E55. Building in hazardous environments

In this episode of the Building Design, Prime Time podcast Frank and Amelia talk about building in hazardous environments.  Frank talks about various hazardous environments such as corrosive environments, landslip, bushfire prone areas and environments with high salinity.  

 In this gripping episode of the Building Design Prime Time Podcast, Frank and Amelia delve into the complexities and innovations of constructing in some challenging and hazardous environments. From landslips that threaten stability of a home to the relentless corrosion common in coastal areas, and the high salinity that attacks foundations, Frank shares real experiences of building in some of these conditions and how it may affect how dwellings can be constructed in some of the hazardous places.  

 Tune in to learn how today's to learn more about the perilous landscapes and how the approach to designing and building in these conditions may differ. There is a new episode released each week, subscribe now so you don't miss an episode! 

About us
Prime Design is a building design company locally owned and operated in Tasmania since 2004.  Our goal is to share as much valuable information as possible about the process of building design, extensions, and more. We will talk about a different topic each week. To suggest a topic you would like us to talk about contact us at info@primedesigntas.com.au

Disclaimer
The information provided on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, individual circumstances, or remedy. We strongly suggest you consult a qualified professional before taking any action based on the information provided in this podcast. The views, opinions, and information provided in this podcast are those of the hosts do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organisation, employer, or company. All content provided on this podcast is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this podcast and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, or damages arising from its use. We reserve the right to change content or delete any information provided on this podcast at any time without prior notice.

Transcript

E55. Building in hazardous environments 

[INTRO] (0:08 - 0:24)

Hello and welcome to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast, focused on providing valuable information for anyone looking to undertake a new build or extension project. We'll share our tips, tricks and stories from a building designers perspective.

[Amelia] (0:26 - 0:44)

Hello and welcome to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast. I'm your host Amelia and once again we're joined by Frank Geskus.

[Frank] (0:44 - 0:52)

Hi Amelia, how are you? 

[Amelia]

Good, how are you? 

[Frank]

I'm going great. It's the end of the week, had a big lunch, I'm a happy man. 

[Amelia] (0:52 - 0:58)

That's good to hear. We all like a boss that's happy. What are we going to talk about today?

[Frank] (0:58 - 1:32)

I thought we'd talk about hazardous conditions. You know, you might be looking at a house and it's in a hazardous position in that something could be a hazard around the house.

You could be looking at land, you look at a house, you could be looking at a unit or an apartment. So I just thought we'd have a chat about that and some of the stuff we've come across and some things you wouldn't think, not necessarily hazardous, but gee, it makes you think twice about buying a house as I'll share a story with my brother's house. But yeah, I just want to talk about coastal, our lovely coast around Tasmania, or around Australia.

We love a house on the coast, looking out on the ocean.

[Amelia] (1:32 - 1:36)

Yeah, and I mean we have talked a little bit about that in another podcast.

[Frank] (1:36 - 1:53)

And the reason I say harsh conditions and sometimes hazardous is the salt spray. So you've got the surf breaking, wind blowing, and you've got this salty mist that comes along and hits your house. And it can be a bit harsh on your house, wreck all your fittings.

[Amelia] (1:53 - 1:55)

Rusty, make it all rusty.

[Frank] (1:55 - 2:00)

Rusty, corrosion, aluminium. I've seen it actually strip away wall claddings.

[Amelia] (2:00 - 2:00)

Wow.

[Frank] (2:01 - 2:11)

Highly exposed, beautiful outlook. There's one up at Low Head and I was there looking at another job and it ripped parts of the cladding off. It was so harsh. It was like a sandblast.

[Amelia] (2:12 - 2:14)

Is that kind of the wind as well?

[Frank] (2:14 - 2:38)

Yeah, yeah, 100%. You get a high wind with a bit of salt, bit of sand, and yeah, blow the paint off the side of the weatherboards type stuff. This case, it was actually Hebel.

It actually ripped through the coating and ate at the Hebel. And I've seen bricks too, bricks, blocks cop an absolute hiding.

The classic is when you look at old toilet blocks, council toilet blocks and public spaces near those. And it's like the side of them has been sandblasted.

[Amelia] (2:38 - 2:41)

Yeah, and it sort of starts to eat itself away, doesn't it?

[Frank] (2:41 - 2:46)

Yeah, yeah. It's fascinating. And imagine that doing to your house, imagine what it does to your glass.

