Is Flood Damage an “Act of God”or a Result of Bad Planningand Shoddy Construction? Pic above: The flooded N2 just outside Somerset West was a veritable river on the evening of 15 November 2013. By Penny Swift, November 16, 2013 As much of the greater Cape Town area and other parts of the Western Cape…
Picture Above: Stage two, where you maybe put in a pool and other areas for entertaining Landscaping Your Garden in Stages – Part 2 As we suggested in Landscaping Stage 1, it is usually not going to be possible to build in all the plants, features or utilities into a garden when you initially start…
Landscaping Your Garden in Stages – Part 1 Picture Above: A bed of Iceberg standard roses with an Australian tufted violet groundcover filling the bed. It is not usually possible to incorporate all the plants, features or facilities into landscaping your garden when you first build a house. These are items that will normally be…
Landscaping Your Garden We have divided this article into two sections: > Landscaping Your Garden in Stages – Part 1 & Landscaping Your Garden in Stages – Part 2 The reason for this is because when you build a new house, starting to landscape your garden from scratch is an enormous task. Plants need to…
Picture Above: A freshly placed concrete slab still wet on the top surface Cold Weather and Foundations The surrounding local temperature has a big effect on the setting time of cold concrete. The steps to take with foundations during cold weather are outlined below: Chemical Reaction Hydration is the chemical reaction when cement and water…
A Concrete Placing Guide Cast Your foundations This guide will help owner-builders to cast the foundations. These foundations are for external brick walls around a new house, or for extensions of an existing house. THE NHBRC (National Homebuilders Association Council) requirements for house foundations: For single-story buildings with tiled or sheeted roofs in stable soil conditions, the…
We Rely on National Building Regulations Why National Building regulations is a question asked many times. Both international and national standards and Building Regulations are fundamental to successful building and construction projects, both big and small.It doesn’t matter whether you are building a garden shed out of timber, a modest family home from bricks and…
About the NHBRC The National Home Builders Registration Council (The NHBRC) was established in 1998 as a regulatory body for the home building industry. Their mandate is to protect house-building consumers and to make sure that building industry standards and regulations are followed. Their stated aim is to protect housing consumers who use contractors who…
How to Build a Container House Mads Møller of Arcgency is an Architectural office situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. Has come up with a container house concept as he says is using “Old shipping containers used as the structural framework for the WFH-Huse. This is not just recycling; This is upcycling!” The WFH concept is a modular…
How to Decorate Floors with Concrete Concrete floors do not have to be drab and grey. Oh No! There is a South African company that manufactures and supplies specialised coatings, especially for you to give your floors that million-dollar look. Fairly easy to mix and apply it is also a cost-effective finish for your concrete floor….
Picture Above: A wide open kitchen in contrasting light and dark colors. Great Kitchen Layout and Design Ideas The kitchen, say the experts, will sell the house: an axiom that can’t be proved but which nevertheless rings very true. It is part of today’s house that, more than any other, will yield handsome dividends on…
A Table for Concrete Mixes by Weight in Kilograms, by Bag, and by Cubic Meter, for Various Strengths We have had numerous requests for concrete mix ratios by weight, by volume, and by mass. Here is a table that was released by the Cement and Concrete Institute for trial concrete mixes from 10MPa to 40MPa….
The Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act 95 of 1998 Updated 2008 – EXPLAINED 1. Purpose of the HCPA 1. The main purpose of the Housing Consumers Protection Act is to give protection to housing consumers. At the same time it created the NATIONAL HOME BUILDERS REGISTRATION COUNCIL (NHBRC), whose objective is to stand for the…
By-Law Definitions for Planning, Building and Zoning These definitions are mainly, but not exclusively, extracted from the Greater Metropolitan Area of Cape Town’s By-Laws Planning and Zoning definitions and explanations. They do and can relate to terms and phrases used nationally by other Municipalities and planning departments. We will be adding to them on an…
Definitions that are used in the Home Building Industry Words and definitions that are used in the home building industry are sometimes a little difficult to understand what is meant. Here we have a list of some terms that are used with an explanation of what it is the person using it means. Some of…
The Town Planning Scheme for the Tshwane Region 2008 Make the right decisions We have included these Tshwane Planning Scheme Regulations to assist you with accessing the correct information so that you can make the right decisions when it comes to planning any construction, building, and renovation or the purchase of property with developments in mind….
The Assessment of Alternate Building Technologies This article from the latest issue of AKHANI, the quarterly magazine of the NHBRC, addresses the use of alternate building materials and the legal process as well as the pending changes to their manuals. It is well worth a read. Assessment of ABT (Alternate Building Technologies) Any house…
How to contact your Local Authority and Municipality in your District Here is the most up-to-date National Municipality Contact list We get requests almost on a daily basis about “How do I contact my local Municipality?”, “Where is my local Authority?”, “Where do I take my plans?”, “Where can I contact the Building Inspector?” Well…
Consolidated Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme, 2011 Download the Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme document below We have included this Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme document to assist you with accessing the the correct information so that you can make the right decisions when it comes to planning any construction, building and renovation or the purchase of property…
A List of Definitions and TermsUsed in Town Planning Schemes Includes Land Use and Zonings Terms The Johannesburg metropolitan area is the largest, most diverse and most cosmopolitan in South Africa, so we have based this list on definitions from their Town Planning document, see: town-planning-scheme-jhb. These are not only relevant to Gauteng but are…
An A to Z list of Environmental phrases and words Thanks to the City of Cape Town for providing the basis for this list to which we have added more entries. We will expand the list as and when we find more interesting and useful words and phrases. There is a link to the City…
What the National Building Regulations say about Alterations and Additions to Existing Buildings In general, the National Building Regulations are not retroactive in their application. This means that if you are making alterations and additions. a building, you won’t have to ensure that the entire building complies with new regulations that have been imposed since…
Articles & Product Reviews Please come back to this page often as we are starting a review of products that will be of interest to anyone in the building industry. If there are any articles or category of product that you would like to see featured and reviewed here please let us know on our…
Building drywall system is not environmentally friendly The American timber and drywall construction method is brought under the spotlight in a Wikipedia entry “Drywall”. You just have to look at the sulfur dioxide emission figures never mind the mercury released during manufacture. It appears that this method is NOT good for our environment and Americans…
Environmental Sustainability &Energy Usage in Buildings-Part X & XA In 2011, in an endeavour to make our buildings more sustainable, and to decrease energy usage in South Africa, a new part was added to SANS 10400, The application of the National Building Regulations. Part X deals with environmental sustainability, and Part XA deals with energy…
