Last week we made solid progress setting up the site office and making the site safer and easier to work on. Here's what we did, why, and what's next.
Lifting and securing the site office
The site office was delivered and lifted into place by crane. The lift itself took about 20 minutes, but many crane companies have a two-hour minimum call-out, so that's what we paid for. It came to around $630.
The site office sits on top of the container and is held with twist-lock cam fittings, one at each corner, which join the two units firmly together. The office weighs about three tonnes, sitting on two or three tonnes of container and storage below.
To anchor it, we bought 1,500 mm long screw piers (about 350 mm diameter) from a mate who's an underpinner. One pier goes in at each corner, with 2-tonne-rated ratchet straps and tie-down harnesses running from the container's top corners down to the piers.
Four 2-tonne-rated straps give about 8 tonnes of tie-down capacity for a 3-tonne unit, which is plenty to stop it moving. Wind is what moves site buildings: it pushes sideways and lifts, and a tall, light box catches a lot of it. In cyclone or high-wind areas, tie-downs should follow the supplier's or an engineer's design.
We also have a 3-tonne excavator attachment to screw the piers in. One corner gets a slightly angled pier because it's close to the basement and sheet piling, and we don't want to have to move it later.
Network and Starlink
With the site office in place, we moved the Starlink dish onto a new full-length timber post, about 2.6 metres up, and extended the RJ45 (network) cable to suit. I've ordered a Starlink mesh node for inside the site office. The plan is:
- Run an RJ45 cable from the mesh node back up to the Starlink.
- Use the mesh node as a pass-through, so the camera network stays powered and connected.
- Because the mesh node has only two ports, run another cable from it to the internal network.
The metal site office causes the odd dropout, so the mesh node should give us better reliability and speed.
Power
The container's power comes in on a 15-amp outdoor screw-in plug. The cable looks weathered, but it works fine. The electricians have installed a new circuit and a small sub-board inside the container.
From that sub-board, a 15 A plug connects to an industrial plug mounted with extra slack so it's easy to connect. That single feed powers the whole container network and equipment.
Inside the site office there are several double power points, all running off that 15 A feed, so there are plenty of outlets for monitors, chargers, the coffee machine and everything else.
Stairs, handrail and landing
We built folding stairs from 90 x 45 treated pine. Hinges let the stairs fold down and come off easily when needed. The stringers are 240 x 45, the treads are supported on 70 x 35 timber, and each tread support has two batten screws, plus two more through each tread to stop it moving.
The handrail is 900 mm above the treads and the risers (the height of each step) are about 190 mm. We checked these against the National Construction Code using the Build Tools app, which is much faster than hunting through the NCC. Even temporary stairs need consistent risers: people trip on the one step that's a different height.
We dug new post footings, one about 600 mm deep (roughly 1.5 bags of concrete) and another around 250 to 300 mm, and checked the levels with a laser so the stairs sit parallel and stable. Barry wrote his name in one of the footings (thanks, Barry). We made that one extra solid, because people always give the post a shake to test it.
The stairs connect to the container with four main bolts and two braces, so they're rigid and very solid for site use.
Inside the site office
The site office comes with a desk and a small sub-board. We've added:
- A printer and chargers
- A coffee machine
- Monitors, and an old TV to show the program to suppliers and contractors
- A Sonos speaker for background music
- A few extra chairs (not too many, so it doesn't get cramped)
The floor is coved vinyl, which is easy to mop and vacuum. We'll hang the whiteboard on magnetic hooks so we don't drill through the insulated panels. And the air-conditioning is a big win.
Smaller jobs
- Fitted glands and conduits through the container so cables don't rub on bare metal.
- Ran the 15 A power through conduit to the internal distribution board.
- Tested the keyboards and mice from our kit box. Some needed new batteries after a long time in storage.
- Set up temporary bin and equipment storage while we finish the rest of the site.
What's next: approvals, engineers and timing
We're mostly waiting on the development approval (DA). The letters needed for the revetment wall (a council DA condition, PO9, that has to be satisfied before approval) finally arrived after about five weeks. They went to the town planner and were submitted to council. Once the DA is issued, we'll:
- Finalise the operational works approval for the civil works
- Get the structural engineer to finish the basement design and issue a Form 15 (the engineer's design compliance certificate in Queensland)
- Finalise the hydraulic design with the hydraulic engineer (they're waiting on the DA too)
- Pay the QBCC home warranty premium and QLeave levy and send the receipts to the certifier
- Have the certifier lodge plumbing and drainage with council
The engineers have been talking to council to make sure their designs comply, so we don't expect major hold-ups with building approval, especially for early works.
We still need to firm up the quote from the sheet piling and dewatering contractor (four-week lead time) and book them once the schedule is set. I'm also waiting on a quote from the waterproofing contractor for the basement, using a membrane system with an extra protection layer to further cut the risk of leaks.
Major works are now expected to start between late March and early April. We've lost a couple of weeks waiting on engineering sign-offs and council letters, but once the approvals are through we'll get moving quickly.
The short version
This week was all about the site office: securing it, setting up power and the network, and building solid stairs. Once the DA and a few outstanding engineering reports come in, construction can move forward. I'll post again next week on the approvals and next steps.
