Welcome to Episode 18 - Raise and Build - What’s involved.
It's a pretty hot topic at the moment due to the recent floods that have occurred, and the introduction of the resilience program being introduced by the government with Houses needing to be raised above the flood levels.
So we thought we would do an episode around what’s involved, how much it cost and things to keep in mind when thinking of undertaking a Raise and Build
Welcome to Episode 18 - Raise and Build - What’s involved.
It's a pretty hot topic at the moment due to the recent floods that have occurred, and the introduction of the resilience program being introduced by the government with Houses needing to be raised above the flood levels.
So we thought we would do an episode around what’s involved, how much it cost and things to keep in mind when thinking of undertaking a Raise and Build
[00:00:00] Welcome to Building with Bluebird, the design and renovation podcast, brought to you by Christian Case and Jeremy Thomason, directors of Bluebird Design Build. Highlighting the do's and don'ts of renovating or building your dream home, this podcast will give you the insider's guide to the home building journey.
[00:00:20] As well as interviewing other industry specialists, Christian and Jeremy bring their knowledge and expertise to the table. For you, the people. Now let's get into this episode, and if you enjoy, please like, share and subscribe. Welcome to Building with Bluebird. On today's episode, we're getting into raise and building a house.
[00:00:40] It's a pretty hot topic at the moment, especially here in Brisbane with the floods because of the resilience program that's around and houses needing to be raised to get above all the flood levels. So we thought we would do an episode. Around this and also the fact that we're basically into a raise and build at the moment.
[00:00:56] Yeah, we're in the middle of one right now, so while it's fresh on the brain, we'll try and get some good info across to everyone. So what's the benefits of raising and building a house? I think there's heaps. Probably number one for me is a lot of our old traditional homes, particularly in Brisbane and Queensland, are really beautiful.
[00:01:17] And to be able to have an old home, but make it sort of more generous in terms of size and bring it sort of a bit more into the modern day is. Pretty cool in my opinion, they're a beautiful looking home, well proportioned, and then just by lifting them and adding all that extra footprint underneath, you can sort of really turn them into sort of quite a grand home to satisfy sort of a larger family.
[00:01:44] Yeah, the old houses in the Queenslanders or the workers cottages weren't designed for the way we live now. So, A lot of homes are being altered and one of those being raising the existing house and building in underneath. This is a great way, I guess, of keeping within your footprint of your house without extending it further and losing too much land.
[00:02:04] Yeah, that's a great one because you can, as you said, essentially double the size of the house. Yeah. And not sacrifice any of your yard. Yes, and also if your house has a, um, a layout that actually works for you already and just needs some minor tweaks, it's, um, a good cost saving because you've already got a lot of the structure there, the roof there, your bedrooms and bathrooms already there and just you can build in underneath and put mainly living downstairs is normally the way a lot of clients head.
[00:02:33] Yeah. And the other thing is too, if you already have a home in a certain area and a home of a certain style, you might not have a choice. Correct. Because you won't be able to knock over several types of homes in certain areas. A lot in Queensland, we've got a lot of character homes, especially Brisbane, that where we're based, there are a lot of homes in demolition control precincts.
[00:02:53] So you physically are not allowed to knock and demolish that existing home. So sometimes it leads to either. Extending it, if you, if that's not going to give you enough room in your house, then raising it's the only option. Yeah, you might not have a choice. Yes, and then the next one, given what we've, has happened in Brisbane and Queensland the last two years with the floods, the government has a program at the moment where they are, um, the resilience program.
[00:03:20] So a lot of homes are actually being allowed to be raised up higher than they normally would just so they can get above those flood levels. So that if it ever happens again, the water can just flow in underneath the house and continue through. And then a couple of days when the water recides, the house is still there.
[00:03:35] So is 9. 5 the max height or is there in some areas? Every council is different. So. In Brisbane City Council? Yeah, Brisbane City Council's 9. 5 is the top of your ridge of your house. So it also depends on the pitch of your roof. Yep. Yeah. It'll all vary on where you are, yep. So, in terms of costs, it's sort of how long's a piece of string, but.
