Recent content by norwoodman

Concrete cancer (spalling is the correct technical term) isn't usually unsafe unless left to deteriorate to a situation such that it becomes widespread in the steel reinforcing. It's caused by insufficient concrete cover to the steel reinforcing, which results in the steel corroding and...

For public transport related infrastructure projects: http://ptv.vic.gov.au/projects/ For road related infrastructure projects: https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/planning-and-projects/melbourne-road-projects Most of the projects listed are quite minor in nature, but there are some larger...

Adelaide doesn't really have any suburbs that stand out as being strongly dominated by Chinese owner-occupiers, although the city centre does have a small concentration of Chinese investor buying in the new apartment buildings - there is the cluster of Vietnamese influenced suburbs to the...

Compared with Koongal and Depot Hill, Berserker and Park Avenue are not generally all that bad. They are still a fair way short of The Range or the eastern end of Frenchville though.

As part of the earthquake repair works in Christchurch for houses that have suffered from land settlement, I come across the Uretek relevel systems all the time, and they are generally pretty reliable at re-levelling to within +/-2mm. The Uretek systems often are applied with the use of computer...

And the new cycle begins once again with the new oil refinery announcement: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-19/plans-for-oil-refinery-in-gladstone/6480980?WT.ac=statenews_qld http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/community-leaders-give-project-the-thumbs-up/2642943/?ref=hs

Auckland region median price growth in the year to end of March 2015 was 13%.

This sort of thing already goes on in Australia - some banks already require higher deposits in some mining towns and also in the larger centres of Mackay and Gladstone.

Basically anything much smaller than Mildura, Shepparton or Gladstone: http://blog.id.com.au/2014/population/australian-population/the-50-largest-australian-cities-and-towns-by-population/

Across the older suburbs of Queensland, rectangular plots of 16 (405m2), 24 (607m2) and 32 perch (809m2) were quite common. 40 perch (1012m2) isn't too uncommon either. Quite a lot of the 32 perch properties consist of a single dwelling sitting across two 16 perch lots.

Highly reactive soils that expand and contract a lot, which can result in excessive heaving and sagging in foundations over time and can cause cracking in inadequately designed foundations due to differential movement.

By Queensland, do you mean just Brisbane or actually mean Queensland, or south east Queensland...? There's at least a dozen major markets all doing different things around Queensland at the moment.

Planning on taking the regular milk out of the coffee machine at work and substituting for strawberry milk instead.

Google Maps recent street view update (January 2015) might provide a bit of a clue to all the empty lots still around in the newer parts on the southern fringe of Gladstone.

^^^This. Some of the most success individuals I know are people who have come from engineering backgrounds, but are not longer in the consulting or contracting sides of engineering business - they've left and gone on to do other things.