POP RECORD

It’s finally time, to make my POP Record submission for Chartered Membership of CIAT or to give it its correct name the Professional and Occupational Performance Record Results Schedule.

• Results Schedule signed off by POP Record Supervisor
  
• CV updated
• Cheque made out (€106 in my case)
  
• Cover letter to accompany the submission.

Next correspondence should be the request to supply evidence for 5 of the 17 Units at which stage it should be just a case of taking the stuff out of the relevant file and submitting it.

One off housing

Over the last few years, I haven't been involved in too many "one-offs" as time was spent working on larger commercial projects or designing residential schemes: as this work, has dried up, things have come full circle, in that the one off is now featuring more and more again in my work, which was the type of work I did went I started working back in 1994. Its not to say that I haven't designed many houses in those intervening years, its hard to count how many I have, while there's been plenty of 3 bed semis, I've also been involved in many schemes of large individual houses too.

One off house design has moved on from the "bungalow bliss" type  grant sized house, which has is to be found on each rural road across the country. Have things improved much, I'm not so sure, however it is fair to say that design has become more of an important issue.  Many of the local authorites have developed Rural Design Guidelines, mainly following the lead of Cork County Council, whom produced a good publication back in 2003... a must have for both designer and potential house builder.

I can't take the credit for the design of the above dwelling, but rather I have developed the design from a planning application design to working drawings. There are things I don't particularly like myself nor would I have advised the client to do in the house, but then I didn't have a significant say in the dwelling design at concept stage.

Work on the house is progressing on site at the moment with another site visit due shortly.

Impression

Its been a while since I mentioned Autodesk’s Impression software, however that’s not to say that I haven’t been using it. In fact I use it almost as much as I use AutoCAD these days. It allows an AutoCAD user generate presentation drawings quiet quickly and with little hassle, once you use your layering system in AutoCAD correctly. A standard layering system through each project with good discipline, can allow one create render drawings in a matter of minutes, once you have your styles set up.

The current version is Impression 3, only available on subscription as have past releases, I think, which means in the short term anyway I don’t expect to see the next release, as our AutoCAD subscription wasn’t renewed, in a effort to keep overheads down for the coming 12 months.

I have to say Impression 3 has improved in terms of stability since Release 1, although, it can still be a little unpredictable when it comes to updating data following revisions in AutoCAD drawings. Fills too can pose problems if you move the drawing or elements of it following your original impression render. The importing of AutoCAD Blocks however seem to cause me most problems, in than I have to re-apply the styles on each occasion that I update the drawing.

For someone who just wants to jazz up their AutoCAD drawings (Like me) it is far simpler to use that say Adobe Photoshop, particularly if you aren’t familiar with photoshop. There aren’t a huge number of commands, yet there’s huge scope for a different presentation techniques. Be a maker style drawing with extended lines, a blueprint type finish to a drawing or whatever takes your fancy. Its just a matter of playing around with the style command.

Anyway the lads at Autodesk University are far better at explaining how to use the software than I, particularly in the two presentation I found.

• Creating a Good Impression 
• Styles and Entourage
  

An another extension

Extensions and renovations seem to be the run of the mill of late, I am currently working on another one comprising of a granny flat this time. The brief is to extend an existing bungalow with a reasonable sized granny flat with bedroom and living accommodation, which will offer independence to the occupants, yet allow for care and supervision in years to come. As part of the works the clients intend up grading the thermal performance of the building and making alterations to the existing fenestration.

The project is ready to be submitted to the planning authority for assessment. Hopefully it will run through without any problems.

Tender Prices

As noted in a previous blog, we recently tendered a small extension with 5 building contractors. At first glance there was a 24% difference in the lowest and highest tender price, with the 3 middle tenderers very closely matched. (which would indicate the actual tender price) These 3 were between 10-14% above the lowest tender price. The building contactor of the lowest tender has been back, to advise that there is an error in their price, and that the actual price should be 7.5% more than the one submitted in their tender, however under the Code of Practice for Tendering and Contractual Matters 2006 published by the Liaison Committee, the contractor is required to either stand over the tender price submitted or withdraw their tender. It is most probable that they will withdraw as they have advised that their tender price is suicidal or in any case we will be recommending to the client not to appoint the lowest tender as the tender price is insufficient to complete the project. The price is coming in at €135/sq foot, excluding PC Sums for sanitaryware / tiling and painting however it involves a lot of manual work due to restricted access and alteration works internally to the existing dwelling. We are currently waiting to see if the client will proceed with the project.

