16 Irvine St / Selections
Prepared for Mastacon · 43 sections
Questions
Sections

First to settle

24 of the 266 questions need an answer before the others: they set the slab and footings, the framing and the rough-in, or change the drawings or the price. Each is the same question as in its section, linked above it. Meeting notes added here show in the section too.

Before the slab and footings

  • 09a Courtyard, side path and patio — the design Footing height, again. Same decision as the deck, and it has to be made before the slab goes down.
  • 07a Dwelling 3's pool yard — the design Rendered block wall on the boundary with Dwelling 2, 1.8 m high, from the rear boundary to Dwelling 3's back wall (about 14.8 m; see Fencing), built before the dividing fence goes in, in place of that stretch of Colorbond. The Colorbond from the courtyard meets it at a rendered pier. It forms that side of the pool barrier. Does a 1.8 m masonry wall on the boundary need council approval or a neighbour notice, and footings to an engineer's detail?
  • 07b Solar and batteries Dwelling 3 (pool): please arrange a three-phase supply (the pool heat pump and pump, plus the EV circuit; the pool quote's heat pump draws 4 kW, so please confirm its phase), about 13–15 kW of panels and about 25–30 kWh of battery. The heat pump and filter pump to run on a daytime timer from the solar, so the battery covers the evenings. Mastacon: please arrange the three-phase supply with SA Power Networks as part of the build.

Framing and rough-in, before the walls are lined

  • 00b Guest entry, Wi-Fi and cameras Network cupboard and cabling (first, at rough-in): a Cat6 cable from each point below, run back to one place per dwelling. We suggest the locked owner's cupboard upstairs (section 12a), so guests can't reach the gear, with a double power point and some ventilation; or a small cabinet beside the switchboard in the garage. Which do you recommend? The NBN connection box (NTD) goes in the same place. Please terminate every run on a patch panel there, and price the cabling and the fit-off of John's equipment per dwelling.
  • 10c The wet areas, measured Set-downs. Drawn at 45 mm with a screed to fall (WD 08). Confirm the step-free detail for the upstairs ensuite shower, where the floor is Structafloor on joists, not slab.
  • 10e The downstairs washroom — the design Concealed cistern in the middle wall. The wall-hung toilet mounts on the 92 mm stud wall between this room and the bathroom. Does a slim in-wall cistern and frame fit, or does the wall need building out? The rev H ensuite draws a ledge over its WC, which may be exactly that.
  • 03 Curtain bulkheads Recessed ceiling pocket for a double curtain track (sheer + blockout), rather than a dropped bulkhead where the room allows: about 150 wide × 120 deep, square set, no shadow gap, running the full width of the wall so the curtains hang from the ceiling to the floor. Needed in Bed 2 (the whole west wall, ~3.9 m, past the high 2710 × 800 window), Bed 1, Bed 3 and the living room (the balcony slider wall). Tracks in matte black to suit the black accents through the house. Please allow blocking for the tracks and power for a warm LED strip in the pocket (living and bedrooms), and confirm the ceiling framing allows the recess. The tender has only one bulkhead: “Line bulkhead to rear Bed 3 window to conceal motorised curtain track” (so Bed 3 has a motorised curtain track in the tender); the rest is a variation.
  • 10d The downstairs bathroom — the design Lit fluted wall: a linear LED in a narrow slot in the ceiling, tight against the fluted wall behind the vanity and shower, washing straight down it so every rib throws a shadow. It has to be framed into the ceiling before sheeting. Is she happy with the detail? Which LED and driver, and where is the dimmer?
  • 05b The kitchen — the design Rangehood: integrated in the cupboards over the cooktop, their underside at ~1550 (650 over the cooktop), ducted outside, not recirculating. What's the duct route?
  • 08a Living and dining — first look Ceiling fans (none are drawn; the electrical legend has the symbols but none are placed): chosen (John, 29 Sep): a ThreeSixty Kirra 183 cm DC fan, Washed Oak timber blades, black base, no light, in the living; a FARO Barcelona Klim 150 cm (matt black body, pine blades) in each bedroom, and an outdoor-rated fan on the balcony. Please price fan-rated fixings and wiring at each, with a wall controller rather than a remote (remotes go missing in a rental). Tender item 15 already includes timber-look ceiling fans to the alfresco, balcony, Bed 1, Bed 2 and Bed 3: please confirm the chosen fans fit that allowance, and price the living-room fan, which is not in it.
  • 07b Solar and batteries At rough-in: conduit from the roof to the switchboard in the garage, switchboard space for the solar and batteries, and the EV circuit already asked for in section 11c.
  • 09a Courtyard, side path and patio — the design Outdoor lighting circuit at rough-in: warm in-ground uplights in the courtyard slot (about four) and the patio slot (two), one under the feature olive, three low step lights in the side-path wall, a light under the balcony. Added 25 Oct 2026 (John): low-voltage (12 V) garden uplights in the back garden, spaced along the grasses in both side borders and one under the ornamental pear, as the dusk pictures show, on a transformer on the same circuit. On a timer or dusk sensor.

