A Blairgowrie addition, and a septic tank nobody knew was there

The brief was to extend out from an existing house on a Blairgowrie block: an addition and alterations, a deck to work with it, and an attached carport. Dark cladding outside, and everything light inside, which is the right way round on this part of the coast.

Then we found the septic tank

It was on no plan and in no document. Nobody knew it was there until we started, and an old tank underneath where you intend to put footings is not something you can build over or work around. Some of those footings ended up 2.7 metres deep before they found ground worth sitting on.

This is the moment a build either stays honest or stops being honest. An undocumented tank is nobody’s fault, and it is genuinely extra work, so the only question that matters is whether the client hears about it straight away with a price attached, or finds out at the end. Ours was priced and put in writing before we dug any further.

Building in a bushfire area

The site carries a BAL 12.5 rating, which sets requirements on external walls, windows, decking, screens and gaps well before anyone chooses a finish. On the Peninsula that is a normal part of the job rather than an exception, and it is much cheaper to design around at the start than to discover after the drawings are approved.

The outdoor shower was their idea

Rinsing off before you walk inside is the most Blairgowrie thing imaginable, and it was the client’s call, not ours. It sits against the dark fence at the edge of the hardwood, with planting run along the base. Small, cheap, and the thing anyone who visits will remember.

Handed over before Christmas

Site start in August, final inspection approved on 19 December, and the family had it for the summer. The septic tank cost us time underground that never shows in a photograph, and the date still held.