[00:04:01] Yeah, I mean, to get the, the structural elements done and. The actual lift in the house, you're probably gonna lift it. You might slide it across the block a little bit, but to get the rays done, the steel done, and have it sitting on new stumps, new legs, you're probably looking, depending on the size of the house, could be anywhere from sort of 40 to $60,000.
[00:04:24] Yep. And that's for the raises and re stump alone. Mm-hmm. . Then you've obviously got. All your services that you're going to have to disconnect prior to the lift. So once it's been lifted, you're going to have to have your electrician, your plumber come back in and if not temporarily, permanently re hook everything up.
[00:04:43] So you've got the costs of all that stuff as well. And then you're most likely going to put a slab under the house too. So. You know, you could be talking anywhere, just to get the house raised, re stumped, re stealed, services hooked up, and a slab downstairs. You could be talking up around sort of 80, 000 to 100, 000 at a minimum.
[00:05:04] And then, you know, obviously the bigger and more complex the house gets. The more expensive it gets from there. Yeah, it depends on the size of the house and how much steel you need. Yeah. Those sort of things. And also the um, condition of your soil. Yeah, if it's a tiny little worker's cottage, it's not going to be up around that figure, but...
[00:05:20] No, but if your house is 200, 300 square meters on one level... Yeah. That's a lot of... A lot of floor space to lift. Yeah. So the next one I guess is how long does it take? Yeah, there's not a huge amount of time generally in the actual raise and re stump process. Probably gonna, if it's not a really complex site, if it's all sort of on the one level, the one plane, you're not dealing with a huge slope, you're probably gonna have that knocked over in two weeks if the weather is good.
[00:05:50] So you probably demo a few things, there's a few days there. Yeah, it sort of depends on what's set up on the lower level of the house. Traditional old worker's cottage or Queensland, uh, you're probably have some screening downstairs around the perimeter to deal with, which, you know. Plain steel or timber or even concrete posts.
[00:06:07] You'll have that gone in a day and then re stealed, you probably have that done in sort of three, four days. And then the raise will take a couple of days and the restump will be sort of three or four days. So, on top of that, you've got the time frame for your services. And then if you're going to put a slab down, you're going to have to throw a couple of weeks at that too.
[00:06:28] So, two to three weeks then for a full raise and restump? Raise, restump and slab down. You'd probably want to give yourself, I reckon, four to six weeks to be safe. Yeah, right. Okay. So, what's the process then? With the raise and restump, the first one step is always getting a set of architectural or design plans.
[00:06:49] This is your guide. We always go on about this, but having a decent set of plans changes the game. This is your blueprint for your design and your house and how everything's going to move forward. So you want to make sure this is correct. So not only do you need your design drawings, but you also need structurals.
[00:07:05] So your structurals will show The existing bearers and their sizes and what the new beams will be and if they're required to um, help with the floor span and the new rooms it'll be underneath and along with this where the steel posts will be located and then also where your footings will be. So your depths of your footings.
[00:07:22] And how many you need? Yeah. Well, you're going to need all that because you're obviously going to need building approval for a job of this magnitude. And certifiers are getting more picky with how drawings are. So you do really need a good set of drawings. So then obviously, like Jeremy just said, you'll need building approval because it's major structural works.
[00:07:43] So that'll be your next step. Then. Next, once you've obviously got, um, a quote for your build or for your raise and build and, um, you've got a builder engaged, the next step for them is to disconnect all the services. Yeah, so this, uh, actually we probably should have touched on this before more talk about time because this can actually really blow out.
[00:08:03] Energex, you'll have to have Energex come out. That's our electrical provider. That's in Brisbane, Queensland. So you're going to have to have Energex come out and disconnect the power from the house. Typically. The old power connections to these homes are overhead connection, so you can't sort of move and re stump the house without that point of attachment being completely removed, and that can take anywhere from two weeks to eight weeks, like the one we're dealing with now at Graceville's got Some special overlay for someone that was living in the house with a medical condition.
