adaran01 said:
As far as roofing is concerned, it must be a state thing because in SA I don't think there is any such thing as a roofing trade, that is why the industry is full of cowboys.
Hi Adaran
This is off the smelly drains track, but while it is commendable for us all to 'give it a go', there are nonetheless rules & regulations which I did not compile but which I, as everybody else, are bound by.
One set of regulations is the Building Code of Australia, which now incorporates AS3500, which is the Plumbing Standard.
Therefore, throughout Australia, roofed structures must have permits and stormwater drainage if over a certain size.
Windload on roofed structures can be quite severe, and above latitude 23o is considered to be in cyclone areas and thus roofing structure is critical.
It's great that we think we can be a law unto ourselves. However, if our 'handyman' roof ends up in the neighbours loungeroom they may not be very pleased.
The BCA has evolved over time and is there to establish the engineering requirements for work. Ditto Electrical codes. I have a bit of a thing about electricity and death, but maybe I'm just squeamish.
I'd rather pay Ray, my friendly electrician, $150 to install a powerpoint, than to do a handyman job which resulted in a fire or someone's death. As a landlord I have had complete rewires done and thrown out enormous quantities of handyman wiring cos I'd rather have my tenants alive than fried to a crisp.
Anyway, the Spartans died out because of their unfortunate social habit of killing the messenger. If we all just sat about saying 'tut tut silly old rules well what about that, then' we would still be back in the dark ages.
The fact that Australia has some of the safest housing in the world is because we have taken the trouble to develop a set of building codes and more importantly adhere to those codes.
I make no apology for thinking that building regulations are important.
Cheers
Kristine
I have disabled the reputation thingy so you can all save your negative reputation votes for someone else.