Up The Pole
Sun Herald
Saturday June 3, 1989
If you are not going to slip into a dwelling vacated by its previous occupants like some latter day hermit crab, finding somewhere to live can be a nightmare.
It means acting out the elaborate commercial ritual of laying claim to a suitable site, selecting a house design (that's four weekends at least at display villages), courting the bank manager and then enduring the painful process of building.
Like war veterans, those who survive building a house form strong common bonds and come together regularly to relive highlights. Favourite episodes discussed at gatherings and dinner parties include "Delivering the bricks to the block nextdoor", "Waiting three mornings in a row in near zero temperatures for the brickies to turn up and finding out later they had chartered a yacht in the Whitsunday Passage" and "Discovering that the plumber has a fleet of motor launches fitted out in Onassis-style opulence".
Lessons learned are untold tolerance, patience and a philosophical attitude which comes from being a victim of the great Australian egalitarianism whereby the person paying for a service is always infinitely poorer than the one who provides it.
But it is not all bad news.
Mass production and marketing techniques in the building industry and construction breakthroughs which make marginal land buildable have served to cut costs, especially for first home buyers.
COST-CUTTING KITS
COST-CUTTING housing in kit or prefabricated form is hardly a new idea. Preparations for the establishment of settlements for projects in far-flung locations such as Antarctica and remote inland areas of Australia have frequently given rise to new building techniques.
For five years from the mid '70s the family building group of H.H. Boot participated in a 50/50 joint venture with BHP to develop portable and quick-to-build houses. Research carried on independently by the builders brought about the patented Panelbrick system of prefabricated solid brick walls which can cut commencement to lock-up to a three-day period - the time taken to build the Panelbrick exhibition house.
THIS company's expertise is the production of the kit, the delivery to site and the installation of the walls. As with most kit companies, the customer is responsible for preparation of the site, foundations or slab, prime-cost items(sinks, baths and all sanitaryware), plumbing, electrical and the labour required to install the roof and the internal walls.
Designs offered by Panelbrick Industries are on the conventional side but the bathroom layout in the Cowan (3B-SG) is up-to-date, with the lavatory and separate bath/shower area partitioned from the vanity room (with linen press)so that three family members can use the three-way bathroom in complete privacy at the one time.
Many kit home companies develop and market innovative building systems designed to cut time and costs and they will often recommend builders familiar with their own particular construction techniques.
But Paal Frame offers truly single-handed construction using nothing more complicated than an electric drill, screwdriver and spanner to customers who purchase their Slimline Modular Frame System house kits.
Certainly, their superseded advertisements of a woman holding a frame(between 35 to 55 steel frame sections are delivered depending on the model of house and size selected) intrigued the do-it-yourself sector.
Even roof trusses, it is claimed, can be positioned by one person. And strength is never forfeited to ease of handling - Paal homes are designed for high-wind loadings up to 180km/hour.
Their one-bedroom Nepean 1 kit is priced from $13,130.
Many building firms have developed the kit side of their businesses as a result of streamlining their own construction methods.
Bush Haven Homes builds houses from its design range or can supply kits, and prides itself on the precision engineering which goes into the production of these Easy Build Kits. The frame components are a mixture of timber and ulta-tough steel and no matter how rustic the external walls of CCA-treated 15cm-diameter whole logs may look, they fit together like a dream with the help of the firm's patented fastening system.
There are three grades of kits for each Easy Build model. The most basic is the Lock Up Kit comprising material to lock-up stage, with or without timber floor.
The Internals Kit contains all the necessary materials to line walls and ceilings and build stairs and bannisters. With the Finishing Kit, items such as stove, hot water system and kitchen are included.
For an example of costs - the Miners Cottage, a Lock Up Kit, is priced from$24,000.
With all kit houses, it is advisable to ask for at least two references from satisfied customers, or better still, deal with a firm recommended to you by a friend or colleague who has been a customer.
Two publications now available at newsagents which list kit home suppliers are Gregory's Best Project and Kit Homes, $4.95, and Australian Home Journal's Project & Kit Homes, $3.50. If you are going to do all (or at least some) of the work yourself, investigate owner builder leaflets, literature, courses and seminars at a building information centre (in Sydney they are located at Hornsby and Surry Hills).
BUILDING WITH POLES
POLE housing was introduced to the West Coast of the United States in the 1950s and received with much chin scratching and skepticism. But it was not long before this method of building gained public acceptance and now many hundreds of thousands of pole dwellings grace the landscape of North America.
Instead of conventional brick footings or a concrete slab, pole houses are built on widely spaced poles which are embedded in the ground and support both roof and floor.
Although a fascinating American book titled Low-Cost Pole Building Construction by Ralph Wolfe, $18.95, published by Garden Way, beats the cost-cutting drum, Australian pole house specialists advise that the method is not particularly inexpensive.
Architect Geoff Laverich of Hodgkins & Laverich started designing pole houses about nine years ago and produced the original range for Pole Houses of Australia before PHA moved to Gosford and subsequently employed their own designer.
Mr Laverich is quick to caution pole house hopefuls against the notion that pole building is cheap because it is only cheaper on a sloping site than conventional construction. Although some people just plonk a conventional house on top of poles, there is scope with this technique for a variety of levels stepping down the block and when the roof pitch follows the slope of the land and the exterior timber is stained to blend with the landscape, the pole house is at its peak of aesthetic appeal.
Inside, Mr Laverich feels there should be some relief such as painted plasterboard walls from the all-timber look which in some instances can be a bit overwhelming.
Proper use of materials is essential in pole buildings. The poles themselves are pressure treated with preservative; Perma Log and Koppers are the two main brands of logs. Some builders use oregon joists and bearers beneath exposed decks, which is a practice frowned upon by the Timber Development Association and the Master Builders' Association.
Andrew Conacher, a Wollongong architect, feels very strongly about misuse of oregon in pole building. "It's a lovely timber, light, cheap, easy to work but it should never be exposed. Builders who use it where it can get wet should be shot. In years to come, oregon bearers and joists will break down and they will be virtually impossible to replace," he said.
The kiln-dried hardwood Mr Conacher uses costs more and is more difficult to work but has a satisfactory life expectancy.
Ray Crawley of Practical Pole Home Plans at Erina on the central coast of NSW started drawing up plans for houses as an interest after a heart attack forced him to retire from his city job as a structural engineer.
The hobby quickly became a business and now Ray, fully recovered and full of beans, works a seven-day week at the design and drawing office, on building sites, giving seminars and writing books. Because of the overwhelming response to his first book, 87 Practical Home Plans which contains 24 pole house designs, Ray is about to release a new book devoted entirely to the subject of pole houses.
© 1989 Sun Herald