DIY: Paving Part 2 - foundation

So the next part of paving is to put down a suitable foundation, something that won't move (much?) that will make things look all wonky later.

Some professionals will only lay paving on concrete, but that gets expensive rapidly - and if you're already going to put concrete, you might as well put down coloured, stamped or aggregate concrete and be done with it, I figure. Depending on how much paving you're putting down, some DIY websites suggest just levelling, putting down some sand, and then pavers on top. Because my "soil" in thge area was pretty crappy, full of builders rubble, clay, cracks etc, I figures I wanted something a little more solid than just sand, even though I was only doing a small (4 square meter) area for my BBQ.

So for my foundation I figured 1/2 cubic meter of crushed rock, compacted down, topped by 1/4 cubic meter of sand (about an inch) on top.

First, the crushed rock; I also put another sleeper in near the deck, and a couple of spare bits of wood on the sides to temporarily brace the crushed rock in place. Yes, the sleeper near the deck is slightly off, which annoys me no end - but I'm planning to make a little step down in merbau matching the deck later on anyway, which will cover that sleeper entirely.

Then spread a bit of sand on top. Check with your landscaping yard for appropriate sand to use, as there's a few different kinds.

So far, so good... next - the final part, laying the pavers.

[Recently we're also had someone in to lay turf in the backyard, and it was just finished - exciting! Finally, no more weeds taller than I am!]

t&t

DIY: Paving Part 1, setting out the paving area.

Well, we're almost at that magical time of the year, with long hot days, warms nights, mosquitoes... and BBQs! Having built my deck at exactly the wrong time of the year (middle of summer is no weather to be mixing concrete and screwing down decking boards!) I decided this year to get a head start on the next part of the outdoor area - the BBQ area.

It would be great to have the BBQ actually undercover, on the decked area, but our decking isn't that big to start off with, and with the table and chairs there isn't enough room for the BBQ anyway.

The plan was to either build a mini deck to the side of the original deck, or have some other area just for the BBQ. I also consider just putting down some crushed rock or Lilydale toppings - both are quick, cheap and easy, and being crushed rocks with fine dust or (in the case of Lilydale toppings) crushed limestone, both pack down hard to being a concrete equivalent, at least for the minor task of holding up a BBQ.

But I didn't really wants exposed crushed rock being the BBQ base, since there would be a likelihood of the fine stones being brought into the house (mess = not good, especially with a little dog running around) so a base of pavers was the way to go!

Part 1 of DIY paving - setting out the area you want to pave. (Actually, part 1 should be choosing your pavers, since I mucked things up a little, more on this later!)

*Standard disclaimer* I'm not a professional paver - in fact, before building this house I actually hated doing anything in the garden! While I've done my own research into how you should do paving, read further at your own risk!

Anyway....

So this is the area to the side of our deck. There's only about 2.5 metres to the side fence, and quite a slope down. The rough area I've dug out is about 2 x 2.5m. Because of the slight slope down to the fence, I though I'd set up a mini retaining wall, which would help retain the pavers - had a few leftover sleepers that needed to be used anyway.

Dug out a couple of holes for the vertical post things, which are just offcuts of sleepers, about 400mm deep. Bolted the main sleeper to the posts, and set things up level. If you look at the bottom of the sleeper it's still a bit green from the timber preservative brushed onto it, leftover from the deck build. Probably not needed, but doesn't hurt to be there as well.

Mix up a small batch of concrete - wheelbarrow, concrete mix, water, and a shovel.

Spoonfeed your concrete around your posts and do not disturb for a day or so.

Then went back and roughly levelled the dirt out.

Now, remember I said something about choosing your pavers first? I thought I'd use matching 400x400 pavers that would match the 400x200 pavers I used as stepping stones along the side of the house, but the big ones didn't look so good. We ended up picking 495 x 495 pavers instead, and if you set out your area for a different size of paver, clearly things may not match up so good!

Next up, Part 2 - paver foundations.

t&t

2 years in! A retrospective.

So as of today, we've been in our house 2 years! Here's a little retrospective to see how to build first went - lots of photos....!

The original house - 50 odd years old, asbestos everywhere, gaps in the floorboards large enough to see the dirt under the house. We forced ourselves to live in this house a few months in 2009!

Bye house! Only took about 30 minutes to drive a crane through it.

Ready for a new start. Old house gone, all utilities disconnected, and a very secure security fence installed.

Slab all poured up. I remember it didn't look that big when we first saw it!

Framing all complete - didn't take all that long to put it up, maybe a couple of weeks. Hot work in the summer of 2010.

Roof tiles all on, windows in, and ground floor wrapping underway.

