I have miles of decking at two houses. All timber when put in the Australian sun will suffer. When building our beach house we decided to go for Spotted Gum and let it grey. Why fight it? We applied Cutek, and will on a regular basis. At our main house we have lots of Merabu or Quilla. Will not grey the same, and leaches lots of red stain. Cheap, but would not use again. What ever you use, use a good quality oil that seeps deep into the wood not a traditional stain/or top finishing product.

As an architect, I have previously been taught that creating a sustainable home is about designing it so that living in it lowers energy and water use. This is achieved through designing for orientation, using thermal mass and specifying fixtures and finishes that are low impact, reuse water on site, etc. However, the latest research is showing that this is not enough to impact the rate of climate change. And that what we build from needs to be considered in order to make a dent. This is because the timeframe required to see the benefits of sustainable living in a home, is a longer play than the upfront construction from low tox, low energy, minimal footprint materials and methodologies. It has to be a two-pronged approach. Choose materials and products, and constructing efficiently with low energy and low waste. Having carbon neutral homes. And designing homes that over the long term, are low in energy and water consumption, and support the health and well-being of the occupants. A project was established in mid 2017, called “The Building Code Energy Performance Trajectory Project”. It involved the Sustainable Built Environment Council and ClimateWorks Australia, and is described as an industry-led initiative seeking improvements to energy requirements in the National Construction Code. The report was released recently, and what was amazing in this report was to read that 58% of Australia’s buildings in 2050, will be built after 2019 … which means that there’s huge potential to impact their performance and the environment through better energy requirements. And these energy requirements have not been rigorously updated since 2010, despite electricity prices having doubled over that time. Detached housing will comprise 64% of the new construction between 2019 and 2050. So every homeowner has the opportunity to seriously change the landscape of energy use and efficiency in our country. There’s some sectors of the industry really pushing back against this … largely because they believe it will dramatically dent their profit margins to have to build houses with higher star ratings. Australian homes, on average, perform very poorly, and our expectations are super low. Steve Baczek, an American architect, said something about American houses that I think sums it up for Australia as well ... “It’s not that High-Performance Houses cost too much; it’s that our idea of a fairly priced home is based on a history of building houses to meet embarrassingly low performance benchmarks. Clients don’t realise the difference between built to code vs built to last”.

Rulers for choosing the right paint colours for your home from Vndraft Check out with us https://vndraft.com/how-to-choose-the-right-paint-colours-for-your-home-pick-the-rulers-from-vndraft/ There are a few fairly simple ways to decide what colours to go with what when painting your new building or renovation home. There are 12 rules for choosing the right paint colours. In this article, we will help you find out what your favourite colour means, and chose the proper colour.

I just hope your opening is wide enough for what you want. If you need to make it wider then you will also need to consult a structural engineer for a lintel design to span the wider opening before the builder starts. You may want to do your research on stacker and sliding doors first to find a manufacturer that you like and tell your builder the colour and the manufacturer before he quotes. Don't leave it to your builder to decide as he will just get the cheapest. Get a builder to quote if you are using aluminium doors. They have to be measured precisely and ordered by the builder (who takes a risk if he makes a mistake when measuring). Do your research so you know what you want, and how it works, rather than get your builder decide based on what is easiest and cheapest to install. Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls/Dr Retro Virtual Visits