[Others.056] Burst water pipe

One of our neighbor's water pipe burst right under their driveway the other day. The whole street suffered lost of water pressure and few hours later, completely out of water. The water pressure from the damaged pipe was so strong that it cracked and pushed the driveway up a few cm higher than the footpath level, some of the footpath also damaged.


Annoyingly, it took Sydney Waters about 3 hours to send someone on site. After some investigation, they digged a big hole on their driveway.


Have a quick chat with the guys and they said this is the smallest 4 inch pipe, and start talking about another incident where an 8 inch pipe burst, how much damage it caused.... We finally got our water after about 6 hours later.


Other than having the water back, What we were more concerned about is how are they going to fix the damaged driveway?

The next morning noticed the hole has been filled up like this... Also noticed a few yellow marks been sprayed on the footpath and other areas where the concrete were cracked.


At first we thought is that it? The driveway will be left in such an ugly condition?

Then last week, council parked a caravan at the front. Next day they started working on the driveway. They were quite careful, only did one half, wait for it to dry before working on the other half.


After a few days work. It's now a brand-new driveway and footpath also fixed too!

What our landscaper told us before is correct. If your driveway was damaged due to burst pipe or whatever reason, the council will only replace it with basic concrete. So if any of you thinking of extending your beautiful driveway paving all the way to the road might want to think again... Better off saving that for the back yard?

[Others.055] the incredible (house construction) project

Took this photo from my old iPhone 3GS, so it's a bit unclear, but you should get the idea.... It's for some sort of computer software project, but still matches what could happen during any construction project. And I am sure whoever built a house before would quite agree with this.

One of the point is, sometimes even the customer can't clearly explain what they want. How would you expect the result to be correct after the message been passed over through so many people and documented in different ways.

So make sure you double check and triple check every diagram, every line in the contract, take a lot of pictures, ask a lot of dumb/silly questions - yes it can be a bit embarrassing, but it's really rewarding if this can clarify if every parties involved are talking about the same thing!

Whatever the sales person told you - specially while he/she show you around - write it down and make sure it's correctly and clearly covered in the contract. Whatever promise/agreement you were told/made doesn't count unless it's written down in the contract!

[Progress.162] 1400W is just not powerful enough

As mentioned in this old post last year, we borrowed a high pressure washer from neighbour to clean up the blocks in our garden.

We tried one of those sub $200 1400W Karcher one the other day from Bunnings. But the result wasn't that good as lots of stubborn dirt still stuck on the blocks.

Later checked Karcher web site and found that the old Karcher 300 M we borrowed has the power of 1700W.... Humm... may be 300W is indeed a huge difference... Checked Bunnings and found a 1800W one for $399, even has a 2000W one for $596. Will have a second thought on that...

[Others.054] Change of NSW Premier and Council Zoning

First of all, congratulation to Barry O'Farrell our new Premier for NSW. Hope the North West Rail Link, which has been promised since 1998 can be finished in the near future as planned.


Picture: Jeff Herbert Source: The Australian

For the Labor, on top of all those countless money wasting mistakes they had made, to focus on connecting the 2 existing lines of Parramatta and Epping is really dumb. Compared with those residents in North West suburbs who have no rail-way and only over-congested roads, connecting Parramatta and Epping will only benefit a very small number of people and probably save them 10-15 min of travel time, isn't that really obvious?? No wonder Labor would loose the election so badly...

The other change is the zoning changes. During an open house inspection in one of the house in our area a few weeks ago, a neighbour mentioned council zoning has changed. Lots of area used to be "2B" and allows construction of single dwelling or duplex (Dual Occupancies), has all been changed to "R2" and that will only allow "single dwelling houses".

Quickly checked our council's web site and indeed noticed new Draft LEP and DCP been announced (see this link), this document about Zoning also provides some high level information.

Not sure about your council, at least in Parramatta council, it's definitely more difficult to build duplexes or townhouses. Wonder if that could have any impact to the house prices.

