More Living Space for Under $100K...Tell me How!!! and Now!!!

Hi all,

From my time spent in the building industry the one thing that has surprised me the most is the cost of getting an addition done to your home. The costs can be staggering, and it's no surprise that many folks are now turning to prefabricated building components. Many builders are now doing away with traditional stick contruction timber roofs and going for prefabricated steel framed truss systems. The speed of erection is far economical.

The kind of extension or addition that costs the most is adding a top floor, and in many cases due to the size of the block there isn't any other option than to go upstairs. The results of these additions when done by companies that specialise in them are great, but so are the costs. Sometimes $300 to $400,000. You could demolish and build a new steel framed home for that.

Now lets assume you have a larger block and want a new living area or Granny Flat and want to get something done for less than $100,000. How about less than $80,000. This is VERY ACHIEVABLE.

The way to do it is buy a Straight Edge Steel Framed Home with a simple floor plan, simple roof design, add an unlined timber verandah to the front, and have it put together. Or do the frame erection yourself and save about $3000 in labour costs.

A Granny Flat or Chalet should really be done as an Owner Builder. These buildings are tailor made for the person that wants to do a bit themselves. Outside of the earthworks, slab pour, plumbing and electrical, there is a lot you can do yourself, and negotiating with trades direct is a great way to save.

The benefits of building and creating new living spaces this way are huge.

You get to control your budget buy buying materials direct and owning them outright from day one, paying trades direct, and getting in on the action as you wish.

If you need more space for family of a home business, want to enhance the value of your block, and wish to avoid the high costs of adding onto your own home then a steel framed chalet or "granny flat" is a great way to go.

If you'd like more infomation please drop me a line.

How can I help you?

Hi all,

I was listening to the ABC radio yesterday and the afternoon announcer was commenting on how great it would be if both sides of politics could get together on some issues and simply help each other out to achieve a fruitful outcome. In fact how much better would the world be if more people simply helped others.

So my question is how can I help you?

Do you have some ideas for a new home but aren't sure where to start or how to get your dreams into plan form? Or do have an idea of what kind of living space you require but are not sure of how you want it to look, or how it can look? I'd love to help you.

Does your dream home seem a little out of reach due to builders quoting huge prices to build in the country...or city for that matter? I'd love to help you realise your dreams or get you as close to them as possible while keeping your budget in check.

Straight Edge Steel Frame Homes are incredibly versatile, easy to transport, easy and quick to erect and for many people the perfect no nonsense new home solution. In fact I'd go as far as saying it is "The Solution".

I'd love to help you find "The Solution" to your new home questions. You can email me at straightedge@iinet.net.au

Have a great weekend.
Scott

When I was a kid......

When I was a kid I had a ball. I had everything I needed, which in those days was a friends and a bike. A black one with a boys bar, as opposed to the girls style with no cross bar and a basket out front.. It originally had a long seat with the chrome bar up the back, but in line with what the other boys had, that simply had to go, and I got a smaller seat put on. I like to remember it looking somewhat like the Harley Sportster of bikes. Only it could corner, go over jumps the size of small schools, and be ridden down vertical creak beds which seemed like sheer cliffs at the time. Dad got me a motorcross style handle that fitted on one side that made a motorbike revving noise when you cranked it.

There was a great feeling of security and simplicity to country life at that time, and there were always people around for bbqs or to swim in the pool. Brilliant.

Our house was an old timber frame one with timber weatherboards, and it was built up on concrete stumps with the termite/ant caps on the tops. Mt Isa wasn't a cyclone prone area, although it could flood at times.

I was thinking about the framed homes we do now and how strong they are, and how much I'd love to help the folks in the USA who seem to get their homes blown away on a routine basis in Tornado Alley. I have no doubt that we could engineer steel framed homes to the right tolerances to assist these people. We supply homes to Exmouth and other Cyclone prone areas of Western Australia, and while I am sure the environments here and in the tornado belt of the USA are different in their own ways, I have no doubt we have a the technology.