Changes to the drawings

  • 05b The kitchen — the design Clearance at the fridge: the drawings show only 700 mm between the tall fridge unit and the island (1000 is the usual minimum — an open fridge and a drawer can't pass). Narrow the island from 1200, or is 700 intended?
  • 05b The kitchen — the design Oven under the cooktop (John, 29 Sep): a 600 built-under oven centred under the induction cooktop, with ~500 drawer banks either side; the old oven tower becomes a tall pantry cupboard. Please confirm an approved oven/cooktop pair for stacking, and a cool-touch door (children at door height).
  • 02b Bed 1 and the walk-in robe — the design No door between Bed 1 and the walk-in robe. Please delete the 720 cavity slider there (credit?) and finish the opening square set, no architrave. Price widening it to about 900 so more of the robe shows. The 720 slider between the robe and the ensuite stays.
  • 02b Bed 1 and the walk-in robe — the design The front wall (WD 10): outside, the wall is angled about 9° (it steps back 349 mm over 2.2 m) to the window, which sits square to the street at the deep end. Inside, the plan draws a straight line across the room about 540 mm behind the frame, leaving a wedge-shaped space between it and the angled wall, up to about 450 mm deep at the east end, with a thin triangle drawn in it that isn't labelled. Is the bedroom wall straight with a closed void behind, or does the room follow the angle? And what is the triangle (a ledge, a seat, a services void)? Our pictures show the wall straight. Answered (7 Oct): the bedroom wall is straight, as the upper floor plan draws it.
  • 11b Laundry and the pool-side lobby Bi-fold doors folding to both ends so the whole bench opens for folding washing. Folded, the west set would stand in an inward-opening glass door's swing, so we'd like the glass door to open OUTWARDS onto the courtyard: outward-opening seals and threshold (still step-free), hinges, and a door stop outside so wind can't slam it. OK?
  • 11a Entry and stair — the design Front door: Corinthian Elem A1 (vertical planks, white oak veneer), stained and sealed, not raw timber; 920 wide. We'd like it taller than the standard 2040 (made to order up to 2700): price 2400 high, with a slim matte black pull handle. Note: at the meeting of 21 May 2026 Mastacon advised leaving the entry doors as they are. Is a taller door still possible as a priced option, or does it stay standard? Update, 25 Oct 2026: John would like each front door as tall and as wide as possible: please price the largest the Elem range and the opening allow (Corinthian make it to order up to 2700 high), and tell us the height and width that gives. Update, 12 Oct 2026: Dwelling 2's front is now aluminium cladding in Headed Gum (section 09b). Please stain all three front doors to match the Headed Gum as closely as possible, and show us a stained sample beside the cladding before the doors are finished. Update, 4 Nov 2026 (VO5): the front door is not being widened or made taller: it stays the documented 900 leaf, 2400 high. The door itself (about four wide vertical boards, stained to match the Headed Gum) is chosen at the Urban Door & Hardware appointment, with Harriett bringing the Headed Gum sample. The tender's "3 coats satin enamel to front door" becomes a stain finish.