[Amelia] (2:46 - 2:48)

Yeah, that can't be good.

[Frank] (2:48 - 3:38)

All the nice finishes. And that's why you look at some holiday homes and they've got stainless handrails. Now for a few years, it might be stainless, but some of the bits aren't stainless.

Little bits of rust on it or stains on it. And that's pretty harsh. And the level of maintenance that you need on a house like that goes up such another level.

The other thing is looking at alpine conditions. So in Tasmania, we've got a place, Central Highlands, under the National Constructions Code. It's zone...

[Amelia]

Is it eight? 

[Frank]
Yeah, eight. Climate zone eight. Tasmania, the rest of us at climate zone seven. But when you go to eight, you're an alpine and you're dealing with quite a number of different things. Obviously temperature, but also the alpine areas are a lot harsher too. I know here in Tasmania, you go up to the highlands, there's not a lot of big trees up there.

[Amelia] (3:38 - 3:43)

No. And you were talking about before how often there's a lot of sort of moisture in the air as well.

[Frank] (3:44 - 4:00)

There's certain aspects of it. Yeah. We've done a couple of houses up there and you're standing there and it's misty and you can actually see the moisture in the air, little droplets.

[Amelia]

Yes. 

[Frank]

It's like a fog, but it's just a mist and everything's wet. You know, you're standing there and you're getting damp.

[Amelia](4:01 - 4:02)

Yeah, that can't be good for a house.

[Frank] (4:03 - 4:12)

Well, no. 

[Amelia]

Not long term. 

[Frank]

But there's plenty of houses up there that have survived that for a long, long time. And they use a lot of natural materials to be able to achieve that.

[Amelia](4:13 - 4:16)

That's interesting that that's sort of how they've done it.

[Frank] (4:16 - 4:25)

Yeah, using timbers, stone, going back to natural materials seems to do okay up there. 

[Amelia]

That's surprising. 

[Frank] (4:25 - 4:25)

You wouldn't think so.

[Amelia]

Yeah.

[Frank] (4:25 - 5:10)

You know, and your roofing materials, you've got to probably use a thicker gauge roofing material. So those things have to be considered. And just the nails that you use or the screws that you use, you know, it is a harsh environment.

And then you've got snow load and you're covered in snow, then you're not, then you're stinking hot day. You know, it changes massively the temperatures. So that has an effect on the building as well.

High wind areas, so Central Highlands, certain places and some of the coastal, really high winds. So they obviously blow onto the house, not rocket science, but your window frames actually have to be designed for that. Your frame of the building has to be designed, your balustrade, all sorts of stuff have to be considered. The last thing you want is something to peel the roof off the top like a can opener.

[Amelia] (5:11 - 5:12)

No, you don't want that.

[Frank] (5:12 - 5:35)

No, but you see it every now and then when you get these little tornadoes or high wind areas and they rip the roof off, it does happen. Bushfire, this is classic all over Australia. Obviously not just a harsh condition, it's a highly hazardous condition. And this comes down to the homeowner doing maintenance. And you just hope that your neighbours and councils and Crown land maintain their land around you.

[Amelia] (5:35 - 5:39)

Yeah, because that can affect the bushfire attack level, can't it?

[Frank] (5:40 - 6:14)

Yeah, very much so. But even just common sense, I mean, it's all well and good. Whenever you do a house, you've got to go through this process.

You may be exempt from bushfire, it's deemed to be safe. But say if you're in an area and there is bush around you and it's rated a certain level, you know, we'll get the house passed, get all your permits, get it built. But it's the ongoing maintenance to keep your building safe, you know, cleaning it out, keeping the garden around well maintained.

And you just hope your neighbours are going to do the same and you just hope council does the same and any other organisation does the same to reduce the potential risk to your house.

[Amelia] (6:15 - 6:21)

And just to point out, it might not be super bushy conditions. You might have... 

[Frank]

Grasslands.

[Amelia]

Grasslands, exactly.

[Frank] (6:21 - 6:28)

Yeah, very much so. There's been plenty of footage of grasslands going so fast, you know, with the winds pushing them, people getting caught out.

[Amelia] (6:28 - 6:29)

Yeah.

