Owner Building

Plan Your Bathroom

How to Plan Your Bathroom the Right Way Whether it is a guest cloakroom, a luxurious en suite arrangement or a streamlined family bathroom, the design of any bathroom should evolve out of the specific needs of the people who use the room. The bathroom has come a long way …

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House Plan Submissions

House Plan Submissions – What is the Process? The City of Cape Town have created an easy to follow infographic to explain how the process of house plan submissions work. Plans cannot be submitted by post or on-line, they have to be “walked through” personally by the owner or his …

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How to Replace a Tap Mixer Cartridge

How to Change a Tap Mixer Cartridge, Step-by-Step Tap mixer cartridges have changed the way home handymen tackle the task of fixing leaking taps and shower heads. The days of fixing a leaking tap by changing a simple washer are fast fading as more and more new mixer designs are …

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A Dune House

A Small House in the Dunes Jetty and Maarten Min have lived for more than twenty years in a small bungalow with magnificent views that they promised themselves that they would do something stunning with “later”. The bungalow was situated on the sand dunes in Bergen-aan-Zee in North Holland. Then …

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Mountain Home

Creative Home Design This imposing house was designed by well-known international architect Giovanni D’Ambrosio and is set in the popular winter skiing region of Australian in the State of Victoria’s mountain countryside near Mount Hotham. To integrate the house with its surroundings the architect has used organic materials. Wood, stone, …

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Landscaping

Landscaping Your Garden We have divided this article into two sections: > Landscaping Your Garden in Stages – Part 1 & Landscaping Your Garden in Stages – Part 2 The reason for this is because when you build a new house, starting to landscape your garden from scratch is an …

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Concrete Foundations

A Concrete  Placing Guide   Concrete foundations This guide will help owner builders to cast foundations. These foundations are for external brick walls around a new house, or for extensions of an existing house. THE NHBRC (National Homebuilders Association Council) requirements for house foundations: For single storey buildings with a tiled or …

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Container House

How to Build a Container House Mads Møller of Arcgency an Architectural office situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. Has come up with a container house concept as he says is  using “Old shipping containers used as the structural framework for the WFH-Huse. This is not just recycling; This is upcycling!”  The WFH …

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Decorative Concrete Floors

How to Decorate Floors with Concrete Concrete floors do not have to be drab and grey. Oh No! There is a South African company that manufactures and supplies specialised coatings especially for you to give your floors that million dollar look. Fairly easy to mix and to apply it is …

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Planning and Building By-Law Definitions

By-Law Definitions for Planning, Building and Zoning These definitions are mainly, but not exclusively, extracted from the Greater Metropolitan Area of Cape Town’s By-Laws Planning and Zoning definitions and explanations. They do and can relate to terms and phrases used nationally by other Municipalities and planning departments. We will be …

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