Day-26: Hydraulics/Pipes are Done...

On 16th April, all the drainage pipes were laid and a pit in the front of the house was installed as well. The sewage pipe to the back of the house easement was also connected. Last time we had some issue with the connection to the easement and I wonder that is resolved because of the new PVC pipe connection. I could not locate the front connection to the street rain storm water drain system. There is a road opening application which has been already approved. I wonder when that would be done soon as well.

It has been raining too much and I can see that the progress is a bit curtailed this way. In April out of 30 days the prediction is that it will rain almost 23 days. Isn't that too much rain?

Here are some of the recent photos that I can share:

Day-17: The Slab is Done...

So here is the good news...

The Piering was done day before yesterday and the preparation was carried out for the Slab concrete pouring yesterday. This morning we got the slab done on the site.  The weather was just perfect for it. The coming 4-5 days are going to be sunny as well so that way it would be good for curing of the slab. The next week we are expecting that the frames will arrive and in the next two weeks, frames will be done hopefully. This is the first stage of the building as a matter of fact. I am sure we will get the invoice (20% of the cost of the build) for the same by tomorrow!

I met the SM (Site Manager), Jerome Mills in the morning who explained about all the upcoming schedules. He seemed to be very pleasant and understanding. He emphasised that he makes sure that the quality of the house is maintained and because of that there is delay sometimes as well. Looking at our site, his observation was that there should not be any major issues. The good thing is that he is running another project just near our house so we will be able to watch the progress on that house and understand what will happen to our project. As he suggested that if everything goes as planned we could have our first inspection of the house sometime in the early Oct. That would be fantastic. But I know there would be hurdles and quite some as a matter of fact so we just hope that we do not happen to get to any big issues.

As part of the slab concrete pouring there were only four guys and it took approx. 6 truck loads of concrete and may be 5-6 hrs to complete the whole process. I am surprised how quickly all this could be done these days...

Here are some of the photos:

Day-15: We are Starting...

We got the email from Metricon on 2nd April advising us that they have completed the excavation on the site and  will soon start the Piering. But looks like mother nature had different agenda. It started pouring the very next day and it did not stop for three days in a row. Piering was to start on 3rd April, but we all had to wait because of the bad weather. Anyway, Today things started moving as the Piering was completed. Hopefully the slab will be done soon as well in the coming one two days. We are happy as we can see some progress now on the site.

So as part of the excavation, they have carried out cut and fill. I remember sometime ago, there were a few Metricon people on site carrying out the measurements on the site. The objective was to streamline the area of the house build and also deciding how much the cut would be made to make way for the slab to sit on.

As part of the Piering, we do not know as to how much linear meters and cubic meters the Piering was done. I could see quite a few spots where the ground was drilled to  make the Piering. But these are things I will be discussing with the SM when I meet him on Wednesday morning. As per the contract we have opted for 1200mm Piering, but there is no mention of as to how many of them would be put though. But my gut feeling is that there is some standards to be followed depending on the area of the house. There should be around 50-60 piering done on the site in total I presume.

So what is Piering after all? Piering is a form of reinforcing the foundation of the building that might suffer subsidence or settlement due to instability in the soil substrate. It involves the installation of a number of vertical support columns or posts, in conjunction with a series of horizontal cross beams, otherwise known as capped beams. The piers or columns and beams are made of reinforced concrete or high strength steel and are attached to the existing building or its foundations. These supports penetrate through the problematical strata of soil to a solid foundation of bedrock or more stable strata, and are designed to halt further instability.

We have got our first appointment with the Site Manager on Wednesday morning i.e. 10th April. I had a phonic conversation with him and he seemed to be quite good. We have been advised that we are lucky to have him as he carries pretty good reputation as a Project Manager so we are happy about it. After all a lot depends on him as things will revolve around him only.

Here are some of the photos that I took in the evening when I was at the site:

We Are Waiting...

When ever it comes down to waiting we feel the pinch after all we are renting at the moment. And when things move, we feel satisfied.

So here we are, waiting for Metricon to start the site preparation... We are pretty hopeful that after the Easter holidays Metricon will gear up. We need to be introduced to our Site Manager (SM) as well and we are anxiously waiting for that. I am sure a lot depend on the SM as he is the one who will drive the whole show.

Our Experience with Metricon Till Now...

Our experience with Mericon has been pretty good till now. Looking at the timeline, it looks to be a bit slow process, but as a matter of fact a lot goes into the planning phase. Plus any interaction with council takes time as it goes in a queue. We had a few hurdles on the way related with the neighbour's tree prunning, hydroulics, storm water management and council levy issues. I think there are processes in place, but they could be refined a lot to make the things go faster, afterall time is money here. But having said all that, the crux of the whole thing is that one should be persistent in getting the issues resolved.


Some people have impressed us tremendously with their work ethics and Metricon does have some people and there is no doubt about it. Rachel Ademi has been a sheer delight to work with and she has always impressed us with her unmatched professionalism and attention to detail. We really appeciate all her efforts into streamling all our plans and variations. We are sure that she would be working on quite a few clients projects, but we always felt as we were always first in the queue. That shows how much committed Rachel has been over the last few months. We think that we were lucky to have her as our support personnel from Metricon. Thanks heaps Rachel...

All Plans Finalysed and Acceptance Letter Signed

The plans had to be revised and finalised based on all the 10 variations we have opted for till now. METRICON was very prompt in finalising the plans. And thus the final acceptance letter was signed by us and was provided to METRICON. The plan revision was done quite meticulously covering all the changes that we had opted in the last two three months including the internal colour schedules and other changes internally.

Now the exciting part of building should start happening soon.
Till now we have had very good experience with METRICON and let us hope that we have it in the future months as well.

The Tree is Pruned at Last!!!

So the tree is pruned at last! What a relief! This saga has been going on since end of early Dec actually. Although it is a total failure of the council's system, still there is a little hope because of the tree being pruned at last. It took at least two and half months to get it done. The amount of time spent on trying to convince the council has been tremendous. Since the tree was in my neighbour's property, it added to our woes. The biggest lesson was that I should have started for this long time ago. That is why they say sometimes, multi-tasking helps!!! I never could conjecture that it might be that tedious job.
Anyway, since it is done, we are relieved and hope that now we could start thinking of the next steps.

So this is a big hurrah for all of us who invested so much energy into it. Our Tree Lopper has done a very good job and I would highly recommend him for anyone who needs a person that could be relied on. Here are his details:
Geoff Ashton
Mobile: 0488 222 061
e-Mail: geoff@sydneytreeremovals.com.au