You don't want to believe everything you hear Sky!

(Except from me)



Buzzy

sounds great.... i think i would sooner use an individual builder rather than one of the big boys. how was the price comparable wol? its the price thats putting me off approaching somebody local.

We laugh about the standards of house builds here compared to Canada. Our builder is going to "upgrade" our insulation because we're building in an N3 wind area to R3 instead of the standard R2. Where we come from, R30 is the minimum code requirement.
We wanted to go with a small builder, but the bank won't lend us the money unless it's one of the more established companies. (Haven't been working long and don't have much downpayment)

His quote came in within $22k of our estimate: we have a 5% contingency in our spreadsheet and we think - think! - we'll be roughly within budget by completeion. Lot depends on the landscaping, irrigation and carpeting costs. It's not a project home so the costs are higher than we could have built for but it's the end of the line for us!

People don't believe you when you tell them that Australian countryside is not all sand, beach scrub or desert.

Might be headed that way of course(!)

Don't confuse two different R-unit measurements. R-30 in Canada uses the non-SI method of measuring insulation factors while in Australia they use the international standard (SI) insulation factors, which are ~5.67 times lower than non-SI factors. Thus, R2 in Australia is equivalent to ~R11 in Canada, and R3 would be ~R17. To get to your R-30 from Canada you would need to move to approximately R5 in Australia. Obviously R3 is still lower than R-30 in Canada, but the climate is a big factor in that. In some places in Australia insulation would likely be used more to keep the cool in rather than the ice and snow out!

Cheers,
Brian (a Canadian currently living in the southern US where home insulation standards also suck)

I agree that the homes here are meant to keep the heat out rather than in, but in winter it does get good and cold here. While most of us from Canada think that 8C is wonderful for the middle of winter, it actually feels very cold. Especially when you have single pane windows and doors that have no weatherstripping around them. The building standards here are much different to those in North America.

Down here the problem *is* keeping the heat in! I've been a damn sight colder in Oz than I ever was in Canada, where they build for the cold!

I wasn't disagreeing that poorly insulated houses feel a lot colder even in more temperate climates. I have the same problem here in the US where in the winter we're typically in the 5-10C range during the day. Our house feels a lot colder than my house in Canada felt. Houses here typically have R13 (~R2 in Australia) walls and R30 (~R5 in Australia) attic space insulation, which is pretty pathetic if you ask me. Our heating biills are a lot more expensive because they won't spend a little extra money putting in better insulation. If I were building a home myself I would put the extra money in to upgraded insulation as you'll save all that money and more over the long term.

Cheers,
Brian

Exactly. We went to the home show a couple of weeks ago here in Adelaide and saw a wrap type of insulation. We're thinking of buying it and doing it ourselves after the framing is up but before the bricks go on. I've already told the builder that I intend on doing a couple of little things to the house during the build and they seem fine with it. Guess I'll just have to make sure they are alright with me adding extra insulation.
We arrived here in August and the temperature when we left Toronto was 39C at 5 in the morning. Landed 30 hours later and it was 12C in Adelaide. I have never felt so cold in my life. And I lived in Winnipeg for a while where the temperatures are routinely -30
I think our heating and air conditioning bills would be much less with proper insulation and in the process being more environmentally friendly.

Yeah, I think I was in Windsor at the time of that massive heat wave in Canada back in August where they set record highs for a lot of the province. Transitioning from summer in NA to winter in Australia is not the way you should move over! It would be much nicer to leave Canada in the winter and arrive to a nice toasty warm Australian summer!

Speaking of Winnipeg, I actually grew up there, and you're right it gets freaking cold there in the winter; although, I don't seem to remember my house growing up being cold at all. Maybe our furnace just ran all the time! However, I do remember when my parents replaced our "old" double glazed windows with "new" TRIPLE glazed windows back in the late 70's! That's something I bet you'll never find in Australia!

Cheers,
Brian

You won't even find double glazed here.
I remember one time standing on Portage Rd waiting for a bus and my earring got frozen to my ear because it was so cold and my ear was exposed. Guess that won't be happening here any time soon.

We're having the highest available roof, wall and pipe insulation plus lowE double glazed aluminium thermal break windows. Marmox insulation below some tiled floors too: should be reasonably warm. It's the 2" gaps under the outside doors here which freak me out!

Sounds like you'll be nice and toasty in winter anyway. So are you from Canada too, Wol?

Oh no, but I used to go there quite often. Hypothermia rules!