Week 8: happy building progress but ...sad day

1) Due to Easter period (last Friday - Monday), our building time frame will have week 8 starting today Tuesday Apr 10 (instead of  Friday Apr 6) and finishing on Monday Apr 16.

2) We had 4 guys( including the plumber company boss) on the site to do external plumb for us. They started  at 7am and have yet finished the job around 4pm. They  worked very hard and I am really happy with the progress.

:

However,  after clearly listening to a sad building accident on other site a few weeks ago, I have felt very sad that life is so unfair and that all our building concerns and worries are so little and less meaning ...

3) our customer window was delivered this morning. The plumber company boss is really professional and responsible guy. It was him to advise the window company that they should not leave our expensive window in a place where is convenient for them but not safe for the window. In addition, he took picture and sent immediately it our SS.

I am really impressed of what the plumber company boss doing not only for wonderful plumb job at our site but also his care of what has happened on our site during his working time.

What is fabulous contractor  that Fowler have. I really wish Fowler also have many other contractors like the plumber company boss!

4) Our dear SS is still unwell so I can't have a meeting with him today. But we are really happy with his organizing of building steps for us.


Our frame was delivered on Thursday Apr 5 (just before Easter). It means our frame had suffered 1 heavy rain on Sunday Apr 8. I really hope that the frame will be up soon.

Our expensive beams for cornerless in our living area  were also delivered on Thursday Apr 5 morning. They were on our site even few hours earlier than the frame.

5) The window company said  remaining standard  windows and doors will be delivered tomorrow. I really hope they will carefully put our windows and doors in safe places. Tomorrow I try to go to the site early to organize some clear place for this delivery.

6) I expect termite system will be installed soon

7) I really need to ask him about the frame adjustment.

After 1 year and 3 days of the contract, we had slab today

Finally, we had a very beautiful slab today.

On this occasion, we review of the painful road we have gone through:

1) Deposit for tender : July 25, 2010

2) Tender accepted: Sept 2, 2010

3) Building contract: April 1, 2011

4) the first DA logged in: June 10, 2011 and approval on July 22, 2011

5) the second time DA (section 96) logged in: Sept 9, 2011

6) Approval Oct 26, 2011

7) CC Feb 7,2012 (still very angry about 2,5 months -excluding Xmas break- waiting for CC)

8) Site start: Feb 17, 2012

9) Slab: April 4, 2012


PICTURE TIME:

Today,  we have 4 guys working on the site, I think it is normal number of workers for slab day

We have an upgrade H type class classification of slab

Tomorrow I will have a meeting with SS and discuss about the frame adjustment and time line for another structure stage- the frame.

W 7 _D3: Slab is rescheduled for the second time

1)  Sat, Mar 31: the concretors don't want to work on our site just for 4 hours (8am -12 noon) to strictly comply the working hours by the council. Therefore, their scheduled working plan on Sat was again rescheduled on Mon and Tue, Apr 2-3. Accordingly, the slab date is again rescheduled on Wed, Apr 4.

2)  Today, the surveyors came to check about the preparation for slab and they found out that the concretors made our timber formwork a bit +50mm than the plan.

It is very good to know before piering, engineer came to check the digging size and then, before slab pouring, surveyors came to check the timber formwork

3) In summary, we have spent longer extra days to get the formworks done for the slab pouring

- 1 day for piering ==> normal time line
- 1 day for digging for Drop Edge Beam ==> not sure was it a normal time line? (I forgot this job in the original posted yesterday )
- 4 days for timber, steel and waffle pods preparation ==> slowly time line as there was 1 guy for the first day and 2 guys for other 3 days (Commonly, there is 3 guys working for this job)

4) Our base and slab are also a bit different from normal ones

- slab type: H (commonly M)
- slab height: 90mm (commonly 85)
- piering diameter: 500mm (commonly 400mm)

PICTURES TIME:

Only two guys working on the site. It is said they organized for 3 guys but Adam did not want to ...work since the fist day for timber preparation.

Uncompleted preparation of steel and waffle pods after the first working day

Uncompleted preparation of steel, waffle pods and timber after the second working day

I'm still struggling to understand why they were not able to complete the whole job within 3 days as I red many blogs where people needed over 1 day to get the job done. However, we trust we are having a very solid base for the new dream house.

