St Ives Story Part II
05 July 2017
Many famous inspirational quotes from history include such words as 'strong', 'pillar' and 'foundation'. This is no different here for our St Ives master built home. With the strong foundations being laid in the image below, we need to get to work on the backyard before brickwork or pillars of this luxury home are erected!
As you can see below, the sturdy foundations for the designer home contain reinforced steel mesh sheets and reinforced bars, these are sitting on waffle pods. Waffle pods are a modern way of laying a concrete slab. They allow for more accuracy of concrete specifications, reduces waste and provides a substantial boost to site efficiency, everything you would expect when building a prestige home.
Seeing as the build will be a two-storey home with full brick walls, tiled roofing as well as large load-bearing concrete columns, the foundations must be made to last.
What on earth are front works we hear you ask? The front works included the installation of 3x 10000L EconoCycle water tanks that will never be seen, as they have been strategically placed and specifically engineered to be underground. These are located at the front of this property. This soon-to-be-hidden feature of this luxury home will provide decades of use from nature's finest resource - water. The wastewater collection unit works on the combined principles of aerobic and tertiary treatment to ensure excellent plant growth for your garden when used for irrigation. You can see them in the following image.
Water is cleverly captured, by draining off the roof into the three storage tanks. It is then stored and will flow into the home for the use in toilets as well as external taps, and irrigation of the garden and lawn. This is a creative and sustainable initiative that is not only cost effective for our clients, it consciously preserves water. As a standard, Chateau Architect and Builders use an upgraded pump that is strong enough to use for irrigation purposes with a guarantee that it will work for many years to come, should our client require it.
When building a custom multi-storey home, you need to ensure maximum safety to minimise the risk of injury which is why we follow strict procedures when erecting scaffolding, particularly around an internal residential staircase! You should have a look at the finished product in our ‘St Ives’ gallery under Recent Galleries. What you see in the image is a first floor suspended Ultrafloor concrete floor which was poured after the internal brickwork was laid.
Using the Ultrafloor system, allows speed and efficiency when building our clients home, as well as flexibility in the design. 
What you will not see often enough in other newly built homes, in which our clients have decided to do so, is the installation of leaf gutter guard as an option to keep leaves and debris out of the gutters and stormwater tanks. This product can be installed at the same time the roof tiles are put into place and it can save a lot of hassle later on. Cleaning gutters has to be one of the more frustrating maintenance jobs around the home and quite often be the one which is always put to the end of the list until heavy rain hits and the gutters visibly overflow! This product is also great extra protection for your home if you are considering building in a bushfire prone zone.
Below, you can see our happy-as-ever Site Supervisor (obviously proud of his work), who is working and delegating with the pool contractor, landscapers and builders during the construction period. Making sure each stage of our client’s home is completed on time. This is primarily put down to our unique efficiency on-site with multiple trades all working at once to ensure the custom build runs as smoothly as possible. This not only means less headaches for us but more importantly less headaches for our client!
Prior to the erection of the home walls, we finish the construction of the pool, spa, a stunning water feature which lights up at night and a custom built cabanna area as pictured. 
Still focusing on the backyard area. Once the external walls have been erected for the home, we can get to work on what can only be described as a seriously impressive alfresco entertaining area, featuring a built in fireplace, BBQ and an extra-large kitchen/ alfresco servery window.
Our clients decided on a vergola roof for this area as pictured below. This product gives our clients complete control over their new outdoor area. They are able to let the sun into warm the area when required or keep the sun and rain out when they would like to keep the area cool or dry. This showcases added flexibility built into the home for our clients. 
We then turn to the street-facing façade. With all external brickwork, top floor trusses and top level roof tiles laid we can put focus into the rendering and painting of other external surfaces. Once these touches are complete, we can begin to lower the scaffolding to start on the lower roof areas of this stunning designer home in the heart of St Ives.
We have an affiliated interior designer that will guide and help you throughout the building process. This can range from which exterior colour to choose, or which tap wear or door stop is currently on trend. We have you covered from all angles. 
With the exterior features (for the most part) done, it is time to start on the inside of this luxury home build. For Part III, we will concentrate on the art and science of enhancing the interior style of the home. The transition from having exposed wiring and unfinished plumbing to an almost fully-furnished home will come to light next month.
St Ives Story: Part I - The Plans for the St Ives Custom Home Build
St Ives Story: Part III - Interior Components and Style Coming Together for St Ives
St Ives Story: Part IV - The Finished Custom Home located in Sydney's North Shore
Here at Chateau Architects + Builders, we aim to make your life during the building process as easy as possible. Our process involves a team of professionals who work as one from the outset, from demolition, to that final coat of paint in the living area! This synergy of everyone working together ensures that optimum results for Chateau Architects + Builders, but most importantly, you, the client.