This job had architectural plans and a DA. So.....
Why do I do all this?
This first model and all these plans I will introduce you to were designed to served the client - but were not made for the client. I produced them for my own use, they were in-house documents. Working like this allows me to foresee any problems and address them with the client before I build it. Problems like engineer's details not fitting into architect's design, insufficient head room and areas where space is not optimized. There are also nice features that can be accentuated if you have the foresight. Building a virtual prototype and editing it until it's perfect allows for a far more reliable building and better quality. But that only works if the person doing the design work really knows what goes on on a building site. I design it myself and build it with my own hands. On a building site quality doesn't just happen passively - you have to take a lot of steps every day to ensure it is achieved.
This is a before shot of the front of the house before work started. There were two small bedrooms upstairs.
After shot. The project was to extend the house out the back and take off the top and replace it with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and an ensuite. If you want to see more photos of the project you can go back to the second job on the Photo page.
I made a 3d CAD model of the project. The model is not theoretical; it complies with the actual irregularities of the existing house. It was built up piece by piece to scale in compliance with the Architects and Engineers plans and is exactly what I proceeded to build.
From the full model I extracted about 30 simple A4 pages of detailed drawings to describe each part of the building. The following is an example of this process. The upstairs external walls are isolated from the model. W7 is the wall to the left. It is subdivided into parts a, b, c, & d.
The next 4 drawings show W7 with parts a, b, c & d further isolated. These next 4 pages are the final result of the process - Plans which show cutting lists and assembly details. This is what I take out to the drop saw and actually work off.
These are the upstairs internal walls. They fit inside the external walls we just looked at.
W3 is the long wall that runs down the middle.
Here is W3 isolated to show final details. Again the result of all this work is to get a cutting list and assembly detail.
While efficiently working away at the main structure, it is good to know that all the kitchens, bathrooms, cupboards, windows, etc. have been considered and checked that they are going to work. This stuff matters. A project generates a lot of paperwork from architects, engineers, certifiers, council, interior designers, clients etc. A builder that then just passes the work on to a carpenter or bricklayer or whoever to build is at great risk of failing to communicate all that documentation - which leads to problems that may not be practically correctable. Then what? - Blame the architect, the engineer, the client?
Better to just have a system of working together to avoid problems and miscommunications.