Building Inspection #1

Well, we have engaged the services of a independent building inspector as a form of insurance during the building process, for around $1000 it is a fairly cheap way to establish a small peace or mind as things progress. Since the first inspection is normally done after the slab has been laid the inspector came out on the weekend and did a progress inspection of the construction so far. Generally the report was encouraging and there were only a few minor and (to me) one major problem with the construction to this point.

A summary of the minor things:
1) As mentioned in an earlier blog the hollowed out section under the bath in the main bathroom should indeed be replicated under the bath in the ensuite.
2) The set down (the part of the slab that is slightly lower then the rest o the slab, used for the wet area of the house) for bath room one is the incorrect size, it is 40mm to short along the western edge of the bathroom AND it doesn’t extend to the bathroom door, instead it finishes about 600mm short.
3) The concrete finish to half of bedroom 1's floor is rough and noticeable, it would definitely be felt through carpet, and laying of tiles (which we are not going to do anyway) would be impossible).
4) The concrete contracts lefts a mess behind that should have been cleaned up (a lot of concrete splatter up next doors fence).

The major thing:
There is no soakwells or stormwater plumbing yet installed. The client liaison officer assures me this is because it is installed just before the paving is laid, fair enough I can deal with that. The problem is that approximately 20% of the roof empties into 2 down pipes into the laundry courtyard, the courtyard that is surrounded by boundary walls and is not accessible from outside the house, so where the f**k is the water going to drain to?! Stormwater pipes can only be laid with boring under the house because on the east, west and north sides of the courtyard is the house and the south side in the neighbours property. The Client Liaison Officer quite disarmingly says that they will put a soakwell under the courtyard. WHAT THE!!? The courtyard is 2m long and 1.5m wide, my calculations suggest that the minimum soakwell that should be put down for the size of the catchment area is 1500mm (1.5m) in diameter and 900mm effective depth, it does not take a genius to see that IT WILL NOT FIT!!! However the Ventura person doesn’t seem to grasp that and has recently taken to cutting me off while I am trying to explain things to her, I think she is getting a little annoyed at me always calling up and trying to get things moving (feeling is getting mutual I can assure you).

So I have composed a 2 page email that details each defect found by the inspection, along with the solution that I would find acceptable (with the exception of the soakwell issue - I have no f**king idea how to solve that one). That 3rd revision of that email (the first two were bordering on libellous - I was annoyed) was sent off about 9 hours ago and I haven't heard anything yet, I tried calling a little while ago but she was on the phone (again!).

Another thing that adds no confidence to the whole process is that since the 22nd of March Ventura seems to have lost my file, as of the 27th they still hadn't found it. whoopie.

The next step if I get little or no response beyond "we are looking into it" is to re-send the email to the Regional Manager and escalate this quickly and early to get results. Remember the fence debarcle? Nothing happened for two weeks about that until it was taken to the Regional Manager's attention and he went out to the site, at that point to was solved in less then half a day.

So in summary
Inspection report - well well worth the money spent.
Stress level - holding steady (at least until I speak to Ventura).
Pissed off level - increasing quite rapidly.
Coffee level - depleted, so I'm off for a re-fill.

That’s all for now. Enjoy.


(PS. thinking about it, there is a possible solution to the courtyard problem, and that would be to remove the down pipes that drain into the courtyard and have the water empty into the gutters and run around to down pipes at the east and west sides of the house. This means a greater inflow of water into those soakwells, which means a larger soakwell is needed and I don't know for sure if it will work, its a lot of gutter (and ergo water) before it gets to the ends of the house....)

The promised pic

Hmmm ok, so the pic is a little small on here, but you get the general idea of the slab at the moment. The pic was taken by me (thats the devestatingly handsome shadow you can see) from the familyroom area near where the glass sliding door is going, looking towards the front of the house with the kitchen being the first sticky out bit in the slab and the ensuite the second sticky out bit, with my wife sitting in her 'bath'.


Now we just need bricks!

Its obvious really!

Well the slight mis-understanding (re: me not knowing sod all building) has been cleared up.

The reason why there is a hollowed out section where one bath is going and not where the other bath is going is NOT because there was a stuff up by the slab layer (my suspicions lay in this direction), but because my significant and most important other half decided she wanted a 'proper' bath in the ensuite (so $900 later after we move the entire wall to accommodate it she's happy) and she chose a much larger/deeper bath and there is enough clearance already under the bath for the required plumbing, whereas the main bathroom (re: kids bathroom - when they arrive) has a smaller bath (and separate shower) which doesn't have the space required, so part of the slab was removed to make the space.

At least that is how it was explained to me!