[00:08:40] Oh, it had um, yeah, emergency services. Yeah, that's taken the developer about three months to sort out, I think. Yeah, just to say that nobody lives there. Yeah. They don't need. So Energex is one that can actually really sort of bring you unstuck. Same with gas. Yeah, gas is another one. If there's a gas provision into the house and a gas meter.
[00:09:01] Getting that disconnected to the boundary that can also take sort of between two and six weeks depending on how busy they are Some people like to leave the gas line into the house and their meter on the site We try to get rid of that altogether because normally we do I think they call it a temporary disconnection where they'll just come out and disconnect it to the boundary so you can do all your construction work.
[00:09:25] Yeah. So that means nobody hits it. Yeah, so then the feed is still there at the boundary so that later on in the build, if the gas is going back in, it's there and ready to be tapped onto again. And normally we'll put the gas meters out on the front boundary somewhere now, or very close to it 'cause they, they like to be able to get in and, and read it without too much trouble.
[00:09:45] Same with sewer as well. So sewer's got to be disconnected from the house and... Yep. That's a quick... Sewer and water disconnection are pretty quick. You get a plumber out and that's sort of done within a day or two. So once you've got all those disconnected, you can start hooking into your demolition? Yeah.
[00:10:04] And as we said before, the typical old sort of worker's cottage or Queenslander, it will probably just be some timber screening downstairs around the perimeter. But, you know, we're starting to do demolition on houses now that were, had been built in like 15, 20 years ago. That is more of a complex situation.
[00:10:22] The one we've just been working on up the road, that was built in, I think 15 years ago and the quality of the build was pretty good. Like we spent two weeks trying to get old concrete slabs and footings out. Materials were a lot cheaper back then. He's pumped some concrete into that house. Sorry. You know, if that's something else that needs to be factored into a budget, if the house has been built in downstairs and it's only sort of, you know, 10, 15 years old, there's a chance that it's most likely been built well and engineered really well and getting rid of those materials can be a costly exercise.
[00:11:02] Yeah, it's not, um, a lot of it's been upgraded already to the new code, so it's a little bit different to just knocking out the old hardwood posts. Concrete posts you've got underneath your house. Yeah, that's right. So once you've gone through, and a lot of the other demolition happens now as well, because there's no point having some extra weight to lift on the house if you don't need it.
[00:11:25] So if you've got existing bathrooms or kitchens in the upper floor, they're normally removed. Prior to the lift just to facilitate the, um, the house lift and going a little bit smoother. So after you've got all your demolition, the, um, normally your team will come in and put in the steel beams, attach them to the existing timber barriers that you've got underneath or upgrade anything else that's in the floor structure that needs to be upgraded.
[00:11:49] Yeah. So typically that's the, the easiest way to install depending on what the. design is for the new plan, so much easier just to be able to bring the beams in, slide them alongside the old timber bearers and put some bolts through, but you know, if you're cutting out voids or changing the layout of the floor, that won't be like that everywhere.
[00:12:07] You'll have sort of beams going in the other direction in some locations and welded to other steel beams or new steel columns that are going in. So yeah, it's all dependent on what your design is. And ideally when you're raising a house or, yeah, if you've got an old house, having the beams or the old bearers run left to right from your boundary to boundary is an easier job I find in terms of trying to, or it's more, I think, it's a shorter span, but also it's, yeah, it's a lot better in terms of layouts I've found, works a little bit better in terms of your house design.
[00:12:42] Yeah. Well, normally we'll try and, depending on the height. Of where the house sits currently, but if sort of if it's, you know, between chest and a bit overhead, we'll get all that steel in before we do any strip out of the old concrete slabs, just because it makes it so much easier. You can bring a machine in with steel beams.
[00:13:01] Sort of crank them up to the height of the old floor structure and then install them before we then lift it. So it just makes it a bit easier and quicker to do it that way. So once everything's all steeled up, ready to go in terms of floor structure, the guys come in and put their sties in, so. Yeah, so they'll, they'll come in and set out how they want to lay out their sties, how many rows there's gonna be.
