Double brick for second storey?

[jrok]

I live in Sydney and know absolutely nothing about building. I am renovating my home which has so far housed 5 generations of my family. We have no intention of selling in the future. We don't want to over capitalise but want to make it as close to our dream home as possible. I don't want my children to have to undertake major renovations on the property in future. It is a single storey, 3 bedroom, long and narrow, 244 square metre block. We want to keep 2 bedrooms at the front down stairs and then open plan the ground level and add a second storey upstairs wih 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.

My first of many trillions of questions is..... What material should we use to construct the second storey?

Brick will be the strongest right? But it will also add many many dollars to the renovations as work will be required downstairs to support the upstairs. Approximately how much more would brick cost? It will also eat up value mms up there won't it?

What other options do we have? Are they durable? Will they last as long as brick? eg. would blue board with a timber frame be adequate? How many years does this last? Is Hebel much better than blue board and why?

If it was your house, what would you do? Is it worth paying the extra money for brick or is that unnecessary?

 

[jrok]

Hi jrok. Wow, I can see that you have had an overwhelming response to your email. There's some great advice there for you to think about. It was definitely worth the time you took to register and compose your email. Where would you be without this website? What a vast source of building expertise you now have access to. It has been such a great help to you. I am sure you will visit next time you are looking for some advice on a matter regarding your property. Good luck!!

 

[jaycee]

A lot those with building experience must have had a busy weekend

 

[wylie]

Was your second sarcastic post really necessary. What about a nice friendly reminder, or even allowing more time. The right person just may not have read your question yet. Sheesh .

 

[jaycee]

was your post any more necessary wylie ? sheesh

not the worst post / reply I have read on this forum (forget other forums !) by a long shot

 

[wylie]

Possibly not, but I believe that nobody would bother answering the question now, after reading the follow up .

 

[battler]

I live in Sydney and know absolutely nothing about building. I am renovating my home which has so far housed 5 generations of my family. We have no intention of selling in the future. We don't want to over capitalise but want to make it as close to our dream home as possible. I don't want my children to have to undertake major renovations on the property in future. It is a single storey, 3 bedroom, long and narrow, 244 square metre block. We want to keep 2 bedrooms at the front down stairs and then open plan the ground level and add a second storey upstairs wih 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.

This may require development approval, it would pay to run this past council first.

My first of many trillions of questions is..... What material should we use to construct the second storey?

You could use timber or steel framing, with brick veneer cladding, weatherboard, hardieplank,weathertex, blueboard or corrugated iron and most people have gyprok or plasterboard lining.

Brick will be the strongest right? But it will also add many many dollars to the renovations as work will be required downstairs to support the upstairs.

Unless it's double brick it's not load bearing, only a cladding and subject to cracking from movement. When going two storey, the current ceiling joists will need to be upgraded with the extra load trasnsfered back down to the footings, which may also need upgrading.

Approximately how much more would brick cost?

More than what? How many bricks in the job?

If it was your house, what would you do?

Rent it.

Sorry for the delay in responding, but it is Sunday and I had to play the organ for the parson.

 

[RumpledElf]

Timber frame clad in hebel is pretty common upstairs, its got insulating properties blueboard or weatherboard don't have and its lighter than brick so you don't need to reinforce the downstairs so much. Needs rendering or painting though. No matter what you pick, as per above you need the ceiling joists etc reinforced.

Adding second stories does tend to get horribly expensive compared to extending out sideways ...

 

[gg1965]

What is your current roof space like? What is the pitch of the roof?

If you have good roof space and a steep roof, then you could save a LOT of money by building a "cape cod" style extension in your existing roof space. insulate the roof area and and seal it off and you may pick up a couple of extra rooms up there very cheaply.

This is a cheap way of adding extra space, but if you want to add plumbing up there then it starts to get more expensive. Is it possible for you to add an extra bathroom and dunny on the ground floor and then also build in your existing roof space?

 

[The Y-man]

I
My first of many trillions of questions is..... What material should we use to construct the second storey?

Jrok,

What is the construction of the current home? Is it double brick or brick veneer?

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[RumpledElf]

What is your current roof space like? What is the pitch of the roof?

If you have good roof space and a steep roof, then you could save a LOT of money by building a "cape cod" style extension in your existing roof space. insulate the roof area and and seal it off and you may pick up a couple of extra rooms up there very cheaply.

Yeah, I tossed up doing that at my old house but we didn't need the space there, it was just a silly idea. The roofspace is more than big enough for some rooms, the ceiling 'joists' span 10 metres and are crazily thick hardwood (think entire trees hewn square) so it wouldn't take much to put a second floor up there, it would just need lining, insulation and skylights. There's even room for a staircase without changing the floorplan or losing space at all.

Try the same in THIS house and you'd practically have to rebuild it from the ground up first. Really depends on the house, this is a very vague thread.

 

[The Y-man]

Jrok,

What is the construction of the current home? Is it double brick or brick veneer?

Cheers,

The Y-man

Hi Y-man,

Wow, I can see the original poster isn't responding now. It was definitely worth your time responding.....

The Y-man

 

[Aaron Sice]

What is your current roof space like? What is the pitch of the roof?

If you have good roof space and a steep roof, then you could save a LOT of money by building a "cape cod" style extension in your existing roof space. insulate the roof area and and seal it off and you may pick up a couple of extra rooms up there very cheaply.

i believe the term is "loft".

asuming a 3bedder been in the family for generations would be a ex-federation style home - so safe to assume 35º pitch.

still on 244sqm the pitch still wouldn't be enough to incorporate a loft.

nothing wrong with timber and steel framing - double brick is an overkill and not as thermally efficient anyway (double brick has an R value of just 0.7 whereas R3.0 batts in a timber frame will give 3.5!!!).

WA is obsessed with double brick everything. it's really not great to work with an is utter madness in our climate. maybe in the wheatbelt it'd be better , but still, the R Value is shocking.

i would think if this first and foremost if you want your kids to not have to spend money on it in the future. insulating double brick is pointless - you can have something for half the cost that does a better job in framing.

food for thought.

 

[Ausprop]

BC you have just aggravated every major project home builder in WA! how dare you expose the truth? brick is very efficient... on a nice day, when the house is aligned right, and lined with batts on both sides and and and

 

[Aaron Sice]

yeah! lol - and but and but and but ...

oh and don't forget that half the WA housing economy comes from Austral and Midland...i wonder who scratches whose back sometimes.