Project · Residential
Cliffside: a whole house renovation, from construction power to handover
Cliffside is a large two-storey house above the water in Port Douglas, now let as a holiday home. Island Point Constructions renovated it from end to end, and BH Electrics did the electrical from the first day of demolition to the last day of fit-off.
The job
- Client
- Cliffside
- Where
- Port Douglas
- Sector
- Residential
- Builder
- Island Point Constructions
- Year
- 2021 to 2022
Before anyone swings a hammer
The electrical on a renovation starts before the builder does. In November 2021 BH Electrics made the house safe for demolition, set up temporary construction power on both sides of it and carried out the electrical strip-out, so the trades that followed walked into a site that was dead where it needed to be and live where they needed power.
The main job ran from January to December 2022. Rough-in went in stages matched to the builder's programme, a wing at a time, then fit-off as the linings, joinery and finishes landed. It was most of a year on site.
What the electrical scope covered
- Make safe, temporary construction power and electrical strip-out ahead of demolition
- 38 ceiling fans, 32 of them outdoor rated
- About 125 dimmable LED downlights with selectable colour temperature
- LED strip lighting in aluminium profiles through the joinery, on rotary dimmers
- Around 90 spotlights and floodlights through the terraced gardens
- A custom automatic generator changeover board
- Sub boards for the north wing, the downstairs level and the pool plant, each fed from the main switchboard and labelled
- A floor-standing data rack, around 2.5 kilometres of Cat6, and TV and speaker cabling
- In-line exhaust fans, USB power points and brass floor boxes
A house that keeps running when the grid does not
Up here the power goes off for days at a time in a bad cyclone season, and a house that is let to guests cannot simply close. The changeover board at Cliffside was built for this house, in a powder-coated aluminium enclosure that will stand up to salt air, with an automatic controller at its heart.
When the mains supply fails, the controller starts the generator, waits for it to settle and transfers the house across. When the grid comes back it transfers back. The whole arrangement is interlocked so the generator can never feed back into the network, which is the part that matters most, because a back-fed line is live for the line crew sent out to repair it.
Lighting a house people holiday in
A holiday house is lived in hard and by strangers, so the lighting has to be obvious to use and good at every hour. It went in as layers: downlights for general light, strip lighting built into the joinery for the rooms people linger in, and dimmers so the same room works for breakfast and for a late dinner.
Outside, the fans run the length of both levels of outdoor living, and the garden lighting picks out the terraces, the steps and the paths down the slope, so the house reads as well from the lawn at night as it does from the water.
Still looking after it
Since handover BH Electrics has looked after Cliffside directly for the owners: new power and data along the front fence for the gate, cabinet lighting in the powder room and butler's pantry, pool and lighting work, new fans, timers for the stair lights, and the small calls a large house makes. It is the same pattern as most of our best jobs. A builder brings us in for the renovation, and the owners keep us on for everything after it.
The trades involved
What this job drew on
Straight answers
Questions this job answers
What is an automatic generator changeover, and does a house need one?
It is a board that watches the mains supply and, when it fails, starts a generator and moves the house onto it without anyone touching a switch, then moves it back when the grid returns. It must be interlocked so the generator can never feed back into the network. Most houses with a generator manage with a manual changeover and a portable set. A house that is let to guests, or one with an owner who is often away, is where an automatic changeover earns its cost. Cliffside has one, built for the house in an enclosure made for salt air.
How is the electrical work staged on a whole house renovation?
Make safe and construction power first, before demolition, so the trades have safe power and the old wiring is dead. Then rough-in, in stages that follow the builder's programme, a section of the house at a time before the linings go on. Fit-off comes last, once the joinery and finishes are in. At Cliffside that ran from November 2021 to December 2022.
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