Brickwork half done, scaffolding everywhere.

House bricking complete, cladding on first floor, garage roof yet to go on. We had fantastic brickies who did a perfect job, very happy with how it all turned out. They were old school, using string lines to get everything level.

Interior fitout commenced. Kitchen benches and cupboards in, no stone benchtops yet. Insulation and plasterwork mostly done, still waiting on doors, skirting, architraves etc.

Ensuite tiled up, waiting on taps and mirror. Great job by our tiler as well - everything level, no peaks/falls (non level tiles), nicely trimmed and cutout around frames etc.

Our stairs - or should I say, Tina's expensive stairs! Yep, they do look very modern and architectural - and they should, for the amount they cost!

The Sign. This should be compulsory at all building sites!

The Handover - Lights on! Almost at the end of a long, exciting, occasionally frustrating journey!

And of course, The Key(ring).

I kind of miss the excitement of building, now looking back at these photos. We're considering taking on a development opportunity, if we can find a site/land that's suitable and affordable, and either building a single luxury house to sell, or a duplex/townhouses. The general Australian economy of course will factor into things, so we'll see how it pans out. Now that we've gone through the process of building and are plenty more knowledgeable (we think!) then it might be nice to use that experience in another project. Should probably finish off our backyard before we think of doing any other work though!

Anyway, lots of pics in this post! Thanks to all the readers of our blog who have cheered us up with words of encouragement, and posted many questions which we've tried to answer appropriately. Good luck to anyone thinking of building (and I know I've been neglecting our sister-blog http://www.buildingprojecthomes.com/ which I have been meaning to update more often!) and we hope everyone who has taken the big step of building or redeveloping are having a great journey too!

t&t

Soft close door dampers, Paypal screws up yet again.

Just an update regarding our soft close door dampers - yes, we have the new design v2.0 door dampers back in stock! Removable soft-close cartridge can be directly installed into cabinetry, or use self-tapping screws to securely retrofit these soft-close mechanism to any cupboard or drawer in your kitchen, bathroom, ensuite, laundry etc!

We've been alerted by Shayne that the Paypal link is broken (thanks for the heads up!), and after closer investigation is seems that Paypal are continuing their grand tradition of f#cking things up for sellers. Anyway, long story short, you can still pay by Paypal if you must, but you have to follow the long instructions on our soft close door damper website. Or do a bank deposit, which is equally safe (registered post anywhere in Australia).

And apparently, this is the 300th post on this blog - hello to everyone still reading our (my) ongoing rants and raves!

t&t

DIY: Replacing your kitchen tap

So our new kitchen tap has been staring at me for a few weeks, while I've been happily procrastinating playing PS3 games - finally decided to get up and have a crack at replacing our crappy kitchen tap today.

 

  

I've said it before, I'll say it again - avoid upgrading anything through the builder that you can do yourself. We paid a couple hundred bucks to "upgrade" from the standard kitchen tap to this piece of cr@p Dorf Oasis spray mixer, and look at the just how much quality you get after a year of use, with all the braiding frayed, exposing the soft plastic hose inside.

To change it actually took a lot longer than I thought. Ideally you'll need a big wrench or two, a basin wrench, screwdrivers/hex drivers, spare towels, things to catch waste water in. Make sure you turn off the water from the internal taps located inside the kitchen cabinet first, disconnect all water lines to the tap and drain into containers.

Actually getting the old mixer out was a huge battle, since there was very limited space in the cabinet with our massive sinks getting in the way. I needed a sink wrench to reach way up under the sink to grab a tiny nut on a thread that was holding the tap in tplace, and with many hoses running into the tap in the same area it was hard going. If you have easy access to your tap from underneath the sink, things will be much easier for you!

  

After the old tap is removed, clean up the benchtop where it used to be,.

 

The final result... well, almost! This tap is retained in the benchtop a totally different way with a massive nut on a 35mm screw, and the plastic washer it came with was too big to fit under the sink, so at the moment it's held in only loosely. And of course, once I hooked up the new hot and cold water hoses, I found the hot hose had a crack/leak in it, so I need to get a replacement of that. Tomorrow,  a bit of fine tuning with a bench grinder on the washer, and a trip to a hardware store for a hose, and hopefully it'll all work out well!

Also ordered a new TV from JB Hifi online yesterday, and already having second thoughts about the whole process - should've walked into one of the stores and bought it that way, because their online store is truly craptactular. Logging into my account doesn't reveal my order, there's no contact phone number to call, and they don't return emails. No wonder we're all shopping online overseas, if this is the best an aussie company can do.

t&t