[Frank] (6:29 - 6:57)

It's very sad. But that's the harsh environment that we have in Australia and it's taken for granted sometimes. So you've got to be smart about this. So another one is our soils. I've spoken about this so many times. Harsh conditions. Sometimes the soils are not just harsh but hazardous because of, in landslip, or as we found in the years gone by, the houses have been sitting there for 40, 50 years and then all of a sudden the landslip's activated.

[Amelia] (6:57 - 6:58)

Oh really?

[Frank] (6:58 - 7:52)

Yeah, it's just started slipping for no reason. It wasn't on any maps. That's really surprising.

Oh, it's crazy and very sad because how do you ensure against that? But even then, you look at your weather patterns. They talk about El Nino and...What's the other one? 

[Amelia]

I don't know what the other one is. 

[Frank]

You know, you've got those weather patterns.

[Amelia]

Yes. 

[Frank]

And they have a massive effect on the soils because they can dry the soils out so then when it dries out it shrinks and potentially your house will crack or move. Now I'm not saying that's hazardous, may put some cracking in your house, but it's something to be aware of.

If you're in a highly reactive soil, that's always going to be a possibility and it's happening right now. I know that around Launceston we've had some call-outs oh house has cracked and had a look and it says, well, this is coming down to the effect. And there's some solutions to that as well but it's not an instant solution.

[Amelia] (7:52 - 7:57)

No, and I know you can get things underpinned and that sort of thing.

[Frank] (7:57 - 7:59)

Yeah, and sometimes underpinning is not a good idea because...

[Amelia] (7:59 - 7:59)

Really?

[Frank] (7:59 - 9:47)

Well, if the moisture comes back, it swirls back up again. Oh, that's true too. It's not an exacting science.

You need experts to, you know, we call in experts to have a look at this stuff. Don't just jump to the conclusion just putting it underpin or do certain things. You know, the weather does have a massive effect long term.

Funnily enough, that drying of soils also has a big effect on bushfire as well. 

[Amelia]

Yeah, it would.

[Frank]

Yes, and we don't necessarily always think about that. We've got lovely types of trees and shrubs in Australia full of oil and they light up really well. Our gumtrees , they light up like a roman candle.

So I just want to point these out. So if you're looking at buying either a house or land, these are certain little things you need to look at, you know, be aware of it. Also the history of the house, where it's been. Sometimes there's some other hazards you've got to consider. Are you close to industrial? Are you within an attenuation zone?

[Amelia]

What's that? 

[Frank]

So it's a circle or such that they put around certain activities like crematoriums. 

[Amelia]

Oh, okay.

[Frank]

So you've got to get reports and stuff if you're building a new place. But is there odours and stuff coming from the crematorium? Sewerage ponds or sewerage pump stations, for obvious reasons. Because the interesting thing with quite a few of these sewerage treatment plants, they're actually not too bad from an odour point of view. It's when bad chemicals or something goes down and kills the bacteria, then it starts smelling really bad. People have probably heard your septics or your package treatment plants for onsite sewerage treatment on rural properties or areas that aren't serviced by sewer.

If they get the wrong chemicals and they kill the bacteria, the thing stinks. It doesn't work. And then they put out a pretty tasty odour.

[Amelia] (9:47 - 9:51)

Oh, I think odour and tasty should be in the same sentence.

[Frank] (9:51 - 9:59)

No, that's probably the wrong term. You're living in your house, you're having your dinner and you've got that smell, you're not going to be a happy camper.

[Amelia] (9:59 - 10:01)

No, you're definitely not.

[Frank] (10:01 - 10:51)

No. So things to be aware of, and this is why you've got to be careful with what you put down the drains and your sinks and all that, when you've got septics and package treatment plants. You put the wrong chemicals down there, you put something nasty down there, you kill the bacteria, it doesn't work.

So if it doesn't work, it's going to stink like you wouldn't believe. You know, it's just holding the waste, not treating the waste. And that's why there's rules with those.

Yeah, so we're just talking about potentially other hazards. Here's one that you probably wouldn't guess. And my brother experienced this and bought a house and very nice bit of acreage. And right next door, there was like a pond, a dam, and there was a creek feeding in there. It had all the reeds and stuff. After a while, they noticed there was a lot of snakes.

[Amelia] (10:51 - 10:52)

Oh, yuck.

[Frank] (10:52 - 11:05)

And they were going past his house, around the house. And he had a couple of dogs and they weren't scared. They were going straight to the creek.

