Ready Set Go!

I spoke to the assessing officer the other day and fortunately there is no initial site inspection anymore - yay! The first inspection is excavation/steel or just before the concrete pour. I'm pretty happy about that since it has saved me a $275 inspection fee, a day off work and probably a week delay.

Liz goes in tomorrow to collect the construction certificate and I officially start on Monday or Friday for insurance purposes.

Probably the most difficult / non standard thing I am doing is a bulk excavation down to a max of 1.8m. It is sand so I have to do some shoring. I've done research and I can safely say that most builders won't do it and it can be expensive. Fortunately I have saved many timbers from the roof and floor. I plan on using those, together with plywood, to shore up the excavation. The first step is to dig a trench border to the excavation. Next I will be drilling, using a hand auger, holes 1 -1.5m deep at the bottom of the trench for many posts. Then I will lower plywood sheets between the posts and the soil. I'll be putting holes in the plywood to reduce the hydro static pressure. From my calcs, it should all be ok. I'll be spending around 2K on the shoring so it is not cheap. Fortunately at the deepest points there are trees with roots to hold the soil together.

Construction certificate approved

Hooray! Our construction certificate is approved at last. Now Graham can really get on with it.

Sandpit

Well, I guess it comes down to just a sandpit after final demolition. I removed the drain and took out some of the fragments over the last two days. Even though it is sand, you see the soil holds up well.

The sand stone guy missed about twelve stones. Well hopefully only twelve.

Nearly gone

Graham got someone in to remove the last of the sandstone blocks. He came in with an excavator and dug them up and took them away in a truck. It took him a day and a bit. Now all that's left is a driveway and a bit of rubble.

More forms, more money

Today I took a bunch of forms to council along with a bank cheque and a wad of notes. This time they didn't seem as organised as they have in the past. It took them a while to enter all the information into the computer, to find out how much I owed them. They weren't sure what a couple of the documents were that we'd been asked to provide. The person I was supposed to contact wasn't there. They thought I'd be able to take the approved construction certificate with me, but apparently it wasn't ready. Then when they sent me to the customer service counter to pay, I was quoted a different amount (they sorted it out quickly though). Apparently most builders don't use the council as their certifier.

Poor Louka quickly tired of the small number of Lego Duplo blocks provided to amuse kids, and she'd seen the architectural models before. But she was pretty good.

Construction Certificate Approved

I got a call from the council today. I just need to pay a heap of money and submit a letter saying I vow to conform the Basix(tm) certificate and the construction certificate is in the bag. Yay!

Drains Away

Today I spent my time removing the rest of the brick footings, the rear and side path and some of the sewer drain. The drain is sure hard work as it is buried quite deep. Interestingly it was a bit clogged from the shower and laundry but clean from where the toilet on. It was not smelly at all.

Tell Graham what you think

You may not have noticed, but over on the right there's a survey. You can tell Graham what you think of his blog, and who knows, he might even do something about it. But so far, there's only one vote (mine).

South Side Path Gone

I finished collecting my stack of blocks today - yay! I also made a healthy start on removing the concrete paths. I've mostly removed the path along the south side and managed to remove some of the brick foundations as well. I was thinking I might need to hire the jack hammer again for the foundations, but fortunately I was able to break it up with the trusty rusty crow bar.

It is getting dark early now. I had to wrap it up at 5:30pm. The Kimbriki recycling guys put me on the weigh bridge this morning - $34 instead of $11 - ouch. I was carrying 1.49 tons - just over my official carrying capacity.

One of the things about not having side braces with the gantry is that it allows one to walk it around. It does not detract too much from the strength since the feet firmly burrow themselves firmly into the ground.

The gantry and the block grab will certainly become handing in building a stone wall. I'll me able to simply lower the blocks effortlessly onto a layer of mortar.

Gantry 2.0

I though it would be prudent to ensure my stack of stones is a significant distance from the proposed dwelling. I found that, at the moment, it is probably about 1.2m away. But it does mean that I really should not consume more space with stones. This lead me to rebuild the gantry using a weaker, shorter, but less flexible 2x4 piece of timber. It worked well and my pile of stones is now around 2.1m high.



The rear neighbour has just about finished their renovations and they have put up a screen. It looks good!

Construction Certificate Submitted

Liz went to council and submitted the application for a construction certificate. It costs $1800 and it can take up to three weeks. Fingers crossed, we should get it soon after we get back from holidays.

http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/ecouncil/DA.aspx?cmd=3&land_no=14425&da_no=CC2009/0253