Heavy duty fully welded frames, the right slab engineering, steel verandah systems, and our experience in dealing with all types of environments make steel framed homes a great option, and the DIY component has been well covered in other posts.

If anyone would like some advice or information on how to get a home cyclone rated please send me a message at the bottom of this post.

All the best.

The Season to Get Things Done

I am not really a betting man, and my only foray into the gambling world was a try at Roulette when I was 18. I placed $20 on red thinking 50/50 odds were as good as anyone could hope for. It stopped on black and I lost three hours pay as it was at the time. It hurt.

So these days I invest my time into things that I can rely on. They don't neccessarily pay off in dollar terms, but they can be counted on as truths. Taken to the bank!

By now you know I work with Steel Framed Homes and I thought with winter around the corner I'd remind you all why it's a great idea to start planning your new home now...yes now.

Winter is what I call planning season. It gets cold, and hopefully really wet if the gods favour us, and it's a great time to be inside doing things other than putting a home together.

I think the best thing you can do while having your hot chocolate is to start thinking about your floor plan, get me to draw your plans up, and for you to place an order for you new home and have everything ready so that you can break dirt and get your place to Lock-Up by Christmas. Between now and when the warm weather arrives we can have shire approval done so you'll be ready to roll. Ambitious?

It's not really ambitious. It's realistic.

Let's go over the benefits of building a new home using fully welded, prefabricated steel wall and roof frames.

Speed of Construction.
Using prefabricated fully welded wall frames enables you to build your home so much quicker than other types of construction. Speed of construction equals lower labour costs equals savings for you. All wall frames and roof trusses are numbered and are matched to easily follow the "how to" drawings and plans.
And while there are many other benefits such as flexibility of design, it's strength, the way steel is a natural barrier against termites, cyclonic rated, flexibility in the final finish, fire resistant and easy to add onto later.

Apart from all those really cool things is that Steel Framed Homes can be built very,very quickly.

2011 could be the year you got more home for less and got into a place you can call your own.

Reducing Your Mortgage By Owner-Building

Let's start by saying that finances are subjective and what's a good saving or level of affordability for one person may not be for another, and that anything said after this is not proffessional financial advice.

People choose Owner-Building for a few reasons. The "House that ........... built" sense of achievement, the freedom to make their home exactly the way they want it, and the ability to make substantial savings getting the home they truly desire.

Owner-building a steel framed home is a great way to get more home for less. Yes it may take longer...or not, and yes it will require some hard work, but with a great prefabricated frame system it won't be difficult. A good wall and roof frame system like the clients of Statewide Building Solutions recieve will be numbered and labelled with clear plans showing where everything goes. How does this save you money? Well if you employ subcontractors then speed of construction will create the savings, and if you do it yourself, then the savings are obvious. Two qualified tradesman (carpenters are most popular) can set you back $4000 to $4400 per week assuming an eight hour day in a five day working week. So the message here is the more you do the more you save.

The big saving comes from purchasing your own building materials. Once you buy a kit home you own it. Once you buy your tiles, cabinets, carpets, timber floors, plumbing and electrical fittings and so on, you own them. The budget for these things is yours to set and follow, and as a result you're not locked into a plan or package that may at best, mostly please you.

Location location location! Owner-Building gives you the opportunity (depending on your finances of course) to put a little more into the land purchase. If you're the kind of person who is willing to get their hands dirty and save on labour costs, then getting yourself a block that appeals to you more is very possible. Saving a couple of weeks labour can add about $8000 to your war chest for land purchase.

