Timber Apartment Buildings

Discussion in 'Development' started by wombat777, 14th Oct, 2016.

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  1. wombat777

    wombat777 Well-Known Member

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  2. Westminster

    Westminster Tigress at Tiger Developments Business Member

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    I'm pretty sure I'm going to be building WA's first one - just waiting for some extra council permissions to be granted.
     
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  3. wombat777

    wombat777 Well-Known Member

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    Looking forward to seeing the plans and pics for that!

    Although if I was to build one in several years on my land that has minor tidal inundation risk, I could have noah's ark on my hands :D . I'll make the leases on any units pet-friendly. :D
     
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  4. The Y-man

    The Y-man Moderator Staff Member

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  5. Paul@PAS

    Paul@PAS Tax, Accounting + SMSF + All things Property Tax Business Plus Member

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    I was in Alaska recently and wondered why a five level apartment bldg was all timber frame. My first concern was fire. No steel or brick. I had it explained to me - its a thermal issue. Concrete and steel etc will break in extreme climate. Timber retains some sort of flexibility and suits cold better (and earthquake for low rise). Councils and local Govt will have local policies but the building code often dictates how a build must be constructed. Its going to be influeneces by local conditions eg snow, earthquake, flood, wind etc

    Ever been to HK and seen the way they use bamboo for scaffolding ? It would never ever get workcover approval here.
     
  6. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    It will take a while to catch on - people don't want timber they want brick or cement render.

    I have no issue (subject to meeting BCA). Unfortunately we are no lo longer geared towards building in timber.
     
  7. norwoodman

    norwoodman Well-Known Member

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    CLT isn't a big fire risk - the timber that is used in these structures is more likely to char and discolour rather than burn up easily. One of the new office buildings down at Barangaroo in Sydney is also being constructed from this.

    There is some constructability advantages as well - all the components are prefabricated and brought to site so they can be constructed faster than a reinforced concrete structure. There's limited manufacturing capability of this in Australia so far, most of the material is imported. New Zealand has been doing a lot of this since the Christchurch earthquakes.
     
  8. Westminster

    Westminster Tigress at Tiger Developments Business Member

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    The prefab nature of this is also excellent for sites which are tiny and don't have a lot of room to store large amounts of bricks/blocks etc
     
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  9. wombat777

    wombat777 Well-Known Member

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    @Westminster, of course I should have asked - what % difference in construction cost do you expect compared to traditional methods?
     
  10. Westminster

    Westminster Tigress at Tiger Developments Business Member

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    For Class 2 (apartments) a lot of the cost is in all the BCA compliance which is extra high for all the safety, fire regulations etc etc. But I would expect around 5-10% - and then time savings in term of holding costs. Could reduce holding costs by up to a third.
     
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