Universal Design Renovations

We have taken a lot of care in the design of the Merimbula project to ensure that there is sufficient light. To this end we have installed a lot of windows, (these also take advantage of some of the great views) and skylights. The building team lead by John Bennett completed the skylight installation this week. We selected a combination of windows. A number of tailor made windows from the Dowell company, which were combined with louvre window modules from a company called Breezway.

You get an idea of how they work together from the pictures above. As part of the installation we needed to ensure that all of the swarf (little bits of metal created in the cutting process were off the roof as these would encourage rust. Something that we do not want in a seaside location.

The next job is to start the wall insulation and to begin the rough in of all of the electrical and plumbing.

One of the main reasons that we chose Hebel Power Panel was how easy it is to work with. You can cut this stuff with a jigsaw into shapes that you could never get concrete to replicate.

This is what is left from our first batch of Hebel Power Panel.  You can see where the panel has been cut to fit in around windows and plumbing. All of this was done with normal wood and metal working tools.

Also last week the first of the mitre widows went into place. This window is located in the home office. Hopefully we will be able to trim the trees outside to provide a better view. The main mitre window is located in the living area. Unfortunately when the glass arrived for this one it was about 15mm too short. This apparently is a common occurrence. It happens during the tempering process. I guess that this is one of the reasons that glass is so expensive.

The floor of our project will be made of compressed bamboo boards made by Style Plantations. These boards are 12mm thick and are glued to a substrate floor. We had allowed 25mm to so we can adjust floor levels to ensure that there is an even surface between rooms and at doors to the outdoors. This will mean that there are no obstacles to stop free egress for wheel chairs. So we needed to get about 100 square metres of 12 mm “packing” to bring the level up for the compressed bamboo to sit on. The question was what would we use. The alternatives that we thought of were MDF (medium density fibreboard) or plywood. Talking with John the builder we settled on MDF as the surface was very smooth and we could pick up 100m2 at around $7.75 per metre. I had checked in with Ian a close friend who worked at Carter Holt Harvey to get his opinion on MDF. He got back to me pretty quick to say that MDF was probably not a wise choice , but he would get George his engineer to drop me a note. This was his reply;

With regards to using mdf underlay, I am no expert on the matter but am under the impression that it should only be used under moisture resilient surfaces such as vinyl.  The mdf needs to be of a moisture resistant variety, but even so if any moisture gets through the board edges and becomes trapped there is the possibility of mdf expansion and blowout, or mdf rot leaving hollows under the floor.  Plywood does not have the tendency to do this at the level that mdf does, and as such is recommended as an underlay.

I’m not trying to alarm you or warn you out of using it; I just want to make sure that the product you use will give you a good result for the life of the building.

Well this did alarm me as the compressed bamboo flooring that was going over the packing was going to cost about $16,000. The last thing that I needed was to save a couple of hundred dollars on underlay only to destroy twenty times that amount if the floor had to be replaced.

So even though we had ordered and taken delivery of the MDF it would have to be ply, so the order has gone in and I now have 100 square metres of 12mm MDF to sell.

If you are interested in the specifications of ply download the technical details put together by carter Holt Harvey here.

Eco Ply Specifications

I am sure that there are many carers out there who will empathize with me here.

Since Desiree suffered from her stroke about 2 years ago and became confined to a wheelchair, I have found that I have gained a new skill. I can remember where every public toilet is in every shopping centre we visit. Not only that, I know their layouts and what fittings they contain. I find myself making judgements on which loo to visit on the basis of whether they have the grab rails on the left or right, whether there is sufficient room to turn a wheelchair around even whether the hot taps work or not. One time I even avoided a loo because I knew the elevator music would be up too loud and it would be playing Barry Manilow. (Allegedly to keep the local “mall rats” from congregating in the car park)

How did I learn all this you might ask? Well I do spend an inordinate amount of time in them helping Desiree. I have used this time to inspect the fittings, the finishes, how the doors open, why the taps don’t work, why the mirrors are at the wrong level etc. etc. I now consider myself an expert on public toilets.

When it came time to fit out the bathrooms in the Merimbula project I knew exactly what would work and what would not.

In my loo reconnaissance efforts I would write down the brands of the taps, toilet holders, toilet seats, basins even the paper towel dispensers. One name kept coming up. Bradley Australia. I did a bit of ground work and found out that Bradley Australia was a family company based in Milperra new South Wales.

Bradley Australia specialize in bathroom aids for people with disabilities and commercial bathroom fittings.

I cold called the company and ended up talking with Warren Newhouse who was the son of Oss Newhouse the founder. I told him about our project and he was keen to become involved. We will end up fitting out all of our bathrooms with Bradley Australia fittings. These include:

• Grab rails
• Stainless Steel soap dispensers
• Stainless Steel toilet roll holders
• Stainless Steel towel dispensers
• Stainless Steel soap shelves

You can register for their online catalogue by clicking here.

The last couple of weeks has seen considerable progress. The Hebel panel has been all but installed. The internal walls that are made of steel stud and track framing have gone into place. The next couple of weeks will be full on for the plumber and the electrician to rough in the wiring and water reticulation.

The Hebel took a bit more time to install than we originally thought. This was due mainly to the design of this particular project. The Hebel is basically floating in space, and getting it into the right position for fixing takes a bit. (After all each panel weighs 92kg.) We are now almost complete. The next big job is the internal plasterwork which will begin after the electrical rough in. The metal framework has gone into place. Not only is this a protection against termites, but saves some internal space.

Check out more of the photos of the last few weeks by going to the photo gallery.