Week 7 (Friday Mar 30 __Thursday Apr 5)

1) Planning

* Friday Mar 30: form-work with steel and waffle pods (part 1)
* Sat Mar 31: form-work with steel and waffle pods (part 2 to complete)
* Mon Apr 2: slab
* Tue-Wed Apr 3-4: retaining wall
* Thurs Apr 5: frame delivery

2) Jobs couldn't be done on the schedule:

* Internal plumb was on Mon Mar 25 while it was scheduled on Tue Mar 26
* Formwork with steel and waffle pods were scheduled on Wed and Thur Mar 28-29 but postponed on the following days  due to the contractors' new job

* It rained on Wed Mar 28 adding 8 days on the building duration

Pictures update
Dirt mountain was removed and timber work + internal pipes were done

On Mar 27, Steels were laid outside the site which is not right location for our construction materials

W 6 _D5: Painful variation so far

I have roughly written about our known and unexpected variation in the previous posts. As I red the link for Fowler Homes review ( http://www.productreview.com.au/r/fowler-homes/217957.html#comment) , I have reorganized that  not only me but others have also suffered such "variation". Therefore, I would like to write in details about our variation issue so possible Fowler Homes customers can be better aware of their tenders and provisional estimation.....

1) excess soil removal 

Ok, Fowler can't give us an exact number of soil removal. But Fowler can roughly estimate our soil removal as it is not top secret at all providing that  they have a contour survey  and they have a plan for cut and fill on our site.

a) excess soil from our site cut: 5 loads= 60 tones
b) excess soil from our underground rain water tank:  7 loads= 84 tones. The hole size for such tanks are clearly known in advance so that the estimated excess soil is not difficult. 
c) excess soil from our Drop Edge Beam (mainly) and piers (lightly): 10 loads= 120 tones

*In total, we had 22 loads of soil removal = $5,5k  variation cost

2) extra piering

As I previously wrote, we have to pay about $4k for extra piering as  Fowler located our underground rain water tank around the zone of influence.

The below reasons show that Fowler really got us down in this tank issue:
a) The simple rule is people always avoid to locate their tanks around the sewer line as if the tank is within 2.6m area from the sewer line, then $4k-$6k extra piering is required.

b) Fowler did locate our tank in the zone of influence, this fact is definitely not impressed but Wisdom homes also did the same  for their clients. However, the difference is Wisdom homes have advised their clients about extra piering while Fowler did NOT advise any single word.

Wisdom customers only suffered a delay as Wisdom homes applied again (at Wisdom cost) for another location of the tank providing that their customers don't accept such extra piering

c) our extra piering is $4k

***** our variation for excess soil removal and extra piering is $9,5k

3) The underground rain water tank cost

a)  Fowler charged the tanks at $17,3k + crane cost which Fowler have yet advised.

In the previous post, I wrote the tank cost for $21k.  Actually, the tanks fee is $2,2k design + $20k tank= $22,2k + GST. However, Fowler did provide credit for their standard tank at $6,3k +GST.

b) other builders charge much cheaper from $11k - $15k including crane cost. Only AVJenning charged a bit more expensive.

Week 6 (Fri, Mar 23 - Thurs, Mar 29)

1) Completed piering and digging Drop Edge Beam

2) Timber formwork will be on Monday, Mar 26.

* Need to catch up with SS to confirm for H-class slab, dirt removal date and internal plumbing date

* I hope the site will be drier than last Fri, Mar 23 though we had two light showers on Sun, Mar 25

3) Internal plumbing
I really hope SS will re-organize the wet area for us. We won't have a drama here.

4) Arrange still and waffle pods

5) Slab
We hope we will have a slab before it rain again.

Other notes for Week 7

* Frame delivery will be on Thurs Apr 5
* Retaining wall building will be on Tue Apr 3-Wed Apr 4

** Mon Mar 19 was rain hence adding so far 7 days on the build duration

Our wonderful SS and second excavtion after piering

After a very painful "paper work" journey of 18 months, I'm very conservative and get well prepared for another tough construction journey. However, I have gradually and pleasantly recognized  our SS has so far been very professional and a man of his work .

I'm very much impressed that he is very brave and professional to change his planning as the new circumstance is coming up  to make the most efficient solution for us and Fowler over our first  5 weeks journey.

This is the second time he did change his own big plan to make the best solution for us and Fowler.

On last Friday (Mar 16) noon, he advised us that we would have second excavation before piering because our site was not leveling anymore due to the installation of the underground 15000 liters rain water tanks. However, we suffered a very heavy rain on that Friday night. As a sequence, our site again had several "lake" and very muddy as our soil is red clay (active clay). If that  plan (piering after second excavation) was carried out, our muddy site would be messy again after piering and then we would need the third excavation. Hence, on Monday (Mar 19) he immediately changed his Mar 16 plan  that we will have the second excavation after piering. As a result, we have very beautiful site condition, we couldn't be happier.

Piering in several places are still very wet today

Second excavation has made our site really beautiful

After  piering and particularly digging for Drop Edge Beam, we "got"  a very huge mountain of soil

 This dirt "mountain" will again cost us a fortune!
Our site cost has painfully broken our pocket. We have know as we were in the tender stage that our site cost certainly would be expensive including unfixed price for dirt removal, retaining wall and extra piering. However, the extra amount of these 3 items are actually further  beyond our estimation. Furthermore, we need to pay for unexpected jobs including crane cost for the underground rain water tank and extra piering for the tank location in the zone of influence