HOUSE BUILDING, RENOVATING AND MAINTENANCE

House Designing:

ARTICLE: Before designing your house it pays to be think through what you really need and want to achieve. Help yourself or the designer to get the best results.

Your Home provides information on designing a home to suit Australian conditions. It is a joint initiative of the Commonwealth government and the design and construction industries.

HOUSES is Australia’s leading residential architecture magazine for designers and their clients.

Infolink Architectural is Australia’s premier product showcase for the architectural, building and construction industries. Packed with the latest products available, Infolink Architectural presents innovative design styles, building materials, new technologies and much more.

Luxury Home Designs is the ultimate magazine for people who recognise quality and taste in design, layout and accessories. Making a home is much more than just building a house.

ARTICLE:  Tips on designing your home or extension may help you get started and avoid any costly errors.

Energy Saving House design and maintenance

Earth Garden has sustainable house building information and more.

Australian Green Development Forum promotes the understanding and adoption of sustainable practices, guidelines, policies and technologies in the building and development industry throughout Australia.

Alternative Technology Association provides practical advice on using natural materials, designing and building to be resource efficient and using recycling and technology to make sustainable future.

SAVE TIME GUIDE: Resources conservation gives tips about saving power, water and more in our modern lives.

February is Sustainability Month - check out what events are happening and how you can join in next February.

House Renovating and Building:

ARTICLE: Renovation Budgets gives a number of ideas about cutting costs when renovating, without cutting safety corners.

The Building Display Centre in Melbourne runs courses and free workshops on various aspects of building, renovating and maintaining your home.

This Place offers articles on various restoration and renovation topics.

This Place Building Guide covers everything from selecting the land to moving into you new home.

ACT Work cover provides guidelines for fencing off constructions sites.

Green Plumbers work with the community and environment to provide water saving solutions.

Environmental Yellow Pages is a directory of companies that can help in construction that are also environmentally responsible.

Free  paint calculator - for working out how much paint you need to buy.

Repairing historic flat plaster gives an interesting history of interior plastering, and tips on how to restore old plaster in a renovation.

Your Home is a comprehensive guide to various topics for home owners. They describe themselves as ‘a suite of consumer and technical guide materials and tools developed to encourage the design, construction or renovation of homes to be comfortable, healthy and more environmentally sustainable.’

The Building Commission of Victoria will keep you up to date with news in the building industry from a government level. It also contains information about building services and a complaints form.

Timber.net.au is a non for profit group that represent the timber industry at various levels. Apart from some other information, this is a great resource for finding out about certain species of timber and their applications.

Healthy Dwelling is full of information about living in a home that is more than beautiful – making it a home that is healthy for people and the environment. Well worth a visit.

House maintenance and repairs:

Home One offers information and a discussion forum to help you do all those little tasks around the house. User friendly and helpful site.

Decorating and Finishing Touches:

Paint Like a Pro - Essential products for any interior paint project