My personal plan of attack in building a steel framed home would be as follows. Assuming I am building on a concrete slab the components I would assemble or install myself are as follows.
- Wall and roof frames. It's hardwork and requires diligence, but it's not actually difficult.
- Wrapping the house in Aircell. Really...it's a bubble paper and silver tape. I am not paying my hardearned to someone to giftwrap my house in silver bubblewrap.
- Install my windows and sliding doors. The frames are made with a tolerance to fit the windows, so armed with a spirit level, a screw gun, confidence and bribed friend you'll have no trouble.
- For my external cladding I would hire one professional and work as his offsider if he allowed it. Cladding like Roof sheeting makes a home and I'd want it to look as good as can be.
- Install my own insulation batts. I recomment a dust suit and mask. You can install them the day before the plasterboard is fixed and hold the insulation batts in place by running some tape across the frames.
- Second fix items such as internal door frames, skirting boards, and hanging doors are all very doable.

The things to pay for;
- Earthworks and concrete slab.
- Installation of gutters, fascias, eaves linings, and the roof sheeting. A bad roof kills dreams and it's worth paying someone who can make it look great.
- Installing my external cladding as mentioned.
- The licenced trades that take care of your plumbing and electrical work.
- Fitting and flushing of plasterboard. A good fit and flush makes the home look great. I recommend running a vacuum cleaner over the walls after it's all dried to get the dust off.

Most clients will have floor covering and tiling professionally done, but a few have opted to go down the DIY route for cabinets.

As you can see there are quite a few things that you can do yourself if you have the time and inclination, and there's no doubt doing these things will save you dollars. Maybe you'll want to put those dollars into other parts of the home, and maybe you'll want to save for the sake of saving and keep your mortage at a level you're comfortable with.

Owner-Building your new home using a high quality Steel Framed Kit Home , and taking advantage of owning your materials outright from day one, and the speed of construction will certainly give you that opportunity.

STEEL FRAMED FLOOR SYSTEM OR A CONCRETE SLAB?

So, you're thinking about Owner Building a Steel Framed Home in Perth, or an outlying area, and your site appears to be offering a few challenges.

In a perfect world all sites would be flat, sandy, and offering great views. As we all know it doesn't always work out that way and we're faced with a choice on how to handle what our new site has given us.

My first port of call when buying a new block is to get a soil test. The results of this test will help you decide on the best way to build a base for your new home.Your site will be given a classification which indicates the expected moveement of the foundation soils, and is generally related to the soils capacity to shrink or swell. The report would be submitted with your working drawings to shire when applying for your building approval.

The Soil Classifications are as follows;
       Class 'A'    - Little or no ground movement.
       Class 'S'    -  Slightly reactive sites
       Class 'M'   -  Moderately reactive sites
       Class 'H'    -  Highly reactive sites
       Class 'E'    -  Extremely reactive sites
       Class 'P'    -  Problem sites

I am happy to report that I have not come accross a Class 'E' or 'P' site and hope none of my clients do either.

If you have a level site that is classed 'A', through to 'H'  I wouldn't be too concerned. Each will require a different type of footing and there is always a solution available. An 'A' site will require no more than a minimal sandpad and footing, while an 'H' will require some digging and subsoil drainage to try and create the Class 'A' environment under your footing.

The siteworks for the more reactive sites is going to be more expensive, but depending on your budget the cost might not be prohibitive. However in some country areas it's very expensive to get earthworks done and to bring in clean sandfill to make the site suitable for a slab to be poured. This is where a Steel Framed Suspended Floor System could be just the answer.

Not only do Steel framed Suspended Floor Systems offer you views, decks, and a solution to sloping sites, they can be the ideal alternative to spending big dollars on earthworks to counteract the reactivity on a difficult site. Floor Systems have a minimal impact on the environment and will require many seperate footings for the individual floor columns. The depth and diameter of the footings will be determined by the soil classification and accompanying footing design that has been certified by an engineer as suitable. The best part is that once you have pegged out where all your columns will be placed you can employ a contractor with an Auger. He can dig each hole easily assuming there is no rock in the way, and following that you can start putting your floor together.