CIAT ramblings

Recently I attended a CIAT committee meeting in Dublin, which was held to tie in with Plan Expo .Unfortunately I didn’t get to visit Plan Expo, things ran late in the office however I understand that there were more exhibitors than visitors (on that afternoon anyway), which is an indication of the poor state of the industry at present. Talking to some of the committee members afterwards, some don’t hold out much hope for their future in the industry, ( in the short term anyway) which is worrying, as people who engage on committees are generally the one’s who interested in progressing their career and practice.
There’s a practice meeting in early December, which should be interesting to see how others are coping and how they view the future.

Its 3 years, since I was admitted to CIAT as an Associate member. I had hoped to have had my pop record completed at this stage however things have been difficult for the last 18 months and its a case of survival and the pop record gets put on the back burner. However I’m now at the stage where I can of make my record submission, just have to update the CV at this stage and get the application fee. Watch this space.

Extensions and tendering.

With many home owners not able to sell their homes or sell for what they hoped to get, some have resorted to extending rather than trading up. Depending on the works involved it may not be necessary to apply for planning permission, however I have found that generally the planning authorities make decisions well within the statutory period where planning permission was required and there are no issues .... something which would not have happened 12-15 months ago. Maybe its just that I've covered everything in the planning application submission and that they had no cause to request any further information.

Within the last few days I've sent one extension out to tender. It had been a while since I prepared tender documentation for an extension to be honest, but I now have a run of them to do. Extensions by their nature can be difficult to predict budget prices for so it will be interesting to see how much the tenders will come back for. I am expecting some variation in the prices.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors estimate that tender prices generally are back to 1999 levels, which would bring building costs well back from what they were 15 months ago, yet material prices and specifications have risen beyond the 1999 levels as have prelims., which makes one wonder.

The hidden costs of direct labour

Yesterday I was asked for my thoughts on building an extension by direct labour. People think it is a far cheaper route to hiring a builder to do the job and go that route, often not factoring in the hidden costs. A client who chooses the direct labour route is ultimately managing and running a business for the duration of the project, however many never think or see it as that.

There's their time, often away from work associated with the project, including ordering materials, chasing sub contractors etc and the costs of phone calls trips to the builder's merchants to collect materials all which are often never factored into the project costs.

There's an array of insurances, which some are sometimes over looked, until its too late. And of course the client has full responsibility for the health and safety of the site. I wonder how many clients in their role of the employer have a safety statement for the construction site as required by law or whats more are aware that they are responsible for maintaining the health and safety of the site.Some might see these an an extra unnecessary cost, but if an accident occurred on site having the proper insurances and heath and safety procedures and policies could be the difference of having a new home or spending ones days in the jail house.

In the end I didn't give an opinion, just presented some of the information which doesn't always jump to mind for those considering the direct labour route as at the end of the day most people will do what they want anyway.

Information Evening at the Park

The summer months are not normally the time, when information evenings take place or are well attended but on Wednesday week last, I attended a presentation in the Clonmel Park Hotel made by Campion Concrete on a new system build they are using for housing. While the concept is good, and properly works I won't be recommending the system in the near future, as I left with a lot of unanswered questions. Much of the presentation or "sales pitch" used bad workmanship in traditional cavity walling construction as a method of promoting the system and how this the system eliminates that, however as we all know, any system is only as good a the workmanship, be it timber frame, light gauge steel frame or conventional conc. block cavity walling. There was no real technical data to support or verify the system, nor from what I can gather has any testing of the system been done other than a 4 houses constructed within the last 12 months. Those associated with the product ran for cover when asked about the technical side and if an Agrément Certificate was applied for/pending ..... which answered that for me anyway.

Still the evening wasn't wasted as some knowledge was gained and Carey Glass of Nenagh were also in attendance and made a brief presentation on their "enegry reducing" products.

Extensions, Retentions etc

The last few weeks have been spent preparing extension and retention planning applications and taking in charge documentation. While retentions are normally straight forward in terms of preparing, there's the same level of work involved and often more than a clear new planning application, fees expected by clients are normally less. For retentions we charge out by the hour with expenses on top, so the client can see exactly what they are paying for.

Clients initially take the same view with regard to fees for extensions, looking at the smaller picture of adding a room, however went you start outlining to them the bigger picture of how an extension is also an opportunity to upgrade the entire house from an energy efficiency point of view they seem more value in fees and professional advise and of doing the work. Be it reducing the amount glazing to north facing sunrooms, upgrading the heating system or replacing less energy efficient double glazing with ones of better U-values. For the client there is good value to be got in construction of an extension at present. Also as people can no longer to afford to trade up, the extension is the only option of adding some additional space hence I think extensions will be the most common type of work in the foreseeable future.