Day 48: Fixing the slab shortage

Hi friends,

I had the biggest surprise today, the concreters came back to fix the slab shortage where the living room is. I was told an engineer will advise how to fix the problem and then sign off on the approval report so hopefully they did get one from the engineer. I will definitely ask for the engineer's approval report.

The reinforcment bars looks so rusted, it seems like they re-use the left over bars from the slab pour which was left on site a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if this will pose any problems later.

Day 46: Roof Truss Delivered & Wall Bracing Up

Hi friends,

The roof trusses were delivered and some are put on top of the wall frame and others on the ground waiting to be put up. However we could be waiting for a while because due to the design of the house and garage we need the brickies to brick up the left side wall of the garage to provide structural support for the trusses. Now I'm not sure if putting the trusses on the dirt is a good idea especially when some showers are predicted tomorrow. In addition, the chippies completed the wall framing and bracing. Not sure if this is another error but on the plan it states Common Studs - 90 x 45 F5 @ 450mm cts, common studs I assume are the vertical timbers space evenly between the bottom plate and top plate. When I measured the distance between each stud it is at 600mm cts, if I'm correct than it is another item to be fixed.

Roof Trusses some sitting on top of wall frame and others on the dirt. Wall bracing has been completed (the plywood sheeting).

Looking from the garage

Truss sitting where the kitchen will be.

More trusses sitting on the dirt.

Day 45: We have partial frame

Hi friends,

More work was done today with the chippies putting up the frames around the slab. There are certain spots that need to be completed but majority are done. I measured the dimension of each room and it's pretty much spot on except for the living room where it is short about 240mm (24cm), it looks like someone haven't check the measurement correctly before pouring the slab. So lesson number 1. You should go and measure the dimension of the formwork to see if it is the same as the slab plan before the concrete is poured. Oh boy it's going to be fun dealing with HQ on how to fix this error.

Viewing front of house.

Walk in Robe and Ensuite

Ensuite.
View of family room from alfresco

View meal room from alfresco

KitchenLiving roomBathroom

Viewing from hallway into bedroom 2 and entry to bedroom 3

Bedroom 3
Toilet, laundry, and bedroom 4

Bedroom 4
Oops a bit short

Day 44: Frame set up

Hi friends

There's further progress today with the carpenter (chippies) started making the frames for the house. It's amazing how much work they did in one day. These guys seems very organised and neat. Everything looks fine but there were some nails missing the timber and one very strange noggings which they used an old survey peg (I'm puzzled why they used it when there are heap of left over timber frame scraps laying around). It hasn't finished yet and further cutting to be done tomorrow.

Front view of house.

Timber neatly stacked

Meal room on the right.

Front entry with WIR on the right.

Kitchen

Old survey peg used as nogging (very puzzling).

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.