[00:13:24] So what are sties? Sties are, you probably would have seen them, they're like the, essentially the big Jenga block towers. There's timber blocks and they're sort of placed on top of each other. They'll be stacked up to the underside of the existing floor or the new steelwork. And then the guys will use their hydraulic jacks to start lifting the house.
[00:13:44] And then as it goes up, they'll put in more, more blocking or extend on those stiles as it goes up piece by piece. It's quite a primitive process if you watch, if you stand there and watch it. Yeah, well, it depends who you use. The guys we normally use have, they do use the, the bottle jacks. Some companies have the, like the hydraulic trucks that they'll bring in, which is pretty, pretty advanced.
[00:14:08] But yeah, the, the guys we normally use are sort of, they just use the small little. It's, it's crazy to watch a house get lifted up by bottle jacks around, just from a few different stiles. The guys are running around and they're, um, pumping like crazy on all these little bottle jacks, but there is an art to it.
[00:14:27] And then if we're going to slide or push the house over a bit and change the location on the property, depending on how far, if it's only going a little bit, I'll sort of just set those stiles up and then sort of start sliding it along the steel beams. Yeah. And they'll probably do that depending, again, on the height the house sits at, but they'll probably do that before it goes up too high.
[00:14:49] Yep. Just because it's easier to work from, you know, your feet rather than being sort of up on a ladder or on a sty. Yeah. And this normally happens because either the house where it's been resting has been sitting too close to the boundary or the new design has centered the house up in the block. Yeah.
[00:15:05] So that you can get access down the sides, but also meeting all the new codes. So what is the, there's a lot of the houses in particular. Yeah. And particularly like, you know, New Farm or West End or Paddington or Red Hill. Yeah. Those smaller homes where they're sort of hugging one boundary more closely than the other.
[00:15:21] What is, what's the go with that once we touch the house? Does it need to be centred so the boundary clearances are even or? Well, it's normally comes down to fire rating and acoustic rating as well. Because you've got to have your fire clearances between your buildings. Yeah. In some instances. around like the suburbs you mentioned, it physically can't happen in regards to your boundary setbacks, but as long as you've got your fire separation, because otherwise you have to upgrade your cladding if you can't meet those minimums.
[00:15:51] So would you have with the upper level, let's say it's all existing and we're not going to touch it and it's all timber shant for boards or something? Yeah. I don't think we've ever stripped a house to upgrade its existing fire rating. No, because we've always met the clearances. Right. So yeah, if you, if you're within that 900 of clearance, then yeah, you definitely need to have, it's a non negotiable.
[00:16:14] So you'll have to upgrade your external cladding to, to meet fire code. So if next door's on fire, it can't jump over and, or in theory, it shouldn't be able to, but yeah, I don't know if anyone has ever thought about it, but it's still very possible. Yeah. But, yeah, essentially you want to center it up and relocate it or even if your house is crooked on your block, which we've seen a little bit where the front might be 1200 mil off and then the back might be 900 mil off the boundary.
[00:16:42] So this is the sort of point where you can twist it and sort of set the house up correctly. After you've got your house moved in to its correct position and the timber styes and the guys have lifted everything up, what happens next? Yeah, so we'll normally take the house probably 50mm above where it's actually going to sit.
[00:17:01] Yep. And then once it's up in its correct location, about 50mm higher than it needs to be, we'll go through and install, well we'll, we'll mark out where all the new steel columns are going to be, under the, Timber barriers or the new steel beams. Those will be all dug with an auger bit. It's normally like a 450 mil wide auger bit.
[00:17:20] They'll all be drilled. And then the new steel columns can come in and be hung from the existing floor structure. So we'll set those with a laser level. And they'll be hanging from like a bit of threaded rod from the existing floor structure and we'll set those all to the height so they might all be slightly different depending on what bearer they're sitting on above.
[00:17:41] We'll then concrete those in and then once the concrete's cured. We'll come back and we'll start lowering the house down that sort of 50 mil and it'll all take up onto the new steel columns. And then everything will be, all the new floor structure or all the existing floor structure will be perfectly level once it comes down onto the new steel columns.
