Steve2009

That strikes me as a bit amateurish. What builder or architect spells "metre box" wrong? This illustration made me laugh...

Did she run through the car as it pulled out? Looks odd.

Gjn200

I think the main reason people say the house is cold/hot/costs a fortune to heat/cool even on a new build house is not because of the build methods, it's becouse most of our houses are single story and bigger that what we had in the UK. Where do you gain/loose most heat? Through the roof. Huge roof? well what do you expect!

And as for it costing a fortune to run, people have a house twice as big as they did in the UK but don't think they should pay twice as much to run it. Go figure......

Me? Speced R7 in the roof and R2 in the walls and all is fine.

ukecadet

like the concept but needs more thought on the aesthetics.looks like a load of portaloos have been bolted together.

Steve Portelli

Hi, Suggest you visit the display villiages of homes to get a feel for quality and price. You are welcome to check out my web site www.perthnewhomes.com and look under Tools and Resources; there are lots of tips and advice on what to look out for. There is a House and land calcultor as well to check out the hidden costs...good luck and if building in Perth sing out. Cheers, steve

Gongville

Thank you all for your replies. We are in the Wollongong area and are feeling the cold at the moment!

Building our own is becoming more apealing after viewing a few more dud open houses today. How easy is it to get planning if you want to knock down the old house and build new?

Has anyone tried underfloor heating here? Maybe linked to a solar heating system?

Steve Portelli

Knocking down an old home and rebuilding is as easy as starting with a vacant block...Firstly make sure you get quotes closer to the time of demolishing as they will charge like wounded bulls if it is fair time out. i suggest you speak to your prospective builder and they can give you some tips. .In perth we don't have extremes of temperature as much as the colder states where heating is an issue.
Cheers and good luck, steve

ozhappy981

We built our own house in Perth with APG, a project builder. They are part of the Dale Alcock, Webb Brown-Neaves etc company.

We chose one of their designs which had an L-shaped footprint. We then changed the downstairs and upstairs lay-out completely - only the kitchen is in the original place.

Before we signed the contract we also specified a number of items with regards to the construction of the house, such as:

- Double glazing (from Perth Double Glazing). These are German (Koemmerling) uPVC units with 6.38mm outside pane and 4mm inside pane.

- All outside doors also from Perth Double Glazing. They are UK uPVC doors with steel inside.

- Cavity wall insulation (house is double-brick construction throughout).

- R6.0 ceiling insulation batts plus the "silverfoil stuff" (forgot the name) insulation directly underneath the roof tiles to reduce the heat in summer.

Once APG agreed to all of the above, we signed the contract.

During the build we hired an independent builidng inspector who came and inspected the house four times at key points in the build to make sure everything was okay and doen to our specification (we aren't builders ourselves).

We've now lived in the house for nearly a year (28 May it'll be one year). During last year's winter we only had the heating on for part of the day for two days (we have reverse cycle air-con for heating).

Having proper double glazing again is fantastic .

APG were fantastic throughout the process and I would not hesitate to recommend them and we'd build with them again.

This is a great website for looking at display homes in WA:
http://www.displayhomeswa.com.au/

carzinoz

In this area I think the biggest influence on heating costs is whether you are towards the beach or half way up the escarpment. My pals who live on the escarpment have a beautiful house and pool. Great in the summer but it gets no sun in the winter AT ALL because the sun goes down behind the escarpment much earlier where she is than for those houses further down. She's just been sitting here luxuriating in the sun streaming in my north facing window, toasty

Scotty1

We have a hydronic gas boosted underfloor heating system being installed as we speak. It heats the slab and has a constant radiant heat over winter. A few houses here have it and the heat it generates is really good, esp if you hate blowing heat like I do!
Rough cost is $15-20k to install which is about the same as reverse cycle - which is why most people go for reverse cycle!
If you do go with this option you need to think about your floor covering. All the bumpf says it will go with any floor type, but it works best with tiles - I would not use it on wood for example.
We investigated the solar bit too - but do you really want limited heating when there is little sun? Gas boosted (so its tops up the heat with a gas boost) is a safer bet
Good luck

bumble69

So this indicative cost; is it on the basis of owner-building?

I guess this is per sq metre of usable space (so a 50m2 footprint with 2 storeys would be equivalent of 100m2 minus the necessary deductions for stairs etc).

Also, would this indication hold for extensions too?

Appreciate it depends on many factors but I'm looking at 'fag packet' numbers at the moment.

Buzzy--Bee

Very indicative, but buying from a project home builder will cost you $600 - $1000 per sqm, buying from a bespoke builder $1000 - $1500+, and owner building $500 - $1500 depending on your spec and how much you will be doing yourself. Clearly if you are going to pour your own foundations and do your own brickwork you will pay a lot less than if you sub these.

If you want to meet up and have a chat about this I'm only round the corner from you.

BB

Family of 3

Whoops. Meant to PM

bumble69

That's useful, thanks. I may well take you up on that offer - I need to clarify in my mind what we are looking at.

Kim67

They look just like a modern version of a Nissan Hut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissen_hut

Kim67

After reading on, it seems Creature and others have already said this.