[Amelia]

Oh, that's a worry. 

[Frank]

Because dinner time, there's lots of little froggies in there and stuff. And she's like the buffet.

[Amelia] (11:05 - 11:06)

Oh, yuck.

[Frank] (11:06 - 11:09)

Well, it's just nature. That's what it is.

[Amelia] (11:09 - 11:11)

That's a worry for the dogs. They might get bitten.

[Frank] (11:11 - 11:22)

Oh yeah, yeah, no, 100%. So my brother had to deal with a couple of little challenging locals that got a bit inquisitive. Yeah, and that ended up being a long-term problem. It took a while to sort that out.

[Amelia] (11:22 - 11:22)

Yeah, right.

[Frank] (11:23 - 11:34)

Yeah, but you don't realise that. In Tasmania, we've got quite a number of different snakes. And they're actually scared of us most of the time.

But like, if you're in the way of their food or, you know.

[Amelia] (11:34 - 11:40)

I'm sure there's plenty of aggressive ones out there at certain times of the year, mating season and that sort of thing.

[Frank] (11:40 - 11:44)

Yeah, if the dog goes after them, what do you think they're going to do?

[Amelia] (11:44 - 11:47)

Oh, exactly. They're going to defend themselves.

[Frank] (11:47 - 12:34)

Yeah, so just keep that in mind. When you're in rural properties, you're going to face a few of the locals. Yes.

And that's why you don't keep a stack of water lying around and other things like that. Other thing to look out for was the background or history of the sites. So let's just say you're looking at a house that's built near an old railway or an old factory.

Or it's a new subdivision built over an old site, what we call brownfield sites, where it's been reclaimed. Like in Hobart, there's been a brick factory that's been turned into subdivision. We had the Launceston showgrounds here, a huge site, massive.

And built its own suburb, almost. It was just massive. Again, that was a brownfield site.

[Amelia] (12:34 - 12:35)

Yeah, right.

[Frank] (12:35 - 13:10)

They had reclaimed the old railways in Launceston, but that's been turned into education and museums and all that. But you'll find them, as cities grow, they're going to reclaim this land. And on the mainland, like in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, all these places, common to reclaim old, disused industrial land, and they have to reclaim it.

And there's been cases where it hasn't been done well and it's failed, and there's been heavy metals in the soils or massive subsidence. So sometimes they haven't put the soil properly or formed a sinkhole or haven't dealt with the drainage properly. Make a problems.

[Amelia] (13:11 - 13:34)

Yeah, that's really interesting. I know I looked at a block of land last year, and it was on an old, like it's a farming property. 
 
 

[Frank]

Yep.

[Amelia]

And it was deemed contaminated. I was basically told, don't touch it with a 10-foot pole, because it was an old flax factory. 

[Frank]

Oh.

[Amelia]

Yeah, on an old farming site, so.

[Frank] (13:34 - 13:35)

Yep, they pop up.

[Amelia] (13:35 - 13:35)

Yeah.

[Frank] (13:35 - 13:37)

There's good records of that.

[Amelia] (13:37 - 13:40)

Yeah, I had to ring the council and they gave me a bit of advice.

[Frank] (13:40 - 13:41)

Was that Launceston Council?

[Amelia] (13:41 - 13:45)

No, that would have probably been Meander Valley. 

[Frank] (13:45 - 13:52)

Yeah, that's good. That's great that they have that information. That's very useful, because then you've got to understand what the contamination is too.

[Amelia] (13:53 - 13:53)

Yes.

[Frank] (13:53 - 14:04)

You know, if it's an old farm, okay, big deal. Generally, most farms are good. I had one where it was Apple Orchard, and there was no storage of large quantities of pesticides.

[Amelia] (14:05 - 14:06)

Yeah, right.

[Frank] (14:06 - 14:13)

And that was highlighted. That had to be dealt with or proven. Where the house was going wasn't anywhere near where the pesticides were stored, potentially.

[Amelia] (14:13 - 14:21)

Here's another interesting one. An old petrol station. 

[Frank]

Yep.

[Amelia]

That's another example of, I guess, a contaminated site.

[Frank] (14:21 - 14:22)

Potentially, it could be.

[Amelia] (14:22 - 14:23)

Yeah.

[Frank] (14:23 - 14:40)

Yes, it has to be tested and proven that it's not. So, the EPA are all over that. They're hard as nails on those types of sites, and they have to be cleaned up.

