House building – SANS10400.org.za are the Building regulations in South Africa

Can I owner build my own house in South Africa?

Owner Build Your Own House in South Africa: A Comprehensive Guide Introduction: To “Build my own house” can be an exciting and rewarding endeavour, allowing you to design and create a home that perfectly suits your needs and preferences. In South Africa, the process to owner build your own house is certainly feasible, but it…

Floors | Home Safety

Safety In The Home

Your Home—Better Safe Than Sorry Common home safety must not be taken for granted. We list a few important pitfalls and some helpful advice and precautions to take to make your home a safer place to live in – for everyone. In the Kitchen: 1. For safety keep knives and sharp utensils in drawers or…

Boundary Lines & Walls | Disasters | Foundations | National Building Regulations (SA) | SANS 10400

Tree Damage to Walls & Foundations – SANS10400-H Annex-D

Danger of Tree Damage to Walls & Foundations – SANS 10400-H Annex-D Cracks and damage to walls and foundations are caused primarily by soils that contract and expand due to moisture content when the soil absorbs water and swells up and then shrinks when it dries out. This puts pressure on foundations, and if not designed…

Implications of Non-Compliant Electric Fencing and Outdated Certificates of Compliance

By Penny Swift Author Electricity is a charged subject that often shocks those who don’t realize how important compliance is. Home Security Just look at all the illegal electrical connections looming over informal settlements. Notice people on social media asking who can do electrical jobs cheaply. Do they even realize that only qualified, registered electricians…

Municipality | National Building Regulations (SA) | Plumbing | Plumbing repairs | Water supply and drainage for buildings

Burst Water Pipes, You Pay For Fresh Air On The Bill

By JANEK SZYMANOWSKI Air Gives False Readings Main picture above: Burst water pipe in Gauteng. Picture courtesy Pretoria East Record Every time a water pipe bursts, there’s a good chance that the municipality will rake in thousands of rands from false water meter readings. This is because air passing through consumers’ water meters and water…

Disasters | Municipality | News | safety

Councils Must be Ruthless with Unsafe Buildings

Councils Must be Ruthless with Restricting Occupation of Unsafe Buildings I think it must be terrifying to be woken at 04:00 in the morning by a thunderclap that makes the whole building shudder. Then, in a confused state, you realise your bed’s still shaking and, no, it wasn’t thunder, it was the building falling down….

Additions & Alterations | Home Design Ideas | Kitchens

Design Your Own Kitchen – A Good Layout Makes A Good Kitchen 4 Types

Picture Above: The open-plan approach to kitchen design allows optimum use of available space and also creates an illusion of roominess. This arrangement is a sensible combination of the sociable and the practical, with the eating counter also serving as a work surface. How To Do A Good Kitchen Layout – The Basics A good…

Additions & Alterations | Home Design Ideas | Kitchens

How To Design Your Own Kitchen Easily

How To Design Your Own Kitchen Using Templates For Design Fitting the various individual components of the kitchen into your outline is an exact, and exacting, process in which guesswork shouldn’t feature. Prepare card or plastic cut-outs, or templates, of every major item. These should be carefully drawn to scale for the design. Among your…

Additions & Alterations | Bathrooms | Plumbing

Design a Small Bathroom

How to Design a Small Bathroom Every centimetre counts in a small bathroom, whether it s a guest cloakroom, a shower room or a tiny cubby-hole in an apartment. Small design errors which may go unnoticed in a large bathroom can easily become a major source of frustration in a confined area. • Investigate the…

Additions & Alterations | Home Design Ideas | Kitchens

Kitchen Traffic Flow

How to Solve Kitchen Traffic Flow Problems The patterns of kitchen traffic should be taken into account when planning the new layout. Ideally, the kitchen traffic flow should not interfere with the work triangle. If this is unavoidable, however, try and ensure that the triangle intersects the path to the fridge. Here we have listed…

Additions & Alterations | Home Design Ideas | Kitchens

How to Design an Open-plan Kitchen

The Open-plan Kitchen Option There was a time, not too long ago, when South African home owners were not overly concerned about the dimensions of their rooms. Nowadays, with construction costs – indeed all costs – spiralling, the emphasis is on the compact, and on an internal arrangement that makes optimum use of every available…

Additions & Alterations | Bathrooms | Plumbing

Easy Bathroom Planning 5 Steps

Caption for pic above: There are no absolutes in bathroom design: your aim is to produce an environment that is comfortable, convenient and easy to maintain, and that works for the people who will use it. Easy Bathroom Planning – What You Need to Know 1. You and Your Plumber The location and layout of…

Building | Concrete & Masonry | Foundations | Owner Building | Regulations

Build a House: Watch this Fascinating 10 min Classic Film Clip

Here is a Classic Film Clip on How to Build a House This how to build a house film clip that was made back in 1946 is a must-watch for anyone contemplating doing any sort of building. Even though it was made so many years ago the process has more or less remained the same….