[00:18:01] That's, that's the plan. Yeah. And then from there, obviously the stiles will start to be taken down and temporary bracing put on. Yeah, so that's those Xs that you'll see underneath most houses, and that's to stop the house from racking or twisting. Yeah, so even once the new steel columns are in, before we start building in downstairs, if you go upstairs, you'll notice that the house will be swaying around a little bit.
[00:18:25] Yeah, you'll get seasickness. Yeah. So yeah, that's what all the temporary bracing is for until more permanent bracing can be put in with wall frames and bracing ply or portal frames and stuff like that. So now that the house is back down, it's correct position, correct heights, you can start reconnecting your services?
[00:18:42] Yeah, that's right. So everything is sort of set now. The house isn't going to be moving. Depending on what you've got planned with concrete slabs and walls and stuff like that. But yeah, basically immediately power and water could be reconnected. Yeah, reinstated. So if you are going to live upstairs.
[00:18:58] Depending on, yeah, like you said, if there's going to be more works then get cracking on it. You'll need a set of stairs too. Oh yeah, we'll probably just forget about that. We'll just use a ladder for a bit, and then... Yeah, don't forget, you'll be coming back to move in, you'll need a set of stairs. That's high on the priority list.
[00:19:16] That's normally picked up in the plans. Yeah. So, once we've got... I guess the house relocated, put back in the correct spot and depending if you're doing exist additional works to the house. One of the requirements we have here in Brisbane is we need to provide a certificate stating that the house is in the correct position and in the correct height.
[00:19:39] So we have our surveyor come back out and provide the correct forms. So this way, when you. At the end of the job, you've got a document saying, yep, the house is in the correct position. Your neighbours can't argue that you're too close to a boundary or anything like this. And then it's all within the drawings and legitimate.
[00:19:58] Yeah. Yep. That's right. Obviously, there's a lot of positives to raising a house. What are the negatives? I wouldn't say there's Or the issues that arise. Negatives, but there's probably some things to be aware of when we go to, you know, raise and then re stump the house and put that floor structure in level.
[00:20:15] Keeping in mind some of these houses are a hundred years old. Yeah. So there's a chance that some of the stuff either when built or just throughout time and dilapidation, things have sunken and become out of level. And then, you know, there might've been carpentry works done over the last 20, years, and things may have been installed level at the time.
[00:20:38] So quite often we'll find that. Windows will bind shut, like the old double hung, so you'll come back after a lift and they'll be tight, you won't be able to move them. Or they're cracked. Or they've cracked, the glass is cracked, door's not now operating properly, because they were perhaps plumb and level before, but after the lift they've become out of plumb and level.
[00:21:00] So things like that, you would just, normally we like to sort of keep the windows open and doors open during the lift. So that we're not sort of stuck. Yeah, pinching them. Yeah. If you've got bathrooms upstairs, this is a bit of a grey area. If you've got a waterproofing membrane upstairs and then the floor moves around through a lift.
[00:21:19] There's a chance that that waterproofing could be compromised. If that bathroom's still there or is remaining, most times the bathrooms get demolished and redone. But in a case if the bathroom is staying, we sort of put a note in our contracts that we can't be liable for them because they're... Yeah, the bathrooms do shift and we don't know what the floor substrate's like.
[00:21:41] And if there is a bathroom and it's remaining, you'll find that tiles normally pop or there's some tiles that crack and things like that. So yeah, that's probably the major things to be, to be wary of. What about them falling over? We haven't had that happen. We've never had that, but there has been two houses in Brisbane that during the raise there was a hiccup.
[00:22:04] And they have fallen over. There was one in New Farm, and one in Stafford? Yeah, in Stafford. I don't know what happened in Stafford, but the one at New Farm, supposedly, was wind. And it was just getting shifted at the wrong time. Yeah, it was just a freak of nature. And it fell into the neighbouring house.
[00:22:21] Yeah, well, yeah, it did, but um... Good way to meet the neighbours. Yeah, well, you can, the construction of it was quite... Sturdy because the house is still in one piece when it fell over, so that's sort of a positive out of it, I guess. But yeah, that doesn't happen very often. In 20 years of construction, I've only heard of it twice.
