Hello, Sorry in advance to bring up an old thread/subject, However looking for any additional advice/direction i can get on comment from midesign0401 below... mldesign0401 In Victoria a range hood is a requirement in new kitchens. No longer is it acceptable for a simple exhaust unit, rather it must now be ducted to external air. So your range hood must be flued either through your roof space or via a horizontal duct to an external wall. It must be installed and signed off, and your house insurance will require your sign off document if your house insurance is to cover damage due to fire, or you will find yourself in a predicament. The provision for installing a range hood above a gas cooktop is a minimum placement of 650mm above your cooktop, and 605 for an electric hob. Including induction. Hope this helps. Our new home got handed over to us by builder just before Christmas (21/12/2018), We are still waiting for under mount rangehood to be installed into our kitchen, The house was delivered with no rangehood as the hole they provided was to close to accommodate rangehood selection, After a couple of visits we have been told that cupboards are to be removed and replaced, Which we are still waiting for as the 'cabinetmaker is very busy', My inquiry is to see whether there is a building code reference/link I can forward on to them to hurry the process up, Also concerned that insurance would not cover our new house if there happened to be a fire Thanks in advance, We look forward o nay help, Regards, Ken and Nadia Buxton

Gosh what a funny turn around - this discussion started right after I had finished my last kitchen and now it is revived just as I'm going through all this madness again trying to replace a kitchen in my new home .............. when I can find someone interested in doing some work. Jennifer, I'm leaning to Bosch appliances if they meet my requirements. One of my joeys lives in Germany where Bosch and Siemens (made by the same company apparently) are made and are very highly esteemed. Because I have so much renovation work to do on this house, I'm watching my pennies a bit so I will probably stick with a Dishlex Dishwasher that has always served me well and these days they are extremely quiet too, but I am looking at Bosch for the oven and cooktops. In earlier posts I praised the Fisher and Paykel oven and cooktops, but then discovered a BIG flaw in the design of the oven - it had a double glass door with a gap between the two sheets of glass and guess where every crumb and spill went, so they will not be on my radar again. I'm also hearing good reports about Electrolux but very bad ones about Miele and their service which is really letting the brand down. For those getting on in years too - beware of push button settings and slide controls, arthritic fingers just cannot manage these. As well, I'm told the slide controls on cook tops are not as accurate as knobs.

If those prices don't include the electrician's costs of connection then to me they don't match up and I'd say your supplier/installer can't do maths lol. Pricing will change between supplier and of course electricians, and of course I'm working off the impression that the floors are flat where you want it installed. If the quote includes the electrical work, as in it covers everything besides tiling to where you can switch it on, then it looks reasonable to me and sits around the ballpark of what we paid. With the electrician's connection costs included then the figures match up better between the bathrooms and the living area, looking at it from a total per m2 viewpoint. If it includes the floor covering as well, then I'd say get on the phone and book the job straight away before they realise their mistake lmao. For instance if the quote is just for material and install, without electrical connection then the two bathrooms are quoted at $166.66 per m2 and the living area is quoted at $53.57 per m2. A large difference at cost per m2. If however the quotes include the electrical connection then you can average out the m2 cost across all three rooms and it amounts to $73.53 per m2. The electrician would be charging the same price for connection of each room (with only minor differences) if there is nothing out of the ordinary in any room. That means it's a static cost in each room that could make the bathroom quotes look inflated, and the living room look on the cheaper side. When you have a m2 quote on something across multiple rooms of different sizes, it's important to factor in anything outside of materials that's included in the quote. Assuming the install could be considered standard (whether it be underfloor heating, tiling, carpet, etc.) there will be other costs involved such as labour hours, wiring connection, installation materials, etc. Some can be considered static such as the electrician installing a single thermostat in each room, whatever actual size that room may be. Others will be more fluid such as labour hours for the tradesmen doing the install - will take a lot longer to lay tiles in a room of 56m2 than it will to lay them in a room 6m2. Whenever you are given a quote involving installations by m2, it's important to get them to detail what exactly is included in the quote. If you don't do this you run the chance of ripping yourself off. Let's say you get 3 different quotes from underfloor heating suppliers who all give you different prices but without details. One may look more expensive than the other two but actually be cheaper overall due to including everything up to 'turn on' phase, where the other two may only include supplying and laying the underfloor heating with you having to organise your own electrician after install.

Thank you all for your timely responses. I too have always enjoyed the convenience of my two ovens which can be used independently of each other, which is why I am seriously considering the 1.5 double oven option. I have also researched the idea of two compact ovens which include microwave and steam options, (Bosch, Miele, Smeg AEG etc) and was all excited about that idea, but to install two of these is far too expensive. ($5000+ minimum) The freestanding convection microwave options all stipulate minimum 10-20cm airflow at the top of the unit, and the ones that do come with trim kits still all end up being too large for the space...frustratingly, often by only 2 or 3 cm! And yes, I've also lusted after an induction cooktop, but the expense of chasing wiring down a solid brick wall and disrupting backsplash tiling has put the kybosh on that idea. Anyhow, I have slept on this (again!) and have come to the conclusion that a 1.5 oven without an integrated microwave is the only way available at a reasonable cost.... A small microwave inside a cupboard might just work.... It's both interesting and noteworthy that convection/microwave +/- steam, with regular multifunction oven combinations although expensive, are readily available in several brands in the US......I'm jealous!