Project Management Software for Residential Building

Building your new your new home or renovating is an exciting and important endeavour.  At the Home Building Centre we want the process to be as smooth and enjoyable as possible.  This is why we provide each of our clients with access to a secure website with all of the details of their home building project.

Whether you are at home, at work, on the road, or on holidays, the Home Building Centre puts information at your fingertips about your selections, upgrades, financial decisions, questions, documents, photos and more.

Selection Sheet

See choices and stay on schedule.  Our site organises selection items on a single colour-coded list, displayed with all of the pertinent allowance, pricing, and other helpful information.  Upcoming selections are automatically flagged to help keep you on schedule. With just a few clicks, you can enter your choices.

Expenses & Change Orders

Eliminate any surprise price variations as every decision made on the selection sheet is automatically reflected on the expenses page. With a single click, you can see how each of your choices have affected the final price of your home. If you need to approve a change order, you can do it electronically, saving you the time and hassle of faxing or mailing signatures to us.

Schedule & Milestones

Building a home is an involved process.  To make is easier for you we set up key project milestones in the system so that you can check the progress made so far and see what steps are coming up next.

Questions List

Over the course of a project, you will have lots of questions and this section will help you keep all of those questions, and your builder’s answers, organised and in one place. Simply enter your questions here, and your builder’s responses will be listed right next to them.

Comments, Photos, and Files

As your home building project progresses, you will need to have “conversations” about certain items, like asking for clarification on a selection or providing an update on a request. Rather than using e-mail, you can add comments to many of the items in the site. Comments group these conversations together with the items to which they relate, which keeps information organised and available to everyone, cutting down on misunderstandings. You and your builder can also attach photos and files.

Warranty List

Once your home is complete, you can submit warranty requests online. You can come back to the site to check the status, add comments as necessary, and then verify when they are complete.

The common brick is one of the greatest inventions. Brick making transforms low-strength mud into strong materials that can endure harsh conditions for centuries when properly cared for. Many people prefer to invest and live in a brick house basically because of the impression that they are more durable than others.

Bricks can be made of clay, soft slate, calcium silicate, concrete or from quarried stone. Brick material is free from pollutants and allergens. There are many several types of bricks. Deciding which brick to use is an important consideration. The four most common types of bricks are:

• i. Engineering Block – They’re not particularly attractive looking bricks but they are tenacious and solid and so very useful.      
• ii. Facing Bricks – this is a very common type of brick which is generally used in small or medium sized projects.     
• iii. Reclaimed Bricks – these are normally cheap bricks which you can get from other areas of the house or other demolished houses.     
• iv. Decorative Bricks – these help add a classy look to existing brickwork that might look boring to you.

Choosing the perfect bricks for your project is not a difficult job. A wise decision will really help make your home improvement projects more visually exciting. Let us now consider the advantages of bricks.

Advantages of using Bricks

There are several reasons why people prefer bricks over other building material. It has various benefits such as value recognition, fire protection, comfort, and is also environment-friendly. Aside from the classical appeal bricks can bring to your house, they also have the following value and energy efficiency:

• Adds value to the house – a house made of bricks has an impression of being solid and durable. According to a study, bricks houses are highly demanded. Therefore, it can add up to 6% on resale value than non – brick homes. We can use decorative bricks to add beauty to the house as well.
• Climate control – brick houses are more beneficial to cold areas. Brick has the ability to slow heat movement, giving you a warmer and more comfortable environment inside the house.  This special property of bricks also reduces the usage of heaters during severely cold weather. Bricks like Engineering blocks can be suitable in this case as they are very strong.
• Requires less maintenance – Bricks do not require frequent repainting, repair or reinstallation, provided that they are properly installed. Although it is true that brick houses are usually costly but the maintenance of the house will not add costs to it. If it is properly installed and taken care of, it is guaranteed that bricks need about two life times before requiring renovation.
• Fire Proof nature – Bricks are naturally fire proof. It gives a higher sense of security in emergency fire conditions to you and your family. Some bricks are made up of clay so they don’t produce combustion gases, which is the second most harmful reason for casualties after the fire itself. This also results in decrease of the fire insurance of around 32%.
• Bricks and beauty – Bricks not only add value but add beauty to your house as well. You can mix and match your bricks with over 10,000 colors and styles from traditional to modern home designs depending on the structure and your personality. Decorative bricks often feature carvings or other artistic qualities designed to look attractive and are available in a range of sizes and shapes to suit all sorts of projects.  

When it comes to the technical considerations, we will need the help of a masonry contractor. Here are some of those things we must consider:

1. Best quality of material
2. Proper installation
3. Proper construction techniques
4. Trimming and framing details

Brick houses demand a higher market value because of their quality and efficiency. Although using bricks for your home can be a bit costly, but the advantages you can get from owning a house made from bricks would certainly outweigh this advantage.

Australia, while being one of the drier regions on the planet, has coastal wet areas as well. Either of these climate types can do its damage to the construction of a home. Dry climates can reduce the soil’s ability to bear a load and cause shrinkage which will damage a home’s structure. The moist areas have their own downfalls including mold and termites. It is very important that the builder that you hire is very familiar with the area that you will be building your home.

How Familiar Is Your Builder With Your Build Site?

It is important to find out whether your builder has experience building in your area. While many builders are very good at what they do, the soil conditions can create very diverse conditions that a builder from out of the area will be unfamiliar with. Knowing how to build and understanding the existing site conditions can be very different. Find out how many homes the builder you are using has actually constructed in the vicinity that you are considering.

Assuming that the builder that you are using has built homes in your area, get a list of addresses and references and find out from his previous customers if they are satisfied with the work and any necessary follow up support that was needed. Contact home owners that have been in their homes for over five years, as well as ones that have been recent builds. This will give you a feel for whether or not any problems showed up down the road.

Steel Construction or Chemically Treated Timber?

These days, both steel and treated timber construction tends are receiving due consideration because of the specific characteristics of each. Steel because of its stability under most conditions. It has one of the highest ratios of weight to strength of all materials. It is much lighter than wood and it does not contract and expand like wood does. Steel will not warp and can not be eaten by termites. Steel also allows for more precision cuts than wood and is therefore squared and this provides additional stability. However, wood that is properly chemically treated to resist termites can provide high quality construction in dry areas as well. Wood is lower cost than steel and special stabilizing construction methods should be used. There are no visible differences that would make one method more visually appealing than another.

While this information is all important to know, it is imperative that you choose a builder that you have the utmost confidence in and rely on his expertise. If you choose an experienced builder, he will be able to guide you in the right direction and help you make wise decisions to be sure that your home will be sound for many years to come. He will be able to adequately convey the pros and cons of each type of building material. That’s why making an informed decision when you select your builder is one of the most important decisions you will make. It will affect every other aspect of the building process.