One of the things I love about putting a home up on stumps this way is that it takes termites out of the equation for the most part. At Straight Edge Steel Frame Homes we cap both ends of the columns so there's no chance of the critters making there way up the inside to the yummy decking above. Termite detection would be easy as they would have to build a mud tunnel on the outside surface of the steel to make the climb, and detection would be easy.

A decorative addition to your off the ground lifestyle is your new Balustrade. They can be constructed in timber or metal and there is bound to be a style that will suit the theme of your new home. Remember to consult properly before going ahead with any DIY installations, as what you may think looks the goods in your mind may not conform to the standards set by the Building Code of Australia. At Straight Edge Steel Frame Homes we can help you choose the right balustrade for your new home.

Apart from using a Steel Framed Floor System, building your new home in steel makes perfect sence. If you haven't done so already please read my previous blog at...
http://steelframedhomes.blogspot.com/2011/03/so-you-want-to-build-steel-framed-home.html?spref=fb
Steel Floor Systems offer more than just a solution to difficult sites. The can really make a home. The ability to build decks up high, make use of views, and artistry of modern and traditional balustrading, feeling wood under foot and the general ambiance of a home built off the ground can make Steel Floor Systems a very attractive option.

So you want to build a Steel Framed Home.

Hi there, if you're reading this we have something in common. We both want to build a magnificent home with the freedom to have it exactly as we want it from the start, with our imagination being our only restriction, and we know that building a Steel Framed Home is the way to do it.

Of course we could go nuts and design something that's going to cost the earth and be the type of project that will wear us down and become both an emotional and financial drain, so we know that the way forward is to keep it simple. Keep it real!

Straight Edge Steel Frame Homes knows we all have a budget to stick to and that's the start and end of it. It's also the reason we're both into a product that can save us a lot of time and money through speed and ease of construction. The big advantage of Steel Framed Home building is that it allows us to become Owner Builders or Owner Managers and to get hands on with our project. Achievement is a wonderful emotion to ride.

The advantages to building in steel frames have been listed on many brochures and websites but in my humble opinion they can never be said, written down or shouted from the roof tops enough.
In a Straight Edge Steel Framed Homes Steel Framed Home we have;

   

• Flexibility of design – The versatility of steel allows you to design your living areas the way you want them. Large, open-plan homes are increasingly popular and because steel can span large distances without support from internal load bearing walls, it means the interior plan of the home can be set out exactly the way you want it.
• Strength – Steel is strong and straight, lightweight, termite-proof, precision manufactured and consistent in quality. Steel is the perfect material for building in cyclonic and earthquake areas, or where the soil is reactive.
• Flexibility in the Final Finish – Steel framing also accommodates so many new and existing exterior and interior finishes, making it possible to finish your home with the flair and imagination that suit your own individual tastes.
• Cost efficiency – The technology in steel framing is continually evolving. Standard home designs can be manufactured and erected so much quicker than most other types of construction. The ongoing savings of using steel framing can include:
  
  o Reductions in your insurance premiums- Steel frames don't burn or rot.
  o No need to pay for costly termite treatments.
  o Reduction in maintenance – linings stay true and straight.
  o D.I.Y. Means no costly labour overheads .
•  Ease of construction – The lightweight steel frames are made for easy erection and allow your new home to start taking shape quickly. All of the components are designed to fit together easily, thus making the overall building process simpler and faster than other types of construction.
•  Transportability of the components – Steel frames are easily packed and transported to site. The rest of the components are delivered straight from the manufacturer to your site as you require them.
•  Environmental responsibility – Steel is an ideal material for building on difficult, sloping sites. By choosing to build your home off the ground we can supply an engineered steel floor system that will minimize the impact your new home has on your site and the environment. Steel is also termite proof, so there is no need for spraying potentially harmful chemicals around your new home.

If you're thinking about building on challenging sites and whether you're better off building up the foundations for a slab, or opting for a stumped floor system then reading my blog at http://steelframedfloorperth.blogspot.com/ may help you with your decision.


Have a great week.