Month: August 2020

Cabinetry Details

 

The ‘Internal Elevations’ sheets are ancillary to the main working drawings set. They are not required in the minimum working drawings set to gain a building permit. They are, however, requested often in order for our clients to be able to visualise the internal cabinetry items in their wet areas.

 

Useful for accurate quoting

 

If you are having plans done in order to get quotes from a number of builders, it is always a good idea to have internal elevations of your wet areas & cabinetry done. This way each builder will be pricing the same cabinetry details & comparison of quotes is much more relevant.

 

Walk in Robe Fitout Details

 

Carpet, Tiles, Timber & Laminate

 

The ‘Floor Coverings’ plan identifies the different floor coverings in each room of the house. This is mainly required for the completion of the 6 star energy rating which takes into account the different thermal properties of each floor covering.

 

Areas for quoting

 

The areas shown are accurate & allow clients to order their floor coverings with accuracy. You will find, however, that the flooring suppliers won’t trust the figures shown & will still measure the plan with a ruler to estimate their own areas to allow for wastage & cutting.

 

Slab Recesses

 

Depending on the flooring chosen a rebate in the slab may be required to ensure there are no tripping hazards where different coverings meet. These plans indicate tiles through the shower recesses which will mean a 50mm recess in the slab to create fall to the drainage point.

Fitting & fixtures

 

The ‘Electrical Plan’ details the electrical fixtures & fittings placed in your house. All power points, light fittings, TV points, data points & switching for lights are shown on this plan.

 

Maximum Wattage Allowed

 

Also required is the total number of light fittings & their wattage to ensure the total wattage complies with the building regulations. This is indicated by the ‘Artificial Lighting Table’ which shows the maximum wattage allowed per m2 for each area of the house.

 

Heating & Cooling

 

Ducted heating points are also shown either in the ceiling or floor depending on the style of house. Location of the heating unit in the ceiling is indicated close to the manhole. The return air & thermostat location is important as nobody wants a return air grille as a feature in their house.

The importance of details

 

The ‘Section & Details’ sheet is the most unloved sheet in the drawing set. Clients mostly don’t understand it, builders sometimes overlook it & engineers can ignore it. However, the information on this sheet is very important for regulatory compliance & building inspections. It ensures the builder is using the right details when constructing certain areas of the house.

 

Details do vary

 

Most good builders will know exactly how to build the standard details shown on this sheet but they do tend to vary from builder to builder. Details of lintels over garages, for example, are constructed in several different way depending on the garage wall & roof structure.

 

Standard section only required

 

 

External consultants

 

 

Timber framing schedule

 

 

Refer to the engineers drawings

 

How will your house look?

 

The ‘Elevations’ sheet is where our clients really start to understand what their house will look like when built. However, sometimes this sheet can be misleading. The idea of detailing elevations is for each orientation of the house to be notated & dimensioned externally. The misleading part is you have to be omnipresent to see it this way.

 

Don’t be fooled

 

The elevation assumes that your eye is perpendicular to all points of the building at the same time. The only time your windows will look symmetrical, or centred under the ridge, is on the elevation because on site your eye will never see it like this in real life.

 

Compliance Profiles

 

 

Site cut & fill demonstrated

 

 

Full colour with shadows

 

Mr Popular

 

The ‘Floor Plan’ sheet is the most frequently referred to sheet of the whole drawing set. ON this page the layout of the rooms, structure of the walls & cabinetry items are specified. Most of the following sheets in the set refer in some way back to the floor plan. Section lines are cut which reference cross sections on other sheets.

 

Dimensioning

 

The importance of clear & concise dimensioning is paramount to ensure the builder knows the exact sizes of each room for set out purposes. Window and door sizes are noted & placement of smoke detectors, manholes and exhaust fans shown for compliance. Section lines are cut which reference cross sections on other sheets.

 

Floor Levels

 

 

Smart Design

 

 

Stormwater Run-off

 

 

 

House Orientation

 

The ‘Site Plan’ sheet identifies the positioning of the house on the site & in relation to neighbouring developments. This is important if the neighbours are existing as your front setback is often determined by an average of the houses either side of your site.

 

Excavation & Site Fill

 

The amount of cut & fill required to provide a level building platform is shown shaded to allow the builder to calculate volumes of earth to excavate out and/or import to site. These are included in the infamous ‘site costs’ which are added to your building contract.

 

 

Authorities Easements

Easements (areas which are set aside for council & sewerage use) are noted on the plan along with the size, depth & offset of any pipes within. Legal points of discharge are also shown for storm water & sewerage connections as well as the location of down pipes & drainage pipe runs to connect to them.

 

Site Coverage Calculations

A table indicating area of the site covered by buildings & hard cover like driveways & paving is shown in a table. This will indicate compliance with site coverage & green area regulations imposed by council planning schemes.

 

20 Critical Criteria

Along with all this there are over 20 other criteria to take into account including driveway gradients, overlooking, overshadowing, neighbour’s northern windows, wall heights on boundary, minimum setbacks & encroachments, private open space, carparking, maximum building height, site permeability, & solar access….just to name a few.

 

A small miscalculation at this stage can cost you big time during the building permit process.

 

Building Regulation Compliance

 

The ‘General Notes’ sheet is normally glossed over by most clients but this is important in listing areas of compliance with the current Building Regulations.

 

Authorities & Consultants

 

We identify relevant governing bodies, external consultants used, bushfire attack levels & wind speed ratings for the site.

 

Amendment Tracking

 

A list of amendments to the plans is also kept to keep track of who has worked on the file & when. Every time the drawing set is updated a new issue it is recorded here.