'Intro' call from our Site Supervisor - Frame Started

This afternoon we got a surprise call from our SS (Site Supervisor).

He called to introduce himself and advise that he has officially taken over from the Slab Supervisor. We were also happy to hear that the framing for the walls will be complete by C.O.B tomorrow.

Unfortunately, there is a delay with the supply of the roof trusses meaning framing won't be complete till the end of this month.

He asked if I have any questions and I briefly mentioned the unresolved issues we still have outstanding. Seems that he will follow them up first thing tomorrow. Was very happy to hear that!

Cheers!

Site prepared and plumbing damaged for boxing....

Another quick update. 

This afternoon (3 pm) will be our pre-pour/foundation inspection. So yesterday we went to the block and to our surprise boxing had not yet been started. 

We did notice that some 'prep work' was done. Pier holes drilled (not filled), gravel laid over site and step downs re-introduced. It seems that whilst they were drilling the piers they damaged the plumbing for the laundry drain. They also damaged the plumbing for the down pipe on the garage external door side. I've made our Slab Supervisor and Building Co-ordinator aware of these and we have been told that they will be rectified by this afternoon. 

Apparently it takes less than a full day to box the site for slab pour.... Let's wait and see if that happens. 

Holes for piers drilled. Laundry drain missing. 

Damaged downpipe drain near garage external entry door. Drain for 'study' room in the garage. 

Portico step down still 150 mm (assuming by comparison to garage 63 mm step down)

Pre-slab plumbing and electrical progressing...

Quick update. It seems that they have progressed well with the pre-slab plumbing and electrical work in the last two days. 

Few photos below. 

Site scrape photos

Last week, I ended up concentrating too much on the height of the slab instead of the works that had been done on our block.

We went out again today and took some photos. Enjoy! 

Alfresco area:

Front cut depth:

Shot from the back alfresco side:

Site works halt 3 days into the build... We're off to a good start!

Many of the followers and regular visitors of this blog would know that our site works officially commenced exactly three days ago. You might also have noticed that after looking at our cut site that I had a bit of a hunch that something was not right. Well.. I was right.

After checking our final construction drawings yesterday I noticed that the floor level has been dropped by 200 mm from our contract drawings. This set off some alarms and I immediately proceeded to email my building coordinator and text my slab supervisor.

Unfortunately, that's all I could as it was after hours and that meant another sleepless night caused by our build. Being human, questions start to arise. Did I read the drawings correctly? Why did I miss this? Why did they do/miss this? etc...

This morning I waited anxiously for an email or phone call. That didn't happen. I wasn't going to wait as I knew I didn't have much time to react.

Finally, I managed to get through to my slab supervisor and building coordinator. After explaining the situation, they both agreed that they needed to look into this further and have called a meeting first thing tomorrow morning. Attendees will be our BC, SS and one more member in charge of siting and floor level designs at the PD Keilor office. Luckily, we all agreed that works will be stopped until this is rectified. I was very assertive about this as they had deviated from our contract drawings without any Building Variation (BV).

Since the site has been cut already, there are really only a few options that I can think of to rectify this (if they agree):

1. Fill, compact and raise the platform for the slab
2. Increase the thickness and in turn the height of the concrete floors

I would really appreciate some feedback of which would be the better solution of the two. Please comment or PM me if you can help. 

Thanks for reading and sorry about the essay!

Site cut complete

Hi All,

Went out (again!) today to have a look at the block and found that the site has been cut. I am a little concerned about the height of the garage floor to the footpath so I have posted my question on the homeone forum hoping that someone with the expertise can help me understand our drawings better.

My current understanding is that the garage floor should be ~40mm higher than the footpath.

http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=75949

Here are some more photos:

Phone call with our slab supervisor

After heading out to our site yesterday and seeing that they had begun works, I decided to make a call to our Slab Supervisor.

Being used to the lack of communication from previous PD staff I have dealt with (our first Building Co-ordinator) I was expecting a short conversation and to be 'snubbed off'. Boy was I wrong!

He (Slab supervisor) was very helpful and took as much time as required to answer all my questions and concerns. Here are some of the questions/concerns I had and the answers I was given:

1. Foundation quality of work: I was assured that he has selection of contractors that he has worked with closely before and only accepts high quality of work from them. He also explained that the slab built by PD uses almost 9 tonne of steel instead of the minimum requirement of 6 tonne for a similar build to mine. 

2. Slab heave: He told me that he has had lots of experience with slab heave (even with his personal property) and that he believes that there are many factors to the cause of this. The factors he raised were site drainage (tick!), quality of foundation work (tick!) and correct design of slab including reinforcement amount (tick!). He has ensured me that all pre-cautions will be taken to build a high quality foundation for our home with correct site drainage. 

3. Slab pour date/pre-pour inspection: He was more than happy for me to pass his details to our Independent Inspector (Darbecca) for them to co-ordinate the pre-pour inspection without me being a 'messenger boy'. The slab pour date is expected on 03/03/2015.

I must say, I was quite impressed and relieved after this conversation. Of course I couldn't note down the entire ~30mins phone call but the above points cover the most important topics. 

Here's hoping that all goes well with our foundation work and slab pour. After all, it is the most important part of the house.