Thankyou Kum Yin, that is nice of you to say.

You’re most welcome to share in the ‘little’ I know.[exhappy]

I, myself, need to learn much more than I know!![confused2]

Regards Julie.
Daryl Fisher Homes

Hi SMTM
If you are in Melbourne you will be in the temperate coastal zone. The greater issue listed for this zone is winter heating rather than summer cooling. Your study will get morning sun only as it faces the direction in which the sun rises; the rest of the day it will receive only minimal natural light as you have firstly the wall of the bedroom casting shadow on the window as well as the large portico. You may well have your light on during the day sometimes. The sun will travel along the wall hitting your ensuite/bath and beds 2-4. If there are not any eaves or external blinds on these windows these rooms will get very hot on a hot summers day. Your meals and kitchen area will get the direct low setting sun in the late afternoon/evening which may not appeal if you are sitting down to tea and the setting sun is beaming in the back door on a hot summer day (if you are in a built up area then the you may be protected from the full brunt of it. In winter this alfresco area will be shaded from the warming winter sun until the afternoon also. Your living areas predominantly face the south (living/casual) and I notice the living has a large amount of glass. This area will most likely get quite cool in winter and unless your glass is double glazed or you have have heavy drapes and pelments this room will take some heating up. If you place the solar HWS over your bathroom/powder room it will only have a short distance to flow until it reaches all your wet areas except your laundry and the unit should not be visible from the road. A north direction will always be preferrable to a north west direction for solar units.
In saying that (I’m sorry, I am just trying to give you as much info as I can) this company will have to have a House Energy Rating done on your home and get it to five stars in order to comply with regulations. This may mean that you have as thick insulation in as you can. An eave or a small verandah on the north wall would be better as the main source of heat in those rooms will be firstly direct heat through the windows, then radiant heat absorbed into the bricks during the day, will be slowly released well into the night (not pleasant on the odd 40 degree Melb night). They may insist that the glazing is increased to double glazing. You could also use tinted glass for the bedrooms on that side and depending on the comfort of the people inside you may even put on an external blind to stop the sun heating up the bedrooms to much (it is much nicer to sleep in a cooler room. Then again if you have a double storey home on the block next door or a large tree you will obtain a fair bit of shade from it (depends how close).
The general principle of energy efficient design is to place the rooms that you inhabit during the day to the north/north east. The rooms that you inhabit during the night to the south/south east. Garages are a good buffer from the setting sun during winter and summer in the west. Wet areas places as near to each other as practicable (your design is as good as you could get on this) and are best to the south/south west where they can buffer the cold winds and the setting suns glare and heat on a hot day. Mirror imaging your plan on the same block would improve the rating and comfort factor.
I am happy to help any time and there is alot of info on energy efficient design on the Sustainability Victoria website (which also is the governing body for all House Energy Raters).

Regards Julie
Daryl Fisher Homes.[smiling]

Hi v8ghia
I know I had a lengthy reply but the point that I was making was that it doesn’t matter where the front of your block faces but what type of rooms are where; a north facing block with the living areas facing north will be just as comfortable as a south facing block with the living areas facing north. And vice versa. This is why advertising a north facing block as a bonus is irrelevant; you can design a very comfortable house that faces south.
The reason I said that a south facing block performed better than north facing was due to the fact that house design currently places our main living areas at the back of the house with maybe the exception of a lounge. If you had a southish facing block these main living areas would get good natural light and warmth during the day when you are in them. Of course a north facing block would also perform as well if your lounge/kitchen/meals faced the front as well, but you would rarely see a house designed this way.
Your very hot north facing rooms probably had too much glass and no (or not enough) eaves/verandahs. I live in Mildura and yesterday was 42 degrees; my kitchen and living face north and we have a 1800 verandah around our house which still allows the winter sun in but shades the summer sun from our walls and windows. I don’t even need to turn our a/c on until we hit 30 as the wall and ceiling insulation in addition to the verandah save us from direct sun. We added the verandah ourselves, but before then, we were like you, cooking in the summer.
It is not just as simple as saying north is better than south. That is why all new homes use the CSIRO software; it’s not just about orientation it is about a whole range of things. All these things can affect comfort no matter which way your block faces. You cant change an existing house to a large degree but you can make significant savings when building from scratch.

Regards Julie[exhappy]