And I know of one we looked at, and the contamination was plain awful. To the point, you don't even really want to use it as part of a servo.

[Amelia] (14:41 - 14:41)

Really?

[Frank] (14:41 - 15:13)

It's that contaminated. 

[Amelia]

Wow. 

[Frank]

It's terrible. And then you're paying for the cleanup. Yeah, there was an old industrial site in the southern part of Launceston. It was an old steel fabricator's yard, and that was heavily contaminated as well. And they spent, it was a lot of money to clean it up. And they had heavy oils in there, and grease, and steel, just all sorts of rubbish in there. It was just dumped as it was back then.

We looked at the titles because we were doing something around the property, investigating for someone, and it had on the titles, Stock Race.

[Amelia] (15:13 - 15:13)

Oh.

[Frank] (15:13 - 15:29)

So, it used to hold stock there, because in that street used to have a canal. Really? The Margaret Street, there used to be a canal.

[Amelia]

Wow, that's surprising. 

[Frank]

It's got this ginormous stormwater system through it now. But it used to be, they used to run the barges up there.

[Amelia] (15:30 - 15:32)

Wow, I wouldn't have picked that.

[Frank] (15:32 - 15:35)

Well, you know the old park called the Brickfields?

[Amelia] (15:35 - 15:35)

Yes, yeah.

[Frank] (15:36 - 15:37)

You know what's called the Brickfields?

[Amelia] (15:37 - 15:37)

No.

[Frank] (15:37 - 15:38)

They made bricks.

[Amelia] (15:38 - 15:42)

Oh, well that makes sense. I feel like a dummy for even asking that one.

[Frank] (15:42 - 15:57)

No, I had to do that one, sorry. But it's an interesting history. Launceston's over 200 years old, which is nothing compared to around the rest of the world. But we've got these old factory sites, and yet they've been turned into something else. Some have been more heavily contaminated than others.

[Amelia] (15:57 - 15:58)

Yeah, right.

[Frank] (15:58 - 15:59)

You wouldn't know, would you?

[Amelia] (16:00 - 16:00)

No.

[Frank] (16:00 - 16:17)

No, it's a fascinating history of old cities. Yeah, and what used to be a canal used to run the barges up and down, and now it's turned into a road that used to flood really bad. But now they've got these massive pump stations and stormwater lines. Stormwater slash sewerage lines.

[Amelia] (16:17 - 16:25)

So how do we create the designs for people when you come across these harsh conditions? What do you have to sort of impose?

[Frank] (16:26 - 16:57)

Well, first you've got to look at to understand all these conditions. Now, there is a lot of good information out there that's available to talk about the site, this historical information. You found one with the contamination, whether it's...But if you're close to the sea, yep, it's going to be highly corrosive. So you've got design to suit that under the National Construction Code. It's very clear.

And then you've got to use the right products that are suitable. And some products, they will not warranty when they're in a certain distance to breaking surf.

[Amelia] (16:57 - 17:04)

And I guess the same or similar would apply for bushfire. You've got to use certain materials as per the National Construction Code.

[Frank](17:05 - 17:52)

And also how it's designed with vents, how they are designed. The windows have to be designed correctly. Materials that you use, like you say, the fixings.

Yes, all these Australian standards to a pass. There's also some good practical sense to this stuff as well. So dealing with high humidity, you know, with moisture in the air, that one's a tough one to deal with because it's always wet.

So you've got to use materials that can handle that moisture. 

[Amelia]

Yes. 
 
 

[Frank]

Same with high winds. Well, you've got to design for high winds. It'll blow the furniture straight off your deck. 

[Amelia]

Yes.

[Frank]

So you may design putting windbreaks in outdoor spaces. How do you do your entry? You want to put, you know, windbreaks in there. You look up at the highlands or farming areas where there's just big paddocks. There's no protection from the wind.

[Amelia] (17:53 - 17:54)

No, there's not.

[Frank] (17:54 - 18:34)

There's a place just outside Launceston, just past Legana called Grindelwald and sitting on top of the hill. She's a windy old spot up there at times. Same thing.

It's just going to be designed to suit what people want to view. They like the position. So they're going to put up with the high winds.

In relation to the snakes and ponds, well, I haven't got a complete answer on that one. And with industrial ones, really, there should be a lot of background information. And you know how we spoke about titles?

