# Forum More Stuff Go to Whoa!  Our Reno/Extension

## swanning_it

I'm not too sure if anyone is particularly interested in this, but we've embarked on a very slow paced renovation/extension. 
I guess to explain somewhat, we have identified a crucial flaw in the combined character traits of myself (Ian) and my wife (Lisa). If we have money, spare cash....available credit on a card.......20c in the car ashtray.........we spend it  :Cry: . Years ago, we learnt that to get ahead, we had to forget saving and embrace poverty  :Biggrin: .  
Yes poverty........we do that well, so why not capitalise on it! Since we spend regardless, why not spend on capital. Keep ourselves broke by spending on property. We've done this, so far with 3 houses and 3 units (all on-sold long ago) with a degree of success so 9 years ago (nothing happens quickly with us) we bought a reno on a nice block of land and started the idea stage of this, our latest (and hopefully our last) renovation. We always like to get the feel for a place first by living there and then deciding the possibilities. This time round, we hope to make this our "retirement" project so if you like, I'll add updates as we go and see how it turns out. I hope the forum is long lived, as this project is certainly no week-end makeover. 
Well to start with, we have a block of land a bit under 3/4 acre, riverfront with a lot of possibilities. The house is being somewhat retained, the garage is being retained and the pool is being retained. The first story of the house will be removed (as the current roof line makes an extension difficult) and the ground floor renovated. Oh, and we are "owner building" for the first time......scary stuff eh? 
So far we have cleared a lot of the site, drained the pool, excavated and contructed the tank room, installed the tanks (now full), built some fences, set out, leveled and poured the first of the infill slabs and completely renovated (well almost) the only bathroom that will stay.  
More importantly, as we have kids, we did the playground first, to keep them entertained. The playground consists of a double fort, a cubby house, a big sand pit complete with monkey (Lisa says that's me), synthethic turf with soft fall underlay, swings, slippery slide, rope bridge, shade sails, hop scotch and an in-ground trampoline (put in-ground after our youngest broke an arm falling off it) all backed by a fence mural of a lovely tropical scene! 
Over the next few days, I'll upload some pics and perhaps even the original house drawings and the new drawings. If anyone wishes to follow, what will be a long drawn out process, please feel free to do so.  :Smilie:  
Ian

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## swanning_it

OK, pics to date......... 
Firstly the block....  
Ballons at sunrise!!!!     
Our backyard view....................    
And more from our backyard............. 
We love it!

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## leeton

Welcome Ian...i'm interested and I'm sure plenty of others will be too....plenty of pics is the go. :2thumbsup:

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## pawnhead

G'day Ian
Great spot you've got there. Looking forward to some reno pics.  :2thumbsup:

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## swanning_it

Thanks for that welcome! 
First part of the extension, was to remove our rear deck, excavate (delicately) up to the existing house, pour a slab, build retaining walls, backfill and install water tanks. 
We chose 2 x stainless steel tanks, 1 x 5000gal & 1 x 2900 gal (I think  :Blush7: ). The tank room will also house the water filters, pumps and Siddens heat pump hot water system, as well as giving us storage for all the garden tools at the back yard level.

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## leeton

Bloody hell...that is one hellava renno...look forward to following your progress.

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## ChunkyCharcoal

Wow! Fantastic spot. Where abouts on the Goldy is that??? 
Please keep us updated when you can with HEAPS of pics please.

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## pawnhead

Wow, that's a lot of weight coming down close to the excavation.
Did you chemically stabilise the soil?
How deep are the original foundations?
Does that steel beam have something to do with retaining the foundations? 
Sorry for all the questions since you're obviously out of the woods now, but that looked pretty risky to me if it wasn't properly analysed. 
Great looking set up anyway. :2thumbsup:

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## swanning_it

> Wow! Fantastic spot. Where abouts on the Goldy is that???

  The best part.......Nerang  :Biggrin:

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## swanning_it

> Wow, that's a lot of weight coming down close to the excavation.
> Did you chemically stabilise the soil?
> How deep are the original foundations?
> Does that steel beam have something to do with retaining the foundations? 
> Sorry for all the questions since you're obviously out of the woods now, but that looked pretty risky to me if it wasn't properly analysed. 
> Great looking set up anyway.