If I remember I'll post a pic of my other half sitting in her 'bath' later. She's quite pleased :-)

The bricks are going to be delivered in 2 to 3 weeks time. As it was explained to me by the lady at Ventura Homes, they are going thru an efficiency drive at the moment to speed up the delay between signing the contract and delivering the required building materials, so naturally its taking longer to get the bricks at the moment then it normally would. That makes sense doesn't it.

Still at this stage we have no issues or worries and for the next 2-3 weeks everything will be plain and smooth sailing (mainly because there is nothing for Ventura Homes to stuff up).

On the "relax with confidence" side of things we have booked in a building inspector to come along and check everything out at the slab down stage, compare measurements to the plans, location of plumbing, dodgy cement etc. As I see it $225 dollars for a written report and inspection is fairly cheap piece of mind!
And talk about keen, this guy is meeting me at the block at 8am on a Saturday morning! Eight!! Like I'm going to be able to pay attention to anything he is saying at that time! Oh well at least it is written down.

That reminds me, I need to get photocopies of all my plans for him before Saturday! *mental note*

Well on Monday the footings went down and yesterday the slab went down, down and dusted!
AND all with the fence still in place, still standing and untouched.

The other half is much more excited now because rather then looking like a sand pit it actually looks like a house is going to be built!

I have a minor concern at the moment with the provisions made in the slab for the plumbing in the bath room and ensuite. In the bathroom there is a hollowed out section of concrete (see the pic on the side) under where the bath is going, in the ensuite there is also a bath, but no hollowed out section of concrete. So why in one place and not the other? I assumed the space was for the U-Bend to be installed under the bath, but there is no space for the U-Bend in the ensuite. So its all a bit bizzare!

Anyways I'm sure it will all work out in the end.

Enjoy.

So here we are 3 weeks later.....

Well, the fence saga has been resolved. Finally. And do you know what the resolution of the saga was? No? Well lets recap the issue first.

1) I was told (and only because I asked), that the fence between my block and my neighbours would have to be removed before the slab could be laid.

2) I told the builder that that was not going to happen because the fence was NOT on my property (the neighbours willingly and happily built the fence entirely on their property instead of half on our side - as they are entitled to do), so the builder can not touch it.

3) The builder basically said tough it needs to be removed anyway.

4) I said no and sent them the first of 3 emails that continually asked the same questions and pointed out the fact that the fence was in now way encroaching onto my block.

5) The builder commissioned a fence line survey to establish where the fence was and billed me for it.

6) I told the builder to go jump because I didn't authorise anything and that it didn't take a surveyor to go out to the site (10 min drive away from there main office by the way) and look at the fence for themselves, they agreed to pay for the survey.

7) At this point I was on first name basis with the regional building manager and he said that the survey showed I would have to remove the fence.

8) I replied saying that the survey showed that I did not have to move the fence (it quite clearly shows the fence as being between 15mm and 5mm beyond the boundary line on the neighbours side.

9) He said he would get back to me.

I rang him up yesterday, not waiting for him to 'get back to me' and he said that the concreter was going out to the site next week to lay the slab, and the fence didn't have to be taking down because .... and wait for this, this is good.... because HE HAD GONE OUT TO THE SITE THE DAY BEFORE TO HAVE A LOOK.

So something that took 3 weeks, 4 loooong emails, more phone calls then I care to count, a surveyors drawing and involved two families could have been solved at the very beginning if someone with a little bit of common sense went out to the block 3 weeks ago and just had a look for themselves.

I now feel I was right in sticking to my guns on this, had I just said "Oh well" and taken the fence down I would have been out of pocket by a large amount, temporary fencing required for neighbours dog (I couldn't expect them to pay for it, its my house), cost of removal and re-installation of fence and all for NO REASON, because in the words of the Regional Manager, the fence does not need to come down.

We had a coffee over at my soon-to-be neighbours house last night 'celebrating' the news. I let them know how appreciative I was at their patience and efforts on my behalf (they talked to there surveyor for me, confirmed the fence line for me, placed the fence 4 cm inside their property originally for me, very nice people). Hopefully now I will not have to trouble them again. Hopefully I will not have any more issues with the building of the house either, but I am not holding my breath.

Until next time :)

A Fence Divided

The surveyor finally came back yesterday with a new survey of the block (Ventura - the builder - insisted on it because of the issues with the fence line, see last post).

Funnily enough it is different to the first survey I had done. No hugely different, but things like the north fence line (not in dispute) is now apperantly 50mm inside my boundary, where as on the original survey it was on the boundary. If any one wants to own up to moving 36 metres of 2.4 metre high asbesto fencing, please do so.

Having given up for the moment at trying to speak to a actual person I have sent a 2 page long email to Venture Homes to try and get a definitive answer to my problem.


Now to other matters..

Galactic Civilisations II: Dread Lords has been released! woohoo. Good bye free time.