[Amelia]

Yes. 

[Frank]

A while ago, we talked about Part 5 agreements, Section 71s, that brownfield or contaminated or reclaimed land will potentially be within the title because it's part of those planning conditions.

[Amelia] (18:34 - 18:36)

Oh, that makes sense. Well, that's good.

[Frank] (18:36 - 19:56)

Well, it's not always there, but it should be there. So this is where looking under the titles, the covenants and all those Section 71s, also talking to the council about contaminations and any other potential hazards on the site because then that information is not always available online. We go searching online for a lot of stuff, but also local knowledge is very, very powerful there as well.

Now, there's one other one I want to point out. It's salinity. So that normally is just outside of Launceston, Meander Valley. They have a whole big areas of salinity that is a problem. 

[Amelia]

Really?

[Frank]

Yeah. So you've got to specify how you're going to do drainage, how you're going to deal with it on site. It's not rocket science. Any designer should be capable of doing it, but you've just got to be able to address it. But then you've got other weird stuff. And I'm going to pick on Meander Valley Council again, but it's not picking on it. It's actually a beautiful thing. The karst area, all the limestone.

Yes. So there's a big chunk around Mole Creek and all up through there. We've got all these limestone under the ground. We've got these beautiful cave systems, King Solomon Caves. 

[Amelia]

Yes. 

[Frank]

What else? There's a few other ones. I believe a lot of cavers, they call those crazy people that go diving underground in these tiny little holes in their caving gear. What's that called?

Is that called spelunking?

[Amelia] (19:56 - 19:59)

I don't know. There is a special word for it though.

[Frank] (19:59 - 20:02)

Yeah, those crazy guys that go down these black holes in these caves.

[Amelia] (20:02 - 20:03)

Oh, it's a bit scary really.

[Frank] (20:03 - 20:06)

That's crazy scary. It's like those divers that do it.

[Amelia] (20:06 - 20:06)

Yeah.

[Frank] (20:07 - 20:49)

Through those caves, like some of those kids in Thailand. 

[Amelia]

You wouldn't want to be claustrophobic.

[Frank]

Oh, you can't. Yeah, I just can't fathom how these guys do it. But utterly amazing. But in Meander to deal with the karst area is as part of your development application is how you're going to deal with this. How your wastewater treatment, so you're not dumping sewage down through the water systems. 

[Amelia]

Yeah, you don't want that. 
 
 

[Frank]

And how the stormwater is collected and how it's dealt with.

So it's this very sensitive area and they want to protect it. And so they should. So that has to be taken into consideration.

That's not so much a hazard as much as being aware of how to deal with the conditions. Salinity can be a hazard because that can actually wreck the bottom of your house.

[Amelia] (20:49 - 20:50)

Can that really?

[Frank] (20:50 - 20:51)

Yeah.

[Amelia] (20:51 - 20:53)

So it's kind of corrosive?

[Frank] (20:53 - 20:58)

Yeah, it kind of breaks down. I think it's been known to break down concrete and masonry.

[Amelia](20:59 - 20:59)

Wow.

[Frank] (20:59 - 21:19)

If it's not dealt with properly. Yes. As I understand it.

I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong there. Yeah, so these are little things that you find out all over the place. And I'm sure all over Australia, there's little different bits of natural occurring or manmade hazards within the soils or surrounding. Yeah.

[Amelia] (21:19 - 21:31)

So what are the take home points for anyone that is one trying to purchase either a house with land that is hazardous or a block of land? Where do they start?

[Frank] (21:31 - 22:00)

Well, we're fortunate in Tasmania. We've got a thing called PlanBuild. Just type in planbuild, one word, dot com dot au.

And that's a government website. And you put in your address and it'll list out all the things that is on record on the government websites with the list and a couple of other ones and planning and a whole bunch of stuff. And it'll tell you a whole ton of information.

That's one part. You can go into the councils and check if there's any contamination or anything like that or any other known hazards. And it's just smart doing your research.

[Amelia] (22:01 - 22:01)

Oh, definitely.

[Frank] (22:02 - 22:06)

You know, the other thing it tells you about flood overlays. We didn't talk about that, did we? There's another hazard for you.

[Amelia] (22:06 - 22:08)

Yeah, that's a pretty big hazard.