[00:22:39] Yeah. So it's not one really one to worry about. So I guess frequently asked questions that we get when it comes to raising and building a house. Can a house be moved to a different position on the block? Yeah, it definitely can. We've relocated on the block a lot of houses, normally only sort of a metre in each direction, and, you know, up between one and two metres.
[00:23:06] But, you know, houses can be repositioned from one side of the block to the other. It's probably not going to be done with the little bottle jacks, probably looking at more of a... Hydraulic truck for, for a big shift, but that's again, site dependent, you know, if you're on a massive hill, that can be then challenging access becomes an issue.
[00:23:26] Houses can be rotated. Yep. Yep. For sure. Putting them back, aligning them with the boundaries correctly. Yep. Doing a 180. I haven't seen that yet, but I have, I have heard of it. We haven't done it, but yeah, I imagine it can be done. I think. You'd have to have a bit of room on site. Yeah. It'd be a bit of fun, but it can be done.
[00:23:47] Now in terms of heights, you can go to whatever height is allowed in your council area. So there's no real restrictions on those. Yeah. I think, as we said before, Brisbane is 9. 5 metres to the ridge of the roof to the natural ground below. And then what sort of houses can be lifted? Typically, uh, lightweight construction.
[00:24:07] So timber, timber sort of floor frame and, and walls, tile or tin roof. And what's the, I guess, what's the minimal crawl space that you can get to lift one up? I don't know. If you can fit a bottle jack in, you can probably lift it. It just becomes a lot slower if you're, you know, crawling around on the ground under a house.
[00:24:29] Yeah. If it's on a timber sub floor, I'm pretty sure it can be lifted. Brick houses. No, not really. Well, just all the bricks. Yeah. You wouldn't be able to take the bricks with it. No, because if they're based on the ground. Yeah. But you know, behind a cavity brick home is a timber frame. So yeah, it's not that they couldn't be done.
[00:24:51] You'd probably just leave the need to strip off the brick work. And same with old Queenslanders with, um, fireplaces in the middle of them. You can prop those and lift them up. Yeah, we haven't done one of those, but it's been, I've seen it done many times. Yeah. So definitely, definitely possible. Be really careful with, with that.
[00:25:07] And you, you probably have an engineer, have some input in how it's going to be raised and. Yeah, because it's all, it's quite heavy, so a lot of these considerations come to how heavy is it going to be? And also, is the product going to be still usable after it's been raised? So that's like, if you're trying to raise a house that's got full brick veneer, it's just not going to work because that brick's going to, going to crack.
[00:25:33] Yeah. So just basically no point there. Yeah, that's probably about it, but yeah, I guess in summary, I think we love raising and building houses. I think it's always a great result to, to be able to maintain that, the traditional style of those colonials and workers cottages and Queenslanders. Yeah, and I guess we've done more of those than we have new builds.
[00:25:56] It's um, sort of comes natural to us. Yeah, we, we love them. Yeah, and it's also, I like designing them because there's a bit of trickiness that comes with them as well. Yeah. Trying to stick within the constraints of the old house and also not removing too much traditional character from it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's it.
[00:26:14] But yeah, I think if you're looking to embark on a raise and build journey, definitely let us know and we'll see if we can help out with either design or building or, or both. Or any information you ever need. Yeah. Well, good. Oh yeah. Well, thanks for tuning in to um, Building with Bluebird and hope we gave you a bit of information.
[00:26:33] See you next time. All right, folks. Thanks for listening to Building a Bluebird. We hope you got some great information out of today's episode. If there are any questions or topics you want us to cover, or even if you want to be a guest on the podcast, please reach out via Instagram, which is bluebird underscore DB, or head to our website, www.
[00:26:52] bluebirddb. com. au and contact us through there. Make sure you also like, share, and subscribe so you don't miss out on any exciting future episodes. All the information that has been discussed during this podcast is purely based off our own personal experiences and those experiences of our guests. The information, advice, and opinions presented are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided is done at your own risk.
[00:27:18] We recommend you obtain professional advice in regard to any of the topics discussed during this podcast.