Now, something's not quite right with this one. There's maybe 3 of these on the first floor. Past the frame, you can see the 12mm of backyard space we have (OK, maybe slightly more than that...) towards the neighbour to the rear. We'll flag these at the frame inspection, if they're not fixed up by then.
Also, if you look just beyond this failing noggin, there's a cutout in the flooring - that's for the flush tiled shower base in the bathroom. Apparently now you can choose to have totally flush tiled shower bases - absolutely no step or raised section between shower base and the tiled floor. Hopefully it works (without any leakage!!) as we have this flushed option in the bathroom and ensuite showers.
Now this one is a little trickier. I mean, it's pretty level, positioned just above the line marker you can see on the right stud (noggins generally stagger above and below the line marker, as you might make out on the next stud wall behind this one). However, as you can see, on the right of this noggin there's a gap of about 10mm. I'm wondering if we can flag this one at frame inspection for a replacement - any thoughts, people?
We had a look at the Tribeca open for inspection yesterday (see earlier post). Only a couple of years old, and generally quite nicely done internally, but of course a few things that stood out...
- There were tiles and floorboards on the ground floor - and the floorboards were about an inch higher than the tiles! A definite difference in level, and enough that you could just about stub a toe on the difference. Another reason why you should just have one flooring option on the ground floor, especially if there are open, joined spaces.
- Felt quite small in some areas - the study was packed full of stuff, with dark walls. If you're selling your house, especially one that's asking better than $1m, move all your crap out into storage! However, their furniture was very good, and the kids rooms decorated very well. Also, having seen hundreds of display homes with high ceilings, the standard ceilings in this house were noticeably lower and rooms/hallways felt smaller.
- Very nice white plantation shutters to the bedrooms - love the look of them, but concerned that they won't block out all light (we must have a totally 100% blacked out master bedroom!). They were also PVC/plastic, not timber - which is great; as we've stayed in quite a few hotels with timber shutters, and every one of them were cracking and/or warping. Will have to enquire around for plastic/PVC shutters, and find out if there's any with any additional light blocking mechanisms. For example, see this pic with the shutters above the bath. The other thing is, that showerhead that's visible is barely 170cm high, I can't stand underneath it at all! Standard adjustable showerrails go to about 200cm, which should be OK for most people (but if you're extra tall, make sure you remember to move the showerhead rails up on your construction plans!)
We've got our fingers crossed for the roof to start up this week - let's keep the ball rolling!
B&T: The side fence needs to be removed because the garage wall will be built 150mm from the boundary/fenceline. For some reason I don't have a photo of it, but will get one up later. The fence has to be gone, otherwise they can't get the slab formwork/frame done correctly, plus there wouldn't be enough room to lay bricks for the wall otherwise. We got permission from the landlords of the next property to take it down & put it up again (this will be at your cost, don't expect them to pay for any of it!)
T&T
Hi T&T, re the noggins from our experience the SS was very good at picking out all the problems and getting them fixed before we had to say anything. All the damaged ones were fixed. We even had an up & down piece of wood (excuse my very technical term) that was too tall and therefore when they put it all together it sort of snapped and was then a 3 pieced jagged bit of wood going up & down but within a few days that was replaced too. Hopefully you'll have the same experience.
ReplyDeleteRe the flooring that was a different height that is the down fall of getting solid timber floors. They look and feel great but there is such a height difference (approx 40mm) from the concrete because they have to lay timber batons down first then putt he flooring on top. If you were building with a really expensive builder they would go to the trouble of making the concrete in the different rooms different heights. Otherwise you can lay MDF or another product down in the rooms without the timber to make the height not so bad. That is what has put us off solid and we think we're going to go with pre-fab timber. Looking good though! Also you asked how long it has taken to get to lock up and it has been approx 2 1/2 mths but that is because of the big christmas break where people didn't do much for about a month and we have all the timber panelling that needed to be done so if you aren't having any of that it will be quicker.
Saw SarahV's comment about solid timber flooring being 40mm.
ReplyDeleteI too am in this dilemma. I have found some more options:-
13mm solid timber on 12mm plywood = 25mm
That is still a decent step to the tiled floors of say 10mm
13mm solid timber glued direct to concrete slab = 14mm
Not sure if I like it glued. What if the glue starts to come free? Seen that with parquetry floors.
Or the "engineered floor" of 3mm of real timber on 10mm of ply plus 1mm of foam so stop the noise.
Any other thoughts??????
Floor-confused