[Frank](22:09 - 22:26)

Shouldn't laugh about it because it's fair dinkum. We've had in the last five years, five, seven years, we've had some pretty interesting floods, bigger than normal. And they have done some massive effects, especially up the Northwest coast and up in the central part of Tasmania and took out bridges and houses and all sorts of stuff.

[Amelia] (22:26 - 22:28)

Yeah, we've had some awful ones.

[Frank] (22:28 - 22:35)

Yeah, but that should be mapped knowing that you're in the flood zone. 

[Amelia]

And you can actually- 

[Frank]

Or overland stormwater going off.

[Amelia] (22:36 - 22:42)

You can look it up too. There are, it is a little bit more complicated, but you can look it up on The List as well.

[Frank] (22:42 - 22:44)

Yeah, The List, but not all councils actually have it mapped.

[Amelia] (22:44 - 22:45)

Really?

[Frank] (22:45 - 22:45)

No.

[Amelia] (22:45 - 22:46)

Yeah, okay.

[Frank] (22:46 - 22:58)

Sometimes you've got to go to the council and ask them. I've been annoyed at some of those councils that don't make it public and I don't understand why. I won't go into that soapbox at the moment, but I believe it should be freedom of information for all this stuff.

[Amelia] (22:58 - 22:59)

Yes, I agree.

[Frank] (22:59 - 23:01)

You don't want to buy something if you're in a flood zone.

[Amelia] (23:02 - 23:03)

Oh, definitely not.

[Frank] (23:03 - 23:10)

Or in the path of overland flow at a storm. So if all the stormwater can't handle it, where does it go? It goes over land.

[Amelia] (23:11 - 23:11)

Yes.

[Frank] (23:11 - 23:24)

And you don't want to go through your front door and out the back door. No, that would be problematic. But at those big storms we had in Hobart, that did happen.

[Amelia]

Really? 

[Frank]

It literally happened. Went through the back door and out through the front door.

[Amelia] (23:24 - 23:24)

Oh dear.

[Frank] (23:25 - 23:26)

A couple of houses. It was horrific.

[Amelia] (23:26 - 23:29)

Sounds like an expensive exercise. 

[Frank](23:29 - 23:44)

It was. Yeah, there was a lot of them. It was unbelievable. I've had whole inside retaining walls inside a house, two-story house and retaining wall blown clean in and the top floor is still hanging there with all the bricks and everything and the downstairs blown in and the mud went straight through.

[Amelia] (23:45 - 23:48)

That's horrendous. 

[Frank]

Yeah. 

[Amelia]

So do your research.

[Frank] (23:50 - 24:51)

Again, look, this is about doing good due diligence when you're looking at buying a property. But even if you've got a property right now, what's the harm in having a look? If you've had a property for X amount of years, the councils and the state government are funding more and more information to be able to deal with the stuff going in the future.

They are mapping pathways of stormwater, right? When it floods and it gets out of control. They have to learn how to deal with this.

So the councils are getting more and more information and that's what drives a lot of their policies for new developments. So if you want to put an extension in the back of the house, hey, our stormwater system is under capacity. You need to put a detention basin in it.

This is all part of them trying to deal with inadequate systems as we build more and more houses, more and more shops, more and more businesses on the original stormwater systems that are now under capacity because they were never designed for them. 

[Amelia]

Yes. 

[Frank]

So yes, no harm in checking out what your house is. Does it have any potential risks or hazards?

[Amelia] (24:52 - 24:52)

Yeah.

[Frank](24:52 - 24:55)

Generally we don't find out until we want to do something to the house.

[Amelia] (24:55 - 25:08)

That is very true. And it's hard because like a lot of things, you can't always see it. No, you can't always see the problem.

[Frank]

Of course, until it happens. 

[Amelia]

Especially if it's in the soil or, you know. 

[Frank] (25:08 - 25:25)

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, until something happens. 

[Amelia]

Yeah, exactly. 

[Frank]

So, and that's why when you actually want to do something to your house, this is what a designer or architect would do a lot of this research because we need to know if there's something we have to deal with. So it makes a lot of sense. But it's nice to be able to have the heads up on your house though.

[Amelia] (25:26 - 25:32)

Oh, 100%. All right, we might wrap it up there, folks. Thanks for listening to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast.

[Frank] (25:32 - 25:33)

Catch ya’s later.

[OUTRO] (25:42 - 25:46)

You're listening to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast.