceilings ground and first floor is not enough?), I decided that making use of the space under the stairwell is a good idea.

So we asked about it, and I even checked with the door manufacturer, a 1500mm high (dwarf) door is available and would fit under the stairwell.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this!

Um? 1050mm not 1500mm?

A quick chat to our site supervisor on Monday cleared things up. They will wait until the stairwell is in before they put in the final height, which will be as tall as they can make it.

We have the door swinging inwards (under the stairwell), not outwards into the walk-in pantry, so we have some clearance issues to deal with.

Framing Day 21 - All wrapped up and the Hebel has arrived!

We went to have a look at the block to see what was happening around 8am. We were very surprised to find that the ground floor has been wrapped and that the Hebel had been delivered!

Hebel adhesive is used like cement to join the panels together.