Smart home rough-in: wiring decisions before the lining goes on
Every smart home decision you can still make cheaply is made before the plasterboard goes on. After lining, the same change becomes a variation, a patch-up and a delay.
10 min read
The PointCPD blog
Building industry news and articles
What is changing in Australian building, and what it means on site: construction technology, materials, energy, regulation, safety, contracts and the housing market.
Smart home rough-in: wiring decisions before the lining goes on
Every smart home decision you can still make cheaply is made before the plasterboard goes on. After lining, the same change becomes a variation, a patch-up and a delay.
10 min read
Home battery installation: what builders need to coordinate
A home battery is not just an electrician’s job. The builder controls access, isolation, structural fixings and the paper trail that keeps the certificate valid.
12 min read
Changes you have to tell the regulator about, and when
Your licence depends on the regulator being able to reach you and on your records matching the business you actually run. The administrative duties that quietly put a licence at risk are rarely about building work.
12 min read
Delays and extensions of time on NSW building contracts: running the notice and evidence process
Most delay claims are not lost on the merits. They are lost because the notice went in late, or went in without evidence that ties the delay to the critical path. Here is how to run the process so the claim survives scrutiny.
13 min read
Roof sarking and underlay: getting laps, drapes and penetrations right
Sarking is the layer that catches what the roof covering lets through, and it only works if it is lapped, draped and sealed in the right direction. Most failures are not product failures — they are installation failures at laps, valleys and penetrations.
11 min read
Manual handling on site: lifting sheets, frames and linings on a residential build
The lifts that hurt builders are rarely the dramatic ones. They are the same sheet, frame and lining handled fifty times a day, by a crew that has stopped noticing it is a hazard.
12 min read
How to keep up when the CPD and licensing rules change
CPD rules shift quietly. The builders who get caught are the ones who relied on a provider page or a memory of last year’s rules. Here is where the official requirements actually live, and how to check them without wasting a day.
13 min read
Protecting your business when a subcontractor goes under
A subcontractor failure is rarely sudden, and the builder usually carries the cost. Here is how to structure contracts, records and site controls so a subbie’s collapse does not become yours.
10 min read
Cyber security for builders: protecting your business data and payment details
Your quotes, contracts, payroll records and bank details are the assets a cyber criminal wants. This is how to lock them down without turning your office into an IT department.
11 min read
Solar PV ready: designing new homes for panels and inverters
A solar ready home is not a roof with nothing on it. It is a set of decisions made before the frame goes up — orientation, roof space, cable route, inverter location and the switchboard capacity to take the connection.
11 min read
Cost plus or fixed price? How contract type shifts risk on a NSW residential job
The contract type decides who carries the risk of the job costing more than expected. Get that allocation wrong and the argument arrives at practical completion, when there is no room left to fix it.
15 min read
Building a realistic construction programme for home jobs
Most small residential programmes fail not because the sequence is wrong but because there is no float in it. This is a method for sequencing home jobs and holding buffer where it actually protects the completion date.
11 min read
Roof truss bracing and tie-down checks before sheeting
Bracing and tie-down are routinely signed off without being checked, because the work is done by someone else and the paperwork arrives before the roof does. Here is how to inspect it before sheeting closes the frame in.
11 min read
Free site templates for builders
SWMS, JSA, Take 5, inspection checklists, site diary, variations and payment claims. Word and PDF, free for commercial use.