Colourbond also make a wave profile iron fence sheet helps with noise reduction; cannot remember what the name of the profile is but it would be on their website.

Flipside to the negative reaction from residential renters is that the property could be altered to accomodate a Doctors surgery or something like that where a busy street location would be sought after. You would need to speak to the planning section of your council to see what the zoning would allow; you never know, you might have a property that has potential in more than one capacity.

As with a spec’ home done by a builder you would take a deposit and balance on completion. Even a custom built home isn’t allowed to be paid in full until the C of O is issued.

As you would have signed a contract with the builder then it would be also your responsibility to complete the transaction with the builder.

You may also find that the potential purchaser’s lendor would insist on with-holding at least a portion of the money until the job was completed to the satisfaction of the new owner.

You will also have to take out a warranty insurance policy on behalf of the future occupants if you are an owner/builder. If you engage a builder to do the complete house then his warranty insurance will be transferred to any subsequent owners.

I am in Vic so some warranty advice may not be applicable in other states.

I hope as part of your due diligence that you include a valuers appraisal of the apartment. You will need to supply him with a set of plans and the specifications of the apartment. You will then have an independant idea of the end value, regardless of the cost to the developer. If you are paying more then you walk away.

Were the trees removed prior to the cracking starting? How long has it been since the trees were removed? Underpinning has to involve an engineer and can be a lengthy process if they shoot levels and conduct soil tests to determine the severity of the movement. However if it has been over 2 years since the trees were removed then it would be feasible that the majority of settlement has finished (if it is the trees causing it?). In this case you could get the brickwork/mortar repaired and hope for the best.

It is highly unusual (but I won’t say impossible) for ‘movement’ related external cracking to not be reflected internally (and vice versa). How old is the house? Does is have articulation joints? A true brick veneer has the brick sitting against the wall of the house on top of the rebated footing; brick veneer plays no structural role in supporting anything (although single skin brick with piers in a garage will so note the difference). I would suggest that any garden beds (or other consistently damp areas laying against the house) are removed/rectified immediately. Make sure that all paving and concrete paths that adjoin the house are sloping away from the house to remove water from near the footings.

In wet weather the soil swells and pushes footings upwards and when it dries the footings move downwards again; footings will always settle down a bit lower than their original starting point.

In your case however I wouldn’t be convinced that this would be the case, I would suggest that you ask a reputable (and experienced) bricklayer to come and inspect the mortar (masonry bed and perpend joints are to be a nominal 10mm and if raked shouldn’t be deeper than 10mm to comply with BCA2006) and the bricks (could be shrinking/expanding).

An engineer in Swan Hill told me last year when we did an insurance assessment on a house that had been flooded that the bricks that were used had shrunk a few mm, the accumulating total of each brick shrinking a few mm over the space of a whole wall, combined with the fact there was no articulation joints to absorb the movement, pulled the bricks away from the mortar at their weakest points. The weakest point will always be to the nearest door or window corner and once the initial crack is set then it acts as it’s own expansion joint and moves in and out as it needs to.

What may need doing is that the brick walls will need to be pulled down (I have done this so it is easy) and relayed . You can reuse the same bricks if they are not the problem. This work will able to be done without too much disturbance to the existing dwelling if it a veneer.

Make sure you get some articulation joints put in the walls on the affected sides above all windows and door openings. If you speak to a building inspector he will advise you on where to put them in order to minimize future damage.

Good Luck, hope something in that lot helps.

I’m with you Sanjiv, that’s beautiful.

I love the idea of bamboo flooring, as Kelly said it is a sustainable flooring and is right up there with the more hard wearing timber floors. In this day and age with people being very receptive to sustainable design I think it would be a great marketing feature if the property was ever sold, but if kept for an IP then the flooring would look as good, if not better, in a few years time than any other floor that you could lay . Go for it I think.

Julie Fisher
daryl fisher homes

….without the (obligatory) pre-nup agreement….easy street!

I have never been on forums before February this year. I have learnt heaps from your posts and experience in my short time on this forum Marc. As experienced builders with plenty of experience, I did agree with your analogy about the making money in some areas at the moment, so I also understood your reply to be one of concern with the figures that were posted (that were in error it seems).

This highlights one problem with forums that I have had to get used to; there is plenty of room for misunderstanding when you are not experienced in writing concisely as it leaves room for the reader to fill in the gaps.

I am not picking on anyone’s grammer, as I have been guilty of it myself (refer to avatar). In my enthusiasm to help others when I first joined, I quickly learned
– that if you are not sure about a question you should ask for clarification.
– If it appears someone has misunderstood your post, don’t take it personally until you have clarified the facts again with them.
– That everyone, including experienced tradesmen like us, can learn something off people who have never hit a nail on the head.
– that, unfortunately, I will never be able to write a short post for fear of being ‘bombed’. LOL

So relax browny he was only trying to help and I am sure that you will be able to contribute in a valuable manner to many people on this forum.

Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes.[happy3]

As insurance assessors for North West Vic for a couple of years we went to 3 total loss fires and every single one of them were underinsured. The insurance company will include every structure on your property as included in your premium whether you state it or not. So if your house burns down but your sheds and fences are ok they will deduct the cost of replacing these and you will have the balance to spend.

Also consider the cost of rebuilding. You cannot just use a price that is comparable to buying a similar property, you should have the option of rebuilding on the same land. To do this you will need to add demolition and council/permit fees etc plus the going rate for a new home to be built that is a similar size to what you had (anything much bigger and they may investigate the fire a bit closer…lol). Use at least $1100 per sq mt as a base and at least 10k for demolition and removal. Add another $5k for plans conservatively. You will probably find you definately aren’t overinsured.

We went to a fire in rural Vic where an elderly couple lost their homestead on the river right on the edge of town. They had only estimated the replacement value using the prices of similar properties in the town so could not replace the home with something similar and had to make do with a small unit. To make matters worse their old home had heaps of asbestos in it which made the demolition even more expensive…anyway you get the drift. It’s only a few bob a year and will give you more choice if the worst happens. BTW $30k contents insurance seems very lean to me; are you aware that curtains and carpets are considered contents by most insurers?

Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes

Hi noclue
There are too many variables to answer this question with any accuracy. It will depend on the soil type, complexity of design, council requirements for the area, local trade prices, prices allowed for fixtures/fittings/bricks etc. You would be far better off to ring some builders in the local area and ask them if they could give you an estimate or quote (if you have plans) and ask them what is included. If you have plans you can specify what you want included and get 3-4 builders to quote the same items. Then you know for sure where the best deal is.

Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes.