Day 43: Timber For Frame Delivered

Hi Friends,

The timber for the house frame was delivered today sitting on the garage slab waiting to be cut up and installed. It doesn't seem to be a lot of timber for building a house but looks could be deceiving LOL. Hopefully the frame will be going up tomorrow.

Timbers for framing sitting there ready to be cut and installed. The yellow ones are to be used for top plate, bottom plate, studs, and noggins. The brown ones I think are to be used for the beams.

Bracing materials. I think this is used to brace the house from the wind force.

The type of timber used are the typical seasoned pine.

Day 42: Concrete patch up and side fence work

Hi friends,

Not much work happening today except for the hole or gap in the concrete at the rear of house has been patched up. In addition, fencing work on the alfresco side has begun with the string lining and holes being done, so it won't be to long before we have one side of the fence done. Neighbours house is close to handover hence why the fencing is being done

Patch up work for the gap/hole at rear of slab.

Closer look at the patch up work

Setting up for the fence.

Day 39: Concrete slab concerns and back filling to house

Hi all,

It's been a week since the concrete slab went down and at the moment I'm deeply concerned about the structual integrity of the slab. There are heaps of honeycomb spots around the slab which is due to the lazy concreters not using a vibration machine to compact the slab when it was poured. The engineer's plan advise that the 'concrete shall be vibrated' it looks like they didn't adhere to the instruction. In addition, I saw one of the concreter pour water in the concrete mixing truck when it arrived (to get the slump higher so it is easier to work with) which I believe is wrong as it dilute the concrete:water mix ratio. I had a site meeting with the site supervisor about the honeycomb and he said that this is normal, (yes other slabs do have some honeycombing but not to this extent). There's a hollow gap at the rear of the slab which I pointed out to the SS to take a look, and to my horror we noticed that a bit of the reo is exposed. I was praying for this not to happen but it did and now I'm at a lost. SS said he will get it fixed so hopefully it will be done correctly. Overall, it looks like they use the cheapest concreter they could find. Pray that there are no more horrors like this later on.

Honeycombing to the footing for the front column pier at front of house. It looks like the bottom bit was poured first then the top hence why it doesn't look uniform.

Cracks below the rebate where bedroom 2 and 3 are. This is probably due to no compacting when concrete was poured.

The hollow gap at rear of house, found out that the reo is exposed and need to be fixed otherwise the reo will continue to rust and could cause concrete cancer (not good).

Honeycomb at side of alfresco, there are heaps of this around the slab. This is probably caused by bad compacting during the concrete pour.

Close up of the honeycomb at alfresco area.

Honeycomb at alfresco area (there's heaps more of this around the slab!!!)

A wider view of the honeycomb around the alfresco area.

And this is only the beginning of the build. Pray that the horrors will end here please.

Oh well the only things I can do at the moment is document all this and if any structural failure occurs later on at least I got evidence to prove what was done wrong.

Update: The backfilling of dirt to the perimeter of house was done this afternoon. There are bobcat tyre marks all around the slab indicating the driver used the slab as a work platform for backfilling. There are few chips and dents on the slab but nothing major however the slab is now very dirty.

Backfilling to front of house.

Backfilling to alfresco area with the bobcat tyre marks on the slab (biggest donut ever)

Backfilling to rear of house.

Day 31 - We have the slab!!!

Hi friends,

Finally we had the slab done and dusted woohoo and it's well before the FHOG due date. I would like to thank my site supervisor for organising and the concretors for getting the slab done especially with the threat of thunderstorm and rain this morning well done guys. I was very fortunate that it did not rain during the concreting or else I would have been extremely worried how the concrete would have turn out later on.

I was told by one of the workers that they started the pour at about 7 am this morning and expect to finish by 1 or 2 pm. When I returned at about 2 pm they were all gone so I guess they left around about 1 to 1.30 pm, wow that's like 6 hours to pour a whole house and pack up, talk about fast. In addition, I noticed that they delivered the portaloo.

Next up is frame, I was told that framing could start within 3 days to 1 week.

View from front of house.


Porch, Master bedroom, and the green tin can is the portaloo (toilet).

Another view of the porch, master bedroom, and front entry.

Alfresco.

The yellow pipe is the conduit for the optical fibre cable which will be installed later on during the build.

Day 30 - Formwork for slab done.

Hi friends,

As the title above suggest, today the formwork for the slab was done, so thank you to my site supervisor and the grano's (concreter) for organising and doing this especially when the weather wasn't so great - well done. I met my site supervisor for the first time on site along with my building inspector from J*st *nspection . I wasn't happy with how the inspector inspect the work, I wanted him to check whether the measurements are correct, the slab is squared, and the reinforcement are laid correctly. All he did was had a quick look at the engineer's plan, walked around the formwork, and then said everything is fine, it was done in like 5 minutes. I asked him to check the measurement and he said he doesn't do that. Geez I paid $400 for a 5 minute job. You probably wondering why I hired this company for the inspection?? Well it's because the inspectors are qualified inspectors and I thought they would do a thorough inspection, how disappointing!

The only good thing apart from getting the ok was that he answered some of my concerns. I asked him whether the formwork are squared and level and he took a look and said most of the edge of formwork ( the timbers) are seriously out of level and he doesn't know whether the concreter uses the edge of formwork as the level marker or uses the height datum method . If it was the first one then it must be fixed. The site supervisor was told of this and after the inspection he called up the concreter to ask about the level. Shortly after, he contact me and advised that the concreter told him he uses height datum or something like that for measuring the level of the pour (my guess it's level machine the one on the tripods where you see site surveyors normally use) and doesn't use the formwork as a marker. Oh well I just have to trust them to make the concrete level and that the concrete will be good.

Tomorrow they will pour the concrete, so hopefully the rain will hold off until they finish the concreting. PLEASE don't rain during the concreting.

Anyway you all probably getting bored so see below for the photo's.

Looking from front of house between the porch and main bedroom.

Looking from the front of garage.


Looking at porch and master bedroom.

Front shot of house.

Alfresco. See how the formwork board is crooked.


Looking at alfresco from lounge room. You see those three bars in the corners laying diagonally well that's the crack control bars and there's one in most of the corners.

See the pink stuff on around the pipe, that's the termite protection barrier. There's one for every internal pipe penetration.

Day 29 - Gravel Pile Gone!!!

Hello friends,

Today we got the pile of gravel spread around and compacted where the concrete will be poured. I was told that we should expect the formwork done tomorrow and concrete poured on Thursday. Rain is forecast for these two days and I am worried how the quality of the concrete will turn out if it rain during the pouring of concrete (Not Good). I am praying that somehow a miracle happen and the weather forecast changed and there are no rain for those two days. At the moment I really don't mind if they postpone the concrete pouring to next week as better weather are forecast.

Day 21 - A Pile Of Gravel For Our Slab

Hi friends,

There's not much excitement since last time but today we have a big pile of red gravel sitting where our garage will be, ready to be spread out and compacted before they placed the vapour barrier (plastic concrete underlay sheet) and the waffle box and then the reinforcement mesh and bars then CONCRETE. So not long to go.