Noise control and working hours on suburban house sites
Noise on a suburban knockdown-rebuild is two problems wearing one hat: protecting your own people’s hearing, and staying inside the hours and levels your council and the EPA expect. Get the second one wrong and the complaint arrives before the frame is up.
11 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.
Noise control and working hours on suburban house sites
Noise on a suburban knockdown-rebuild is two problems wearing one hat: protecting your own people’s hearing, and staying inside the hours and levels your council and the EPA expect. Get the second one wrong and the complaint arrives before the frame is up.
11 min read
Where CPD sits among the rest of a builder licence holder’s duties
CPD is one obligation among several that sit on a licence holder, and it is the only one that is self-recorded and only checked if you are audited. A calendar that ties it to renewal, insurance and record keeping stops it being remembered only when something else goes wrong.
10 min read
How to read housing market cycles when planning your workload
Housing cycles do not announce themselves. What moves your workload is a chain of signals you can watch directly, from approvals and policy settings through to your own enquiry book.
10 min read
Practical automation for the builder’s office: what to automate and what to leave alone
Automation in a building business pays off in the office long before it pays off on site. Here is how to pick the admin tasks worth automating, and how to keep the records and privacy obligations that sit behind them.
12 min read
Split system air conditioner installation: coordinating single-head units on new homes
Single-head split systems look like the simplest trade package on a new home, and that is exactly why they go wrong. The coordination problems sit in the frame stage, long before the installer arrives.
11 min read
Back charges and subcontractor disputes: doing it so it sticks
A back charge is only as strong as the clause you agreed and the evidence you kept. Here is how to run the process so it survives a payment dispute.
11 min read
Avoiding building disputes in NSW before they start
Most building disputes are set up long before anyone raises their voice. The contract, the variation trail and the site records you keep in the first weeks decide how the argument ends.
10 min read
Engineered floor joists: installation errors that show up later
Most engineered joist failures are not manufacturing faults. They are penetrations cut in the wrong place, bearings detailed for solid timber, and moisture allowed into a member that cannot dry.
11 min read
Silica controls for cutting, grinding and mixing on site
Silica dust is not a stone issue, it is a process issue. Control it at the tool, at the mix, and in how the work is sequenced.
14 min read
Running CPD for a building business with several licence holders
CPD attaches to individuals, not to the company licence. Once a business has more than one contractor licence holder or qualified supervisor certificate holder, the obligation becomes an administrative system, and it has to survive staff turnover.
11 min read
Early warning signs of insolvency risk in your building business
Insolvency rarely arrives without warning. The trick is knowing which signals matter, and reading them in your own books as well as in the businesses you deal with.
10 min read
Auditing your builder tool stack: how to cull software that does not pay
Most builders accumulate software the same way they accumulate gear: one tool at a time, each bought to solve a real problem. The audit is the part nobody schedules, and it is where the money is.
10 min read
Ducted air conditioning: design and installation checkpoints for builders
Ducted air conditioning is a services problem disguised as an appliance. The mechanical design has to be resolved before the roof goes on and the framing closes, or the defects surface at handover as noise, condensation and rooms that never reach setpoint.
12 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.