  You're right, it was a bit risky, but carried out under the instruction and supervision of the engineer and done quickly. We had all the trades lined up to just hit it one after the other and had the lot done in a week. Luckily no rain that week, but I'm glad it is done. That was the worst dilemma I could see.  
To answer your question, no chemical treatment, original foundations are large - engineer suggested it was because it was built on an embankment of a relatively new estate (30 + years ago) and he was happy with them. We looked at underpinning, but was advised it wouldn't achieve much and difficult and expensive to do, so it was a case of fingers crossed and trust the engineer was right about the footings! Not sure what steel beam you mean? 
The only other difficult thing I see is when we come to the stage of removing the two end brick walls. The ground floor is double brick but the outer brick has to come off. There's a lot of brick to get down from a quite high building. 
Ian

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## autogenous

I would have left the double brick there in the design. Somewhere to run services without chasing. 
Build scaffold and remove bricks with a 4lb lump hammer. Cut lines to the walls where the skin finishes though.

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## pawnhead

> Not sure what steel beam you mean?

  I was referring to what looks like a universal beam running along the bottom of the wall; 
It looks like it may be cantilevering out to the corner, and I thought that there may also be another beam that runs underneath the house, through the wall, and connected to the beam outside. this would be one way of giving extra support to that corner of the house. 
All I can say is that I reckon your engineer is probably relieved that you didn't get a lot of rain whilst the excavation was exposed.  :Sneaktongue:  
BTW, it must have cost a bomb for those stainless tanks,  :Shock:  but I suppose you'd have no choice since there'd be no way to replace them if they rust out. 
Edit; I did a job about five years ago where we built a 10,000 litre tank under a concrete verandah. We used a preformed flexible plastic liner (made to measure) directly against the concrete blockwork, and the blockwork was designed to hold the water pressure. The entire rectangular area is used for water storage. It would be a lot cheaper than stainless tanks, and makes use of all the available space.

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## swanning_it

> I would have left the double brick there in the design. Somewhere to run services without chasing.

  I've thought over and over about how to do that. The problem is termite protection. The termite mobs wanted to do a reticulation setup around the perimeter but to do that, they needed to place a layer of sand on the existing footing, lay the pipe and hope it wasn't damaged in the pour. The engineer on the other hand, would not let them do that as he wanted the new slab sitting hard on the old footing along with the various tie-in methods we used. So we chose house stability over termite reticulation. The only other way to acceptably do the termite treatment (so we can eventually get a final) is to seal from the new slab to the existing structure. As we are breaching the existing walls (new doorways.....old decorative nib walls removed etc) the termite people won't guarantee it and hence won't give a certificate! 
As the second story is going anyway, I just decided that as much as I would have preferred to leave the double brick on the ground floor, it has to come right down to enable the slab to slab termite sealing to be done to the satisfaction of the termite crowds (who are few in number here and bloody difficult to deal with....they like the mind numbing tedium of new house construction, and consider renos to be too hard). The existing slab was poured into a brick formed base rather than formwork exposing the slab, which makes it more difficult and will mean I'll have to remove at least one course of brick below the slab level, and pour an infill between the old slab and the new slab (if you know what I mean  :Rolleyes: ) and have the new-beaut termite sealing right over the lot! 
Oops....I just realised I haven't posted the photos of the next stage, so all this may seem a bit odd. I'll do that shortly. 
Ian

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## swanning_it

> I was referring to what looks like a universal beam running along the bottom of the wall;

  All that is, is a timber bearer left over from the old deck. No support in that I'm afraid.
Yes the engineer was happy no rain.....and I was too. We were right in the middle of a drought at the time, so no rain around at all....but that can change quickly.   

> BTW, it must have cost a bomb for those stainless tanks,  but I suppose you'd have no choice since there'd be no way to replace them if they rust out. 
> Edit; I did a job about five years ago where we built a 10,000 litre tank under a concrete verandah. We used a preformed flexible plastic liner (made to measure) directly against the concrete blockwork, and the blockwork was designed to hold the water pressure. The entire rectangular area is used for water storage. It would be a lot cheaper than stainless tanks, and makes use of all the available space.

  The stainless tanks were only about $1000 dearer than the poly ones. I was going poly but in speaking to poly owners on two separate occasions (each a poly owner for over ten years), I asked if the tanks had a plastic taste about them when new. Both said not from new but they had started to more recently. I then wondered if that indicated the poly tended to "break-down" over time. There has also been bad press here about the poly tanks from China bursting. I didn't want either so I went for the stainless. I did think about sealing the room and making one big tank. Heaps more water, but I am a bit dubious about the long term viability of the sealants or liners. Probably just me being pedantic, but I'm in the marine industry and I've been a stainless fan for many years, and I've seen many so called wonderful products fail over time too.

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## swanning_it

Next stage was excavation for the first of the extension slabs. 
Edit- Photos too big!.......I'll shrink them later and try again!

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