If any of you are thinking/planning of building new houses, make sure you keep yourself up to date with all the latest council regulation/zoning changes!

[Others.053] Is your upstairs window easily accessbile from outside?

The Story
One of the neighbours knocked on our door the other day. No, it's not the very unfriendly one who keep throwing fallen twigs and branches over the fence just because the tree is on our side of the fence, it's one of the better ones and thank God most of them are like that in the neighbourhood...

They told us someone broke into their house on a windy Friday night. The couple were watching tele in the family room downstairs (from around 9 pm to 1 am) and their 2 school age kids were sleeping upstairs in their own room. The intruder somehow climbed up the roof of family room from the backyard undetected, removed the fly screen from the guest bedroom window, forced the "closed and locked" sliding window open, sneaked into the main bedroom, took some valuable stuffs, and left the house probably also using the same path. And they didn't even notice it until the husband found the fly screen on the floor in the backyard next morning.

We all thought it would be a disaster if the intruder enter either of the kids' room and accidentally woke up the kid - hope they would be smart enough not to scream or make any noise - this would be a very important thing to teach/remind your kids...

Why bother?
You might think most new houses have alarm installed and this shouldn't be a major issue. Don't forget that for situations like my neighbour's, the alarm isn't even on yet. Also, we all know that most alarms can be configured to only monitor downstairs while family members were sleeping in bedrooms upstairs, if intruder entered the house through upstairs windows, it's basically useless...

A few things I can think of...
Please note that I am NOT an expert on home security, you should always consult your builder or some security specialist for professional advice. This post is just to share some of my thoughts...

If you are still in design and planning phase, a reminder for you to think and check whether any of your upstairs windows can be easily accessed from outside (normally through roof of rooms downstairs), would suggest to change it if possible.

If you are way over that phase, a few things below might help too, please be patient and read on :-)

If you are using awning window, it should be safer as I think it's much more difficult to enter from outside for awning window (just guessing as I don't have awning windows, please correct me if you think this is incorrect). For sliding windows, there are quite a few options:

1) install window locks, google for "window locks" and you should be able to get lots of information.

One of the simplest ones are locks like below, personally I don't quite like it as I have seen windows been scratched and the paint came off due to this lock.



2) some builders provide extra options of windows with built-in locks, for example, something similar to this one I mentioned before. It looks much better and should be more secure... and more expensive....

3) just get a small wood/steel stick, cut to suitable size and use it to block the sliding window from opening, as shown below. Sorry for my awful drawing skill, but I think you should get the idea.


I have seen quite a few families using the 3rd simple and cheap "stick" trick, however, after a few simple experiments, I think it's not 100% perfect. Most of the sliding windows have one panel fixed, while the other movable one, is designed to allow you to easily remove it by lifting it up. So if you have a suction pad, or by using your hand to push the movable panel up slowly, you can still sort of force it to open from outside (note: assuming window lock already been damaged)


My suggestion will be as shown below, install one or two little screws at the top of your windows (marked with red cross), this will stop the windows from been easily pushed upwards as before. The catch is, when it comes to window cleaning time, you have to remove those screws before you can remove the panel for proper cleaning.
Please note that this requires driving a screw into your window panel and special skills might be required. If not done properly, this could break your window glass or void your warranty. So please don't try it yourself unless you are confident with your skill. Always get help from professionals if possible.


What if the intruder just break the glass?
Well... Normally that would make quite a bit of noise and hopefully no one would do that. The next option would be to install some sort of bars. Make sure you choose a good looking one, otherwise it would look like a jail. I found a few photos from the net as below...




Oh, almost forgot, one other option, get a german shepherd or properly trained dog. Sometimes they are more efficient than any alarm system. Just make sure it has been properly trained to only accept food from family member...

Hope you find this information helpful, if you have any other ideas, please let me know...

Hope everyone have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year break!

Cheers!