Universal Design Renovations

I was about to start my pre Christmas ring around when the phone lept to life.

“Ha finally got you” was all I heard. It was Ray Greenslade one of my work friends from 15 years ago. The rivalry that he was talking about was who could get to who first to impart Christmas greetings. This year he had won.

We got to talking about what the previous 12 months had dealt us both.

He was pretty excited as he had just become a supplier to Home Depot with the “UltraSpreader” a product that he had developed and patented over the previous 2 years. The product has been available in Australia for some time, but cracking the U.S market was a great bonus.

If you want to make the laying of tiles or timber flooring into an easier job get one of these little beauties.

Click here to visit the Go Tile It site where you can view some really informative videos on how the product works.
You can also place orders at the site.

A really great Australian invention.

This week has seen a lot of progress on the project.

Harry Sprintz has finished that last of the plans. We now have a collection of 29 sheets that will guide the finer points of the construction. I have posted these updated plans on the Free Downloads page. They are in PDF format so that anyone can print them off.

John Bennett the builder completed all of the external walls of the lower level and was able to pour the slab towards the end of the week. The weather was hot an windy so the team had to work hard and fast so that the concrete did not go off prior to leveling out. After a full hard days work the team retired for a well earned drink.

You can check out the week 7 photos in the gallery or simply by clicking here.

Next week will see the internal walls of the lower level start to go into place.

Now that we have sorted out the windows it is a matter of getting the doors together. For the internal doors we have chosen Eurotec Doors. We have chosen them as they make a door and frame module that is good in terms of noise shielding and the construction is extremely robust. The doors are made in Germany at a factory in Prum. The doors are ordered from the factory and then the door hardware is fitted here in Australia.

We have chosen an Italian company Parisi to supply all of the door hardware. The style of door handles is vitally important for the project as people with disabilities can have trouble operating. Handles need to be easily gripped and operated. They need to be positioned so that they can be easily operated by someone in a wheel chair.

The style of handle that has been chosen is the Parisi Modulo.

This is a stainless steel constructed unit that is easy to operate.

Construction slowed over week five due to rain on the site. This gave me an opportunity to get some of the organizational things together.

I was able to order and take delivery of the beams, joists and rafters from Carter Holt Harvey Wood Products.

We have used a product called LVL (Laminated Timber Veneer) which is marketed under the brand name of Hyspan. Hyspan is significantly more uniform than normal sawn timber because of its unique laminated construction. It has a high strength-to-weight ratio when compared with other commonly used structural materials and is a seasoned, manufactured product which has little tendency to warp, bow, shrink, twist or split. You can download more details about Hyspan from the  the Futurebuild website. Or download a Hyspan brochure here. Hyspan Brochure.

Here is a diagram showing how Hyspan is made.

The product saves a lot of time in installation on site and is worth the premium that you pay for such a product.

The weather cleared up during week 6 and John Bennett (our builder) and his team were able to get the block laying team in so some walls really started to take shape.

I have uploaded photographs of the week 5 & 6 progress into the photo gallery. Or just simply click here.