Additions & Alterations | Bathrooms | Plumbing

Bathroom Storage Tips

Tips for Bathroom Storage Systems Bathroom storage and work surfaces are two aspects of bathroom planning that are often neglected. Consider your needs at the outset, and you will be rewarded with a bathroom that not only looks neat and streamlined but which also functions more efficiently. A miniature medicine cabinet or narrow glass shelf is frequently…

Additions & Alterations | Bathrooms | Plumbing

Design Your New Bathroom

The picture above: Sleek, sophisticated, and as compact as a ship’s cabin, this good-looking grey marble bathroom has generous sliding windows that provide a magnificent Atlantic view. How to Design Your New Bathroom Designing a successful new bathroom involves far more than simply plumbing in the basic fixtures. The position of the room and its internal…

Additions & Alterations | Kitchens

Kitchen Planning by Stages

Main picture above: This deceptively uncluttered kitchen includes a host of special features, including pull-out vertical tiers for groceries, a built-in microwave oven, and a stacked washing machine and tumble dryer, which are concealed behind closed doors. Plan Your Kitchen in Stages The Four Stages of Planning Your Kitchen Minimum Modules and Enticing Extras These…

Additions & Alterations | Kitchens

Renovate Your Kitchen – 5 suggestions

Renovate Your Kitchen – Old to New The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in any house. But when you buy a house, you don’t always get the kitchen that meets your needs – never mind your dreams. It is at this point that you may decide it’s a good idea to renovate…

Additions & Alterations | Bathrooms | Owner Building | Plumbing

Bathroom planning – 4 Interesting Questions

Main Picture Above: Designed with the needs of a family in mind, this small bathroom has durable, easy-to-clean ceramic tile surfaces and owes much of its charm to a simple, streamlined layout and a restful neutral background. Your Bathroom Planning the Right Way Whether it is a guest cloakroom, a luxurious en suite arrangement or…

Remodel your bathroom with seperate toilet

Additions & Alterations | Bathrooms | Plumbing

Remodel Your Bathroom Like A Professional

Tips on How to Remodel Your Bathroom A comprehensive survey of the functions and fittings of an existing or future bathroom will help you to organise your thoughts and will also give you a good idea of the size and cost to remodel your bathroom that lies ahead. Before you rush out and order hundreds…

House building | NHBRC

NHBRC Fees – No VAT Attached

The NHBRC has Deregistered from VAT and Adjusted their Fees We have recently had a number of enquiries about how the NHBRC fees are calculated, those are the fees that have to be paid when a proposed new house is registered with them. In 2011 the NHBRC was deregistered for VAT and they adjusted their…

Competent Person | Minor Building Work | Owner Building | Plumbing

DIY Plumbing-What is Legal.

Plumbing Projects You Can Tackle Legally Do you know that almost all the municipalities now require a plumbing COC (Certificate of Compliance) before they will approve the sale of any house in their area? The question is what DIY plumbing work can you do yourself that is legal and will not affect your COC? Plumbing…

National Building Regulations (SA) | Plumbing | Plumbing repairs

Blocked Drains

What to do when you have Blocked Drains Do your drains sometimes look like this, with smelly overflowing waste-water running into the street? Well a few days ago we had this problem. After a few tries with the plunger I gave it up as a bad job. If you think that this is going to…

House building | NHBRC

NHBRC Suspends Fees Included in PA003

NHBRC Suspends the Payment of House Enrolment Fees-PA003 The National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) announced at the beginning of November 2013 that the home registration fees, that must be paid on all new houses, will no longer be allowed to be included in the first progress payment that is made to the home builder…

Building Plans | Plumbing

Bathroom Ideas – 10 Tips

Great Bathroom Layout and Design Ideas Over the years, the bathroom has earned a reputation as an area unworthy of attention, probably because it has always been regarded as no more than a room in which to wash. Nobody can deny that this is still its most important function but, nevertheless, it seems a poor…

Engineers report on Riga Maxima supermark

Building Plans | Competent Person | Disasters | News | Roofs

Engineers Specs Are Professional & Vital

The Photograph above: By Valenciano – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29802079 Engineers Design Buildings for a Purpose Engineers around the world will design a structure based on the brief given to them by a developer. The basis for any good design is to have a structure that is “fit for purpose” for which it is…