Hi SMTM
Agents that try to plug north facing blocks are just jumping on the energy efficiency wagon without knowing their stuff. I am in Vic and am also an accredited rater, so the general principle is as follows…
The arc that the sun follows from dawn (when it rises in the east) to dusk (when it sets in the west) leans north. This arc is higher in the sky during the summer months and lower in the sky in winter months. Having a block that faces north is sometimes not the best orientation as in order to gain valuable points for your House Energy Rating (HER) , the living areas should face a northerly orientation with adequate eaves (there is a formulae) that will allow the low winter sun into your windows to solar passively heat your home but block out the high summer sun that will fry you. One of the Vic requirements of 5 star accreditation at the moment is to either have a solar hot water service on your roof or rainwater tanks to service your toilets. In order to function correctly, solar HWS’s need to have a north – northwesterly orientation, so if you go for this option and have a north facing block you will end up with a couple of solar panels hanging off the front of your home to greet your guests (and the valuer)…not a good look. If you also really wanted to take advantage of solar passive design should pick a site that allows you to face the majority of your general living areas along the northern side of your block, bedrooms etc are best placed on the southish sides, garages are best on the west and can act as a buffer etc. Basically if you are building a new home and are looking for a block then get one where the front is facing south and you can have all your living area’s at the back (open plan style); even adjusting around to south-east facing will still be easy for a rater to minimize the additional requirement. The better the rating for good design, the less money you will have to spend on additional glazing, higher R-value insulation etc.
Interestingly if you apply this knowledge to the purchase of IP’s, you would get a fair idea of how comfortable the home will be during the different seasons and in the case of people who are renting rooms out at a flat rate with all included this could save a few dollars in power/gas bills as you could attend to each possible problem (extra insulation etc) before you rent out the premises.
Once again if you live at the top of Australia then some of this advice may need adjusting for the different zone. Hope that helps sorry for the big reply (it seems to be a trait of mine).

Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes

Hi Carmelian
There is a new website launching on 27/2/07 which is advertised on page 7 of the latest API mag. It is called ‘NMD Data’ and will exclusively list National Mortgagee and Deceased Estate data. http://www.nmddata.com.au.

Hope that helps

Julie

Hi Johnno11
As builders in regional Victoria our prices may differ slightly to yours in materials/transport costs but maybe we don’t quite have the union headaches that metropolitan builders do, which can add significant costs.
Square meterage prices are very deceptive and a bit dangerous to quote as every home is unique. For example a house under a rectangular iron roof with a gable each end or 4 hips will be much cheaper to build than one with bay windows and twists and turns. Every hip, gable and valley has a plumber working at about $60 plus per hour here and that is just labour. That same example is then reflected in the brickwork underneath; a rectangular house with 4 corners will result in less offcuts and less bricklayer labour for set out than one with bay windows, and 15 corners for him to negotiate. Our bricklayer charges us an additional $500 on top of his price-per-thousand for a bay window shaped wall. So you can see that the intricacy of the home can impact the price. Also the same for the fittings; you can spend 5000 on a flat pack kitchen or get a custom job for 20k. You can buy tiles for 20 dollars per sq and tiles for 200 per sq. What is your soil type and site elevation. Clay soils need deeper footings than loam type soils, everything can impact. No’one would be able to guess at the value for money you were getting unless the specifications and plan were available (and then not everyone has the experience in new homes to assess either).
As a general rule of thumb with standard fittings and fixtures we usually end up around $11k per square (of living area) including gst and that includes the garage area (we can usually fit that in without using its area in the cost unless it is really large). That doesn’t include landscaping or fencing or large amounts of concrete for driveways etc. You have got to remember too that little Johnny Howard is taking 1/11th of that price to pay for his superannuation fund so maybe your builders prices are not too bad. This is a personal opinion and as our business is 6 hours away there may also be others costs associated with your builders that we don’t have to have. Just make sure they are all licenced with the Building Commision and that they take out the building permit on your behalf (you will have to provide them with a letter to this effect). You may not get warranty insurance if they list you as an owner/builder.

Regards
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes

Hi FITH
Someone has to have experienced the ‘hindenburg’ before others thought to check the exits and make sure they took a parachute! We are all here learning from the experience of others thus to avoid a mistake of hindenburg proportions! I bet all the people that witnessed that disaster told enough stories about it to ensure that it was never again a popular form of travel…can’t say I’ve ever travelled on one. You are a cracker! big lol

JF

Hi Matt,
I don’t know of any builders in Sydney, but we have been referred work from our local building inspector on several occasions, so I would suggest that if no-one can help with a referral that your mate rings a local building inspector and asks them for 2-3 names of good quality tradesman for the type of job he has. A building inspector would have inspected work from the best and worst of them so he can be assured he will avoid the contractors whose work is substandard.

Regards
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes

Seeing as no-one with more experience has replied I will throw in my advice as a builder with some smaller scale experience.
For roads (in most regional areas) we speak to the local council, they usually provide this service (as they assume the responsibility after the development is taken over in the case of a subdivision). You could speak to them and ask them what they need in order for you to obtain an estimate or quote. For power then your local Power supplier like POWERCOR who will be able to assess the available infrastructure in the area you are developing and let you know what information they would need in order to provide you with an estimate or quote (and timeframe) for the job. This will be the same for water, you will have to chase up your local water supplier with some information for them on what you have planned, and ask them what they need in order to supply a quote for the water services you need installed. Lasty the subdivision, if you pop into a building inspector he will refer you to a town planner who can give you an idea of if and how much. I would think that ‘rule of thumb’ costs for all subdivisions is a little too risky. Once you have plans you can always put out the infrastructure work to tender if you are in a suitable area. Your town planner will be able to give you more detailed advice.

Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes.

Sorry Guys, I just found out the the auction for Clovelly Ave was this morning. Sold for $273k. [blush2]

Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes