Electrical Rough-ins Walkthrough with our SS

Yesterday, we had an onsite inspection, along with our Site Supervisor (SS), of the work performed on our house’s electrical system, before the interior walls are insulated and finished.

I had my electrical diagrams with me that was approved during the electrical appointment at Studio M, along with additions and changes worth $900 that we made a few months after, separately, with the Vaccarro Group (electrical contractors of Metricon). The additions included light points, power points, dimmer switches, 2-way and 3-way switches, and pre-wiring for heat lamps and direct circuit. Whilst it was not possible to make any changes after the electrical appointment at Studio M, I appreciate the flexibility of Vaccarro (with whom we had the original appointment at Studio M at Metricon office) to allow us to add and make minor changes in a separate and direct appointment with them.

The inspection yesterday allowed me and our Site Supervisor to jointly check and ensure that all our ceiling light points, wall light points, power points, data points etc were in the right places. All the points were indeed there and 95% of them were in the right places. The others, I would say, is a matter of judgement. For instance, in the picture below, you can see the wiring for the ducted exhaust fan, along with the placement of the GPO (General Power Outlet) on the right hand side wall. Given the depth of the future bench top to be 500 mm, I felt the current placement of the GPO was a bit off and therefore requested our SS to move it a bit closer, similar to the second photo you see below. 

Likewise, I requested our SS to move a few switches and GPOs in Dining and Bed 5. Fortunately, we have already purchased our buffet unit and bedroom furniture, which allowed us to measure their width, thus allowing us to precisely locate the point where we wanted to place those switches and GPOs. Thanks to our SS, Greg for being patient and allowing us to make those minor changes during our electrical rough-in appointment. In fact, Greg even allowed my last-minute request yesterday to include an additional 2-way switch near the Dining sliding door to access the light under eaves downstairs. So, I am pleased with the outcome.

You will see below pictures of electrical connections in our Family that includes a TV conduit provision and GPO at 1200 mm above floor level, followed by the placement of additional GPOs, free-to-air tv points, pay tv points, and telephone point. 

Other pictures below provide you with a glimpse of light points and light points with a noggin to help support the hanging of a fan or heavy pendant lamp. So, if you are considering those, you must request and pay around $10 for a noggin. The last picture is our power box that has been installed (which would include the meter box, light and power circuits).

Next week, Metricon’s quality inspector and/or the PCA (Locals) would inspect the house, their approval of which would allow our SS to move forward with insulation and gyprocking / plasterboard / lining work. There is also the completion of external cladding and commencement of painting the render that are scheduled next week; and I would be excited to see them completed on schedule.

Internal Colour and Electrical Appointment-2

I was hoping to receive the costing on our internal selections, so that I could post the details on the blog; however, the Studio M manager sent her apologies a few times in the past week for not providing the costing. Apparently, there are a few items the Estimator is waiting a quote for from their supplier as they did not provide all the items he had requested. So, instead I will report on our electrical consultation in this post.

Our electrical consultation was held on the same day as our internal colour appointment. We met a lovely lady, M, from Vaccaro Group. M was professional and explained to us the basics of the ‘musts to have’ and ‘good to have, but can be done later’, so that we do not stretch our budget very far. We had a budget of 10K to spend, and the variations did not deviate much from that figure. We spent a little over three hours and completed most of our selections at 5 PM when the computer froze! Thanks to the System’s auto save feature (which was actually annoying, as it saved every 5 mins), we did not lose any data. M advised that she would email me us our selections, which then provided us an opportunity to review at leisure. Note Metricon/Vaccaro’s standard policy, which is “Electrical selections and plans are to be finalised and signed off on the same day as your appointment”; so, we were pretty lucky to get some time off to review. We took our electrical plans last week-end to Beacon Lighting to make our actual light selections and sought their advice on many items. I emailed M our amendment requests after reviewing the electrical plans.

OK, now to the actual selection process: As you can see in the picture in this post, the system they use allows us to clearly see the approximate locations of switches, batten holders and other electrical items we ask for.  Note that the height of all lights switches is approx. 1050 mm above slab level; all external junction box for future wall lights are 1800 mm AFL (above floor level); all light points above mirror to any bathroom are 2100 mm AFL, while all GPOs (General Purpose Outlet / Socket Outlet), commonly known as power point, are 300 mm AFL. So, if you want at any other height, you would need to specify them.

We love down lights (D/Ls), but were anxious about the prices. Reading from other blogs, I was under the impression that CFL D/Ls lights provided by metricon are about $105 each, and I was wrong. M clarified that halogen D/Ls are $105, 11W CFL D/Ls are $125 and 11W LED D/Ls are $200. When I heard the prices I almost fainted! So, I asked M’s suggestion, and her solution was to get Batten Holders at this stage for $40 each and then get them converted to future D/Ls. A week before our electrical appointment, I enquired with Beacon Lighting on LED D/Ls, and they were having a promotion on LED D/Ls (30% off second light and subsequent ones). So, yesterday we went to Beacon and chose LEDlux 11W 600 Lumen Brushed Chrome D/L Kit that was priced $60 for the first one and $42 for the second light. I also contacted an electrician recommended by Beacon (as we do not have any sparky friends), who charges $30 to install a D/L. So, the approximate cost of having a LED D/L is $40 for the ceiling point (that comes with a batter holder and a bulb) + approx. $50 for LEDlux 11W Led D/L + $30 to install it = $120. We ultimately selected 25 LED D/Ls via Beacon, which is a saving of $2000 ($80 per D/L x 25).

There were a few other items that were ridiculously expensive (eg., metal cover plates that were $15 each, as opposed to about $5 if you were to do it post hand over); so we stuck to the standard ones. All light switches are Classic C2000 style, with the exception of Kitchen and Pantry glass splashback switches and sockets, which are Clipsal Saturn Espresso Black, approx. $140 each; and double power point on kitchen island bench, where we selected Black C2000 style for an additional $10.

For tricky places that required recessing the lights (lights in niches in Entry;  lights under Over Head Cupboards in Kitchen; and lights on walls in Stairs), we bit the bullet and purchased lights via Metricon/Vaccarro, so that they can be responsible for installation of those lights.

With the exception of 2 light points (batten holders) in Portico (for future D/Ls), 1 light point in Balcony (for future D/L), 1 wall light point on Garage (for future wall down light) and three batten under eaves (for future double spot lights), we asked for 3 junction boxes for external lighting, at a cost of $75 each.

There are many more items on which I wish to write; and I will continue those in my next post on electrical selections.