This is my first attempt at building a three story eight unit apartment complex. I thought I will post some information on progress for those that are interested.
To start with, we began tendering for the work around august last year after being referred to the client by Richard Luke (Mortgage Broker). We where not the cheapest however we ended up getting the contract as the client felt comfortable dealing with us.
We where due to start in October however, we discovered that the plans did not factor in a common party wall and the engineers has placed a water tank in an easement. This meant we had to go into negotiations with the neighbor to pull down a party wall and underpin his dwelling as we needed to excavate 3m on the boundary line for our basement car park and the neighbors dwelling is less than 1m from the boundary. After several discussions we finally got an agreement in late November. We did not see the point in cutting the site so late so we decided to start work in the new year.
The first step for the New Year was to appoint a site supervisor as we need someone on site on a permanent basis to ensure that things went smoothly. I ended up with a guy who has had a lot of experience with this kind of work and as a bonus he also has a lot of industry contacts.
The work site was always going to be a challenge due to its busy location on Ipswich Road, Annerley. We have been granted permission to use the council footpath for storage and scaffolding. The building foot print takes up almost all of the land.
The neighbor has been helpful by allowing us to place our site office on his block, use his power, toilet and water. Must be my charm
Since, cutting the site we also discovered that the neighbor has his storm water running across our site so more discussions are taking place to see who is responsible for the cost. The underpinning has now been completed and we will start some minor rectification work to the neighboring property. Once this is done we will build a separate core filled block party wall on the neighbors property and our dwelling block wall will sit approximately 20mm away. This was the only solution to the problem as the original party wall position was encroaching on our boundary by over 400mm therefore, if we where to retain the old wall we would have to reduce the size of the dwelling.
Thus far, things are moving along at a steady pace, the rain is making the clay site difficult to handle at times and the council inspector are circling the site like vultures waiting to slap us with a $10k fine if we track mud in the road. We have made friends with the local Sargent who drops by for a chat every now and then. So hopefully no traffic infringements for offloading materials on a no standing zone.
I am surprised by the mistakes made by architects and engineers. It appears they work off council records and they have ignored actual site conditions. These oversights have led to changes to the plans and extra cost to client.
I hope you find this of interest, if so I can keep you posted on future progress.
To start with, we began tendering for the work around august last year after being referred to the client by Richard Luke (Mortgage Broker). We where not the cheapest however we ended up getting the contract as the client felt comfortable dealing with us.
We where due to start in October however, we discovered that the plans did not factor in a common party wall and the engineers has placed a water tank in an easement. This meant we had to go into negotiations with the neighbor to pull down a party wall and underpin his dwelling as we needed to excavate 3m on the boundary line for our basement car park and the neighbors dwelling is less than 1m from the boundary. After several discussions we finally got an agreement in late November. We did not see the point in cutting the site so late so we decided to start work in the new year.
The first step for the New Year was to appoint a site supervisor as we need someone on site on a permanent basis to ensure that things went smoothly. I ended up with a guy who has had a lot of experience with this kind of work and as a bonus he also has a lot of industry contacts.
The work site was always going to be a challenge due to its busy location on Ipswich Road, Annerley. We have been granted permission to use the council footpath for storage and scaffolding. The building foot print takes up almost all of the land.
The neighbor has been helpful by allowing us to place our site office on his block, use his power, toilet and water. Must be my charm
Since, cutting the site we also discovered that the neighbor has his storm water running across our site so more discussions are taking place to see who is responsible for the cost. The underpinning has now been completed and we will start some minor rectification work to the neighboring property. Once this is done we will build a separate core filled block party wall on the neighbors property and our dwelling block wall will sit approximately 20mm away. This was the only solution to the problem as the original party wall position was encroaching on our boundary by over 400mm therefore, if we where to retain the old wall we would have to reduce the size of the dwelling.
Thus far, things are moving along at a steady pace, the rain is making the clay site difficult to handle at times and the council inspector are circling the site like vultures waiting to slap us with a $10k fine if we track mud in the road. We have made friends with the local Sargent who drops by for a chat every now and then. So hopefully no traffic infringements for offloading materials on a no standing zone.
I am surprised by the mistakes made by architects and engineers. It appears they work off council records and they have ignored actual site conditions. These oversights have led to changes to the plans and extra cost to client.
I hope you find this of interest, if so I can keep you posted on future progress.