Scope and price

  • 00a Tender vs design — to confirm Flooring. The tender allows engineered timber to the marked areas. At Solomons we shortlisted a laminate — Elements Laminate Hydro, Cedar Mist DR6616 or Blackbutt DR6601 (1515 × 237 × 10, painted micro-bevel). Can we select a laminate against the engineered-timber allowance, and is there a price difference either way? Or should we be choosing from the engineered range? If we do go with the laminate, it must go down on a quality acoustic underlay, not the standard one — these are attached two-storey townhouses let to guests, so footfall noise upstairs matters. Please name the underlay and price the upgrade. Update, 8 Oct 2026: Harriett recommends staying with the tendered engineered timber in place of the laminate, as the better floor; not yet decided. Whichever is chosen, John's requirements for the main floor (everywhere but the herringbone in Bed 3): a colour close to Cedar Mist; long boards (about 1.5 m or longer); and it must look like floorboards, with a fine bevelled groove between planks on the long and the short edges, as the laminate's micro-bevel gives. Please offer engineered boards that meet all three, with samples, and say if the tender allowance covers them.
  • 12a The staircase — the design The stair as tendered. Mastacon's email of 14 May 2026 (on tender R1) describes the stair as the steel spine / frameless glass configuration, and offered a standard stair as a saving, which we declined. So we understand the steel spine, open treads and frameless glass are in the price. The working drawings (rev H, WD 10 and WD 44) still show a 1000 mm plasterboard wall balustrade and closed stringers. Please confirm, and have the drawings updated. Tender item 19 (7 Oct): solid American oak treads on a black steel mono spine, frameless glass balustrade with a black rectangular handrail, side-mounted; and a plasterboard wall balustrade to the upper level. So the stair itself is glass, and the upstairs landing edge is a plasterboard wall.
  • 12a The staircase — the design Upstairs landing balustrade: glass instead of the plasterboard wall (John, 7 Oct 2026). The short edge at the top of the stair, between the corridor to Bed 1 and the open stairwell (about 2.2 m long, scaled; see the diagram), is tendered as a 1 m plasterboard wall (item 19). We'd like it in frameless glass to match the stair, with the same matte black pin fixings, in all three dwellings. Please price it as a variation, and say what the glass fixes into at the floor edge and whether it changes the framing there. Priced 20 Oct 2026 as VO3, two options, on Variations; not yet decided.
  • 12a The staircase — the design Handrail: WD 44 requires one (865 minimum). Important, please confirm (John, 25 Oct 2026): the tender (item 19) includes a black rectangular handrail side-mounted on the frameless glass. We'd like to swap it for a slim matte black round rail on the party wall instead, as the pictures show, so the glass stays clean and frameless. Please confirm this is a straight swap or a credit, not an extra, and that the wall rail meets WD 44 (865 minimum, continuous, fixed into the party wall without breaching its fire rating).
  • 08a Living and dining — first look Balcony slider height (please confirm): the tender (R2 item 10, “UF/LIVING; 246 Wide Pocket 5 Track OXX”) has it 2700 high, three panels (1147 / 1067 / 1096); the working drawings (WD 10) say 2400. John wants the openings as tall as possible, so we'd like the 2700 as tendered, near floor to ceiling. Please confirm 2700, and how its head works under the 2730 ceiling with the recessed curtain pocket. The pictures are being redrawn at 2700 with three panels.
  • 09b The front yards and the street — the design Option A or B? Option B adds a rendered wall on each of the two lot lines between the houses, from the house forward to the front boundary, about 1.2 m high, stepping to 0.9 m for the last 2.5 m so it doesn't block a reversing driver's view of the footpath. It is in the architect's render but not on the working drawings. Decided (John, 25 Oct 2026): Option A, open, with no walls between the houses. Please don’t price Option B.